Best Angling Video you've ever seen!

Having looked at the video on the Features section and by complete coincidence having just had some of my old VHS angling videos put onto DVD. What is the best Angling Video you've ever seen?

Passion for Angling must be up there, some of the original John Wilsons were pretty good too.

My favourite is an Australian Video, 'The Ribbons' from a series called big fish down under. I first saw it at a BCSG/CAA 'conference' in the mid/late 80's. I was brousing around the trade area at lunchtime and my attention was drawn to a video Leslies of Luton had on. Drawn is an understatement. I was captivated.

While fishing for smaller big game fish off the Barrier Reef, an 800lb Marlin 'jumped on'! Hopelessly outgunned, the fight is on. Over the next 20 minutes of video, great shots of this giant of the deep leaping around, the boat is on full reverse to keep up with it, the reel overheats and seizes up, they cut the line and handline an 800 lb fish using boat speed to keep in touch, tie it onto a new reel and rod and eventually bring it alongside to tag and release. Epic stuff, modern day Hemmingway.

Anyway, to start with I noticed a few people joining me to watch, but being at the front and so absorbed by the drama unfoldong on screen, I didn't notice that the stalls in the area had temporarily closed and a crowd of 30-50 people had stopped what they were doing to watch the video. Epic!!

I got home and mentioned it to the lovely person I've lived with most of my life and unbeknown to me, she tracked it down through Leslies and it arrived under the Christmas Tree later that year. Just had it coverted to DVD and it's still captivating after all these years. Even Moustache's have come back into fashion!

Stu

For me, the best 2 (both equal) the bream what Wilson caught on the slider and the catch of massive roach in Passion for Angling.

Other than a fair bit of Bonefish fishing around the Gulf of Mexico and many years ago two trips to India for the Mahseer I really don't find these so called exotic species as all that attractive in all honesty.

So, my best videos if all time would go to Passion for Angling and Caught In Time, both my Hugh Miles.

The Roach catch in Passion has been the cause of much discussion over the years and many of us who know that part of the river well think that it was probably taken over a couple of days . . . . . . . . the fish look to have been in that net for a considerable time.

Nonetheless, I still think that given the time when it was made that Passion for Angling is really the standard to which all others are compared with.

After Passion, Bob Roberts' Barbel Days and Ways and his new Caught in the Act offer excellent viewing material.

Terry D said:

After Passion, Bob Roberts' Barbel Days and Ways and his new Caught in the Act offer excellent viewing material.

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I think that one of the main features of a fishing video is being able to identify, or least like the persons presenting it.

So, while BR's videos are no doubt good I personally don't like his style of presentation; just a case of each to their own I suppose.

That though is where Passion scored so well inasmuch as it appealed to anglers and non anglers alike both here and abroad.

I remember watching it on Norwegian TV when it was broadcast over there and within a week there were people all over the lakes climbing trees looking for Carp . . . . . . . .

I didn't have the heart to tell them that other than Crucians that there were (at that time) no King Carp in Norway.

It does go to show though how even in a different Country how great was the appeal of Passion for Angling.

Almost anything by Hugh Miles and Paul Witcher - yes Peter, the roach catch in a PFA certainly wasn't as it was portrayed.........................

barbelboi said:

Almost anything by Hugh Miles and Paul Witcher - yes Peter, the roach catch in a PFA certainly wasn't as it was portrayed.........................

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I doubt those roach looked like that when they were caught, they were in very poor condition when they were returned, all for ego.

Peter Jacobs said:

I remember watching it on Norwegian TV when it was broadcast over there and within a week there were people all over the lakes climbing trees looking for Carp...

I didn't have the heart to tell them that other than Crucians that there were (at that time) no King Carp in Norway.

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I also remember watching it on telly. It was fascinating to get a glimpse into a completely different tradition of fishing, that I was totally unaware of. Coarsefishing in Norway represents only a tiny proportion of freshwaterfishing, and coarsfish are only present in a few counties in the southern part of the country. Freshwaterfishing in Norway is still 99.9 prosent about trout, char and salmon. Which means that you can fish for anything else undisturbed, for free, and without any sort of regulations. Meeting another coarseangler on the riverbank is something that almost never happens.

