Dicky (Angling Trust PAC)
Senior Member
In light of the playful p*ss-taking on the Mick Brown facebook threads, I thought I'd post this interview I did with Mick at the 30th anniversary PAC conference in 2007.
Mick is a complete gent and it literally took 40mins to get him from the lecture theatre to our interview rendezvous in the canteen (70yards?); he just wouldn't pass anyone by without giving some of his valuable time...
The Duke really is an apt title... He is a superb angler and a superb ambassador for our sport
An Interview with Mick Brown for Midland Angler.
PAC 30 22nd September, 2007
Midland Angler: How have you enjoyed PAC30?
Mick Brown: It’s been brilliant; I’ve had a fantastic time. When everything runs smoothly like it has today, it just makes you feel good, and that you’re part of something important.
Midland Angler: Why is the PAC so important to you?
Mick Brown: The idea of the Pike Anglers Club is to look after the interests of the pike itself plus the anglers who fish for them and the PAC is the only body that does that, so it’s only right that I should support them in any way I can. I’m not really a political, committee-type person myself, I don’t think I’m capable of doing the valuable work that some of these guys do, you know dealing with the organisation, handling all the issues as they come up…That’s not what I’m good at, so I think ‘stick to what you know’, maybe just lead by example, doing the right things and trying to encourage others to do the same. One of the main reasons I wanted to be here is to try and help raise the profile of the event and hopefully some people who are here, who are not PAC members on the day, will decide it’s a good thing and join up because they want to be part of it.
Midland Angler: How can predator anglers forge closer links with the greater mass of pleasure/ club and match anglers, many of whom still view pikers as the enemy within?
Mick Brown: I think it’s something you have to tackle on a local level. In my part of the Midlands we have a lot of trout clubs and there’s a lot of match fishing going on, and pike fishing just doesn’t mix with what they’re trying to do. Over the years I’ve got to know a lot of the trout anglers and slowly but surely I’ve managed to talk to them and explain that if they’ve got a problem it has to be tackled in the right way. The usual problem is that they suspect that the pike are eating all their trout, so they start killing them. It’s education really, they need to know that if you start taking the big pike out you are making the problem worse. You’ve got to do the right thing; you can never get rid of pike. It’s just talking to each really and seeing each others points of view. One of the big issues of course is what’s happening on the Warwickshire Avon because they think there’s too many pike there…
Midland Angler: The Evesham festival?
Mick Brown: Yes, the trouble is that you get a really good section of river where the baitfish naturally collect and it’s bound to draw all the predators in the region. I don’t think there is a simple answer, where you can say do this or that, but one thing is certain and that’s if you start culling the pike you only exacerbate the situation and you end up with more and more smaller pike. I’ve seen it so many times.
There’s a trout lake near where I live; I fished it for them to assess the pike stocks and my analysis, because of repeat captures, was that there was three big pike in there and you’re best to leave things as they are. Well one of the members on the fly caught two of those big girls in a day and killed them so I no longer had any interest in fishing there. Two years later I got a call from them saying they had a problem, I went down and in a few days I caught 106 2lb’ers, and they were there simply because they’d taken these big doubles out.
I’m not really sure what the answer is on these match stretches. Even if they were to throw ten pike a week up the bank it wouldn’t solve the problem. People just don’t realise the numbers involved and the rate they’re breeding. The more preyfish you’ve got, the more predators they will support and it’s a fact. Just killing a few of them is not a real solution; it just creates bad feeling between the different branches of our sport. Maybe competition anglers have just got to come to terms with the situation. It’s like playing cards where the joker’s in the pack; you’ve just got to live with the fact that you may have a pike in your swim. In some ways it makes the result a little more unpredictable rather than the best guy in the best swim always winning.
Midland Angler: Moving on from the Avon to another great Midlands river, were you surprised to hear the news this year that the Severn had smashed the British zander record?
Mick Brown: On two counts I’m not surprised at all.
