I
Ian Cloke
Guest
Mike Winter is one of a select band of anglers.The 64-year-old retired teacher from Ottery St Mary, is one of only 21 people who are members of the invitation-only Golden Scale Club.
And while he describes the elite society as "a bunch of moth-eaten eccentrics" its members, like himself, hold dear the traditional ways of the angler.
For Mike, the peace and tranquility he finds when fishing and his own harmony with the natural world that surrounds him, is what his sport is about.
Not for him any hi-tech bite alarms, chemically-concocted baits and other expensive gadgets designed to lure in enthusiastic anglers. Indeed, Mike fishes with split cane rods, which he often makes himself, natural baits and little else - except his own experience and skill, which he taught himself from an early age.
He accepts fishing is in his blood - his father, grandfathers and uncle were all keen anglers - and his passion has been put into words in a book he has written called Along Fishermen's Paths.
The story begins with recollections of Mike's first fishing experience when he was five, in a brook at the end of his grandparents' garden in East Devon.
He describes how he found an old reel and line and hooked a caterpillar to catch his first fish - a seven-inch long brown trout.
On his seventh birthday he was given his first rod and tackle and got busy teaching himself to fish by trial and error, his only guide a copy of Bernard Venables' Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing. He recalls the fascination of catching his first carp - Mike went on to form the Devon Carp Catchers Association in 1958 - and the pride in landing his first pike, a record-breaking 14lb beauty that earned him a silver cup.
He still has that fish, caught in a lake at Newton Abbot when he was 11 or 12, in a glass case in his study.
Back then Mike travelled from his family's East Devon home to Exeter School, where he joined its natural history society - a clandestine fishing club whose members would think nothing of cycling off on a 10-15-mile trip to do some fishing.
Back in those days Mike would have a keen interest in record catches. And while today he admits the prospect of topping his own best catches still gives him a buzz, he is firmly set down his own fisherman's path.
continues........
And while he describes the elite society as "a bunch of moth-eaten eccentrics" its members, like himself, hold dear the traditional ways of the angler.
For Mike, the peace and tranquility he finds when fishing and his own harmony with the natural world that surrounds him, is what his sport is about.
Not for him any hi-tech bite alarms, chemically-concocted baits and other expensive gadgets designed to lure in enthusiastic anglers. Indeed, Mike fishes with split cane rods, which he often makes himself, natural baits and little else - except his own experience and skill, which he taught himself from an early age.
He accepts fishing is in his blood - his father, grandfathers and uncle were all keen anglers - and his passion has been put into words in a book he has written called Along Fishermen's Paths.
The story begins with recollections of Mike's first fishing experience when he was five, in a brook at the end of his grandparents' garden in East Devon.
He describes how he found an old reel and line and hooked a caterpillar to catch his first fish - a seven-inch long brown trout.
On his seventh birthday he was given his first rod and tackle and got busy teaching himself to fish by trial and error, his only guide a copy of Bernard Venables' Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing. He recalls the fascination of catching his first carp - Mike went on to form the Devon Carp Catchers Association in 1958 - and the pride in landing his first pike, a record-breaking 14lb beauty that earned him a silver cup.
He still has that fish, caught in a lake at Newton Abbot when he was 11 or 12, in a glass case in his study.
Back then Mike travelled from his family's East Devon home to Exeter School, where he joined its natural history society - a clandestine fishing club whose members would think nothing of cycling off on a 10-15-mile trip to do some fishing.
Back in those days Mike would have a keen interest in record catches. And while today he admits the prospect of topping his own best catches still gives him a buzz, he is firmly set down his own fisherman's path.
continues........