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Tag Archives: british

Sturgeon Hunter – a film

05 Saturday Jan 2019

Posted by The tuesday swim in Photography and video

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

angler, british, canada, columbia, cooper, fallon's, fallowfield, fishing, fraser, nick, river, sturgeon

Last May I flew over to British Columbia to meet Garrett from Fallon’s Angler. After a conversation with his father over twenty years ago he made a promise to himself to fish the Fraser river for sturgeon. Sadly his father never made it but now the challenge was on and the chance to catch a fish the size of a man was a potential reality. My film captures that journey through the Canadian wilderness and eventually  connecting to something quite extraordinary.

 

Disconnected water.

09 Saturday May 2015

Posted by The tuesday swim in General fishing

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Tags

british, england, fishing, isles, isolated, scotland, wales, waters

I’ve had no time to fish recently but I have visited some interesting places that have a sense of disconnection. Disconnection from what you may ask? Phones, computers, roads, builders, politicians, the list could go on but I shall stop. Fishing is in fact my way of disconnecting from all of that and reconnecting with a natural, uncontrolled, un-sensored way of being, its why so many anglers fish. So with this in mind I have set myself a task to find a remote and disconnected water to fish, an un-managed and neglected place, the getting there will be paramount to the experience of disconnecting. I have a few ideas, from the west coast of Scotland, maybe high up in the Brecon Beacons, a remote bit of coastline or possibly a lowly fen in Cambridgeshire. Rucksack is ready with camera and tackle for my first trip which will most likely take place as the season starts in June, unless of course a trout beckons?

The search is on…

Diconnected

Observing the close season?

19 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by The tuesday swim in General fishing

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

british, fishing, observing, season, traditional, uk

Back in 1990’s (I think) the close season was lifted on still-waters and at first I was defiant as the magic of the sixteenth was to be savoured. I stayed pretty much to my guns on this until about four or five years ago when I asked myself, why? I’m led to believe the close season was put in place to keep the ‘oiks’ off the decent trout rivers rather than some romantic idea that it was an ecological move to protect spawning fish and worn out flora on the waterside.

British species of fish spawn at different times, pike can start in late January and carp seem to go on into late July, the current close season is only a half hearted opportunity to protect many of these species. Most rivers these days are deserted all year round and more popular places like weirs  have built platforms, worn banks are not generally that common these days. Rivers really are not pressured waters unlike many commercials and stillwaters. Perhaps we have the closed season the wrong way around, close the still-waters and open the rivers?

Redmire is a good example of how I think a well managed still-water should be run, as the water is closed for the traditional three months. Redmire is a pressured water with four angler on its three acres all year bar the close season, this makes sense to rest the carp although I would consider extending the rest period from the end of March to the end of June which would cover more of the spawning activity and still give the flora the same period of rest. On my own syndicate water in Sussex there are three lakes and I very rarely see more than four anglers on any given day and there must be over ten acres of water. Because of the low pressure, the syndicate allows fishing all year but ask any anglers fishing for carp to keep away if spawning begins. Commercials are probably the waters that really would benefit from a rest but money speaks louder than fish welfare in modern angling, thankfully I’m not one to fish these high-pressured waters.

So where does this leave me personally? I now find the spring the most exciting time to be fishing for carp and tench and when the fish spawn I simply pack away the rods for a few days and enjoy the spectacle for what it is. Most of my fishing is not that easy, lakes with low stocking, just quality fish and rivers with a natural and balanced eco- system. Pre-baiting the canals as the water starts to warm in search of carp is now part of my annual angling calendar, I started doing this two years ago resulting in two lost monsters, I now have unfinished business and spring time is my prime opportunity to locate the feeding carp.

I understand those who follow the traditional route and pack away their rods for three months, lets face it, this can be a good rest bite for the mental state of any obsessional angler and those jobs on the house don’t do themselves. Personally I find my precious fishing time throughout the year requires those extra three months, it takes some pressure off the months when one can fish especially after the last winter with two lost months due to flooding.

As for the romantics, the sixteenth will always be a special day and more so if one observes the close season. I shall be fishing throughout the spring but I am a bit of a romantic myself so I shall be on the river at dawn on the first day of the season.

A firecrest on the Lea

20 Monday Jan 2014

Posted by The tuesday swim in The Lea Valley

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Tags

beds, bird, british, filter, firecrest, hackney, lea, middlesex, rare, river

After a crisp cold start this morning I finally managed to get out for a walk in the afternoon with my daughter over the Leyton Marshes. Once on the Lea at the Middlesex Filter Beds I spotted a rare bird, a firecrest skipping from branch to branch just ten feet away on the banks of the river Lea. I’m afraid even the capabilities of the IPhone could not record this tiny bird but dutifully I managed to record the walk. Winter is fast becoming my favourite season.





