R
Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA)
Guest
In recent years there has been a distinct dearth of what can only be called genuine angling characters in our sport. All the modern angling writers and other personalities seem to my mind to have an "over washed or sanitised" appearance with their baseball caps, mobile phones, clean real tree jackets, latest state of the art tackle and cameras etc.
Now in my day your genuine angling characters could be detected many miles away by the smell. The vehicles they used were often a wonder to themselves. Open the boot or the door of a genuine angling character's car or van (mainly vans in those days) and a black cloud of enormous bluebottles would greet you. The next thing to hit youwas the stench ofrotting mackerel deadbaits, salmon spawn,or even the odd bucket of ox blood that was a few weeks over it's sell-by date!
Look at the average angler's car these days and you are struck by the fact that he actually washes it; to say nothing of the plastic sheets that are laid out in the boot to prevent the smell of hempor wet keepnets contaminating his vehicle!!
The modern angler seems like a wimp to me.
But I suppose we do have the odd exception - Chris Yates for example.
At least old Chris seems to wear proper hats.
But how many real angling characters do you know of?
Now in my day your genuine angling characters could be detected many miles away by the smell. The vehicles they used were often a wonder to themselves. Open the boot or the door of a genuine angling character's car or van (mainly vans in those days) and a black cloud of enormous bluebottles would greet you. The next thing to hit youwas the stench ofrotting mackerel deadbaits, salmon spawn,or even the odd bucket of ox blood that was a few weeks over it's sell-by date!
Look at the average angler's car these days and you are struck by the fact that he actually washes it; to say nothing of the plastic sheets that are laid out in the boot to prevent the smell of hempor wet keepnets contaminating his vehicle!!
The modern angler seems like a wimp to me.
But I suppose we do have the odd exception - Chris Yates for example.
At least old Chris seems to wear proper hats.
But how many real angling characters do you know of?