To all the wannabes .

[flightliner]

I was chatting to a young match angler yesterday and I mentioned a few famous match anglers who were around when I was enjoying fishing them myself, notably Billy lane and Ivan marks .
I was really surprised when he said he had never heard of either.
Both these guys were revered as amongst the best around in their day with hundreds of BIG wins between them.
Pursuing it a little further I mentioned **** Walker and met with the same response.
So, only maybe one generation gone or thereabouts and Angling superstars are all but forgotten.
What chance today's anglers ??

 

[mikench]

Mick I think you may have had the same vacant response if you had discussed from the same period, rock stars, bands, football players, cricketers, politicians in fact anyone or anything. Youth is wasted on the young and today's youth are particularly bereft of knowledge of our history.

 

[steve2]

Not surprised in the slightest don’t think I would recognize any of today’s top anglers if I trip over them in the street
This now the era of celebrity.
Celebrity it seems is all that they know about now.
Those instant do nothings that turn up on television and earn millions for being a celebrity, what ever that is.

 

[103841]

Mick I think you may have had the same vacant response if you had discussed from the same period, rock stars, bands, football players, cricketers, politicians in fact anyone or anything. Youth is wasted on the young and today's youth are particularly bereft of knowledge of our history.

Exactly that. I use to work with a young girl aged 28, I was staggered at the number of people she had never heard of, only a few come readily to mind, Ken Dodd and Dire Straits. She never watched any news or read a paper, just spent the day on WhatsApp and Facebook.

 

[S-Kippy]

I am always staggered by the number of young people who have never heard of me !

 

[markcw]

I'm a legend in my own lunchtime .

 

[sam vimes]

The harsh reality is that we are getting old. I'm 47 this year, younger than plenty on here. Richard Walker died in 1985 when I was about 13. I'd heard of him, but the majority of my awareness came from older anglers (and angling writers) reverence of him. I'd actually expect the majority of anglers of much less than 40 to have little knowledge of Richard Walker.

I've never been big on heroes, angling or otherwise. However, I would have recognised a fair number of well known anglers of the late eighties into the nineties. I'd struggle with those that have come along since the turn of the century. I might get as far as "blond haired geeeeezer that works for Nash"(or similar), but I don't generally recall their names. This is largely the other side of the same coin.

 

[S-Kippy]

As ever, very nicely summed up, Chris. I can't remember that blond haired blokes name either...its Alan something I think but more than that about him I couldn't tell you. Nor do I particularly care.

 

[bracket]

I empathise with flightliner. When I was match fishing on the Trent during the 50,60 and 70's open matches were anything from 80 to 150 preggers and regularly attended by Benny and his Leigh miners, the Barnsley boys and the Leicester lads plus the odd visit from some of the Southen Softies. Even the club matches would draw 40 or 50 competitor. The standard of angling was of the highest quality and completion was fierce. The Craig was great and weekends were always a buzz. From what I glean reading present day match results it appears in the main to be about 15 guys sat around a puddle putting 200lb of fish on the pan and thinking thier brilliant. Something certainly has been lost in the evolution. This is demonsrated to me when I am approached on a local commercial and ask "how many carp you had mate?" When I reply "Thankfully none" the only response I get is a grunt and the inquirer gives a sad shake of the head and moves on thinking "He knows nowt". Well I have certainly known better. Pete.

 

[Another Dave]

anything from 80 to 150 preggers

I'm amazed you had any energy left for fishing!

 

[bracket]

I'm amazed you had any energy left for fishing!