The joy of engineering – The Hardy Altex

21 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by The tuesday swim in Tackle

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

altex, british, fishing, Hardy, jack, luke, mark, no2, reel, v

Continuing on with the theme of  British craftsmanship in angling,  I move from artisan float builders to Jack Luke, the engineer.

Jack Luke was an employee of Hardy’s of Alnwick from 1936-1987, a man dedicated to his job and the reels that he made. Why am I interested in Jack Luke? Well, he built my Altex Mark V No2 fishing reel over fifty years ago, having his initials stamped on the reel would have added a sense of pride to the makers at Hardy, no mass manufactured reel could adhere to this level of craftsmanship.

Why do I like these Hardy reels over more popular reels like the Mitchell 300 or the Young’s Ambidex, although both still excellent reels? The Altex is an engineers reel, the spokes on the clutch control adjuster and the tiny anti-tangle wire bar that is fixed in the bail arm are all finished by hand using soldered parts. Every reel seems to have a ‘signature’ that you don’t get with the mass produced reels. Some find the Altex to be the ugly sister compared to the french curves of the Mitchell but I like the deco looks with its combination of burnished metals.

The question now, is it any good to fish with? Yes, its excellent, despite the spool being quite narrow the Altex can cast a long way with little effort and the line lay is extremely even. The bail arm is automatically closed from an internal pawl, this makes for a very smooth action as it is triggered close to the reels central spindle, needing less inertia to trip the bail arm. And talking of smooth, the Altex clutch is exquisite compared to the Mitchell 300, it is a pleasure to turn using the front four spoked brass adjuster.

Designed originally as a spinning reel for salmon (it was probably considered too expensive for the lowly coarse angler) but it has now become popular with traditional carp anglers mainly due to the fine clutch. I shall be using it with lines from 5lb to 12lb and for a wide range of fish including chub, tench, barbel, carp and pike. This year I’m keeping my angling more simple than ever before using just one fixed spool reel, the Altex and a few centre pins where suitable.

Hardy Altex Mark V No 2
Hardy Altex Mark V No 2

Hardy Altex Mark V No 2
Hardy Altex Mark V No 2

Hardy Altex Mark V No 2
Hardy Altex Mark V No 2

Hardy Altex Mark V No 2

My carp scene in the 1980’s…the spark.

29 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by The tuesday swim in Carp

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

1980's, 80's, bishop, british, carp, chris, fishing, holder, old, record, richard, school, skool, walker, yates

This was my era when I became a fanatical angler and an obsession for carp was born. It is considered that the era of the 1950’s to the 1970’s was the ‘golden age’ with the likes of Richard Walker and later on in the 70’s, anglers like Rod Hutchinson were developing new tackle and technique like multiple rods and electronic alarm to make the capture of carp more intentional and less of a freak occurrence . So without shocking those out there who think I am some old fuddy-duddy stuck in the 1950’s with an old wooden stick in my hand and an old tweed jacket slung over my back, here is my account of my own golden age of carp fishing that took place in the 1980’s, memories of early (almost) matching carbon rods, tutti-fruitti boilies, hair-rigs and monkey climbers.

Genesis.

Back in 1981 when I was eleven years old I had just started to fish, mainly with the help of some hand-me-down tackle and a small how-to fishing book, the journey was slow the results were insignificant but catching small gudgeon and the occasional chub on the Sussex Ouse ignited the spark that made me become a life long angler. For me it was spectacular in a unspectacular way, modest catches but most memorable.

Around that time an un-known face to me came onto the angling scene, wearing an old Barbour Jacket, floppy hat (looking not un-like a young Ian Anderson) he was pictured in all of the angling press cradling a 51 lbs 8 oz carp, his name was Chris Yates and in his arms was a creature of unimaginable size, especially to an eleven year old boy. It was caught by means considered unconventional by early 1980’s standards, using a cane rod, a knob of Plasticine and three grains of sweetcorn. In years to come Chris Yates would become one of the most influential anglers in Britain just by his use of simple back to basic techniques and of course his love of old fishing tackle.

Up until the capture of the Bishop I perceived carp fisherman to be a secretive bunch and generally shy of any publicity especially in the angling press, perhaps they feared that their exposure would reveal the waters they fished and more importantly the carp that swam in those waters. Richard Walker who was officially* the carp record holder at that time, came from the old school set of the 1950’s, mystery men with access to private pools like Redmire, these carp and waters were too far away from reality to a teenager like myself living in Mid Sussex in the 80’s.

