Fishing Programs

[Paul_Murphy]

I have been generally unimpressed with many of the fishing programs I have seen of late. Spending Christmas at home I was watching a lot of re-runs of Total Fishing, The Great Rod Race and Lake Escapes (with Matt Hayes), Thinking Tackle (With whoever Korda employ) and the first series of Fishing Guru’s.

Aside from the Great Rod Race where they aim to catch any type of fish to gain miles to travel, the type of program went from bad to worse. Being a match fisherman, Thinking Tackle was probably the most informative, with relatively good information on Knots and Rigs, but there the rest of the were Carp-tastic and frankly a bit of a bore. Being a pleasure/match angler I found that the other programs contained very little content and proceeded more along the lines of being adverts for fisheries. Fishing Guru’s in particular was a disappointed as people rave about this “fantastic” show. Pellets and Boilies were used throughout the series and only once did I see meat, (caster and worm were also shown on the additional material) all of which are standard match and pleasure fishing baits.

Perhaps I am alone in thinking this but what ever happened to programs which were informative and useful to the pleasure angler? Things like;

A Passion for Angling, and,
Bod Nudd’s Guide to…. (Pole Fishing, Feeder Fishing, Fishing Canals etc)

There is definitely a niche market, it’s just a shame that there is nothing modern out there that can fill the gap.

With that in mind, any suggestions?

[preadtorcrazy]

i agree and i still think A Passion for Angling is my most favourite fishing series

[BoldBear]

A Passion for Angling is still my favourite angling program on TV but does anyone remember ‘The Golden Maggot’ ?

There were three pairs of anglers fishing for what was hailed as sports smallest trophy - the Golden Maggot. Points were awarded for the number of different species you caught in a more or less sleepless 72 hours. And, to add to the fun, dirty tricks were allowed.

It was a favourite of mine. I remember when there was a close-up shot of Jim Gibbinson and his team partner Ian Gillespie (sadly no longer with us) fishing a pond with paste and caught a pirrahna then the camera zoomed out to show that they were fishing in a zoo with monkeys behind them?

Another part showed a nude female canooist paddling past them and trying to distract them. It was a great fun series of programs on TV.
There were some great anglers and sportsmen of the day (Terry Eustace, Clive Gammon, Gareth Edwards & Kevin Linnane) competing on the program.

Another short angling film that was shown on the TV was 'The Secret Lake' which showed Andy Orme float fishing for Tench and Carp on a remote lake and showed all the wildlife both above and below the water and was filmed by John Waters (who also filmed 'Planet Earth and other similar films). I recently wrote to John Waters for a signed copy of 'The Secret Lake' on CD which he kindly sent to me.

[Ripple]

Originally Posted by BoldBear

A Passion for Angling is still my favourite angling program on TV but does anyone remember ‘The Golden Maggot’ ?

There were three pairs of anglers fishing for what was hailed as sports smallest trophy - the Golden Maggot. Points were awarded for the number of different species you caught in a more or less sleepless 72 hours. And, to add to the fun, dirty tricks were allowed.

It was a favourite of mine. I remember when there was a close-up shot of Jim Gibbinson and his team partner Ian Gillespie (sadly no longer with us) fishing a pond with paste and caught a pirrahna then the camera zoomed out to show that they were fishing in a zoo with monkeys behind them?

Another part showed a nude female canooist paddling past them and trying to distract them. It was a great fun series of programs on TV.
There were some great anglers and sportsmen of the day (Terry Eustace, Clive Gammon, Gareth Edwards & Kevin Linnane) competing on the program.

Another short angling film that was shown on the TV was 'The Secret Lake' which showed Andy Orme float fishing for Tench and Carp on a remote lake and showed all the wildlife both above and below the water and was filmed by John Waters (who also filmed 'Planet Earth and other similar films). I recently wrote to John Waters for a signed copy of 'The Secret Lake' on CD which he kindly sent to me.

Fondly remember these especially the "topless lady" sequence !
The John Wilson stuff was OK too.

I'm getting a bit p*ed off with the Robson Green/River Monster material today though. You can only take so much of his wailing and squeeling "LOOK AT THAT " !!!

Ripple.

[northern eye]

I agree. Allot of angling programmes seem to be adverts for tackle/bait companies or fishing venues nowdays. The River Monsters series is enjoyable as he sets the story up and goes into detail about the fish he catches but Robson Green really grinds on me with is Wooping and 'Get in there' catchphrases!!
Passion...is definately a timeless series and still enjoy watching it and all of the John Wilson programmes. Matt Hayes has made some great programmes but his early stuff is very poor quality so I am looking forward to the new programmes he is meant to be bringing out this year. All in all, angling is given a pretty bum deal when it comes to TV coverage, look at Bowlers series last year. On at 7am on a Sunday when most of us are either on the bank or getting ready to go.