Your verdict on the greatest fishing film of all time

 

Greetings!   Modesty aside, I don’t think I missed out much when I compiled the list of six greatest films or TV shows of all time. A few people chimed in with that early Friday evening staple of the 1960’s and 70’s, Jack Hargreaves’ Out of Town. However, it was, I felt, with its wider countryside writ, not sufficiently angling specific though it did run to over 400 programmes and spawned a spin off with Ollie Kite, he of Kite’s Imperial fame.   Jumping forward to the 1990’s Screaming Reels is remembered by many though, to my shame, I had entirely forgotten the programme existed despite participating behind the camera in the first series when George Melly, who I’d guess we’d call a jazz legend, came to fish on the River Test at The Parsonage.   Now I remember it, a dour, post-Mayfly June day in what looks like the very start or back end of the weed cut. This was my first experience with televisual buggering about which often relies on one obliging fish to provide the money shot. But could we find that one fish? Of course not. Up and down the river we went until, at what The Parsonage regulars will know as The Shallows, that obliging fish rose.

 

 

George Melly on the River Usk

 

Now, if George Melly was still with us today, I’m sure he’d admit he was not the fastest on the draw so between the fish rising, me changing the fly, Melly plus camera crew getting into position and then getting out some line out it all took forever and I feared the fish had long disappeared. But I need not have worried for, as Melly false cast downstream to get his line out, low and behold an entirely different trout grabbed the fly and was eventually netted. You can watch the show, Part 2 of Series 1, here ....   As to the results of the poll it is fair to say that A River Runs Through It won by a country mile with Passion for Angling an honourable second.   1. A River Runs Through it               40% 2. Passion for Angling                       22% 3. Mortimer & Whitehouse             16% 4. John Wilson Gone Fishing            13% 5. Old Man and The Sea                    5% 6. J R Hartley Yellow Pages               4%   Poll ran October 7-17th with 391 responses.

 

 

 

What is changing our climate?   This is not a quiz question! What body of water carries, every second of every day, twenty times more water than the combined flow of all the rivers in the world into the sea in that same second? The answer is the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).   Yes, I’d never heard of it either, but it is part of the circulation of warm and cold water around the Atlantic Ocean, part of which is our Gulf Stream which brings heat from the Gulf of Mexico across the Atlantic to Europe and provides us Europeans with our mild climate.   This gigantic system of ocean currents in the Atlantic Ocean constantly carries water from north to south and back again. This circulation is subject to strong fluctuations and has weakened since the 1990s. Since it also transports large amounts of heat, this weakening can also have consequences for the Earth's climate, and experts are debating whether the changes observed since the 1990’s can be attributed to climate change.

 

 

The answer is that nobody knows. However, what is known for sure is that from one decade to the next the AMOC varies from weak to strong and has done so for centuries, and probably thousands or millions of years in what the team from GEOMAR, a group of scientists from France, Germany, UK and the US call in the paper for Nature Reviews Earth & Environment the ‘natural decadal rhythm’.   The paper goes on explain how the GEOMAR supercomputer VIKING20X is running complex modelling to examine in greater detail the trends of AMOC to determine what is natural, namely the climate changing because that is what is naturally does or whether the changes are unnatural in part or whole due to human activity.  I suspect this might turn out to be unfashionable research as any conclusion that veers towards the former rather than the latter will run into a barrage of hostility.

 

 

Another eel mystery solved   The Atlantic seems to be on my reading list this week as an article in Nature magazine published research that conclusively proved that the European eel migrates across the Atlantic to spawn in the Sargasso Sea.   Previously it had been proved that migrating eels travelled from European rivers to the Azores, but it was only in 2019/20, when 23 eels where radio tagged in Azorean waters, with 6 of them tracked all the way to the Sargasso Sea, that we knew for sure. In truth I don’t think there was really any doubt that eels made this final leg of the journey, which covers 1,500 miles, taking up to a year but now it is indisputable.