On various bicycle reconnoissance trips to lakes around Sussex I came across the odd lone angler, normally dressed in camouflage and more often than not lying low between small breaks in the reeds or hidden behind large expanses of Himalayan Balsam. They stood apart from everyday anglers, their kit was different, no keep-nets, no seat boxes to perch on and normally two matching rods, on one occasion I saw three! If approached they would give you a look that made you feel un-comfartable…these fishermen wanted to be alone, nine times out of ten I did just that, but I was intrigued by them, their tackle and their quarry.

Around the same time Pete Mohans’ Cypry the Carp was serialised in the Anglers Mail. He told a tale of a young lad called Andy who grew up in search of a particular carp called Cypry, reading this at the back of the classroom during double chemistry on a Wednesday morning is still a very vivid memory of my teenage years and fired my desire even further to pursue and catch a carp, at this point it seemed a far off goal, no commercials to get on the specimen carp ladder, just old farm ponds to seek out and fish or take an even bigger step and financial investment…join a local club.

It was hard finding waters that held carp that I could fish so I finally decided to join the Haywards Heath & District Angling Society the local club to where I was living. At the same time I also had access to a little pond that lay in an old ladies garden in Horsted Keynes through a school friend of mine, Mark (one of the Horsted Lads). He had managed to get permission to fish it whenever we wanted including at night and I knew that he had already caught some carp from this little half-acre pond but I now had concerns about my kit not being up to the huge battle one had heard about in double chemistry or read about in the Anglers Mail. At that time my basic kit consisted of a Shakespeare Strike match rod and an Intrepid Black Prince reel, both horrible bits of kit. So with a little nagging, a paper round and an early birthday present I became the owner of a Marco 10′ fibreglass carp rod and a Mitchell 3330z reel, the Mitchell 300A or the Abu Cardinal 55 was the carp fisherman’s reel of choice but they were out of my financial reach for now.

One of the first ponds I started to fish in the guise of a ‘specimen hunter’ was a HHDAS water set just outside of a village called Ansty. It was a good forty minutes bike ride which when laden down with fishing gear was quite a trek but soon became a regular haunt as I could see evidence of carp cruising up one end of the pond by a reed bed. After a few visits I finally hooked my first carp a strong fighting 2 lb beauty, elated but committed to catching a bigger one I continued to fish for carp over the summer of 1982 through to 1983. While catching these smaller carp I noticed that as I was leaving at dusk the bigger residents would arrive, unfortunately I had to leave and under-go my forty minute bike ride before darkness set in. I had to fish a night session, it was time to put the finishing touches to my specimen hunters kit so that I could do a night on the pond.

Night fishing introduced two problems, bite indication and staying warm and dry. The first problem was solved by attaching a swing tip to my carp rod with a Starlight taped to the end making sure that the swing tip didn’t enter the water or the tape would un-ravel and the Starlight would drift away causing panic and a potential fish-less night. The second problem was solved by using my fathers old World War II army pup tent which had the added advantage of being open all along the length for more milder nights and allowing easy access to the rods. With a few added extras like a camping stove and an Army surplus jacket I was feeling  pretty much like a ‘proper’ specimen hunter rather than a run-of-the-mill ‘pleasure’ angler.

Next time the monkey climber years and my first ‘double’…

* Richard Walker was the British Carp record holder from 1952 to 1995 when Roddy Porter caught a 53lb 15oz specimen . Chris Yates 51 lb 8 oz carp was never recognised as an official British record although most specimen groups including NASA did recognise Chris Yates record carp.

Fennel’s Journals…Wild or ‘Feral’ Carp edition.

30 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by The tuesday swim in Carp, Reading

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

angling, british, carp, english, fennel, feral, fishing, hudson, journal, nigel, traditional, wild

My father fished mainly for black bream off the Sussex coast in the 1940’s and 50’s from his boat ‘Vulture’. I always thought the boat was more of an excuse for my father to hang out on the beach and watch young ladies pass by rather than a serious fishing vessel. In more extreme summer showers (just like this year) Vulture could accommodate a canvas pup tent, where upon pipe smoking and general tackle sorting would take place amongst friends. I now own that pup tent and have used it for many camping trips and was my prime over night fishing shelter for my carp fishing obsession as a teen in the eighties. The old sea tackle was sadly disposed of a few years ago in the local dump, (when I found out I went bloody mad) an old army haversack bag containing wooden line winders, floats, two Penn multipliers, three boat rods, a wooden centre pin and some old round pipe tobacco tins with hooks and lead weight, nothing of any great value but it was something that I wanted to keep. Now it has been thrown out in one of my fathers clear outs, hoarder he is not!

