Chris Yates’s Barbus Maximus split cane barbel rod.

This is the very first example of the Chris Yates Barbus Maximus.

It was used by Chris extensively during the filming of the television series A Passion For Angling and reference is made to it on page 9 of the book that accompanied the series. Chris mentions the rod elsewhere in his writings from 1990 until circumstances led him to sell it in 1997 (he did ask me if I’d mind).

During those seven years, Chris was fishing for barbel a tremendous amount and it was this rod that he used almost exclusively. He was the best field tester a rod maker could wish for. We fished together regularly on the Avon, which gave me many opportunities to see how the rod behaved in Chris’s hands.

We’d first met in the 1980s when I was working at Hardy’s Pall Mall shop. Chris called in to have a Hardy carbon match rod mended and I helped him. He’d broken the rod’s tip on carp at Redmire Pool while gudgeon fishing. The rod belonged to Hugh Miles, who wasn’t too thrilled about its ‘little accident.’

At the time, I was keen to abandon gainful employment in order to test my nerve in the shaky world of self employment. Rod making was by then my passion and knowing of Chris’s liking for cane rods, I wrote to him to ask if he’d be interested in a project to develop a couple of new models. Since the early fifties, most cane rods were variations on old patterns. He responded enthusiastically and invited me to his house to discuss rods and to try out a new porridge recipe on me. I can’t remember exactly what was in it but it was pretty good stuff. It kept me warm when we set off to fish a very full, cold Royalty Fishery. I seem to remember catching an eel.

He liked the 12’ 3-piece rod I’d built (based on a Chapman Hunter) but suggested some modifications. He had a liking for long rods with detachable handles (particularly another Chapman, their FJ Taylor Roach Rod) and after some heated debates, which he graciously let me lose, we agreed on an 11¾’ rod with a detachable handle, a nice quick action and a hollow built middle section to save some weight.

I left Hardy’s in April 1990 (I was top scorer in their Product Knowledge Improvement training course in March and quite smug) and started production in my first workshop at North End, near Kintbury. By July, I had completed this rod. This was a month before my twenty fifth birthday. He wrote on his certificate of ownership that I delivered it to him on the 1^st of September and a week later he christened it with a barbel of 10lb 3oz from the Avon at Downton.

Until last week, I hadn’t seen the rod since 1997. I was still very young then –thirty two. The rod, which I’ve been looking at and photographing today, has worn well. Possibly better than I have. In fact, I don’t think it’s been used by anyone other than Chris Yates. It has had two owners besides him and I’m now in the interesting position of finding it a new custodian for the first time in thirty four years.

It’s still completely sound, very straight –remarkably so considering all the large fish it’s landed- and has its original aluminium case, rod bag and ferrule stoppers. Nothing is missing, broken or replaced. Mind you, its bag has shrunk and I think it would be a good idea to let our brilliant seamstress at it so that it can carry on protecting the rod for another three decades.

It’s got its original numbered certificate, signed by Chris and me, with his notes on it, the letter of authenticity from Angling Auctions, who handled its sale for Chris in 1997 and a copy of the details of its sale to its current owner in June 2020.

Technical details.

11’9” 2-piece + handle. The handle under the cork is split cane. The middle section is hollow-built and the tip is conventionally built. The bamboo was flame tempered, hand-split and hand planed to its final dimensions. The bamboo itself was from a small batch that had originally come from J B Walker of Hythe.

The ferrules were supplied by Oliver’s of Knebworth. They had been made to a Hardy pattern by an ex-Hardy ferrule maker. The hardwood and cork stoppers were turned on my Logan lathe.

The butt ring is creamy Agate set in nickel silver. The tip ring is red agate set in nickel silver and the intermediate rings are hard chrome plated stainless steel. They were made at the Hardy factory.

The silk whippings are Pearsall’s green tipped with Pearsall’s Gossamer red.

The varnish I used to finish the rod was Internationl Blue Peter and it’s still in good condition.

The inscription below the hook keeper is in red and black Indian ink. On the rod’s top half:

The First 11’9” “Barbus Maximus” Barbel Rod.

Belonging to its contriver,

Christopher Yates.

 On the bottom flat:

(Hand-made by Edward Barder

For Christopher Yates. July 1990)

The rod’s bag, which Chris ‘personalised’ with a black marker pen, was made by my girlfriend at the time, using cloth I bought from a wholesaler off Regent Street during a lunch break while working for Hardy’s. It’s very nice fabric but it shrunk at the first hint of moisture.

The rod’s original aluminium tube was supplied by Hopkins & Holloway of Studley.

The fact that this historically important rod has remained in such sound condition is an indication of the care that its recent owners have taken of it. It’s patina is entirely from its first seven years beside the water with Chris Yates.

It’s the first purpose designed cane barbel rod of the modern era and a significant piece of Chris Yates memorabilia, if I can put it like that, and therefore a unique and very special rod.