 

 

Northern coastline of the Azores

 

Of course, what we don’t know is whether that level of mortality, with 23 becoming 6, is normal in the eel migration. The population has crashed by some 95% since the 1980’s attributed in part to factors occurring during the marine phases of its life cycle. The problem could equally lie in the outward migration of the tiny eel larvae that spend up to three years drifting on the Gulf Stream (that again) before reaching European shores and spending the next 15-20 years in freshwater rivers, lakes, ditches and ponds before that return trip via the Azores.   Maybe the weakening of the Gulf Stream, as reported by GEOMAR, means the tiny larvae perish before they even reach Europe? The timing of their population decline certainly fits. Or maybe freshwater pollutants are killing them? What is certain is that the eels in the chalkstreams of the 1990’s were so populous as to go unremarked. Throw the guts of fish into any river at that time and they would be ghosted away by an eel long before the fish remnants ever reached the riverbed. Today, they drift away unmolested like so much tumbleweed.

 

 

A sign for the times   It is twenty years since we last had the scaffolding up at Nether Wallop Mill, so I took the opportunity to put right something I didn’t do back then.   The mill has not ground a grain of corn since the 1930’s but the proud sign of the miller F. Vincent remained on the slate hung end of the roof until I did the extensive renovation in the early 2000’s which entailed a redesign of the roof line. At the time I did try to save the slates, but it was jigsaw doomed to never be remade. However, this time around I was determined to do something and after much discussion it was decided that Nether Wallop Mill would take the place Mr Vincent. After all he is just a line in the history of this mill that is recorded in the Doomsday Book.

 

 

Nether Wallop Mill c.1900

 

At the same time, I took the opportunity to buff up our trout weathervane. Now that made the signwriting look easy. A local metal finisher took the copper back to its original finish but to preserve the bright lustre you need a process called double pack lacquering.   I am sure the classic car aficionados amongst you will be familiar with this process – I was not. But after a series of fruitless calls a la J R Hartley I tracked down a classic car restorer in north Hampshire, unexpectedly a keen fly fisher, who rushed the job through in exchange for a day of fishing. Who can argue with that?

 

 

 

 

Quiz The normal random collection of questions inspired by the date, events or topics in the Newsletter.   It is just for fun with answers at the bottom of the page.   1)     Who died in this day in 1805?   2)     The world has five oceans. Where does the Atlantic rank in size?   3)     George Melly was the film critic for which Sunday newspaper?

 

 

 

Have a good weekend.    Best wishes,

 

 

Simon Cooper simon@fishingbreaks.co.uk Founder & Managing Directorwww.fishingbreaks.co.uk

 

 

 

Quiz answers:   1)     Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar 2)     The five oceans from smallest to largest are: the Arctic, Southern, Indian, Atlantic and Pacific. 3)     The Observer

A gentleman only reels right-handed

 

Greetings!   In that mention of James Justice Roberston in the last issue I omitted to say that the caption to the original photo was ‘A gentleman always reels right-handed’. I have absolutely no idea where this saying comes from or why it might even be so.   Could it be some hangover from swordsmanship? The Roman belief that the left hand was sinister? Or some good old-fashioned snobbery that considered that in all aspects of life lefthanders were socially inferior or somehow inadequate. However, I will say, I don’t really get the modern obsession for reeling lefthanded. It seems to me as a righthander that holding the rod in your left hand and reeling with your right a far more logical, effective and pleasurable manner of fishing.

 

 

James Robertson Justice. A gentleman?

 

But back to our actor who, as one of my neighbours reminded me, after leaving Whitchurch Fulling Mill moved to Nether Wallop where he lived in the 1960’s, continuing to fish the River Test for the remainder of his life. In 1974 he was featured in an episode of the Survival series from Anglia Television written by Colin Willock, with commentary by Jack Hargreaves called The Angler and the Trout. It is rather charming and still remains informative today if rather too deferential to the stocking of large rainbow trout which was all the rage around that period.   I think, though I’m happy to be corrected, that most of the fishing takes place on the Houghton Club water just upstream of Stockbridge. You can watch the 25-minute show here, though the picture quality and sound are not great. But then again it is from a VHS recording (remember them?) made close to 50 years ago.

