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Ian Howcroft

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2013 9:50 pm
by Mark
I am very pleased to announce that Ian Howcroft has kindly accepted our invitation to join the TFF Hall of Fame. Ian is probably one of the few angler’s still alive today who fished with Dick Walker, the Taylor brothers and Peter Thomas all on the same session.

In Ian's own words "I would be honoured to appear in the TFF Hall of Fame. A lot of my friends are in there as well as others with whom I would be pleased to be associated".

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Ian was born in the North East of England and began fishing around 1944. He started fishing in the North Sea, then in 1955 his family moved to Luton where he started freshwater fishing.

In 1963/64 he was one of the first to deliberately catch a barbel out of the Great Ouse and it has been generally accepted that he was the first to do so. He has also caught many specimen chub, tench and pike to 25lbs 8ozs. In 1976 Ian shared the best bag of bream caught at Tring Reservoirs since the 1930s. Ian was also the manager of the fisheries at Snowberry Lake, Wotton Underwood and Beachampton on the Upper Ouse (Walker's stretch). Fred J Taylor wrote in the foreword to 'Our Days With Dick' "Dick gave Ian the task of managing the Beachampton fishery which involved the letting of the hut to various people because, as he always said he didn't want to hog the best of the fishing for himself all of the time. The trouble was that most of those who were invited by him and Ian to visit the fishery were exceptional anglers. They quickly sussed out what had to be done and it made the chub fishing on the upper Great Ouse very very difficult indeed. You had to be on top of the chub all of the time, always thinking one step ahead - Ian could do that but very few others were as successful".

Ian began writing professionally in 1963 for magazines etc and in 1975 was asked by Osprey Publishers to write a book about barbel. If you search on Ebay or Amazon you can still find the odd copy knocking about and it is becoming a sought after book. In 2010 he compiled the book ‘Our Days With Dick‘ one of my favourites this one. I managed to purchase a copy of 'Barbel' earlier this year and Ian sent me two lovely signed photographs one for each of his books.

In 1977 Ian moved to Australia. It was here that he exchanged catching his bream and barbel for tiger sharks to 1200lbs, stingrays, monkey fish (in 1985 he caught the Western Australian and National Record), green jobfish (in 1986 he caught the Western Australian record), a good number of large trevally, Spanish mackerel and barracuda. In 2012 he caught fifteen sailfish to 106lbs in two days.

Welcome to the TFF Hall of Fame Ian.

Re: Ian Howcroft

Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2013 10:05 am
by Dave Burr
I think those qualifications just about mount up to a worthy candidate Mark but quite why a 1200lb shark is better than a bream .... :Chuckle:

With an antecedence like Ian's I feel privileged to be on the same forum but that's fishing - room for everybody. I look forward to reading more from Ian's past and the present from down under - what chance a TFF weekend in Oz?

Re: Ian Howcroft

Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2013 11:04 am
by Sandgroper
Dave Burr wrote:I think those qualifications just about mount up to a worthy candidate Mark but quite why a 1200lb shark is better than a bream .... :Chuckle:
They taste a lot better and you get a lot more fillets. :Hahaha:
With an antecedence like Ian's I feel privileged to be on the same forum but that's fishing - room for everybody. I look forward to reading more from Ian's past and the present from down under - what chance a TFF weekend in Oz?
That would be fantastic, but bring your own bottle openers, I am browned off with having mine nicked! :Chuckle: