This sudden and premature death, at the age of 54, has shocked many in the angling world for it is widely felt that we have lost not only a major contributor to angling, through his writing and his books, but also a friend. For it is so very true that whenever Martin was approached, by beginners, by the experienced, by organisations, he always received the approach with friendliness and was always positively helpful whenever he could be. Many, many anglers will be in receipt of his long and carefully written letters dealing with some query or other that they had raised. He coupled this helpfulness with a sensitivity to other’s needs and with a very high level of integrity. The only intolerance I ever saw him display was when other people did not treat him the same way – he was never too worried about being treated with sensitivity but he got rather annoyed if people were dishonest with him or did not act with openness and integrity. Ignorance in others – as in the case of beginners – didn’t’ bother him at all, and he simply did his best to help. But sophisticated people on the fiddle he had a deep aversion to. Martin’s writing was outstanding. He never wrote for payment, as many editors will confirm, but wrote only to try to advance some thinking about angling. And always his articles were both detailed and clear, usually pushing out the boundaries of our knowledge about fishing. His first book, “Pike Fishing For Beginners”, had its title chosen by the publishers, and it irritated Martin greatly. As the many who have read this book will know, it was not a book for beginners, although any angler reading it would obviously benefit. The publishers thought it would sell better with the word ‘beginners’ in the title. Subsequently Martin did three books with me Technical Manual of Pike Fishing (it amused him greatly that Chris Tarrant had it on his Christmas reading list one year); Fishing for big Tench; and Pike. When he wrote his sections for the tench book it was at a time when a 7lb tench was a real giant, and Martin had caught more than all the other tench anglers added together – a very large number indeed. The book Pike that we did for Boydell and Brewer as part of our angling series we felt was a good one, because B&B gave us the opportunity to explore aspects of piking in some depth, including the evolution of pike-related species. Martin was really pleased with that tome. He contributed to two other books that I did and, of course, he wrote hundreds of articles over the years. The difference between the ‘serious’ writer and the angler on the bank was striking. Martin was a serious writer and this fact, coupled with his renowned honesty, made people think of him as a bit of a sobersides. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I spent many days in his company on the river bank and they were always fun days. Indeed, one only had to spend five minutes in his company to realise that here was a man with a terrific sense of humour, and one that was always bubbling away just beneath the surface. I mentioned Martin tench fishing. What many do not realise is that the tench was probably his favourite species, possibly followed by barbel and pike, with carp just behind. In the couple of years before his death he was into yet another ‘serious’ bit of tench fishing, nipping up to the Fens for a bit of piking now and again. His earlier enormous success with tench was due in part to his association with the legendary Fred Wilton and boilies. Martin also helped Fred (as a tester) when Fred was doing his early boilie experiments (I also helped a little, courtesy of Martin). Martin adopted the carp-and-boilie approach to tench fishing and caught very large numbers of large tench. But he never used, so far as I am aware, the hair rig, using 24mm boilies without one. He had a wide interest not just in pike, but in predators in general. It will come as a surprise to many that he was a recognised world authority on large snakes, pythons and anacondas, which he bred and had grown to twenty-foot sizes. Quite a number of European museums have Martin’s big snakes ‘on loan’, and he had an established reputation in North America as one of the experts. I saw his snakes several times and was always staggered, not only by their size, but by their sparkling health and by their friendliness towards Martin himself. I remember one occasion when he had been exercising a very large anaconda (so heavy that I would have been unable to lift it) and in order to return it to its cage Martin had to climb in the cage, adorned by this animal about half a foot thick, and then extricate himself from the coils before nipping smartly out of the cage door. Such an animal could have constricted him within seconds, but they trusted him completely. I loved our debates. Although Martin and I had similar outlooks on angling, as on life, we had some big areas of disagreement which we debated over many years without once losing our tempers, or even getting irritated. He loved a good, deep discussion. I eventually converted him to my views on the close season (like me he had been pro-close season for forty years) and he converted me to his views on reservoir pike and the vulnerability of pike stocks. We were, at the time he died, discussing barbless hooks and their dangers to fish. Martin Gay could spot a charlatan at 200 paces. He had a short list of people (with which, as it happens, I agreed 100%) for whom he had no time for whatsoever, considering them ‘on the make’ and of dubious experience in angling. (Ray Webb, I recall, had this same facility similarly finely tuned). He was very careful about trusting people and if an element of doubt crept into his mind about someone he had to deal with he had a very effective ‘test’. He would feed that person, and that person only, a piece of information in the strictest confidence. It was usually a bit of worthless or odd bit of information. Then he waited to see what happened to it, if anything. If nothing happened, if the tit-bit did not get into the angling grapevine, then he knew the guy was okay (and then he usually confessed). However, if the trust was broken then he knew to proceed with caution when dealing with that person. I don’t think he always did this consciously, and occasionally it backfired in some fashion which led to a deal of humour. Martin is well-known for his contributions to angling literature, and also for his spectacular catches over four decades and more. What is less widely known is all the work that he did behind the scenes. At the time of his death he was a vice-president of the Specialist Anglers Association (and supported the NASG and NASA from the beginnings) and, of course, is a past president of PAC, a function he performed with distinction. He also served for many years on the committee of various angling clubs local to his home in Essex. He was untiring in his efforts to advance angling in proper fashion. Today is January 8th 2003. I have written this brief summary of the work of perhaps my best friend in angling on the day of his funeral. It is a crisp, clear morning with a gentle snowfall. There is an actual and metaphorical chill in the air and our hearts will go out today to Martin’s wife, Yvonne, who regarded him as her rock in life. Many of us have lost a great friend and angling has lost one of its best ambassadors. |
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