 

 

The Angler and the Trout (1974)

 

 

Do not mourn the end of EU environmental legislation   I read with utter astonishment that the likes of the National Trust, RSPB and Wildlife Trusts are aghast at the prospect of the government repealing swathes of EU environmental legislation. Really? How bloody brilliant has all this alleged gold standard regulation been at saving the British countryside from managed decline over the past 50 years?   Yes, there are a few success stories like bats and otters but for the most part 2022 Britain is infinitely ecologically poorer than that of the Britain that entered the EEC in 1973. Often, I ask nature commentators when the rot set in. The answer is usually ‘sometime in the 1970’s’.

 

 

Now don’t get me wrong I’m not blaming the EU for polluting 85% of our rivers or killing 95% of insect life. We did that all on our own despite their brilliant legislative nous. So, you must ask what went wrong? If the legislation was so damn good, you would not have to source the purest honey in the world from Cuba or drug free beef from Argentina.   The simple fact is that a one-size-fits-all environmental policy drawn up to cover a continent as naturally diverse as Europe was always doomed to fail. I’ve seen the rivers of both Sweden and Sicily: not much confluence there. Nation states were, and are, forced to adapt or adopt legislation that they may not want or require. Or worse still they are unable to unilaterally legislate for their specific needs. Or it simply becomes a lawyer fest as corporations (think water companies), government and special interest groups play the game to ensure radical action stalls out.   It is indeed a high-risk strategy to blow up the whole EU environmental edifice, but it is hard from where I sit, watching some of the most precious rivers on the planet going unprotected, to worry that we will be worse off.   We are long past that point. The job now is not to defend the indefensible but rather hold our own government to account to create legislation that will not just save, but repair the British countryside.

 

 

More on our new leader   Last time I bought you news of the appointment of Alan Lovell as the new chair of the Environment Agency. It seems I was not alone in my scepticism, with emails from erstwhile colleagues or people who had come across him in business who were, how shall we say, not exactly full of praise.   Now, you could put us all down as a load of grumbling old gits who resent something that looks like an establishment stitch up, but we are far from alone in considering Lovell an unsuitable applicant. Let me quote you the report from the pre-appointment hearing that said of Lovell,   “…. we (the hearing committee) were surprised that he had not come more fully researched and with formed views on some of the key environmental issues and challenges facing the Environment Agency.”   The same panel also referred to a "potential conflict of interest" but there are no specifics to this. The full text reads:   “19. Overall, during the pre-appointment hearing Alan Lovell demonstrated relevant corporate and institutional experience and an appropriate grasp of the priorities for his proposed tenure. However, we were surprised that he had not come more fully researched and with formed views on some of the key environmental issues and challenges facing the Environment Agency.”   There was a total of eighteen applicants for the position with seven shortlisted. To me it beggars’ belief that anyone could make it to the shortlist with such a damning assessment which proves, in the unlikely event of all the other candidates being unprepared, that this was indeed an establishment stitch up.

 

 

What is the greatest fishing film or TV show of all time?   Thirty years ago this week a feature film starring a young, relatively unknown Hollywood hunk called Brad Pitt premiered. Yes, A River Runs Through It is 30 years old.   It is said that director Robert Redford had to pretty well beg reclusive writer Norman Maclean to allow him to make this film, their shared love of fly fishing allowed Redford to succeed where others had failed. The story tells of how a father and his two sons, who are largely incapable to emotional connection through normal family life, find contentment whilst fishing together in rural Montana.

 

 

We were all young 30 years ago!

 

The anniversary has prompted me to go back though the archives to pick out my six best TV or film shows of all time. You are free to agree or disagree. Vote below for your choice, but first, here are mine in reverse order.

