The one that landed Clarissa

[Chris Ball]

A couple of weeks ago my wife handed me an envelope and said" you asked me to keep these for you". I looked at the brown envelope
" it was years ago" she continued. We had been clearing our old house and had been packing for days.
Inside the envelope were various fishing photos of me in the seventies and some black and white ones from the 80's.
I was quite excited as I hadn't seen these in years and put them on my desk, a few days later I went through them.
My memory is poor (and my fishing diaries are in London and I'm in Thailand) but I think that the following photos were taken in the early eighties on a small Sussex carp pool when I was fishing with my old friend Chris Yates. Chris Ball, a friend of CY whom I'd met on a few occasions was also there.
The first photo shows a posed photo of the two anglers with cane rods.I think that the rod that Chris Ball is holding could be the famous MK IV that landed Clarissa.I think that he had brought it down to show CY. I have seen the rod in real life and CY showed it to me before he took it back to Redmire to catch the carp in "A Passion For Angling". There are also a couple of pics of the carp that were caught that day.
Best regards
Mem

Hello everyone,
I vaguely remember Mem taking photos on that day (it was on Walker’s anniversary of the capture of Clarissa) around 1984. Chris had fished the previous night with both Walker’s MkIV No 1(Clarissa rod) which I’d lent him and his own Walker built MkIV Avon (Bishop rod). I arrived early the following morning to find Chris still half asleep. He wound both rods in and I noticed that MkIV No 1 had the main line going round the rod at the ferrule and pointed this out to Chris. “Ah... I wondered what was up, I thought the rod had lost its magic as I couldn’t seem to cast very far.”

The picture of Chris and myself holding both rods can I see cause some confusion because for some reason Chris put his Ambidex (the Bishop record reel which he purchased in 1969) on the Walker’s MkIV No 1 and a Delmatic on his own Walker MkIV Avon built rod.

Later in the morning Chris took a nice picture of me landing a carp - it later appeared in the The Haig Whisky Guide to Coarse Fishing in Britian book published in 1985.

[Jardine]

A couple of weeks ago my wife handed me an envelope and said" you asked me to keep these for you". I looked at the brown envelope
" it was years ago" she continued. We had been clearing our old house and had been packing for days.
Inside the envelope were various fishing photos of me in the seventies and some black and white ones from the 80's.
I was quite excited as I hadn't seen these in years and put them on my desk, a few days later I went through them.
My memory is poor (and my fishing diaries are in London and I'm in Thailand) but I think that the following photos were taken in the early eighties on a small Sussex carp pool when I was fishing with my old friend Chris Yates. Chris Ball, a friend of CY whom I'd met on a few occasions was also there.
The first photo shows a posed photo of the two anglers with cane rods.I think that the rod that Chris Ball is holding could be the famous MK IV that landed Clarissa.I think that he had brought it down to show CY. I have seen the rod in real life and CY showed it to me before he took it back to Redmire to catch the carp in "A Passion For Angling". There are also a couple of pics of the carp that were caught that day.
Best regards
Mem

Hello everyone,
I vaguely remember Mem taking photos on that day (it was on Walker’s anniversary of the capture of Clarissa) around 1984. Chris had fished the previous night with both Walker’s MkIV No 1(Clarissa rod) which I’d lent him and his own Walker built MkIV Avon (Bishop rod). I arrived early the following morning to find Chris still half asleep. He wound both rods in and I noticed that MkIV No 1 had the main line going round the rod at the ferrule and pointed this out to Chris. “Ah... I wondered what was up, I thought the rod had lost its magic as I couldn’t seem to cast very far.”

The picture of Chris and myself holding both rods can I see cause some confusion because for some reason Chris put his Ambidex (the Bishop record reel which he purchased in 1969) on the Walker’s MkIV No 1 and a Delmatic on his own Walker MkIV Avon built rod.

Later in the morning Chris took a nice picture of me landing a carp - it later appeared in the The Haig Whisky Guide to Coarse Fishing in Britian book published in 1985.

Hi Chris,
thanks for clearing that up and filling the gaps in my memory. I also have a photo of you that day with a fish, I recall that you and I had one and CY blanked. The photo is back in London and I'll add it to my original post when I'm there in the summer. I have just noticed what looks like my landing net in the photo of you.
Best regards
Mem

[Snape]

Ohh, Snape! I'm aware I am doing spot the difference but bear with me!
The second picture has the figure still in waders but sans the jacket from the first pic.
I wonder then If all those present took turns having a picture taken with the
Bishop.... Well why not.
I'll stop now.... give all a rest.

JPC's post just now came up. Seems a strong likelihood then!

Yes you and JPC are right (JPC was actually there after all!). I was thrown by the waders!

[Chris Ball]

Hello Mem,
If you remember I’d be interested to see that photo you mention, I have a couple but the quality is pretty awful. Yes, your landing net. It was a lovely old lake that the Golden Scale Club fished at times, remote and quiet with carp leaping now and then is how I remember it.
Regards,
ChrisB

[Nobby]

Thanks for clearing that up Chris.

[QuinetteCane]

As a viewer through the window of these photographs I was always minded of
peace and tranquility from the Yates/Bishop offering. It turns out the day was a
busy one of multi bods on the Redmire banks provided courtesy of this thread.

Even more... That one CY can compose a remarkable study as a camera person
but cannot be quiet for long enough to pose for another's efforts, CB meanwhile
being too distracted by the item in hand.
Understandably given the subject matter.

The Yates mindedness for period costume dressing up,the foot up pose
disturbingly reminiscent of The Fleetwood Mac Rumours Album Cover is for me..
Well it's an amusing distraction!

Given that I have for a while been sofabound with bad feet may go some way to
explain my somewhat overinterested musings. It seems I am the cause of a 'Doh'
response for which I feel muchly regretful .

[Nobby]

Funny place to hang the Christmas decs......

http://i2.wp.com/ewedit.files.wordpress ... C495&ssl=1

[JPC]

What's so characteristic about the swollen butt that makes it a Walker built rod? I have a rod with a very similar butt, that's looks like a heavy carp or pike rod!

IMG_20170422_111042.JPG

That's not what I said.

But Walker did add 'swollen' butts to some of his home-built rods, .... it's a simple and light way of keeping the reel bands on. More importantly, and I have images here of many of the first B.James built, Walker hand-signed rods...none have swollen butts and I've never seen a B.James rod that had one.


Nevertheless, I defer to JPC's knowledge of the rod if he's sure he was handling the same rod, years apart and with a shorter length.

100% sure Nobby. If you still have doubts there is a forum member who has contributed to this thread who is also aware of the rods origins but "out of respect for Chris" has opted not to comment. I'm sure you can put two and two together and a pm or phone call could dispel those doubts.
As to the the title of this thread and with regard to what rod, be it a Walker built from scratch MK 1V, a Walker built on blanks supplied by J B Walker MK 1V, a Walker built MK 111 or a B James prototype pre production MK 1V that Dick caught his 44 on, I can shed no light. Even so great to read the thoughts/beliefs/questions of the forum members.

[Nobby]

[QuinetteCane]

Funny place to hang the Christmas decs......

http://i2.wp.com/ewedit.files.wordpress ... C495&ssl=1

The story went that they were toilet chain pulls Mick Fleetwood had swiped from the men's room Nobby. Effective tho'!
Very Rock n Roll!