Who is the GREATEST of the modern era?

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Tee-Cee

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Generally speaking(and many will disagree)**** Walker has always beenthe leading light in the angling world and was so in his own lifetime.This fact will be well known tomany anglers many of whom will be around my age-65+and grew up with his writing.Many others,too numerous to mention,followed but Walker,right or wrong,seems to head the field by a mile.

So,who stands up to the test?Who has given most to angling over(say)the last 10/15years-<u>not necessarily</u> by book or catches but also by inovative thinking and who's name will still be bandied around in 30 years time?

The GREATEST of the modern era?????
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA)

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I don't think there are very many in this day and age who could become the leading light.

Some of you will I am sure put forward such names as Matt Hayes, John Wilson, Des Taylor etc.,but remember one vital difference between Walker and names like these.

The Commercial aspect!

Walker was never commercially connected to any firm in the tackle industry and although he did a bit of design work for Hardys, it was never for money. Walker stated on more occasions than I can think of that it was vital that an angling writershould avoid like the plague being connected to a tackle firm. Otherwise integrity and crediblity will belost!

This is one of the reasons why Walker was so great. There are others of course, but these are well known.
 
Mark Wintle

Mark Wintle

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Walker's direct influence more or less stopped 25 years ago in 1983. Best to leave it at that for Walker.

Since then, the specialisation of many of the disciplines of angling have meant that a number of anglers have had important influences.

In no particular order any of the following have had some influence:

Bob Church, John Wilson, John Bailey, Graham Marsden, Tony Miles, Trefor West, Phil smith, Stef Horak, Barrie Rickard, Chris Yates, Tim Paisley, Kevin Maddocks, Terry Hearn, Terry Lampard, Matt Hayes, Martin Bowler et al

Whether a single individual could ever dominate again like Walker is unlikely but never say never....
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA)

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Personally I don't think that any single person COULD dominate again, unless its in the field of angling politics.

Walker was a man of his time, a one-off. He influenced every type and discipline of British freshwater fishing. And many of his ideas travelled to other countries too, as I can testify.
 
Mark Hewitt

Mark Hewitt

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Ron Clay - Google's best loved historian.

Wilson's programmes were the first to 'properly establish' themselvesin terrestrial television. That makes him very influential during that period.

Although JW has is own range of tackle, it was never heavily pushed in his programmes, and you didn't see him covered head to toe in branded logo's. Also in his book's and articals he rarley mentioned the 'brands' of tackle he uses, just the technical bits. For me he go the balance just right!
 
Graham Whatmore

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A speculative question and as with the "is Walker the greatest" question it is down to personal opinion. As Mark rightly points out anglers have gone more and more down the specialisation road and there are names that may, or may not be, the best anglers but to my mind there is no one that has done more to publicise and promote angling to the general public than John Wilson.

Whether he is the best angler though is another matter and I am inclined to think he probably isn't but there again I don't think Walker was either. For all round angling ability I think I would plump for Stef Horak or Martin Bowler because they successfully target a variety of species rather than one in particular.
 
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Ginger

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I think it`s always difficult to compare sportsmen from different eras, in **** Walkers time there were very few, ( if any ) angling programs on T.V.

John Wilson was the first ( i believe ) to have an angling series on the tele,( good old Anglian T.V. ) and thanks to him we now have a variety of shows and presenters that are household names.

In Walkers time it would have mainly been the written word through the angling press and his own books. If you are comparing someone with Walker for his writing then in my opinion Chris Yates would be right up there with the best.

As for T.V. shows, i think John Wilson and Matt Hayes lead the field in that area, not just good presenters but also great allround anglers.

Ron, you made the point that Walker was not commercially connected to any firm in the tackle industry, were there many anglers of his era who were ?
 
Graham Whatmore

Graham Whatmore

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"Where did Graham come from"

He is robably on a par with any name you care to put in the list because he is a cracking good all round angler but he doesn't get the publicity that a lot of other anglers get, apart from from on here that is.
 
Mark Hewitt

Mark Hewitt

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He ment you Graham, as he responded to my post /forum/smilies/smile_smiley.gif
 
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Philip

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Nice thread Cakey. I guess for someone to do this they would need to be of great influence in the areas of catches, innovation, media and politics etc. There are not too many around.

I am also a Terry Heard fan. He has the respect of many for his results and the way he conducts himself but he still has a LONG way to go to take a mantle such as this. Perhaps if Terry started to angle himself towards the politics side he has a chance…he is still young..

Maddocks and Middleton will still be talked about in 30 years, I always thought Rod Hutcuchson if he had branched out to other species had a chancebut perhaps he has missed the boat now. John Wilson and Go fishing was a breakthrough and he comes across well and preaches the right sort of things so he has as good a chance as any.

However what I think any of the candidates need in addition to everything else is -rightly or wrongly- is a fish of the caliber of Clarrisa (Yes Ron,Ravioli) to shake the angling world. I agree that a “trophy list” of fish is of little importance in the grand scheme of things but I think that fish did a great deal to help Walker to get to were he did.

BTW...with the spread of angling globally perhaps the next one won't be English...could we see a Euro or Global name next time...
 
Mark Hewitt

Mark Hewitt

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"Nice threadCakey"

He would never be behind a thread as relivant as this........

Tee-Cee needs the pat on the back!
 
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Philip

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DOH ! Sorry Tee-Cee...I got all mixed up between thread owner and last poster, sorry.. /forum/smilies/smile_smiley.gif
 
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EC

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No match anglers mentioned?

Kevin Ashurst, Bob Nudd orAlan Scotthorne, or maybeDick Clegg for putting us top of the tree?
 
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