 

6. The Old Man and The Sea The 1958 film featuring Spencer Tracy, a rubber marlin and stock fishing shots is hardly a cinematic masterpiece. Filmed largely on a sound stage you can almost see the film crew hurling buckets of water over Tracy as he heroically survives in a boat you know is being hand rocked. But it is iconic, as is the book, featuring as it does, a cameo role for Hemingway in the final scene.   5. Passion for Angling Such was the falling out of three participants Bob James, Chris Yates and director Hugh Miles the series first shown on BBC in 1993 was never going to be reprised. Which is a great shame as the six episodes charted a journey through the quiet pleasure of British angling in the hands of two loveable eccentrics, gently narrated by Bernard Cribbins, which appealed to an audience far beyond fishing itself.   4. J R Hartley & Yellow Pages I know, not technically a TV or film show, but I’d wager this advert for Yellow Pages in 1983 has been seen by a larger audience than any of the others combined and was voted the 5th most memorable advert of all time in 2015 spawning a series of books that sold many hundreds of thousands of copies. You might argue it was the worst advert ever for fly fishing embedding in a whole generation the ideal of us as doddery, tweed clad old fools.   3. Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing Too early to be judged a classic? I’m pretty sure not. With 26 shows spread over four series, one each year since Gone Fishing debuted in 2018, Mortimer and Whitehouse’s unusual take on fishing and life, inspired by recovery from ill-health for both the lead characters, has been a huge hit for the BBC a quarter of a century on from Passion.   2. Gone Fishing with John Wilson I was tempted to put this in at no. 1 as it was John who kept the angling flame burning through the 1980’s when no other TV station other than Channel 4 would touch fishing with a bargepole. Remarkably the series ran for 16 years from 1986 to 2002, with many hundreds of episodes, with John expanding his fishing horizons to ever more far-flung parts of the globe. It was for me, in the days before streaming and You Tube, my go to fix for armchair fishing pleasure with a man voted the “Greatest Angler of all Time” by Angling Times readers in 2004.   1. A River Runs Through It But regardless of that I will argue to the death that the combination of story, scenery, fishing and filmmaking (it won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography) for me easily puts A River Runs Through It in the number one slot. I must a admit I am slightly biased in that the year the film was released, 1992, was soon after I started Fishing Breaks and the film was such a sensation that it was the perfect vehicle on which to piggyback to give me my first national exposure in newspaper, magazine and TV.

 

Which is the greatest fishing TV or film of all time?   A River Runs Through It Select   Gone Fishing with John Wilson Select   J R Hartley & Yellow Pages Select   Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing Select   Passion for Angling Select   The Old Man and The Sea Select

 

Voting closes in 72 hours at 8am Monday 10th October.

 

 

That was the month that was September   Well, it finally started to rain in September. Not a lot, not a lot as one TV quiz host used to say, but enough to give us hope that the worst of the drought is behind us, and the aquifers will soon start to be significantly replenished by the autumn rains.   It has definitely been a tough few months on the smaller streams, headwaters and any river that relies on regular rainfall. However, on the middle-to-lower sections of the main chalkstreams the flows have held up remarkably well and more normal temperatures made September fishing a real pleasure.   The bane on the life of river keepers this month was the blanket weed, a dark green filamentous weed that grows on huge, long clumps like matted hair, blanketing the life out of the riverbed and a direct result of phosphate pollution overload in the water as it reaches the rivers. Blanket weed is both impossible to cut or remove, appearing as it does in late summer almost overnight. The only good thing you can say about it is that it doesn’t take root so come the first heavy rains it will be swept away to magically vanish.

 

Next month is the big one as you all go into the end of season draw for a limited-edition Hardy Brothers 150ANV LW Reel which will only be available during 2022 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the company.   If you haven't completed your form from any trip this season you may do so here ....

 

 

Quiz The normal random collection of questions inspired by the date, events or topics in the Newsletter.   It is just for fun with answers at the bottom of the page.   1)     Which British newspaper was first published on this day in 1986?   2)     Who did Brad Pitt marry in 2000?   3)     Who was the British Prime Minister when UK joined the EEC?

 

 

 

Have a good weekend.    Best wishes,

 

 

Simon Cooper simon@fishingbreaks.co.uk Founder & Managing Directorwww.fishingbreaks.co.uk

 

 

 

Quiz answers:   1)     The Independent 2)     Jennifer Aniston. 3)     Edward Heath