And in recent years the young Alfie Russell who is a massive inspiration to me. Keep an eye out for this lad . . . some people just have a gift. John and ‘Peter’ will be targeting coarse fish in this series with dedicated shows for Carp, Pike, Tench, Barbel and Perch, as well as River and Lake specials bagging up on a variety of species.

MR. CRABTREE GOES FISHING: A GUIDE IN PICTURES TO FISHING ROUND THE YEAR. By Bernard Venables. 1960 seventh impression. The River Wey is a beautiful river with rabbits and pheasants running over the meadows. It’s a peaceful river that holds a good amount of large dace, big chub and barbel, pike, roach, trout and grayling. Forgotten the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Visit BookSleuth Well, I still look for ‘camp sheeting’ when I fish for perch. I’m sure that one day I’ll find out what it is. Crabtree inspired all of us in our formative angling years to fish through the seasons for proper fish. And floatfishing too. I will never forget taking a barbel into the scale room – now the Rod Room – on the Royalty Fishery and wondering if they were the same scales where Mr Crabtree weighed his 6lb chub – before killing it and taking it home to put behind glass!Fish to enjoy it. Once it becomes ‘work’, a necessity, an obsession – addiction even – it is very easy to walk away from it and not return. I feel that big-fish angling is now more competitive than match fishing and that is a dreadful shame. ‘Having’ to sit on a lake through all manner of conditions to catch a fish because someone else has already caught it is simply not a reason to go fishing for me. I AVOID catching previously caught fish when I’m fishing for quality fish, I avoid the swims they are caught from. I must be mad but once a fish has been caught, for me it ceases to be wild. Odd aren’t I? He’s also a contributor to our new book Fishing in the Footsteps of Mr. Crabtree and we’re very happy to welcome him to our virtual sofa to found out more about him:

Exec produced by Lester Holcombe, fans of Mr. Crabtree saw series one of our new TV series on Quest when the first run aired from January 24th 2013. A repeat run is starting very soon and watch this space for news of series two.

Rise of the Fly

Crabtree, Mr (17 January 2013). "Mr. Crabtree Goes Fishing to make TV debut on Discovery Quest next week". mirror.