A Passion For Angling - The Complete Series

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Just two weeks ago I was fishing with Chris on the River Wye and he caught his first ever Wye barbel … only 7+lbs but a beautiful fish in a glorious corner of our countryside. As some of you will be aware, Martin Bowler, Bernard Cribbins and I have been working hard for more than four years to create a series of eight films titled “Catching the Impossible”. These TV Programmes are a celebration of angling and Britain’s rich and varied freshwater world. We also filmed a gudgeon match ‘to the death’, the pair reluctantly punting out into the hallowed waters through the mist as the sun was rising. Chris doesn’t do early mornings so it was a struggle, even if we did capture the most evocative summer sequence in the whole series. This is a series that follows the adventures of Martin Bowler as he attempts to catch some of the biggest fish in Britain, the targets for the many species being of a size that might attract the impossible tag. Of course, nothing is ‘impossible’ and I hoped that Martin would prove this to be true! He is accompanied by narrator and ace angler Bernard Cribbins … when Bernard had the time to spare from his hectic schedule, especially when filming Dr.Who… and as they say, “didn’t they do well’!

Sadly for them, Chris and I have decided to go fishing instead of making more films for the series …The Avon Roach Project led by friends Trevor Harrop and Budgie Price released hundreds and hundreds of three year old roach into the Hampshire Avon in December in an attempt to re-establish self-sustaining populations of this iconic species. The river was once famous for its' roach fishing and this is the best chance we'll ever have to see those glorious days returning. It might take ten years work, but we're up for the challenge. More details of this inspiring project can be seen on: If you want to read more about our year and conservation issues, please visit our blog … we have had 67,000 views already so some of you obviously have time to waste … http://hughmiles9.blogspot.co.uk/ Non-native cormorants of the continental sinensis race have colonised the UK in alarming numbers in recent years. Scientists have calculated that the numbers over-wintering total about 23,000 and that they need a pound of fish a day to survive...so they eat 23,000 lbs of fish EVERY DAY. This equates to about 12,000 two pound trout and/or 1,200 tons of fish every winter, twice the yearly tonnage produced by the largest trout farm in the UK! I’m bound to say that because I filmed and produced them, along with funding their production but because so many folk write complimentary letters constantly assuring us that they are the best fishing films that have ever been made, who are we to argue!

I use my blog to promote admirable activities like this, along with the work of the Angling Trust, the 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 ]Mr James, 47, said yesterday he was saddened by the episode, after eight years working with the ACA, and that he had fallen foul of a wider jealousy in the world of angling. Fishing yesterday with his close friend Mr Tarrant, he said: "Both my wife and I are very sad that it came to this. We absolutely deny that we did anything wrong. But there are lots of people out there who have become green-eyed monsters. Passion’ was first shown on BBC 2 in September 1993 and it’s remarkable that it’s appeal lives on so strongly. Most TV programmes are dead in the water within a year or two but in spite of the BBC investing heavily in a new angling series recently called ‘Earth’s Wildest Waters - The Big Fish’, it seems inescapable that any films on angling get compared to the attractions so widely shared by our Passion enthusiasts. Our star anglers, Bob James and Chris Yates are understandably honoured that so many folk think PFA is the best angling programme ever made. Having filmed, written and produced the stories, I feel chuffed that this belief among so many lives on. keen to join the readers of my ramblings on gardening, angling, wildlife and conservation then please Martin Salter, Angling Trust’s Head of Policy, said that Bernard “really was the voice of angling”. So with so many happy memories of his time there, Chris was keen to return, not so that he could catch yet more big carp but so that he could finally try out his eccentric idea of a fishing scarecrow!

Equally satisfying, it’s finding new audiences too and if it attracts anglers to a more varied and ‘naturalistic’ form of fishing on rivers and wild lakes then we’ll be pleased. There’s a whole world of wildlife out there to enjoy and our fish life is a vital part of our ecosystems too.

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The series comprises nine one hour films in sets of three on three DVD’s so you don’t have to buy them all at once! They are full of great fishing and some folk even prefer the series to ‘Passion’ but we’ll leave you to be the judge of that. There’s a splendid book describing our adventures too, full of pictures [400+] along with film clips and beautiful illustrations by the celebrated artist Rodger McPhail so you don’t even have to read it. The important cause for celebration is that the series of six fifty minute films are unchanged with the passing of time, depicting a peaceful world when there were lots of fish in our rivers and seemingly more time to catch them. I mention the perch last as Martin had already caught twenty-three perch of that size and we thought it would be easy to achieve. Wrong! The challenge nearly broke our resolve but in the end we didn’t just hit the target, Martin actually caught a perch of five pounds four ounces. The Angling Times informed us that it was the biggest perch ever caught from a river, [not any more], but at the time we were blown away by it’s size – and we still are!