A Passion For Angling - The Complete Series

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Described by the Angling Times as “the greatest fishing show ever made”, we have finally secured a series of showings on terrestrial television. Ch 4 will be airing the series ‘off-peak’– Sunday mornings at 07.00 from 13th June to 1st August. Yes, I know it’s early! But maybe watching it before you go out fishing will provide you with the inspiration needed to help you catch your own ‘impossible’ sized fish. What a busy but enjoyable year we've had, with plenty of film-making to keep me off the river banks. However, looking through my diary, it does look as though we have been fishing quite a lot!

A Passion for Angling DVD - River Reads A Passion for Angling DVD - River Reads

Achieving a showing was probably the most ‘impossible’ catch of them all, despite Martin, Bernard and friends catching some truly remarkable specimens. For me, I guess the 32lb pike, the 44lb carp, the 5lb perch and above all the 3lb 5oz river roach stand out, but there were so many amazing catches it is difficult to believe it really happened. 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.Yates was one of two central characters in BBC2's 1993 TV series A Passion for Angling, made by Hugh Miles and also featuring Bob James, in which the pair go fishing for carp, salmon and other species across Britain. The series was shown in many countries including Mexico, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Italy, Norway and Japan. [4] Radio [ edit ] 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 ! Martin and I have given our time free for the past four years and the films have been self-financed. This has been a gesture of gratitude for the enjoyment we have had from angling since our childhood; we hope you think our efforts are worthwhile. 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.

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When Martin Bowler, Bernard Cribbins and I started filming on July 22nd 2004, our ultimate goal was to get the series shown on terrestrial television. Our aim was to raise the profile of angling and Britain’s freshwater fish and if we succeeded, it would help to highlight the many problems facing our fish.On completing the making of “Impossible”, I treated myself to a long held ambition of fishing for mahseer in S.India and Pete Reading and I had a wonderful time, catching plenty of amazing looking fish. What a beautiful place it is too.

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

Thanks to the skill and determination of Martin and friends, and the generous help of so many landowners and fisheries, the results are pretty stunning. As has been pointed out, the film’s PB list is the equal of most anglers catches for a whole lifetime, yet we’ve only been filming for three and a half years. Barbel of fifteen pounds, a forty-four pound common stalked with a float, several ten pound tench, a crucian just five ounces short of the record, a three pound river roach, a thirty two pound pike and a river record perch of five pounds four ounces - and that’s just some of the catches. As for the future, my daughter asked me to list all the films I have ever made and it came to 66 wildlife films, plus more than 30 when I was at the BBC. At a 100 not out maybe I should quit while I'm winning … and go fishing! The first introductory film will be completed by early April 2011 andwill use Dorset's River Allen as an example of a prime chalk stream and attempt to show interaction between species and how the food chain works. Trying to make the local Wessex communities aware of the importance of fresh water would be a major goal. I tried to get this message across on the BBC's "Springwatch" last year but I was 'dumbed down'...and I was pretty dumb already! But Sue and I and our friends will continue to make films in the hope of improving our fish life in the future. Lifelines-An Anthology of Angling Anecdotes, and More…‘’ NAROD Publishing, 2021. A collection of 27 short stories centred around angling by 27 different authors including 16.6 by Chris Yates.Between 1996 and 2006 Yates presented numerous BBC radio documentaries, all produced by Dan Shepherd of Far Shoreline Productions. They included 'Fishing for Doubters', 'The Case of the Missing Burbot', 'Nocturne' and 'Fish Tales'. In 2020 Yates presented 'Reading the Water' and in 2022 'Reading the Air', both for BBC Radio 4. [ citation needed] Published works [ edit ] All this conservation work and wildlife film-making has reduced my fishing to virtually nil, but on one memorable visit to Sway Lakes, this magnificent 2lb 14oz roach showed up, along with one of 2lb 4oz and six others of around 1lb 12oz., all on a tiny waggler and single red maggot on a 20 hook – proper fishing. Casting at the Sun, Medlar Press limited edition 1986, Classics edition 2006 ( ISBN 978-1899600366) P.S. To give you an idea of the response to the films, here’s a small selection of the comments in the press and on your blogs: Was also invited to the R.Test by Martin Salter and we caught some lovely roach. He also honoured us by inviting Sue and I to a dinner at the Houses of Parliament to celebrate his retirement as an MP. There were several other fishing pals there, including Fisheries Ministers and shadow ones too …. all mad keen anglers which is great for the future, regardless of who is governing us when you read this. But we sure will miss Martin and his energetic and forthright defence of angling and the environment in which fish live.

CATCHING THE IMPOSSIBLE Stop Press

Programmes seven and eight show lots of truly monstrous fish being landed, so we hope you enjoy the climax of our journey around Britain in search of “impossible” sized fish. Now the filming is all complete, I realise what a rare privilege it has been to explore the alien worlds of our wonderful freshwater rivers and lakes and to search for the mysterious monsters that swim in these landscapes of surprising beauty. Ch 4 plan to repeat the series in the Spring, and if you all watch and provide them with a big audience, maybe they will give us a more ‘accessible’ slot and we can show ‘proper’ UK fishing with our best anglers to an even wider audience.

An update from us is long overdue, our excuse being that we’ve been burning the candle at three ends to finish the next three films in our series, “Catching the Impossible”. None of this would have been possible without my computer guru, Chris Wild, for he patiently steered me through the labyrinth of computer editing. He's a fishing pal now and I helped him catch this 2lb 4oz crucian, several others too, and during his first attempt at pole fishing – impressive. Trev and I enjoyed some wonderful sunny days too, in between finishing the final programmes of the series. 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.