Tag Archives: angling

A London mullet.

17 Monday Jul 2017

Posted by in General, General fishing, The Lea valley

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Don’t worry fashionistas of Hackney Wick and Dalston, the eighties mullet has yet to return, (for now) you may stick to your acid tones and cool electro beats but only the brave will dress the mullet once more.

My mullet were lurking in the tidal stretch of the Lea by the sanctuary of two discarded water tanks not found on a whim  but more likely a regular journey, summer after summer, sifting through the silt for a easy feed? Notably hard to catch, these stubborn thick lipped variety were positively zip lipped when it came to my free offerings. Do I have the patience to try and fool one of these or shall I stick to the carp? I’m unsure but to witness these mullet as I have done now for the last few days has been a privilege.

Summer solstice

21 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by in Carp, General fishing

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I’m compelled to write a few words on the solstice, a date I regard highly, the longest day and also my daughters birthday. Fallon’s Angler 10 is at the printers and will be dropped through the subscribers letter boxes within the week. This issue we headed towards Wales and shot two films, we rediscovered Cregennan  Lakes after a forty year absence, and met a special lady who has spent a lifetime on the Usk.

Also in issue 10 Chris Yates celebrate his glorious 16th and some new contributors play their part in the Fallon’s story from Wales and beyond.

For now there is a pleasant lull, I’m not racing around the country, I’m fishing locally for river carp, but being nomads they seem to have disappeared, perhaps seeking deep cooler pools while we sit out the hottest heatwave since 1977; I’m happy to sit it out with them…

My canoe is also ready for launch, this may help in seeking new swims that only before I could view from afar, over grown banks and fallen trees obstructing my passage, but first I will have to see if the canoe is stable enough to land a ‘river lurker.’

 

John Richardson of Two Terriers Press – a film.

11 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by in Photography and video

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Art and the art of angling, I consider this to be a partnership that sits comfortably side by side, just like the landscape and the angler. Here is a new film where I find John Richardson a life-long angler and artist in his West Norfolk studio carving and then printing on his Victorian press, while the Fenland landscape dominates throughout.

Shooting in the field

07 Monday Nov 2016

Posted by in Photography and video

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The last year has been an interesting one, I’ve taken off into the field with the aim to shoot video and stills for various projects, one re-accuring challenge is with Fallon’s Angler, it has been…well challenging. The beauty of modern technology is that everything is relatively compact and lightweight although some camera systems have now got smaller, glass is glass and it can still weigh a fair amount,  the task of packing it down so that I can move freely on foot and keep in step with roving anglers is an art in itself. In the summer Fallon’s Angler set off by foot onto Dartmoor, I had to carry fishing gear, camera equipment, food, water, bedding and my house.  I’m not one to weigh everything down to the last gramme but I made sure I took only the absolute essentials, my only luxury was a hip flask of Laphroig, the hip flask was given to me by my father, and if you knew him you would understand that this was to be the professional drinkers 10 oz version! Unusually the hip flask returned from Dartmoor with almost half of it’s content untouched.

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Image courtesy of Bruno Vincent

On the Dartmoor  trip I took a Fuji X Pro 1 mirrorless system with just two lenses a 16-55mm and a 55-200mm, I love this camera but it falls down when it comes to shooting video, the trip was a stills only shoot and the Canon had to stay at home. Below are a few shots that didn’t make the final edit and covered to black and white, the article for issue 7 included a mix of colour and black and white.

Dartmoor trout fishing

Dartmoor trout fishing

Dartmoor trout fishing

Dartmoor trout fishing

Dartmoor trout fishing

Dartmoor trout fishing

My next challenge was to put together a compact system that can shoot good quality video and audio as a one-man band. The problem with shooting video is you need a few lens options, microphones, field recorders, monopods, tripods with  pan heads, the list can go on and as the list increases so does the weight, my nemesis was whether to  pack a rod amongst my camera gear?

Shooting video in the field

For those observant types, actually its fairly obvious the image above has the additional baggage of a fishing bag, rod and reel, below is the actual gear that I would take on the field to shoot video once packed up and ready to go, no fishing gear

Shooting video in the field

Last weekend we set off again for Fallons issue 8, our destination has an eastern direction, what we uncovered was a mystery just like fishing itself, we didn’t know the outcome until it was done, but we met some interesting individuals and seen some places  that have formed the story, my job was to get it on film both with stills and on video, the tale of two rivers is unfolding as I sit here and view the edits.

