The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Only a couple of days till the 64th Anniversary gentlemen!

Happy 64th !!

Yes a toast is called for tonight chaps, to Dick and Ravioli.

Mark wrote:Yes a toast is called for tonight chaps, to Dick and Ravioli.

Well said boss!

A very special day - a toast to the great capture
and what makes it exceptionally easy to remember - its also my birthday today

Happy Birthday to you Julian!

Good day for it!

J.T wrote:Happy Birthday to you Julian!

Good day for it!

Thank you JT
Too hot for fishing today but intend to be on the bank tomorrow at a small old pool, hopefully to catch a tench or two.

Dickie and Ravioli

And happy birthday Julian.

Angling truly changed that day: but sometimes I wonder, did it change for the better? Walker is my idol, or one of them - but I often think that success changed his style, and perhaps not for the best, - and because he was so famous, the nature of carp fishing took a wrong turn as a result? What do I mean? Well, when you read the early CCC letters and Drop Me a Line etc, Walker was as much of a stalker as he was a "sitter-outer". At Woldale, he was often 'on the stalk', and also at Temple Pool, and at Bearton Pond. But later and greater success at Dagenham, and then at Redmire, set the idea that sitting it out, buzzers attached, was the way to fish for big carp. It must have seemed that way - but might it not have been possible, back then, to catch Ravioli by stalking her? Of course, the day and the circumstance would have been entirely different - but we know from the letters that Walker had spotted a big common previously, - estimated at forty...
My point is this, Yates later showed how stalking at Redmire could get the big ones - a different approach, but equally successful...?
Of course, it was an approach which Walker himself had also pioneered, even before the foundation of the CCC.

PS - Have a very happy birthday, Julian.