Old ****'s

  • Thread starter Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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One thing that **** hardly ever did, especially with his hand written letters was to date them.

My estimation of 1967 for this letter I think is fairly accurate.

The comment that he couldn't cast very far, only 30 yards with a floating line, is typical Walker being very tongue-in-cheek. 30 yards, is of course an excellent distance. Walker was in a way having a go at those who claimed anything up to 50 yards without measuring it!

I can claim in my own life that I have only been in the presence of a true genius twice.

Recently, it was with the CEO of the company I represent. The other time was with Richard Walker. I doubt if it took more than 10 minutes for Walker to write this letter, including the drawings. And not one crossing out, spelling mistake nor grammatical error.

If a letter like this one does not define genius, I don't know what does.

And he wrote many thousands of them.
 
Graham Whatmore

Graham Whatmore

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You remember John Jones that wrote one or two articles on here a couple of years ago? He wrote to **** Walker at the beginning of the 70's on a problem we were having with tentative tench bites on a particular lake and John had a hand written reply describing his solution, the lift method, in detail, he still has this letter.

Someone once told me that most od RW's letters were typed out by his secretary so how come there are 1000's of hand written ones Ron?
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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I was referring to all his letters Graham.

If I have given the wrong impression here, I apologise.
 
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Keith Robinson 2

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Graham, Without doubt it must have been quicker for **** to write a couple of pages by hand than have to dictate to his secretary, and then have them typed up.

Over the years I have come to the conclusion that **** was a workaholic, being part of that small group of people who only needs 3-4 hours sleep a night, the other 20 hours was taken up by work, whether it was designing and making lawn mowers or his interests in the fishing world.

To get the full benefit of this particular letter which was in reply to a letter from me, that to should be read, it would explain quite a lot of what **** was referring to, his method of splicing lines, the use of the nail knot etc.

The total correspondence between **** and I went on for some 3 years, some thing like 20 letters all appertaining on the problems that the new BIG waters were causing the trout anglers of the 60's.

I was very fortunate to be involved with my mentors, Bob Church, **** Shrives, Frank Cutler, and my boat partner for many years, John McLellan, who became one of the greatest exponents on the use of lead core lines, if not the best. In those halcyon days of our youth, we would all live, talk, discuss and fish together at every possible occasion, this was how the Northampton style came about. There were other people who were also very much involved, to mention them all would turn into a book.

Thanks to Mr Marsden and Ron the Hat for putting the piece on F.M. I hope all the lads enjoy it. By the way Ron, I reckon that hat was one of ****s!!!!
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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Actually Keith, I very nearly became the owner of one of ****'s hats.

But that's another story and if I told it I would be accused of name dropping again.

When I see names like **** Shrive, Bob Church, Frank Cutler and John McLellan Keith, who amongst others and yourself were the true pioneers of reservoir fly fishing in England, I just might suggest that you might be accused of name dropping too.

But you and me know that we are not name dropping. In those days they were just our mates, including old ****.

You have hit the nail too about old ****, he WAS the supreme workaholic.

He also did like a spot of gin, and good wines too.
 
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ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one)

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I'll have to ask the Bone Collector about that ....He reckons he used to have a vodka or two with him
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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I reckon this "Bone Collector" character is a figment of your imagination Ed. Let's have his real name - if he exists?
 
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ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one)

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You would have been introduced to the Bone Collector if you hadn't disappeared at Chatsworth
 
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Chevin

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Ron mentions the fact that he never saw one crossing out in a letter from **** Walker. I exchanged many, many letters with him and I knew a lot of anglers who did the same and not one of us had a letter from him that included one crossing out! Quite incredible.

Something that isn't as widely discussed was the speed of his reactions. I commentated on them on one occasion when we were fishing together and he told me that he had had them tested as a matter of interest and the only person with quicker recorded reactions in the UK was Stirling Moss!
 
