Landmark
Kevin Parr fishes a favourite swim for roach, dace, chub and perch, under the scrutiny of a ravenous pike, and is distracted from his task by the tea-making genius of Chris Yates.
Chris Yates
The Osprey Specimen Group by Various
(Calm Productions, 2014) Simon King was the records officer for a group of anglers called the Osprey Specimen Group. He was working on this book to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the group when he was diagnosed with cancer, which sadly proved terminal. With Bob Hornegold at the helm, the group and friends completed this …
Film: Mr Green’s Rod, starring Chris Yates
After nearly 60 years, Chris Yates returns to Waller’s Haven on the Sussex Levels to fish the same stretch he visited as a boy. To add to the nostalgia, he is using the very same rod – recently restored – as he tries to outdo his 11 year old self by catching a bream. As …
Saving Redmire – by Mark Walsingham
Redmire. If you have any interest in carp angling whatsoever, that name will conjure magic. If your angling is rooted in traditional carp angling, that name will open a gallery in your mind from a time when carp fishing was in its infancy and everything was a glorious and exciting adventure. I pored over the …
Parr’s Diary – December 2018 – History Repeating
December bustled in with its usual tinsel-edged blur; a flurry of fairy lights and fake snow, sentimentalism and overindulgence. Festive smiles seem ever more forced though. Money is tight and political uncertainty, no matter where you sit, does little to inspire the notion of fun. It can be a tough period for the self-employed. As …
Parr’s Diary – December 2018 – History Repeating Read More »
Parr’s Diary – November 2018 – Down the Local
I have always been guilty of ignoring what is on my doorstep, convincing myself that I must travel to make the best of my fishing, that the far bank will always hold more fish than the water beneath my feet. This came in part from growing up in mid-Hampshire, where anglers came to cast dry-flies …
Parr’s Diary – July 2018- Earning my Spikes
The heat has been relentless. July passed with barely a drop of rain and in response the earth shrank, the lawn cracked and the grass dried to dust. I looked upon familiar views with a new perspective. A blanket of brown and yellow, where even the trees struggled to splash any green. I was reminded …
Falcon and Fly
In pursuit of trout, by Chris Yates. It was 51 years ago when I acquired my first fly rod. At that time, when I was 16 and living near Epsom, Surrey, there was no local trout fishing available to me, but there were plenty of dace and chub on the nearby River Mole, …
Parr’s Diary – Finding the Right Level
There is a healthy sprinkle of salt in my father’s bones. He wasn’t born beside the sea, but his family moved to Swanage after the Second World War and he spent his formative years exploring the cliffs and coves of the Purbeck coast. It made for quite a contrast to the shell-shocked suburb of north-west …
Parr’s Diary December 2017 – Year End
I took a stroll along the Cobb at Lyme Regis a couple of days before Christmas. The morning had been overcast, but as the sun began to lower so it sunk below cloud level and gave the seafront an unseasonal blast of warmth. I was soon in a T-shirt, and wishing I’d ditched my jeans …
Parr’s Diary – Season’s Opening, June 2017
It seemed so straightforward. All we needed was a small lake or pond, preferably quiet, hopefully natural, but definitely home to a tench or two. Ideally there would be a lily pads and overhanging trees, with a grass snake slipping through the marginal reeds, a song thrush singing and a musty whiff on the air. …
Parrs Diary – February 2017
I’m not entirely sure where February went. One moment January was dragging its feet and a couple of blinks later the blackbirds are singing and March is upon us. The thin end of the coarse season always seems to rattle by, but I did manage to make it out three times over the past month, …
Parr’s Diary – December 2016
Festive television is invariably underwhelming. Full of re-makes, repeats and Christmas ‘specials’ that make you smile, but only because the excess of port and stilton has left you mildly stupefied. I did watch Charlie Brooker’s 2016 Wipe last evening though, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Mind you, the past twelve months have delivered plenty of …
Parr’s Diary – November 2016
I went for a walk yesterday afternoon on my local patch. It was only a few degrees above freezing, but I had in mind that the sunshine might have tempted an adder out. I may have been proved right, but left it half an hour too late. The south facing bank where I had hoped …
Parr’s Diary – October 2016
I have always had a peculiar relationship with the Dorset Stour. A couple of visits as a child and teenager offered me a river full of mystery and intrigue, but after a long period of barbel obsession (that had a distinct chalk stream edge) I struggled to understand the Stour when I returned to her …
Parr’s Diary – September 2016
It ended up being two months between casts, give or take a few days. Illness, a lack of time and a monster bout of lethargy had left me dry through all of August and most of September. If I was going to end such a drought, then it may as well be somewhere extraordinary. Ashmead …
Parr’s Diary: June 16th 2016
It is at least three years since Martin last cast a line. Work and family pressures, coupled with a lack of transport, have kept him dry for far longer than most anglers could bear. After such a period of abstinence, there is only one way to fully reconnect, and that involves an early start, dusk …
Issue 6 articles
Including Chris Yates, David Profumo, Dominic Garnett, Kevin Parr, Dexter Petley, Jon Berry, John Andrews, Carlos Baz, Andrew Griffiths, John Stephens, Danny Adcock, The General, Graham Vasey, Maurice Neill, Steve Roberts, Nick Fallowfield-Cooper and Garrett Fallon, it is the definitive list of all articles featured in issue six, in the order in which they appear, with …