The one that landed Clarissa

[Nobby]

Any rod by B.James he had with him in September 1952 would have been the two prototypes he wasn't too happy with ferrule-wise. He wrote to 'Mr.James' on the 3rd. of that month including drawings of how he thought the ferrules should be cut and filed down to prevent the varnish cracking, something that had happened to him with just a 7lb. er at 'Bernithon' only recently. In the same letter he wrote that he was going there with Pete Thomas on the 13th. to the 15th. to try out the latest Mk.IV rod....presumably by that he means the very rods he has just received from 'Mr.James'.

We were fortunate to have an image of the very letter on here recently and one member diligently 'translated' RW's writing for us.

[Gary Bills]

Any rod by B.James he had with him in September 1952 would have been the two prototypes he wasn't too happy with ferrule-wise. He wrote to 'Mr.James' on the 3rd. of that month including drawings of how he thought the ferrules should be cut and filed down to prevent the varnish cracking, something that had happened to him with just a 7lb. er at 'Bernithon' only recently. In the same letter he wrote that he was going there with Pete Thomas on the 13th. to the 15th. to try out the latest Mk.IV rod....presumably by that he means the very rods he has just received from 'Mr.James'.

We were fortunate to have an image of the very letter on here recently and one member diligently 'translated' RW's writing for us.

The problem is, though, what if anything does all this amount to? By memory, Walker said in a letter that Thomas would attempt to "smash up" the B James, by way of a test, during that visit on September 13 - and then there's the second prototype...
How could Walker "test" a rod without using it? And, by memory, I seem to recall that Walker was fishing with a single rod on that fateful night...
Anyway, you've sent me back to my "Clifford", Nobby....!

In a letter to Mr James, on September 3, Walker writes - "The second rod arrived quite safely..."
Walker concludes the letter: "I'm going to Bernithan with Pete Thomas on 13th to 15th, and I hope to find a fish to give the latest MK IV a real testing. Pete will use the first one. We'll see if he can smash it up..."
So, on the face of it, we have Thomas and Walker both using B James prototypes, and with Walker only using one rod, as I recall, the evidence points to the 44 falling to a factory-made B James prototype.... I think....

[Santiago]

There's a photograph of a JB Walker advert for a MkIV kit rod on the forum in my mystery MKIV thread in the B.James rod section, where Dick Walker is quoted as saying what carp (Ravioli) he caught with what rod and it was a MkIV made from materials supplied by JB Walker. Doesn't this by imply the rod was not a B.James Mkiv? But one that Dick Walker made himself from cane supplied by JB Walker. What a mysterious topic!

Or did B.James use cane supplied by JB Walker to make the early Mkiv??

[Gary Bills]

The problem is, Walker clearly "altered" the truth about the gear he used, when it suited him: such as offering Kevin Clifford the "Clarissa" net when Kevin knew it could not be the net in question, because that had already been given to someone else...and then there is the case of the 34lb common: which Walker stated had fallen to a MK IV when, in fact, it was the MK III he used....

[Santiago]

But notably the 34lb carp is not on the list he sent to JB Walker, so perhaps in his letter to JB Walker he was not in error about all the carp he caught with his early Mkiv. Did Walker knowingly alter the truth or was he just forgetful? Either way then we'll never know. If one of his letters is of dubious content then how can we judge the rest of them!

[Gary Bills]

I refer you to page 88 of "The Carp Godfather" - in the Walker article called "My Best Carp Rod" ..
Walker writes: "I still have the original MK IV. It is still as straight and steely as ever after landing carp of 22lb 12oz, 31lb 4oz (which was the 34lb fish - he lied to Bob Richards and said it was 'only' the weight of his former record carp of 31lb 4oz), and 44lb...
We now know that the 34lb carp fell to the Mk III....
As I say, what does all this mean? Where is the evidence pointing?

[Paul D]

This is all really interesting chaps, what is the general consensus? Did Walker use a mk3 to catch the 44? (I can understand his reasons for saying it was a mk4) .

[JohnN]

I seem to have kicked a hornet's nest, but all I can say is that the Mk4 rod with the weights inscribed that I handled at Arlesey was not a B James rod.
It had no intermediate whippings and as far as I could tell was the same one I'd held at RW's home in 1951, that he'd just made, maybe from J B Walker's cane, and I was told was "the new Mk4" and he also described the "double taper" he'd had built in to it. I also handled a Mk3 on that occasion and I got the sense, but not confirmed because I didn't ask, that RW had built the cane for both rods himself. He did however recommend JBW for their cane if I decided to build a rod myself.
RW didn't like intermediate whippings and when I bought a Mk4 Avon from B James in 1953 I ordered it with no whippings. I still use it!

[Nobby]

In 1951 was RW not still using the cane he got from Allcocks? Where the B.James prototypes close-whipped, or did they add that later as they felt it sold rods? RW wrote that he thought them pointless by this time, but I'm unsure when he actually wrote that?

Although RW wrote on the 3rd. that he intended to use the prototype on the 13th. he may not have actually done so...he wasn't happy with the ferrule size or mounting, he had written. He felt he had a great chance of the record that visit...would he have risked losing a possible record fish to a rod he didn't trust when he had another that he had already proven satisfactory?

The letter to JB Walker, copied into their catalogues for years afterwards, does seem to say that the 44 fell to a rod built from their supplies...i.e: a rod RW finished himself ( that is to say fitted handles and rings) when the demand for these rods was so strong amongst his associates that he was buying the blanks in, rather than making them from the culm. He wrote that these bought-in blanks were actually built by Bob Southwell, for J.B.Walker.

[Gary Bills]

Another problem is, there's sometimes a difference between statements made for marketing purposes and statements made otherwise...
I'm not calling Walker a liar, - there are indeed discrepancies in the records; but Clifford indicates that, in his view, Walker was a kindly man who liked to please people and also a man who didn't care much which rod he had used, and probably could not remember.
My hunch - Walker "testing" the JB Walker rod may have been little more than casting from the dam. He showed enough liking for the MK III to use it in 1954, for the 34lb common, and he kept the rod a long time afterwards, in his study, albeit in a poor condition, until it was noticed by Chris Ball, who restored it.
Walker clearly liked the Mk III - and I would not be surprised if he used it for the capture of Ravioli...