My friend Rich is a keen summer carper and has lent me a few carpy books over the years. In particular Dave Lane's two books are as good as anecdotal writing gets. An old favourite of mine is Rod Hutchinson's "The Carp strikes back" which surely was an inspiration to a teenage carper and once again features superb anecdotal writing. It is said that Rod isn't in the.. "best of health" these days and his last book was published in 2010. This book is called "Carp Inspirations" and Rich recommended a chapter on weather conditions, so with a diminished reading pile at the time I ended up reading the whole thing.
The book is not Rod's usual brutally honest "fishing stories..." type of thing but more of a technical piece about how he goes about his fishing after a lifetime of experience. The title comes from the guest chapters throughout the book which are written by anglers who have inspired Rod to chase Carp all over the globe.
The book opens with a great chapter by Walker's cohort Maurice Ingham and followed by another member of the Carp catchers club.; Fred J. Taylor. Both are really interesting covering the early days of specialist carp fishing. This is followed by Jim Gibbinson talking about his pioneering winter fishing and this is another really good chapter by another author who inspired me as a youngster. Fred Wilton's original articles on his high protein bait theories are really good too, I'd never read these before. I bet he didn't have a scooby doo how lucrative his ideas would be for others.
A little deeper into the book, Lee Jackson writes about plastic baits and although I know they work I can't get my head around Lee's take on why. Len Middleton's original article about 'the Hair rig' is reproduced and this was another i'd missed first time around. Alan Smith writes a sensible chapter about weed fishing, good commonsense stuff.
Towards the end there is a chapter on Carp leaping by Albert Romp which didn't convince me and there are two chapters by old school angler Brian Mills. The first is about the neglected art of float fishing for big carp, something I know works but definitely don't do enough. The next is about weather conditions and is the reason for Rich lending me the book. It's pretty good and makes sense to me and sits alongside pieces written by Barrie Rickards.
Obviously Rod Hutchinson himself writes his share and his chapters cover just about everything you'd expect in a book on carp fishing. Rod's use of particle baits was groundbreaking at the time and he was one of the first players in the bait trade. All told there was a bit too much about bait for my liking, all the theorising and experimenting was great at the time but now we just have to pick up a bag. There was loads of good sense though, Rod can break through the bullshit of carp fishing and simplify things. The theme throughout is a little bit more thought and going against the grain will catch you more fish. this applies to all types of angling at times. Rod Hutchinson is much better at telling stories than writing a 'how to' types of books and it does get a bit jumbled at times. For an occasional carp angler this book was OK but not great.
Talking of fishy writing I got my hands on a 'Special edition' of the forthcoming "CATCH CULT" magazine. Why me? Because I've written something for the mag and I'm really proud to see it in there. Don't let that put you off though, there are excellent articles covering the whole specialist angling scene (even carp), my favourites being Richard Wesley's article on Perch fishing and Danny Taylor's brilliant story of a night of urban Eel fishing. Theo's pitch is a great diary piece from an experienced and successful angler and lookout for Mr Crabmeat, a future Icon in the making. CATCH CULT is different to the advert driven crap fishing mags we have to put with, it looks and feels different too. Well done to Rob Shallcroft and Martin Mumby for pulling it together and good luck! More details about CATCH CULT to come...
Fishing... I found myself with a couple of days to spare and couldn't resist the pull of the marshy wilderness, for once the weather was mild and dry too. Actually with decent westerly winds it was pretty good fishing conditions. Things didn't go to plan, when do they? It didn't matter though, I had a fantastic time in my comfortable boat, floating around the most glorious place in the east. The fish made me work hard but this always makes it sweeter in the end. Life will allow me one more visit before the season ends and I can't wait to get back.
The book is not Rod's usual brutally honest "fishing stories..." type of thing but more of a technical piece about how he goes about his fishing after a lifetime of experience. The title comes from the guest chapters throughout the book which are written by anglers who have inspired Rod to chase Carp all over the globe.
The book opens with a great chapter by Walker's cohort Maurice Ingham and followed by another member of the Carp catchers club.; Fred J. Taylor. Both are really interesting covering the early days of specialist carp fishing. This is followed by Jim Gibbinson talking about his pioneering winter fishing and this is another really good chapter by another author who inspired me as a youngster. Fred Wilton's original articles on his high protein bait theories are really good too, I'd never read these before. I bet he didn't have a scooby doo how lucrative his ideas would be for others.
A little deeper into the book, Lee Jackson writes about plastic baits and although I know they work I can't get my head around Lee's take on why. Len Middleton's original article about 'the Hair rig' is reproduced and this was another i'd missed first time around. Alan Smith writes a sensible chapter about weed fishing, good commonsense stuff.
Towards the end there is a chapter on Carp leaping by Albert Romp which didn't convince me and there are two chapters by old school angler Brian Mills. The first is about the neglected art of float fishing for big carp, something I know works but definitely don't do enough. The next is about weather conditions and is the reason for Rich lending me the book. It's pretty good and makes sense to me and sits alongside pieces written by Barrie Rickards.
Obviously Rod Hutchinson himself writes his share and his chapters cover just about everything you'd expect in a book on carp fishing. Rod's use of particle baits was groundbreaking at the time and he was one of the first players in the bait trade. All told there was a bit too much about bait for my liking, all the theorising and experimenting was great at the time but now we just have to pick up a bag. There was loads of good sense though, Rod can break through the bullshit of carp fishing and simplify things. The theme throughout is a little bit more thought and going against the grain will catch you more fish. this applies to all types of angling at times. Rod Hutchinson is much better at telling stories than writing a 'how to' types of books and it does get a bit jumbled at times. For an occasional carp angler this book was OK but not great.
Talking of fishy writing I got my hands on a 'Special edition' of the forthcoming "CATCH CULT" magazine. Why me? Because I've written something for the mag and I'm really proud to see it in there. Don't let that put you off though, there are excellent articles covering the whole specialist angling scene (even carp), my favourites being Richard Wesley's article on Perch fishing and Danny Taylor's brilliant story of a night of urban Eel fishing. Theo's pitch is a great diary piece from an experienced and successful angler and lookout for Mr Crabmeat, a future Icon in the making. CATCH CULT is different to the advert driven crap fishing mags we have to put with, it looks and feels different too. Well done to Rob Shallcroft and Martin Mumby for pulling it together and good luck! More details about CATCH CULT to come...
Fishing... I found myself with a couple of days to spare and couldn't resist the pull of the marshy wilderness, for once the weather was mild and dry too. Actually with decent westerly winds it was pretty good fishing conditions. Things didn't go to plan, when do they? It didn't matter though, I had a fantastic time in my comfortable boat, floating around the most glorious place in the east. The fish made me work hard but this always makes it sweeter in the end. Life will allow me one more visit before the season ends and I can't wait to get back.
No comments:
Post a Comment