Read Fred Taylor and you know Fred Taylor.He becomes a friend

of yours.God Bless you Fred and thanks for everything...

Fred inspired me, and improved my fishing at 13 or so, and last year he encouraged me to try travelling to Canada to fish forty years on.

 He was my angling hero and I have been honoured to know him.  We will all miss a true angling legend and a great man.

 Keith

I have only recently taken up angling but my husband has a few of his books which this thread encouraged me to start reading; what an enjoyable read, now I realise why my husband and the rest of you enjoy his works so much.

Rest in peace Fred.

ERRATUM

The "J" in Fred J stands for James, not John.

Thanks to Sandra Armishaw for pointing out my mistake.

Part of my childhood and a major influence on my approach to fishing for tench.....for me the last of the old school who never excepted the obvious as the way to go.

I never met him but from his writings he had a wonderful sense of humour and always willing to help others.

Thanks Fred....

Fred I only knew you for a short while, then I read 'The Travellin Man' and felt as if I'd always known you.

I hope where you are has the open spaces and beautiful waters that will give you eternal peace.

You will be missed by many people, who have been inspired by your work and known you well.

 Bless you

I met Fred whilst running the North London section of 'The Pike Anglers Club of GB' and during that period I had perchance to meet this great man.After writing to him and expressing a wish to meet he organized a day at Tring for my 'area' members and myself to meet and spend the day fishing for Pike.

On that day I never got the chance to fish.The day was spent talking to Fred as`we walked around tring reservoirs and talking to my area members and the club members that Fred had invited on the day.

This day is one of the highlights of my life.I will never forget his warmth and outgoing frendliness which overwhelmed me.His invitation for a drink in the pub adjacent to tring afterwards was eagerly accepted.The day was full and ended the same way.

Fred you gave others and myself inspirations which will last till the end of my days.

Ray Cripps

A true countryman,when i was around 12 or 13yrs old we used to read his articles in shooting times,in fact these were the first pages we would turn to and those of B.B.Spending nearly all our time with the terriers,ferrets and air rifles picking up tips and ideas from Freds writings and getting the rest from out in the fields.We owe him big time not just the the tips and great writing but giving you the window from which you could see the fields the lakes and the rivers and giving you the inspiration to go and try it you self.

  God bless him.

There was a great turnout for Fred's funeral on Thursday, about 200 folk.

John Mason and Chris Tarrent both spoke with warmth and obvious affection for a great friend.  Roger, the vicar, was brilliant.  Faces from angling old and not so old were there and a great celebration of Fred's life was enjoyed by all.

I was fortunate enough to meet David Carl Forbes' widow and son, with whom I spent a long time talking about river management and the problems we have with Natural England, the Environment Agency and assorted bunny huggers, who seem to understand so little of how the countryside and particularly our rivers work.

Met some old friends and shared some good times.  It was a great pity that Fred was not still with us to share it.

We shared a great memorial to him and later all stood in silence at 4.00 p.m. as he was finally cremated at Amersham.

God bless you Fred, we all owe you so much.  

Sadly, I was still on my way back from Borisburg (London) and couldn't go.

If it was the new chapel, it's really nice in there. Glad it went well, Mike.