A Passion For Angling - The Complete Series

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Being a wildlife film-maker I’m constantly in search of new stories, and I was aware that not much has ever been shown on television of freshwater fish and their natural behaviour, underwater and truly wild. There has always been an enthusiastic audience for British wildlife so what better than to show them something they’d never seen. We’re beginning to get to grips with this new challenge and the results are fascinating, in fact I almost enjoy filming fish as much as catching them - but not quite ! D ue to the success of “Catching the Impossible”, I was asked to film a little sequence on underwater fish for the BBC’s “ Autumnwatch”, concentrating on roach and barbel and got some lovely shots for them. I’ve been dubbed their “Rivers Man”, so watch out for me in the future on ‘Celebrity Come Dancing’ and ‘Get Me Out of Here’…no chance, I’ll be out fishing! The only sad aspect of all this success is the decline of so much of our available fishing. The series title ‘Catching the Impossible’ was simply a device as nothing is impossible … but it is now! Martin believes that attempting to make the series today would be madness and it took us more than four years when it was possible. Many of our rivers have declined so much that many of our targets are simply out of reach. On a happier note, perhaps our highlight of the year was a gathering of the "Catching" crew on the Test, friend John Slader kindly fixing us a day on the Orvis beat. Bernard, Martin and I hadn't shared a river bank together since we completed the series, so it was a splendid day, especially as we all caught plenty of "Spotty Herberts". Sue's cake went down well too.

A Passion for Angling DVD set - Page 3 - The Traditional A Passion for Angling DVD set - Page 3 - The Traditional

If we can inspire the local community to care for the river and support the work of the Trust then it will be job done. As many of you know, so long as we don’t take the catching of fish too seriously, angling can transport us to another world, a place of peace and relaxation, of sparkling rivers and mist shrouded pools. And in this increasingly manic world, we sure do need the time and space that fishing gives us. Then in May, fishing with a pole on a carp lake, I had seven roach over two pounds, with a best of 2lb 10oz…a wonderful days fishing as it included a 7lb 14oz tench ; I never knew elastic could stretch so far! The last three films of the series should be available in early November, then I plan to do a lot more fishing. Chris Yates is an angler, photographer, broadcaster, tea connoisseur and author born on 19 April 1948. He is a former holder of the record for the heaviest-recorded British carp, a 51.5lb specimen captured from Redmire pool in 1980. [1] Yates is a former co-editor (with Jon Ward-Allen) of Waterlog magazine, [2] and is a regular contributor to The Idler.In this International Year of Biodiversity, I was surprised to learn that of the World’s known species, 40% of them live in freshwater habitats, so there is still a lot of conservation filming for Sue and I to do if we’re to make a difference. In fact, all of us should get out there and contribute to the pressing need to conserve our precious and increasingly rare freshwater fish. If we don’t, I fear that all our ‘impossible’ sized fish will be consigned to history. The two anglers are clearly very skilled anglers as well as passionate about their sport, nature and wildlife. The photography and filming in these wonderful locations is far beyond anything you would expect for a fishing documentary, the atmosphere is incredible.

CAUGHT IN TIME - CARP FISHING WITH CHRIS YATES - Blogger CAUGHT IN TIME - CARP FISHING WITH CHRIS YATES - Blogger

Test showings in such places as the NEC ‘Go Fishing Show’ and the ‘Game Fair’ have been extremely encouraging, so fingers crossed that you think it will make a good Christmas present, if only to ensure we have enough cash in the kitty to pay for the completion of the rest of the series! This will be shown on “Springwatch” on the 7th June I believe, with further short sequences to be shown on the 8th, 9th and 10th June. I will be concentrating on the River Wensum’s roach, barbel and trout, and maybe carp and tench on some of the local lakes. On April 28th I filmed roach spawning for the Avon Roach Project and hope to add barbel spawning on the Wensum, maybe even ‘live’ on the box. We are very happy to report that the series is finally complete, programme nine “The Ones That Got Away” having been wrapped up only yesterday. It made everybody laugh in the studios in Bristol, so we are sure it will work for you too. It has been such fun making the series these past five and a half years and this film captures the enjoyment and laughter perfectly. Our Targets: Carp – 40lbs, Pike – 30lbs, Perch – 4lbs, Barbel – 15lbs, Roach – 3lbs (from a river!),yrs. later he has raised the bar, setting an even higher standard with a series that features awesome underwater footage…” Grayling – 3lbs, Trout – 10lbs, Zander – 10lbs,Catfish – 40lbs, Salmon – any size will do, Eel – 5lbs. March saw me on the H.Avon trying to create a feature with "Improve Your Coarse Fishing" - I needed to! Though I didn't blank, I didn't get the two pounder that I hoped for and a few days later; despite getting a 5/4 chub on the pole, I blanked on the final day. I blamed the weather of course.