Tag Archives: jack

The joy of engineering – The Hardy Altex

21 Thursday Feb 2013

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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.

When Fenland’s finest raced with Jack Frost by Roger Deakin.

17 Thursday Jan 2013

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Jack frost has paid a visit this morning here in the East End, a good hard frost has cast its veil across the country and has had me thinking of a magical Podcast about the Fenland skaters written by Roger Deakin and read by Robert MacFarlane. This podcast came to mind, not only by the frozen view from my window but also I have started to read Robert MacFarlane’s new book ‘The Old Ways’ a wonderfully rich book describing his journey’s on foot in England, Scotland and further afield.

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Roger’s wonderful description and Robert’s narration, highlighted with sound by Chris Watson, creates a tingling atmosphere of the past when once every generation or so, the Fens froze over and opened themselves up as highways of speed and exhilaration in an area that once had no roads and life was very slow.

This really is worth sitting back and listening to, just click on the link and scroll down to the bottom.

Audio – Caught by the River.

The largest Cooper & Son mounted Carp!

30 Friday Mar 2012

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In a couple of weeks the largest example of a carp set up by Cooper & Son will go under the hammer at Angling Auctions in Chiswick, West London.

The year was 1954 and the month September, Jack Opie had just arrived with his fishing companions Gerry and May Berth-Jones to find the Kefford brothers, Dick and Harry, leaving  after a week-long session on the now famous pool. Opie asked Harry Kefford for permission to cast out into Redmire’s Willow Pitch where he had been fishing all that week and alas with no success. As Jack Opie helped the Kefford brothers to load up their  car, his buzzer sounded and after a long  drawn out fight the 27lbs 5ozs fish was safely netted.  The following morning Gerry Berth-Jones asked the then Redmire owner Colonel Maclean if Opie could take the carp away to be mounted which he granted. The carp was taken to London and mounted with the inscription “King Carp, 27lb 5oz, Caught Redmire Sept. ‘54 by E.J. Opie”

Friday the 13th & 14th of April will possibly be the last chance to see this important piece of history unless of course you have  between £5000 and £8000 or quite possibly a lot more? To view this splendid example and other angling items click here http://angling-auctions.co.uk. The Tuesday Swim shall be in attendants over the two days on the rod stand, and a report on the more unusual items in the auction will be winging its way back here to those who cannot attend.

Jack Hargreaves, looking after a river.

07 Tuesday Feb 2012

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Jacks stepson Simon, kindly sent me this link recently on river management. Although the snow is receding here in London, there is a cold wind keeping me inside tonight, so a spot of Jack seems to be in order in between conserving an old Hardy’s rod box. The box sourced by Mr Andrews of Arcadia, a fine service in keeping with the quality of the box itself.

So, as I prepare to travel to the Isle of Bute this weekend, my pike rods are to be sent in a plastic drain pipe via Parcel Force tomorrow morning and not in a rather battered but beautifully crafted pine box on the night sleeper to Glasgow.

An un-earthered poem by Jack Hargreaves

15 Sunday Jan 2012

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Jack Hargreaves step-son, Simon has been following the tuesday swim for a little while now, an interesting chap with his own blog here… http://democracystreet.blogspot.com/

Simon has passed this on to me, un-published piece of work written by Jack just a few months before his death in 1994. The piece reflects well on where the tuesday swim sits here in London now and in the past, thanks Simon.

‘Did they think about the skylarks when they built Mayfair
on the grazings that ran down to the Shepherd’s Market?

Did they worry about the snipe when they drained the marshes
behind St.James’s Palace to build Belgravia?

Where did the kite go when they dug the London sewers?

Do the piles they drove down through the beaver’s dam hold
firm the supermarket in Newbury High Street?

Who cooked the big trout that lay under the village bridge
at Wandsworth? Who feasted on the last salmon that was
netted at Tower Hamlets?

Now they come to put central heating in the ploughman’s hovel.

They claim the sun that used to bake the hay. And breathe
the breeze in which the pointing dog caught a hundred scents.

They walk out in trainers and T-shirts that say “Save the
Rain Forest”.

“Stand back!” they say. “We have a right to walk where we please!”

But we look where they trod before and shudder for what
follows in their footsteps.

I said I must write a warning. But I was angry and – as the
Japanese say – to be angry is only to make yourself ridiculous.

So we will live out our days in the cracks between the
concrete. And then they will pour cement on top of us.’


Jack Hargreaves, dry fly fishing on the Wiltshire Nadder.

17 Saturday Sep 2011

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Many years back I dated a young lady near the town of Tisbury in Wiltshire, conveniently her father, a retired colonel was a member of his local fishing club on the River Nadder.

After a few visits to Wiltshire, approval was finally given to join him for a day’s fly fishing as a guest on the Nadder run by the Teffont Fishing Club.

Armed with my Millward Flylite split cane rod and a selection of dry flies bought from Farlow’s of Pall Mall the previous day, we set off in search of brown’s and grayling. That day local knowledge prevailed and the colonel caught several trout and graying, eventually I managed to hook a lone lady, thankfully my dry-fly fishing skills didn’t let me down that day. Walking back that evening the colonel told me about the history of this little twisting stream, looking back now, I forget most of the detail but one thing I always remember was the name, Nadder, a name given after the adder snake common in the Wiltshire district. The shape of the adder similar to that of the river, with its twists and turns. True? maybe, maybe not but I like the tale.

Here we have Jack Hargreaves dry-fly fishing on the Nadder delivered in his own unique gentle manner and hooking a rather fine dace.