The last angling auction house in London

07 Thursday Apr 2016

Posted by in General, Tackle

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On Saturday 2nd April 2016 the Angling Auctions in Chiswick finally drew to a close when the hammer fell and lot 630 – “An unusual American Bamboo trout fishers creel” was sold. Slow applause permeated throughout the hall in appreciation for Neil Freeman who has put the hammer down on 32,000 lots over the last twenty five years offering vintage fishing tackle, taxidermy, books and angling art to a worldwide audience of collectors and angling enthusiasts.

My involvement began in 2011 (I’m considered a relative new boy) when John Andrews of Arcadia asked if I could help out on the rods. Arriving in Chiswick I was soon put to task in the construction of the rod rack, an antique in its own right, but a protector of fine fishing rods. Neil told me that he built the rack in 1991 with a drunk Irishman, a story I must confess I believe looking at the quality of its construction, but in  defence of the Anglo-Irish workmanship it still survives with it’s biannual kicks and trips that it has to endure from eager anglers grasping at the wonders it beholds.  Five years on I am still putting up the same rod rack, stuffed with even more matches and bound with ever more gaffer tape.

Over the years staff have come and gone but generally there is a core that stay loyal,  Neil’s brother has been involved from the start and more recently Neil’s son Sam has worked as a porter. Fresh sandwiches and cakes are made and the all important tea urn is switched on as soon as we arrive on the Friday morning, the tea urn is first off and last on the van, a tradition that has lasted since the beginning. Last Saturday the tea urn was loaded onto the van for the last time in Chiswick and a new beginning for the Angling Auctions has begun down in Romsey, Hampshire. Hopefully I will see you there?

Wibberly wobbly world.

19 Friday Feb 2016

Posted by in Photography and video

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Great documentaries are produced by great story tellers, visionaries with a clear message and understanding of the subject. Angling is generally documented through the prize shot, the end result, the final climax, man or woman holding fish, sometimes thrusting the fishes head into the camera for extra dramatic effect, it’s a macho world of size and weight recorded for everyone to give the big thumbs up or ‘like.’ The photographing of anglers and angling in a different light is sorely unrepresentative when it comes to the main angling press and media with very few exceptions. I agree that on occasions a good trophy shot is interesting to view especially in the case of an exceptional capture but there is more to it than that. With technology in both stills and video improving and affordable, there are many inspiring images coming from anglers many of which come from using their smart phone, its portable and always in your pocket.  A more recent addition to the anglers kit is the Go Pro style of clip on video camera, they are brilliant but placed in the wrong hands (or head) have now left us with a deluge of wibberly wobbly footage of man struggling to land fish with the winds blasting out any comprehension of what they may be trying to say. In the right hands this technology can be exciting and enhance a sense of freedom that film makers have never before experienced. Two lads that I have followed for a while are Carl And Alex, who started off filming their fishing exploits while still quite young and now have a huge following, including coverage in the main press, but their passion and enthusiasm for fishing is key and a real joy too watch. Even as two youngster they show a real maturity and can put together films with a strong narrative,  that engages the viewer throughout.

Capturing the quieter moments in angling, the long periods spent in contemplation, appreciation, and solace is something that as a photographer I want to explore further. Last year I spent four days with Michael a ghillie and custodian of a beat on the River Blackwater, a thoughtful man who loves his river, who spoke with a real passion and knowledge for the salmon that run its course. Yes salmon were caught, trophy shots administered, whiskies sunk but one afternoon I took these shots  that  highlighted the trip for me. We were all standing on the Lower beat at Killvullen, a wide shallow open stretch of water, the fishing was slow so I took out my camera with a long lens and caught Michael away from us anglers just for a few minutes,  spending time lost in his own thoughts.

Michael_2 Michael_1

I consider Carl, Alex and myself all artists who want to share our experiences, we are different, but we both have a place, I hope that more anglers will realise and explore the possibilities beyond  the hysterical world of high fives, numbers and wibberly wobbly footage. As someone famous once said and I cannot remember who, music is nothing without the silent spaces between.

Fallon’s Angler – Through the lens

18 Friday Dec 2015

Posted by in General, Reading

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Through the Lens has been a regular feature of words and images for Fallon’s Angler since issue 3 that I have had the privilege of producing. Below we have part of the piece I shot last summer for issue 4 in Ireland on the Blackwater. I have just returned from shooting Through the Lens for issue 5 which has been a real pleasure and what I feel to be of significant importance to the heritage of angling and one for the traditionalists. Issue 5 will be out in the middle of Jan but in the meantime here is my last entry from issue 4.