Carp was first observed in Norway in 1685, and has been present ever since. They have been actively spread by the those interested since the seventies (legaly and illegaly), and I don't have to walk far from where I live to find carp waters.

So they were definately present when you lived in Norway.

Harvey said:

Carp was first observed in Norway in 1685, and has been present ever since. They have been actively spread by the those interested since the seventies (legaly and illegaly), and I don't have to walk far from where I live to find carp waters. So they were definately present when you lived in Norway.

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Harvey, I lived there for 15 years on and off in a 20 year period and in that time I met with lots of Carp anglers who would all go to Sweden or to Denmark as there were none, readily available in or around Oslo. This was from 1978 unril 1998

Our club did, with the right permissions, bring King Carp from Denmark and put them into 3 "ice ponds" close to Asker, after the first 3 winters we only ever caught in one of the lakes, and the other two, to my knowledge never produced any after that.

In Oslo and the surrounding regions we had about 8 or 9 coarse Angling Clubs who regulalry competed for both matches and specimen fishing, and for a number of years I was also a partner in a small Tackle Company where we would import tackle, bait and ground baits from all over Europe and Sweden.

There is more information available here:

NMU - Norsk Meiteunion

Peter Jacobs said:

There is more information available here:

NMU - Norsk Meiteunion

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I'm one of the 114 members, and have been for quite a few years.

You can read more about carp in Norway here: Artsdatabanken

Harvey said:

I'm one of the 114 members, and have been for quite a few years.

You can read more about carp in Norway here: Artsdatabanken

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I was also a member for the periods when I lived and worked there.

I was a member of the Sensas Oslo Match Club and wonder now if our paths ever crossed during those years?

There are some fantastic videos mentioned chaps, some of which I've got somewhere, I'll have a rummage over the winter!

Didn't know about the Roach catch on PFA, if it really was over a few days that's a great shame.

Stu

Peter Jacobs said:

I was also a member for the periods when I lived and worked there.

I was a member of the Sensas Oslo Match Club and wonder now if our paths ever crossed during those years?

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Our paths have have not crossed, but I have one clubmate, Lars Snipen, who was a part of the matchfishing scene when you lived in Norway. He can remember you. And I will most likely know the names of quite a few of your norwegian acquaintances. I have found your name in old copies of "Norsk meite", dating back to the early ninties. You are listed as a member of the "Crafty Cathers".

For me PFA again, but the two 20lb pike on the misty morning on the River Kennett.

Early John Wilson or PFA. I really like the early JW when it was mostly coarse fish in Norfolk. But PFA is beautifully filmed and narrated, adds a dynamic between two characters (and their dogs) and wins on those fronts.

Passion for Angling was superb. Also Wilson's Mahseer fishing and Casting for Gold about India and Mahseer made me dream about one day catching a Mahseer from India , which , I am glad to say , eventually I did.

Harvey said:

I have found your name in old copies of "Norsk meite", dating back to the early ninties. You are listed as a member of the "Crafty Cathers".

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Hi, yes I started off with the Craft Catchers who were almost all English expats, but then switched over to Sensas Oslo match tofish with people like Jon Anders Walle, Petter Skudal, Raymond Hansen, etc. On the match scene there were also some other good anglers like Thomas Vermund and Viggo Jensen.

I recall Lars Snipen but if memory serves me correctly he was one of the older junior anglers at that time.

It is amazing to think that was more than 20 years ago, time certainly does fly . . . . . .

Still haven't worked out how to post links.
Go to you tube and type Bernard Venables stret pegging
Angling heaven

nogoodboyo said:

Still haven't worked out how to post links.
Go to you tube and type Bernard Venables stret pegging
Angling heaven

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Do you mean this one?:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYcFVc4lq7c]Stret-pegging for roach pt1 - YouTube[/ame]

A PASSION FOR ANGLING has to be my all time favourite, CHRIS YATES and
BOB JAMES have managed to capture the magic that has kept us all captivated
from the instant we went fishing for the first time, this and the truly excellent
photography of HUGH MILES has combined to produce the best angling video ever made (in my opinion).


....I have fished through fishless days that I remember happily without regret.
....Roderick haig-brown.