Did you watch ‘Parky’ on TV recently when former Avengers star Diana Rigg appeared as a guest? She’s a fly angler of 25 years standing apparently, starting when her father taught her fly fishing as a child. With genuine warmth she said to her host: ‘Not that I’m upstage about coarse fishing at all, It’s just that I was taught trout’.
She’s one of a bunch of celebrities who fish without any real urge to tell the world about it. Some I suppose just welcome the relaxation after the pressures of the day job; others can’t get enough of it I hear.
The beauty is that whichever discipline they concentrate on the thrill of the bite, or take, is always as good. And the sport transcends social barriers. Any shortlist of ‘star’ anglers would include: Roger Daltrey, Anton Rogers, Chris Tarrant, George Melly, Jeremy Paxman, Fiona Armstrong, Roger Whittaker, Gerry Marsden (of Gerry and the Pacemakers, pictured with that other Marsden) Cannon and Ball, and the ‘ab fab’ Joanna Lumley.
Sporting heroes too, like Jack Charlton, Ian Botham, Gareth Edwards, Allan Lamb, John Aldridge, snooker players Steve Davis, Jimmy White and Mark Williams, and the greatest golfer of all time Jack Nicklaus. There are others whose name escapes me just now.
Then we have the nobility; HRH Prince Charles, of course, and Lord Mason of Barnsley and colleague and founder member of the Lords and Commons fishing club Lord Tryon, and government minister Jack Cunningham.
One name I’ve missed could be spotted as an angler in a crowded room. He might try hiding it behind a joke, he might play the excitable type, but beneath Bernard Cribbins looks is the relaxed demeanor and tempo that goes with the countryside. I’d be surprised it he’s not a fair angler, and you can almost imagine his look when a bite is missed.
All told the list has some very up-front characters don’t you think? Now imagine for a moment all this gang fishing together on the same water on a sort of away day, each one perhaps teaming up with an inner city schoolkid who is mad keen on fishing for a charity pairs contest?
Or why not a ‘famous anglers’ charity dinner run by the sport’s governing bodies? This could offer a brilliant PR coup. You might never see Diana Rigg pictured on a canal fishing the pole, but to know she fishes at all Is refreshing enough.
For these lovers of the gentle art, face it, they collectively boost our image and add credibility. They make angling suddenly more sexy than the way it is often portrayed by the uninitiated. Those casual observers we’ve all heard who ask: ‘how we’ve got the patience to do it?’ And who might snigger about the worm at one end and the fool at the other.
The implication by some is that we sit or stand there for hours without a thought, or a strategy for getting that fish to take the bait. The irony is that as soon as the walker has removed himself from the skyline the fish regains confidence and a bite soon follows. ‘Who are these critics, D’Artagnons all?’ It forced Arthur Ransome to ask in his classic book ‘Rod and Line’.
By association with these star names angling leaves behind the extremists who don’t like us at all. The next task is win over the larger body of people who tolerate us without realty understanding what we do. That comes down to better marketing, more TV, and… education via THE INTERNET.
