The following picture is courtesy of Mike Wilson, he goes on to say
Please see the attached photo of rod, net, reel, flies and floats all made by Dick. I can’t remember if I took photo, Ken Sutton or Gerry Berth-Jones. It was at the Royal Horticultural Halls near Victoria, I suggest mid/late 60’s.
Very nice Mike, thank you for sharing that. :thumb:
Mark (Administrator)
The most precious places in the English landscape are those secretive corners,
where you find only elder trees, nettles and dreams. (BB - Denys Watkins-Pitchford).
The rod is the Mark IV that Dick caught the record with the net which landed it. The reel is the one Dick made. There are pictures of it somewhere on this site
I just have one of the flies Dick tied for me attached to a letter and instructions on how to tie it.
Thanks for sharing - a wonderful slice of angling history.
"I can't wait to buy a bamboo pole and a filament of line and a tube of breadcrumbs. I want to participate in this practice which allows a man to be alone with himself in dignity and peace. It seems a very precious thing to me".
I was there too. I'd put the date at about 1962. My dad took me, he was a policeman so we walked past the long queue to the front, he flashed his warrant card to the doorman and in we went. I remember there being a contest in which anglers in the audience had to thread a line through the rings of a 12 foot rod. I cannot recall what the prize was for the quickest time. RW had the reflex testing machine (he was always banging on about how quick his strike was when tested by the scientists at Farnborough). To make a level playing field, each contestant sat down with their hands on their knees and then struck the rod from its rests when the float (a red light bulb) disappeared (went out). One old boy moaned and groaned that; ..."it'd be a fool who kept his 'ands on 'is knees - should be on't rod 'andle tha' knows".
Wow, do I remember that show (I think it was that one, but I guess those exhibits "did the rounds") - spending ages watching Geoff Bucknall and Dave Collyer tying flies; Billy Lane demonstrating casting with the centre-pin - a lesson that really stuck , for me; Peter Anderson doing the impossible with fly-casting, and Leslie Moncrieff, his lung-power making his microphone redundant (if, indeed, it survived!) attempting to explain the joys of the reverse-taper butt in a space far too small to wind it up.
I was about thirteen(so 1964 or 5, I'd think), and I was toast when I rolled home at half-past ten (bed time= eight o'clock!) but oh, how I loved it.
Wasn't there a case next to the one with Dick Walker's mementos, containing, among other things, a rod made for King CharlesII?
Edit - Crossed posts with Weyfarer; if it was '62 I'd only have been 11, no wonder the folks were worried... or it might have been an annual event.
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"Write drunk, edit sober" - Hemingway.
Hemingway didn't have to worry about accidentally hitting "submit" before he edited.
I too remember attending this angling show with a friend . If only I knew then how almost 50 years later the value of many of the rods and reels on display would have increased and become hugely collectable ...............
I remember that strike timer - that glass rod was warped and knackered like no other I've seen, by the day's end; and solid glass ain't supposed to do that!
"Write drunk, edit sober" - Hemingway.
Hemingway didn't have to worry about accidentally hitting "submit" before he edited.
