I’m not a fish!
This is a page from the Old Grey Fellow’s fishing diary. The third entry from bottom, for August the 27th 1965, is interesting. See the ‘Rods’ column. ‘My own’.
Very droll.
That was me, not quite double figures, but at 9 lbs 2 oz, I expect I made my mother’s eyes water a bit as I entered the world with the help of Dr Jenkins.
If you zoom in on the 16th, you will see that Richard Walker and Fred Taylor came for a day on the Loddon. RW spotted a barbel in James’s Hole on the Far Stream, which my Dad caught first cast with his favourite bait -cheese paste. So fond of this stuff was he that it’s very likely it played a significant roll in his courtship of my mother.
Few people have fishing diaries with entries quite as impressive as this. My father’s in-laws owned the river. He used to fish it with Richard Walker and Fred J Taylor. He records the birth of a famous rod maker.
There was no Catch & Release in those days so he was stuck with me.
While you ponder the cultural significance of all this, and try to work out how it has had such a profound effect on your lives, divert yourselves by looking at some nice fishing tackle.
Please click on the pictures for more information.
Best wishes and good luck from Edward (not James) Barder and Colin Whitehouse