Firstly, I’m not surprised it’s from the river Severn because it has the track record for large predators. We’ve had some really good fish out over the years from the Lower Severn which we’ve kept quiet, and there’s been no end of reported big fish pretty close to the record. It’s the perfect environment to grow specimen zander.
The other thing that didn’t surprise me is that is was caught on a halibut pellet because we’ve been catching no end of pike on pellets recently. I’ve also had a number of zander on them from the lower Great Ouse. What do they throw into the Lower Severn in abundance? Halibut pellets for the barbel, and now predators have developed a taste and are growing fat on them too.
Midland Angler: How much do you think the terrible floods in the Midlands this summer will have affected the river’s fish populations?
Mick Brown: A friend of mine said to me a little while back, ‘I’m fishing a brand new Midlands river this year’ and I said ‘What do mean there can’t be a new Midlands river?’ He was joking of course and replied, ‘It’s the Lower Severn!’ But in many ways he’s right, it is a new river. The flood has been so major; it won’t be the same water he left three months ago. The fish are all dispersed now; fish from Worcester are now in Tewkesbury and a lot of them have been lost in the fields or swept out into the Severn estuary, it’s been a disaster. Most of our rivers have been affected one way or another.
We live not far from the Nene and were pike angling one day when we started getting a few eels, so we switched to eel fishing. These eels were strange though, really short and very stocky, not like river fish at all. We couldn’t work it out but then the penny dropped… With all the floods in the Nene valley, the big eels that had grown and matured in gravel pits have now found their way into the river, along with numbers of carp and catfish. The region’s rivers are going to hold all sorts of surprises now. It certainly means there is no such thing as predictable fishing anymore; it will be interesting to see what turns up over the next few months.
Midland Angler: You’re very well known for your television work with another great Midland angler. How did you first get together with fellow Brummie Matt Hayes?
Mick Brown: Matt and I met at a trout fishery called Ringstead Grange; I think it was about 1994. I like to fish on my own most of the time and Matt was also out in a boat, fishing on his own. We got chatting and just seemed to get on straight away because we’ve got the same kind of background. We’ve both got the same rough-ar*e Brummie accents from the council estates, so we were into each others wavelength and we said well, we might as well fish together, so we had the day fishing and then we kept in touch by phone calls and that was the start of it all really. As things turned out we ended up working with each other as consultants at Shimano, and when Matt started doing television, we just carried on working together. Now between all the different series, The Great Rod Race, Record-Breaking Fish etc, we’ve probably done the best part of a hundred shows together.
Midland Angler: Is it as much fun making the shows as it looks on the screen?
Mick Brown: It is. My outlook is that I love going fishing and I love having fun, and Matt’s the same. We’re on the same wavelength. We know we’ve got a responsibility but we don’t take it too seriously, if that makes sense? We do the job properly but we have fun on the way. It’s chemistry really, it’s like one of those double acts that’s worked. I’m not saying it’s all been a bed of roses, we’ve had a few moments where we haven’t agreed with each other, we’ve even had words occasionally but generally we’ve had a good working relationship and it’s always a lot of fun. We’ll be back together working on a new project soon. Matt’s just got married, but when he gets back we’re going to talk about another series. I’m really looking forward to getting started.
Midland Angler: What have you got planned in your future fishing?
Mick Brown: I’m always looking ahead. At the moment, I’m into catfishing and there’s one water where there’s a huge moggie I want to catch. It’s growing at a phenomenal rate; in the ten years since it was stocked as a 20lber, it’s reached 80lb! When the cold weather comes, I’ve got three or four waters that I’ve got my eye on where the pike fishing will be very hard but there’s the potential for a couple of big unknown fish and that’s very exciting…but then I can’t ignore the fact that it’s only an hour for me to the Trent and there’s some huge barbel in there. There’s so much I want to do. I am lucky to have a very understanding wife, and she knows that I’m driven to do this and I can’t change that. I’ll always be walking mud through the kitchen, there’ll always be maggots escaping, and there’ll always be times when we’re trying to get through an important family occasion and my head will be 200 miles away on a river somewhere, but that’s just who I am and what I am.
