Angling Heroes

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The Monk

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Funny how as anglers we have heroes, usually stemming from those who either taught us to fish, first introduced us to the sport or famous angling writers.

My first angling hero had to be Mr Crabtree, old Bernard Venables, surely everyones who was born in the 50s, the list however goes on, BB, Dr Terry Coulson, Eric Hodson, Ron Clay, Jim Gibbinson, Jack Hilton, far too many to name. who are yours?
 
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Tom (Bream Machine)

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Ivan Marks, for me he was a mine of information, and always willing to help a struggling angler either with advice or actually get up off his box and come and help with the problem. His book, Ivan Marks on Matchfishing, to me has never been bettered. I think there are a lot of very good top guys out there, but if you ask a lot of them, they will say Marks had a huge influence on thier fishing.
 
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The Monk

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Oh Yeah both Ivan and his mate, cant remember his name? great lads very helpful, had loads of floats from them in the early daze!
 
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Steve King

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As a kid; Venables for Mr Crabtree & Mr Cherry & Jim and Richard Walker for his column in AT and books like Stillwater Angling and Drop Me a Line.

As an adult; the late great Peter Stone, Tony Miles, Stuart Alum, and of course Chris Yates and Bob James.
 
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The Monk

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Roy Marlow that was him, still have some letters from them somewhere, nice lads very helpfull, from some obscure place, Leicester, down sarf I think ?
 
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The Monk

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Oh Yea, Mr Cherry and Jim, still have the books Steve, only ever met Peter Stone once, a lovely bloke, I was introduced to Peter at a CS event, Stuart Alum is another lovely bloke who has been around a long time,a very accumplushed angler, never met Bob or Chris, Chris is an excellent writer though
 
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The Monk

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I can remember NASA`s Keith Barker writing sa piece on Angling heroes in the Specialist Anglers magazine, , Must confess Keith was one of mine also, he did such a lot of behind the scenes work for anglers in general, it was a great loss to angling when Keith Barker resigned from angling politics, the guy really is a legend and I had the great privilege of sitting with Keith on the SACG committee.
 
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Wolfman Woody

Guest
By "heroes" I'm sure you mean anglers I would have liked to emulate, catch what they were catching, fish the same waters, next to them if possible?

Well, no word of a lie and I'm not ass-kissing, as the man knows, but whenever I heard that this bloke had caught another double figure bream in the 60s from a Cheshire mere I'd do all I could to find out where it was, short of writing to him. The quest took us all over Cheshire to some interesting and lovely places and we caught fish, although not the double figure bream we were looking for.

That man was none other than Graham Marsden and it was only a couple of years ago that I actually met him in the flesh. We've been out together a few times since and one thing I've discovered is that conversations between must seem a little boring to earwaggers since every sentence starts with the same words, "I agree and....." so it goes on.

I never read much of his writing at the time, always thought he had no time for regular columns as he spent it fishing, but we tend to think the same on almost every subject. It really is uncanny, but he still wins my vote and it's always worth watching what he does and learning from it. Especially when the HP sauce comes out. :eek:)







Make the cheque out to me personally as usual Graham.
 
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The Monk

Guest
And of course out Graham, as an angling writer made a very significant contibution towards the sport, a very respected angling writer of course.
 
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Wolfman Woody

Guest
And of course our Monk with his tales of fishign factory lodges. Heheheheh!

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Beat you to the GM one though Monk
 
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Chris Bishop

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Bloke caled Pinchin. Caught the first 20lbs pike I'd ever seen while I was fishing next to him at Wick Water when I was about 14 years old, 1978 or 79-ish.

I saw him strike into it and it tailwalked like a real beast.

My dad helped him weigh it.

The biggest pike I'd seen before that was my own PB of 8lbs.
 
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EC

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Probably Tony Miles for me, his book 'The Complete Specimen Hunter' inspired me to travel 55 miles to the River Dane in 1989/90 to catch my first ever proper chub, I've probably gone back there over 100 times since.
 
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Frank "Chubber" Curtis

Guest
For me it has to be Bernard Venables. When I was living in Downton (Wiltshire)during the early sixties I often met up with him in the bar of the Bull Hotel and we'd spend a couple of hours talking about fishing, art and his writing. He was such a gentle, soft spoken man with impeccable manners and a great sense of humour.
The only regret I have is that I never did get to go fishing with him even though we often talked about having a day out together.
 
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Phil Hackett HC/PCPL, SCT with Pride

Guest
Monk you are my all time hero I worship the ground you once walked on.

Will it ever see you again with rod in hand I wonder?
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

Guest
A good point that Phil.

I have had a few angling heros in my life, some of which I'll not mention here because you will perhaps have never heard of them.

There is **** Walker of course. Another mentor of mine was Tag Barnes and dear old Ray Webb. Ray was a complete eccentric but one of the most interesting people I have ever fished with in my life.

Another of my heros you may have never heard of is Roland Martin, an American Bass angler. Probably the finest lure angler the world has ever produced. If you are into lure fishing, a copy of his great book - 1001 Bass Fishing Tips is an essential read, even if you only ever fish for pike.

In the world of fly fishing, for me, three people stand out head and shoulders over the rest.

Cyril Inwood, probably the finest stillwater fly fisher of all time; Hugh Falkus - the definitive salmon and seatrout angler and Lefty Kreh. The first time I read one of Lefty's articles on fly fishing, I put an extra ten yards on my casting.
 
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Terry D

Guest
About 40 years ago it was Fred Taylor, then as I progressed I came across the Billy Lane Encyclopedia of Float Fishing - this was inspirational to me as well as showing me what I'd been doing wrong for years. About 10-15 years ago I'd have to put Ian Heaps and Ivan Marks up at the top. Today, top of my list is Tony Miles, Stef Horak and phil Smith. Don't times change!
 
GrahamM

GrahamM

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Thanks Jeff and Monk. Now, where's my wallet.....

My heroes were Benny Ashurst and **** Walker.
 
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Big Swordsy :O)

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Steph Horak
Phil Smith
Tony Miles
Terry Lampard

Fished with two, two to go!
 
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Matt Brown

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Terry Hearn - The way he tracks fish before fishing for them amazes me. When reading his stuff half of my brain is trying to apply what I'm reading to my own fishing.

Alan Scotthorne - His attention to detail and the effort he puts into planning his fishing is amazing. I've never watched him fish but he stood behind me for 5 minutes while I couldn't get a bite!

Tom Pickering - He owned the local tackle shop and was always helpful with advice. When he won the World Champs I was so proud in the same way I would if Donny Rovers won the league.

Martin Bowler - I'm impressed with how good an all rounder he is. There's the odd thing in his articles I pick up on and use in my own fishing and that can't be said for 99.9% of what I do read (and I do read a lot).

Phil Smith and Stef Horak - I just love their writing (Stef has me in stiches) their approach doesn't just follow along the same lines of every other writer out there.

I'm not wanting to sound cheesy, but I'm obviously picking up a lot from the lads in DVSG, mainly Bob Roberts, Adam Roberts (not related) and Tim Ridge. I've learned loads from them this year.

There are loads of other writers out there who have had an influence of the years and consequently I admire them too, but the guys above really stand out.
 
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Fred Bonney

Guest
Can't say I ever had an angler influence, but people who have shown me to see more in angling than just fishing were Jack Hargreaves and Tom Williams.
Tom Williams in particular, made me think of fishing much further afield than Essex/Suffolk with his writings about his river keeping on the Avon.
Ah,the Bull at Downton Frank,a few happy memories for me there, in the seventies though.
 
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