‘An offer from Garrett Fallon found myself flying over to Cork for a few days salmon fishing plus the opportunity to meet and photograph some locals that have deep connections with the Fallon family.  There are many stories here in Ireland about Garrett’s family and the fishing on the Blackwater that lend me to understand why Fallon’s Angler  was created and  now sits in your hand. It is an interesting story and a story that I will leave Garrett to tell in his own time.The stretch of Blackwater has some varied features, the upper end of the beat has high cliffs with some deep runs, while the bottom end is wide and shallow, but the middle section is dominated by an island which can only be accessed by wading or a footbridge which requires a key. Once on the island a short walk leads you to the fishing hut built high on stilts, it clearly shows significant signs of a battering from the Irish weather and the river when in spate, but today it is mild, dry and the wind is light. Entering through the door the atmosphere is still, quiet, the echo’s of the past lie heavy…’

The curator of tackle boxes

19 Thursday Nov 2015

Posted by in Tackle

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The tackle box to many is a container to hold smaller items of fishing tackle; floats, hooks, weights and so on. But you can tell a lot about an angler by lifting the lid and viewing the contents. The boxes I like have character, a soul, this appeals to me greatly  as an insight into the owner and a period of time in the angling past. Over the years I have acquired tackle boxes that I keep as an archive, a curator that considers each box as a piece of art and historical interest, but most importantly a box that has a personality. Sometimes I will edit a box to create a pleasing aesthetic but all the time I am conserving the integrity of each collection. Tackle is not the only thing found, old permits with scribbles on the reverse of notable captures, newspaper cuttings from the angling press, badges, coins and in one example a lucky charm belonging to a superstitious angler. I must also mention the smell of old tackle boxes, a smell that is hard to define but lingers like that of an old british bike or a waxed jacket, a scent of wood, oils, and old cotton.

I have a acquired these boxes from elderly anglers who have taken their last cast, anglers who can no longer tie a hook and rely purely on their memories, but most of all the boxes I have procured come from anglers I never knew, only through detective work I can paint an image of who they were, when they fished and the style of fishing that they pursued, I can step into their shoes, I have become the curator of tackle boxes!

 

Fear of water.

11 Tuesday Aug 2015

Posted by in General

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This last July something happened to me that although was not  significantly life altering has made a change to my angling for the next year, but I will come back to that a little later.

First I must tell you about a discovery on a stretch of river where a group of carp (about twenty or more) live below a weir exploiting the rich oxygen. In this fast moving area of water lie a concrete platform of around 20×20 feet where I have managed to create a dinner table for these resident carp, the size of which are heart stopping, the smaller fish are probably high teens while some easily reach into their twenties possible more. The access to this place can only be achieved when the water level drops below the overflow, this is when you can climb down a high wall and jump onto the base of the overflow structure, this is the style of carp fishing I like, solving problems and accessing carp that only the adventurous will attempt. When the water level is low the oxygen is also low and this drives the carp high up against the weir where they spend the days searching for food and breathing the oxygen rich water, this is a place that I am planning to cast a line.

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During the closed season I had been observing these carp, many of which were clearly very big commons, possibly weighing thrirty pounds or more. Throughout the last few months I have been building their confidence, to be honest they were pretty keen from the start, getting their heads down on sweetcorn, maggots or bread. In preparation for the season I had a small Hardy trout bag packed and ready to go on any opportune moment with a bait box, bits of tackle, a tin of sweetcorn, and a folding net suitable for my new found task of bouldering down this wall and jumping onto the concrete overflow with my trusty old carp rod and reel in hand. Soon the sixteenth came and went, but I was just too busy to get down there.

Then in early July a pleasant distraction came in the form of an invite to fish the Blackwater in Co Cork for salmon. Salmon are the polar opposite from carp, they hit a bait in anger, and if hooked run off with haste in their ever transient cycle of life. If the salmon is reactionary then the carp is the cautious cousin, a ponderer, a creature to sum up all the possibilities before they act, exploring the same familiar territory for food, then once found carefully nose the bait sometimes leaving it for days before returning and finally taking the plunge and taking the bait.

Blackwater

Since the beginning of my angling life back in 1980, water has been a place of mystery, wonder, a place where I felt comfortable either with or without a rod. I could not pass any water without sparing a few minutes and consider its possibilities, whether it was a tiny brook or the sea. Now, and for the next few months I have to consider water to be a place of potential danger and take caution as I suffered an epileptic seizure. Thankfully this happened while in the relative safety of a hotel room in Co Cork and with a friend who managed to look over me, this was not a pleasant experience and I came out of it battered, bruised and with a shoulder that even a month on is in dire need of surgery. It could have been worse but I will have to be patient, my angling is now restricted to doing it with friends and using public transport as my driving license has been suspended, the carp of the weir will have to wait until next season.