Mick is a complete gent and it literally took 40mins to get him from the lecture theatre to our interview rendezvous in the canteen (70yards?); he just wouldn't pass anyone by without giving some of his valuable time...
The Duke really is an apt title... He is a superb angler and a superb ambassador for our sport
An Interview with Mick Brown for Midland Angler.
PAC 30 22nd September, 2007
Midland Angler: How have you enjoyed PAC30?
Mick Brown: It’s been brilliant; I’ve had a fantastic time. When everything runs smoothly like it has today, it just makes you feel good, and that you’re part of something important.
Midland Angler: Why is the PAC so important to you?
Mick Brown: The idea of the Pike Anglers Club is to look after the interests of the pike itself plus the anglers who fish for them and the PAC is the only body that does that, so it’s only right that I should support them in any way I can. I’m not really a political, committee-type person myself, I don’t think I’m capable of doing the valuable work that some of these guys do, you know dealing with the organisation, handling all the issues as they come up…That’s not what I’m good at, so I think ‘stick to what you know’, maybe just lead by example, doing the right things and trying to encourage others to do the same. One of the main reasons I wanted to be here is to try and help raise the profile of the event and hopefully some people who are here, who are not PAC members on the day, will decide it’s a good thing and join up because they want to be part of it.
Midland Angler: How can predator anglers forge closer links with the greater mass of pleasure/ club and match anglers, many of whom still view pikers as the enemy within?
Mick Brown: I think it’s something you have to tackle on a local level. In my part of the Midlands we have a lot of trout clubs and there’s a lot of match fishing going on, and pike fishing just doesn’t mix with what they’re trying to do. Over the years I’ve got to know a lot of the trout anglers and slowly but surely I’ve managed to talk to them and explain that if they’ve got a problem it has to be tackled in the right way. The usual problem is that they suspect that the pike are eating all their trout, so they start killing them. It’s education really, they need to know that if you start taking the big pike out you are making the problem worse. You’ve got to do the right thing; you can never get rid of pike. It’s just talking to each really and seeing each others points of view. One of the big issues of course is what’s happening on the Warwickshire Avon because they think there’s too many pike there…
Midland Angler: The Evesham festival?
Mick Brown: Yes, the trouble is that you get a really good section of river where the baitfish naturally collect and it’s bound to draw all the predators in the region. I don’t think there is a simple answer, where you can say do this or that, but one thing is certain and that’s if you start culling the pike you only exacerbate the situation and you end up with more and more smaller pike. I’ve seen it so many times.
There’s a trout lake near where I live; I fished it for them to assess the pike stocks and my analysis, because of repeat captures, was that there was three big pike in there and you’re best to leave things as they are. Well one of the members on the fly caught two of those big girls in a day and killed them so I no longer had any interest in fishing there. Two years later I got a call from them saying they had a problem, I went down and in a few days I caught 106 2lb’ers, and they were there simply because they’d taken these big doubles out.
I’m not really sure what the answer is on these match stretches. Even if they were to throw ten pike a week up the bank it wouldn’t solve the problem. People just don’t realise the numbers involved and the rate they’re breeding. The more preyfish you’ve got, the more predators they will support and it’s a fact. Just killing a few of them is not a real solution; it just creates bad feeling between the different branches of our sport. Maybe competition anglers have just got to come to terms with the situation. It’s like playing cards where the joker’s in the pack; you’ve just got to live with the fact that you may have a pike in your swim. In some ways it makes the result a little more unpredictable rather than the best guy in the best swim always winning.
Midland Angler: Moving on from the Avon to another great Midlands river, were you surprised to hear the news this year that the Severn had smashed the British zander record?
Mick Brown: On two counts I’m not surprised at all.
Firstly, I’m not surprised it’s from the river Severn because it has the track record for large predators. We’ve had some really good fish out over the years from the Lower Severn which we’ve kept quiet, and there’s been no end of reported big fish pretty close to the record. It’s the perfect environment to grow specimen zander.
