Let's see who remembers

[Green Drake]

I believe there will not be many of today?s angling authors who will be remembered in twenty-five or more years? time. The reason being that today is all about instant success; how to do it, latest gear, baggin? up, bait recipes, rigs and ultra-cultism. The gentle and creative side of angling (which is not the same as fish catching) remains the province of fewer and fewer anglers. It is no longer ?the contemplative man?s sport?. The most prominent names from the past were often not particularly good angers by present standards, Bernard Venables, being in my opinion, a good example. Howeve,r what he and his contemporaries have passed on is passion and prose and that feeling of being there at their sides on the river bank. I certainly don?t get that from Nudd, Ringer, and the countless cadre of big fish men.

What will live on is angling literature but sadly this is not what most of today?s fishermen want.

 

[Kevin Perkins]

Steve and GD

I don't think the Internet will throw up any writing 'legends' in years to come. The sport these days is alomst turning in on itself in an effort to specialise in so many different disciplines.

The angling writers of yesteryear were by and large all-rounders, who were maybe not particularly adept at any one branch of the sport. They were, however, capable of being able to use that experience to write comprehensively about a wide range of angling practises that will have appealed to a great many more readers, and thereby boosted their popularity.

Today we appear to need ever more detail and minutia in order to pursue our quarry, and expecting just one person to have all that all-encompassing knowledge is to expect too much.......

 

[Fred Blake]

Quite so. Nevertheless, Chris Yates must surely rate highly as someone who understands the deeper meaning of angling, and who can pass that on through his writing. Given his evident popularity - and not just amongst us old farts - perhaps half the problem is a lack of good angling writers?

There are exceptions of course; Terry Hearn for one, but unless you are a keen carp angler you are unlikely to pick up his books. Yates's 'How To Fish' stands pretty well alone as a contemporary work on general fishing - one that deals not with dry technical detail and endless accounts of tremendous captures, but with the spirit of it all.

The spark that made us all start fishing in the first place will outlive any transient fascination with a particular species or method, as long as we do not extinguish it through over-complication and an unhealthy determination for success at all costs.

 

[STEVE POPE]

Hi Nick (The Monk),

Never quite sure how to address you on these forums, hope that's ok?

Quite a surreal experience for me last thursday.

Fred Crouch and myself were giving a talk in Boscombe and there in the audience were both Dave and Kay Stueart.
Peter Wheat was also there and later in the evening he happily gave his views on a number of topical issues.

It was brilliant to see people of such immense standing still as enthusiastic and passionate as ever about Angling.

I mentioned this thread and how our generation of anglers not only owe a huge debt of thanks to them but also a responsibility to ensure their contribution is recognised by the younger generation that follow.

It was a humbling experience and one that puts things firmly in perspective.

All the best,

Steve.

 

[The Monk]

Hi Steve, haha, I think everyone knows my Nick name by now.

Good post Steve, oh yes you are spot on mate, I have the greatest respect for these people and I love reading about the golden days of angling, Dave made a significant contribution to carp fishing when he published Carp How to catch them in 1955, as far as I know this was actually the first book written souley on the specie, Jim Gibbinsons book The Carp from the Angling Times library was the second but didnt come until nearly the end of the sixties, now everybody and his dog writes carp books, no boilies bolt rigs and bivvies in daves book, we`ve come a long way and not always for the better. Many of Daves basic carp catching principles still stand though, even some 5 decades later.

Peter Wheat too another angler who influenced many, and Fred of course a very experienced and accomplished angler, it would have been nice to be there and listen to these legends. We have so much in angling history over the years, it gets passed down misinterpreted, a great shame, I guess in general anglers don`t read, or at least not in relation to our rich history, I tried for years to get Eric hodson to publish a full account of the histroy of the specialist movement, but sadly he is now unable to write oer indeed remember much, such is life I suppose. I just hope me old mate Ron gets his finger out and publishes his works.

I beleive me old mate Steve Richardson has become a Barbel Society stalwart, always have the greatest of respect for Steve, another accomplished anglers who does a lot for the sport, great lad Steve I was in the National Anguilla Club with him for a number of years and had the privillage to sit with him a few of the National committees together, please send him my very best regards, not seen him for a few years.

I can remember back to the SACG days we had about 5 different barbel groups at one point, thankfully the Barbel Society changed much of that and managed to get all interested anglers under one roof, a job well done mate.