Inspirational anglers

[chub_on_the_block]

Have you ever witnessed anglers with such superb technique or catching ability that you were inspired by what you saw or tried to emulate it?

Im not thinking of secondhand reports read in the press or even watched on video, but anglers you just happened to fish near or watch for a while?

Probably my strongest memory was of a chap on the Mole at Hersham (before the river was transformed into a flood relief channel), who fished some shallow fast water crammed with crowfoot by wading out half way and fished free-lined floating bread under the far bank and between the streamers to catch about a dozen 2-4Ib chub. Within a week i was back at the same spot with my first pair of waders..and blanked.

[benny samways]

Nobody specific, but about 20 years ago Barbellers on the Great Ouse would inspire me.

These guys would turn up with a rod, net, chair and bait bucket and fish in a way that seemed so mysterious to me and my friend. Mass baiting with hemp, boilies and using not just luncheon meat but flaovoured luncheon meat! Rods low to the ground and an affiliation with their target species that seems lost today. They just seemed to know what they were doing.

Lots of identi-kit barbel fishers on the Ouse these days, scratching their heads and blanking.

I would like to see Keith Speer in action floatfishing a river, that would be pretty inspirational.

[Lord Paul of Sheffield]

Lee Swords float fishing the Dam Flask - object lesson on how to fish the waggler

[mark brailsford 2]

It was seeing Charles Jardine fly casting on the river Derwent in Chatsworth park that got me into fly fishing, the things he can do with a fly rod is just amazing, a really nice bloke too!

[red creel]

Yep good old Kenny Collings giving the dace a right mullering on the Thames at Richmond in its heyday.It was a "wag n mag" masterclass.

[chub_on_the_block]

Originally Posted by red creel

Yep good old Kenny Collings giving the dace a right mullering on the Thames at Richmond in its heyday.It was a "wag n mag" masterclass.

He was one of my heroes and a helpful bloke when i used to use KC Angling when I lived in the area. I drew near him in a Thames Championship one year, but never saw him fish. Another name was John Merrit i think - he was always winning or doing well. Another local that i did see fish - and was very good - was John Barefield, me and my mates even used to name swims after him like the "JB Bush peg" at Tadpole Bridge!.

[chav professor]

Friends and mentors from the CSG...

[redfin123]

I once sat and watched the great george sands trotting the trent with the centerpin, only the senior ones among us will remember his name. but what an angler he was, I sat and watched as he reeled in roach after roach. He put that float through the same every cast gently thumbing the reel, and seeing his float disapear in the same spot time after time, he realy inspired my way of fishing to this very day. He realy was one of the great anglers of the past.

[Merv Harrison]

Steve Canty a top match angler from years ago, fished next to him in a match and could'nt really watch him, but was still impressed. Then a few years later, a gang of us went over to Ireland for a weeks pleasure fishing, and Steve was in the group, the man was like a machine, everything precise, not a moment wasted. an absolute eye-opener.

And a great bloke to be with.

[Peter Jacobs]

Two or three spring to mind:

Watching Steve Gardner fishing the waggler on a Norwegian river that he had never seen before and proceding to wipe the floor with everyone who knw the river very well.

Watching Dave Vincent fishing the long pole in half a gale to record yet another win on a Norwegian lake, again one that he'd never seen before.

Watching Jan Porter putting a new rod through its paces and proceding to more or less empty a river while giving a running commentary of the performance of the rod . . . brilliant.