The other thing that didn’t surprise me is that is was caught on a halibut pellet because we’ve been catching no end of pike on pellets recently. I’ve also had a number of zander on them from the lower Great Ouse. What do they throw into the Lower Severn in abundance? Halibut pellets for the barbel, and now predators have developed a taste and are growing fat on them too.
Midland Angler: How much do you think the terrible floods in the Midlands this summer will have affected the river’s fish populations?
Mick Brown: A friend of mine said to me a little while back, ‘I’m fishing a brand new Midlands river this year’ and I said ‘What do mean there can’t be a new Midlands river?’ He was joking of course and replied, ‘It’s the Lower Severn!’ But in many ways he’s right, it is a new river. The flood has been so major; it won’t be the same water he left three months ago. The fish are all dispersed now; fish from Worcester are now in Tewkesbury and a lot of them have been lost in the fields or swept out into the Severn estuary, it’s been a disaster. Most of our rivers have been affected one way or another.
We live not far from the Nene and were pike angling one day when we started getting a few eels, so we switched to eel fishing. These eels were strange though, really short and very stocky, not like river fish at all. We couldn’t work it out but then the penny dropped… With all the floods in the Nene valley, the big eels that had grown and matured in gravel pits have now found their way into the river, along with numbers of carp and catfish. The region’s rivers are going to hold all sorts of surprises now. It certainly means there is no such thing as predictable fishing anymore; it will be interesting to see what turns up over the next few months.
Midland Angler: You’re very well known for your television work with another great Midland angler. How did you first get together with fellow Brummie Matt Hayes?
Mick Brown: Matt and I met at a trout fishery called Ringstead Grange; I think it was about 1994. I like to fish on my own most of the time and Matt was also out in a boat, fishing on his own. We got chatting and just seemed to get on straight away because we’ve got the same kind of background. We’ve both got the same rough-ar*e Brummie accents from the council estates, so we were into each others wavelength and we said well, we might as well fish together, so we had the day fishing and then we kept in touch by phone calls and that was the start of it all really. As things turned out we ended up working with each other as consultants at Shimano, and when Matt started doing television, we just carried on working together. Now between all the different series, The Great Rod Race, Record-Breaking Fish etc, we’ve probably done the best part of a hundred shows together.
Midland Angler: Is it as much fun making the shows as it looks on the screen?
Mick Brown: It is. My outlook is that I love going fishing and I love having fun, and Matt’s the same. We’re on the same wavelength. We know we’ve got a responsibility but we don’t take it too seriously, if that makes sense? We do the job properly but we have fun on the way. It’s chemistry really, it’s like one of those double acts that’s worked. I’m not saying it’s all been a bed of roses, we’ve had a few moments where we haven’t agreed with each other, we’ve even had words occasionally but generally we’ve had a good working relationship and it’s always a lot of fun. We’ll be back together working on a new project soon. Matt’s just got married, but when he gets back we’re going to talk about another series. I’m really looking forward to getting started.
Midland Angler: What have you got planned in your future fishing?
Mick Brown: I’m always looking ahead. At the moment, I’m into catfishing and there’s one water where there’s a huge moggie I want to catch. It’s growing at a phenomenal rate; in the ten years since it was stocked as a 20lber, it’s reached 80lb! When the cold weather comes, I’ve got three or four waters that I’ve got my eye on where the pike fishing will be very hard but there’s the potential for a couple of big unknown fish and that’s very exciting…but then I can’t ignore the fact that it’s only an hour for me to the Trent and there’s some huge barbel in there. There’s so much I want to do. I am lucky to have a very understanding wife, and she knows that I’m driven to do this and I can’t change that. I’ll always be walking mud through the kitchen, there’ll always be maggots escaping, and there’ll always be times when we’re trying to get through an important family occasion and my head will be 200 miles away on a river somewhere, but that’s just who I am and what I am.