Dave. It was the way of things then. One occasion, as a teenager, I fished the Trent Championship, which in those days was pegged from Burton Joyce to Newark, generally both banks of the river. I was in the Burton Joyce zone and the 10 o'clock draw HQ was the Ferry Inn on the road stretch. I had no transport so my Old Man dropped me off with his standard comment of "You must be mental". I made my draw which was in the Cherry Orchard on the opposite Shelford side of the river. I took the Ferry across and walked with all my gear along the bank to my peg which was about half a mile from Gunthorpe Bridge some three and a half miles along the bank. I got to the peg at ten to twelve and the whistle for the off was noon. At the end of the match I weighed in and then walked to the Anchor Pub in Gunthorpe, another mile and a half to catch a bus back to Nottingham. No mobiles in those days to ring and say "Dad can you pick me up" would have been a waste of time anyway. Got home, had my Sunday dinner, with 26 ring round the plate, washed and changed and was in the Pub for 7 o'clock to have a craic with my mates about the match. So just a walk in the park for me in those days.

 

[mikench]

I am always staggered by the number of young people who have never heard of me !

My youngest remembers you well Skip.

Google Image Result for https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/02/Skippy-dvd.jpg/250px-Skippy-dvd.jpg

 

[steve2]

From what I glean reading present day match results it appears in the main to be about 15 guys sat around a puddle putting 200lb of fish on the pan

If you saw the amount of just in case gear they now take to fish that puddle it's no wonder no one walks want to walk far any more.

 

[peter crabtree]

Funny how non-match anglers view the match scene these days. Ok, a lot of matches are indeed fished on carpy commercials, but not all.
I am a member of 2 clubs and one (Tring) have 2 matches virtually every week. None are on commercials. The majority on the GUC but many are on the Thames between Marlow and Reading. We also fish the river Thame.
My other club (Uxbridge rovers) only fish commercials in winter, from June to December matches are on the Thames, anywhere from Kew bridge to Windsor. Others are on the Colne and some on natural lake venues.
Many other clubs hold their matches on the Thames and bookings are tight, some venues being fully booked in advance.
Elsewhere, look at the Evesham festival, another river match which sells out in days.
The Angling trust Riverfest has venues nationwide and is also sold out, again often in days.
Some wonder at young anglers who haven't heard of famous anglers of yesteryear but have a very blinkered view of the modern match scene themselves innit....

 

[steve2]

Peter, I gave up match fishing when all the people I fished only became interested in matches on commercials. We did try silverfish matches on them for a while but no one wanted 10lbs of roach when they could catch 100lbs of carp.
One of the main reasons for packing up fishing the GUC which I loved fishing was lack of parking.
The Thames at that time was also on a downwards spiral and 60 miles for a blank was normal.

 

[Mark Wintle]

It is a generational thing. When I started match fishing in 1970 I soon became aware of Billy Lane and Ivan Marks. But there was an older generation of match anglers back then. One, an old retired BAA angler of great note who'd fished for England, Fred Pearson, by then lived at Ringwood and fished all the local club matches though he was nearly 80 and still winning, and able to pass on great tips. Fred had organised the Birmingham AA 'Big 'Un' in the days when it was 8,000 pegs. How many 80's match anglers knew of Sam Buxton?

It is sad to see anglers who fish for England fishing tiny opens (15 to 30 pegs) and club matches nowadays.

 

[john step]

A couple of years ago I asked where the arlesey bombs were displayed in a large Lincoln tackle shop. I was met with a blank stare and "whats that". I explained R. Walker the innovator, the perch at Arlesey lake and again no recognition of the name. Hey Ho!!

 

[mikench]

What did you expect in Postwar Britain Pete?

 

[flightliner]

It is sad to see anglers who fish for England fishing tiny opens (15 to 30 pegs) and club matches nowadays.

I sometimes walk a local water near me Mark to watch the weigh in on the regular saturday event.
There's an England squad man who fishes it most weekends along with an ex (?) member of a well known northern match team.I wouldn't normally bother but these guys fish for silverfish only and really know their fishing which is nice to see.

 

[108831]

I would peg out Vauxhall opens,fish,then weigh in afterwards very often,lugging tackle across fields,most matches were between 80 and 140 pegs,luckily I would only usually have to peg 30 to 60 pegs...

S-kippy,I don't know who you are either and I'm certainly not young...