A Passion For Angling - The Complete Series

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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.

IMPOSSIBLE HUGH MILES - WILDLIFE ADVENTURES: CATCHING THE IMPOSSIBLE

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. During the next two years I will make one full length film and several others of various lengths to help promote the work of the Dorset Wildlife Trust and to raise the awareness of the general public and children to the importance of chalk streams and their rich diversity of wildlife.

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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. I haven’t had much time for fishing in recent months but when I have escaped from the editing, it sure has been enjoyable. Roach are my favourite species and I’ve caught lots of big ones on the pole this year, with this 2lb 6oz specimen the most immaculate of several two pounders. Freshwater fish conservation is my mission in life, so our other news is also encouraging. I have finally convinced the BBC that they should be looking below the surface of our rivers and lakes for new wildlife stories and last October the BBC made a little film about me and the filming of roach and barbel in the Hampshire Avon.

CATCHING THE IMPOSSIBLE Stop Press

The last three films of the series should be available in early November, then I plan to do a lot more fishing.

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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: 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. 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.

A passion for angling - Christopher Yates Book - musicMagpie A passion for angling - Christopher Yates Book - musicMagpie

No 4, “A Sport for All Seasons” is complete, No 5, a glorious journey down the Hampshire Avon called “Going Against the Flow” is virtually finished, and No 6 “A Winter’s Gift” is only awaiting its music to be composed and recorded and that will be complete too. The films contain some suitably ‘impossible’ sized fish and if they are received with the same enthusiasm as the first three, then we will be well pleased. Our aim is to try to promote our sport by showing the benefits angling brings to the environment and society as a whole, so this is our schedule: Martin, Bernard and our friends caught eleven of our seventeen “impossibles” during our four years filming, with the other six only a few ounces short, but whatever your ambition, remember that you are meant to enjoy the quest and that fishing is just a bit of fun.

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. Joining him is that ace angler Martin Bowler who I call the “Tiger Woods of angling” because when it comes to catching fish he gets so many “holes in one”. I set our seventeen targets for the films so high that I described them as “impossible” but Martin and Bernard, along with a galaxy of eccentric friends caught almost all of them.