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Keith Robinson 2

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It seems that I must have one of the few letters that **** had found necessary to alter, he had tried araldite out to do a specific job and found it to be unsuccesful, he crossed out araldite and wrote over, evostick which he found did the job better.
He added a P.S. I quote.
"The reason for all the crossing out is that I tried the fly line/monofil join with araldite and it was fine for four days then the nylon went rotten and broke at a slight pull. Evostick, however, does'nt seem to have any effect on the nylon.
I'm going to Pitsford on Sunday (which is crossed out ) Saturday April 1st " unquote. This was ****s explanation for the four lines of the typed letter which he felt he should delete.
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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Keith,

You have a unique document.

I wonder what it would fetch on "Flog It?"
 
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Wolfman Woody

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"Something that isn't as widely discussed was the speed of his reactions. I commentated on them on one occasion when we were fishing together and he told me that he had had them tested as a matter of interest and the only person with quicker recorded reactions in the UK was Stirling Moss!"

I wonder if he then taught them to Frank Guttfield or whether Frank was the tutor. He's like Quick-draw McGraw at the slightest movement of his quiver tip.
 
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Keith Robinson 2

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Ron, At the moment all the correspondence is with a publisher, I hope he finds the particular letter "unique".
The p.s. by the way was hand written, so it seems that during the completion and the sending of the letter he had tried the process out, with the letter being dated it could have been only a short time lapse, 1 day perhaps.
Another small point to note that the reason for a first day trip at Pitsford, was probably due to Grafhams stupid rule of opening up on May 1st.
There were a number of silly rules and regulations governing this fishing at Grafham, all of which caused a great deal of friction between the anglers and the authority, I have some great letters from a lot of people on the subject, I think in those days we were a pretty radical bunch of guys who new what we wanted, and eventually we did gain some influence, despite a certain fishery manager who hated the use of the rudder and side casting, in fact anything to do with Northampton to be truthful.
To coin a favourite quote of his " one fish taken off the top fishing loch style is worth a dozen from behind the boat" a shame really, had he had studied the style he would have know that great many were caught on the swing and not directly behind the boat, the rudder being the means to control the drift, not as a means of fishing a straight line behind the the boat. Although it was an asset when further developments came to fruition.
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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Do many actually fish the old Northants Style these days Keith?

I have used the Northants ideas many times in my life. There was a particular 80 acre Natal still water where it worked a treat, especially on big browns. And yes, it was when the sinking line made the swing that most of the takes came.

Best flies were woolly buggers and a thing called a Black Panacea which Jim Gibbinson introduced me to. That fly is now a South African standard pattern.
 
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Chevin

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Kieth, have you spoken to John Howe about his collection of letters from ****? I believe that he kept every one he received from him.
 
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Chevin

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Graham, I received a lot of letters from ****, (none of which I saved), but not one of them was type written. The only type written material I ever received from him were my permits to fish his stretch of the upper Ouse - before he invited me to be his fishery manager.
 
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Budgie Burgess

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Lots of people have said to me that a letter from Walker must be worth a fortune but I have had to point out that due to the thousands he wrote that money wise they are not.But as a young lad (and I suppose to this day still) mines price less!

As I said when I last brought up the subject of Walkers letter writting (er Test Curves thread?) I wonder how many of todays names would bother writting back to a young lads letter? especially as I was questioning something he had said, with all 5 years or so of my extremely limited experience!
 
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Chevin

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I guess that I probably have a pretty rare collection. I have books signed by **** including Still Water Angling and Drop me a Line. The 13th Copy of the latest re-print of Walker's Pitch, signed by his widow Pat and a book written and signed by Simon - one of his twin sons.
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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Those sorts of endorsements are what makes those books extremely rare. Hope you have these items insured.

I spotted a framed mount of some of the flies tied by **** when I was in Hampshire some time ago. They wanted around ?800.00 for it.

I don't doubt that a collection of Walker's letters is worth a lot of money. It's the hand written ones that are really valuable I am told.
 
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