How does one follow the life of a river, a region, a way of living? By asking those who know it the best and love it the most, those who foster the law and lore surrounding it, those who keep the old wisdom alive and guard the myths. By this measure, John Tate is an expert, with nearly sixty years of angling behind him and a few good years ahead yet.
One of the few willing to shoulder responsibility for himself and his sport, John shows us how angling can make one’s world better, more civilised, and how the world of angling could be improved. He also presents a more spiritual view: angling is a way in which to participate in the universe.
John began his waterways apprenticeship as a young lad, at the feet of his grandfather, an old-fashioned pike angler. Pike initially drew John in, but in subsequent years he’s fished for almost anything you can entice onto a hook in British water, from barbel to zander. Here he tells us about the thrills, spills and companions that have kept him angling for so many years.
Verdict
John Tate, or to give him his full title, Dr John Tate, hales from the Black Country and has been a regional organiser for the PAC since its inception. Don’t get the idea that John is just a pike angler; he’s an all-rounder with a penchant for pike fishing.
‘Tales from a Worcestershire Whirlpool’ is a mixture of a book, part life story, part diary and partly just a good old ramble through the life and times of John Tate.
As in any life there are high points and low points, some of those at the extreme end of the scale. Most of all though, the book is a damn good, interesting read, much of which you will find yourself nodding at some of the comments and philosophies.
It is in many ways like a novel, but a true one, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