My father fished for the table and once married with a young family the piscator seemed to fade away. We have never spent a minutes fishing together, for my quest to angle was to admire and then put back, my father did not understand this but on one occasion we did share an angling moment and that was when the Passion for Angling series was broadcast on the BBC, in the early 1990’s. We both admired the way nature was captured on film and of course the fish being caught, I loved the old and new approach to angling demonstrated by Chris Yates and Bob James, respectively. But, I always remembered what my father said to me half way through the TV series, when we were having a catch up on the phone, he said “I stopped watching it because I thought the two presenters were too twee and the narration quite naff!” “Great Scott!” I exclaimed but I could see his point, it’s not everyone’s taste. Since the first broadcast A Passion for Angling has  become quiet a cult series and generally considered to have not been surpassed in quality or in the way it captures the essence of angling. By chance I ended up chatting to Chris Yates in the pub a few months back and asked him about taking part in a new television series perhaps another APFA, his reply…”never, no, fishing and filming do not bode well!” So there you have it A Passion for Angling II will not be  produced with Chris Yates. I digress…

Last year I was pointed in the direct of quite an interesting fellow, Nigel ‘Fennel’ Hudson at the Priory and his new website. Nigel or ‘Fennel’ had started writing at an early age under the encouragement from Chris Yates and over the years has created a quarterly publication that are now available to buy online. While looking at Fennels website and the images a haunting word kept coming back to me in my father’s voice ‘looks a bit twee to me.’ I was a little put off.

When written well, traditional angling writing by the likes of BB, for example is the type of literature that I can read again and again but with ‘traditional’ angling becoming more popular there is a trend for copy cat style scribblings that at best is a poor reproduction and at worst annoying and at times quite cringe worthy. So with Fennels Journal I stayed off until now, just in case of disappointment but then I saw ‘The Wild Carp’ edition!

I’m fascinated with anything to do with ‘wild’ or ‘feral’ carp at present an antidote to the current carping and commercial bagging up scene, so I decided to take the plunge and ordered a copy. Order made, and three days later a signed copy with a pleasant short letter arrived on my doorstep. After a quick flick through I could immediately see this was a labour of love, printed on high quality paper with high quality images. Straight away I had to read the first article chronicling the introduction of the ‘feral’ carp to Britain by the Romans and the subsequent stories of how these carp stayed and survived in the stew ponds over the next two millenia. The writing flows un-hurried without overly romanticising each point and the research is thorough,  from the first sentence I was thinking, this lad can write, its informative and very refreshing.  As the journal moves from the history to his own personal stories and then the stories of like-minded anglers who encounter the ‘wild’ carp the journey draws the reader into the mystery and rarity of these carp. Towards the end there is an interesting interview with an angler on the wild carp of the Danube that leaves the reader hypnotised by the size and beauty of these feral creatures. The photographs are still a little staged at times but I can live with those, the shot of the large Danube Wild carp is stunning. I shall order some of the back copies but for now I would recommend you get a copy of the Wild Carp Edition especially if you like catching the odd one yourself…

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Off to the marshes #hackneymarshes
I’ve been here before but this is reassuringly familiar, an antidote to the boutique homogenous lifestyle that is rife in our city. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.
Watersmeet- Our current winter film set on the Hampshire Avon with @adamchetwood @kgparr link in my bio. Where to next? #anglingfilms #chubfishing
Watersmeet - Chub fishing on the Hampshire Avon, our new film for winter #hampshireavon #hampshireavonfishing #chub #fallonsangler #fishingfilms #winterfishing link in bio
A reunion on the Hampshire Avon. Our new film for Fallons Angler ready to view in time for Christmas. Friends, pints, and fishing #chubfishing #chub #fishingfilms #fallonsangler #hampshireavon
Surely it’s time for a perch?
Epping forest #eppingforest
The fading light plays a strong roll on us at this time of year. The Witching Hour film available to view, link in bio. #embracethedarkness
Next week I travel to France and begin filming a life in Normandy over one year. A man whos footprint on the planet has the lightest touch, where his life and the natural world sit side by side. #dustthefilm …
The Witching Hour our new film launching at midday today 15th October link in bio #fishingfilms #fallonsangler
Last week we spread my parents ashes on the South Downs. In life they were inseparable, so we did the honourable thing and mixed their ashes with our own hands, returned them to the chalk on the Sussex Downs at a geographical point between birth, life and death.
The Prince of Peace is dead, thank you for the musical and spiritual journey of my life. 1940-2022 #pharoahsanders
A quick over nighter by the river and under the stars with @fallonsangler_magazine for a new film. Packing light - bedroll, camera, drone and a Katsu Curry Pot Noodle or two. Film out in a fortnight. In the meantime please order our new issue of Fallons Angler capturing the bewitching hour. #autumnequinox #fallonsangler #fishingfilms #canonuk
Norway, reassuringly boring with some hidden surprises #norway #oslo #snorway

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