The one that landed Clarissa

[Beresford]

I've got a feeling Hardy used the name on both one of their spinning rods and one of their fly rods over the course of time. Don't quote me on that though.

[WhiteWolf]

Thanks for posting the picture Harry. What a beautiful creature, but aren't they all.

[JPC]

What an interesting thread with some super information but I guess we will never know for sure. When I fished there the weed situation changed from year to year, sometimes from month to month, there were times when it was devoid of any weed and other times you could have held a football match on it ! Because of this I always took two sets of rods, my Sharpes "The Carp" which I would use with a ten pound line if the weed was light or non existent or my eleven foot Conoflex'es (glass) matched with a twelve pound line if the weed was thick or heavy. It would not surprise me if Walker, Thomas or Ingram et al took several rods to combat the weed issue, the Mk 111 was a bit more powerful than the Mk1V so better when the weed was heavier, didn't Walker write somewhere the weed was quite bad at the start of the '54 season when he caught the 31/34. Maurice Ingram also had a more powerful rod than a Mk 1V which he could have used.
Some years ago I was introduced to Pete Thomas at a book launch, we had quite a long chat, much of it about the Pool, Pete told me that they often/mostly fished with two rods (each) but after putting up a picture showing someone using two rods they got heavily criticised (cheating) therefore after this they made sure only one rod would be shown in future shots of them fishing ! Pete found it quite funny baring in mind pictures taken at the pool much later with anglers sitting behind four rods. Could it be on the 13th Pete and Dick had four rods out, after all they had two B James rods to test plus by Walkers own admission he caught the rod on his own Mk 1V, did Peter take his own Mk1V ? I'd guess he did just in case and if you had two rods with you why not use them ?
Stories around Walkers generosity are legendary, when a friend and I spent a lot of time over two winters fishing his stretch of the Upper Ouse and staying free of charge in his hut he constantly wrote to us giving us so much information about his stretch just amazing plus he was always keen to hear of our catches. Around that time I knew several people who knew him quite well and all said he would give away tackle and books without batting an eyelid, often telling them he had caught this or that particular fish on this rod/reel ! Kindly but not sentimental as someone remarked. They also said he was always quick and ready to take credit for something even if it was debatable, I remember when he was supporting Chris's record claim in the Angling Times he wrote that the rod Chris caught the fish on was made by him personally without ever having seen or looked at the rod, which was quite simply a B James Mk1V Avon.
Just looking at Mem's ( I remember your visit to the Pool ) pictures Chris (Yates) is holding the rod he used to catch the great fish and probably that is the same Ambidex, although I think he had more than one.

[Nobby]

The rod Chris Yates is holding has a swan-necked Ambidex fitted to it. These didn't come out until after the Delmatic was made to celebrate Allcock and JW Young joining together in 1964. Pictures of Chris with his record fish in 1980 show him using a far earlier Ambidex reel which has been identified as a Number 3 FP by Garry Mills.

viewtopic.php?t=65





Chris' reel doesn't have the long chrome strip to lock the handle though, but then it was thought to be a 'bitsa' built for him at Youngs. The reel would be from around 1954.


Blowing up the image of the reel on the rod Chris Ball is holding does show it to be a No.3 with the different release mechanism for the reel:




Standard Ambidex from the side:


So I'm fairly sure now that Chris Ball might be holding the rod that took the Bishop.

Now if you look at the butt of that rod.......it's got a swelling on the last shive...just as Dick Walker put on some of the rods he made.......




Could it be that Yatesey caught the Bishop on a Walker-built rod??




.

[Hans Raaijmakers]

Very interesting thread. But considering the reelseat, to me it looks like Chris Yates is holding the same rod as shown above in the picture with the "Bishop"? Is am a mistaken and does the rod in the Bishop picture above have reel rings?

[Santiago]

I have a pike rod that has a swelling on the cork at the bottom of the handle, just like above! It's a very odd rod, because all the three sections are different lengths, yet they don't look to be made of the same quality cane, and as intended to be different lengths! Unfortunately, it had been no writing on, so I christened it The Whopper Stopper. (Before I heard of Ingham's 'Whopper Stopper ') But what are the chances mine is a Walker rod? Zilch!

Just looked at said pike rod, and yep, the last cork is exactly the same as above, just before the metal butt cap.

[Beresford]

Yates did catch the Bishop on a Walker built MkIV Avon. He wrote to Walker to tell him of the capture. I think the rod was green whipped.

[Nobby]

Aha! Ta for that.

[CrayCane]

John Carver's post in this thread provides some interesting reading on the origin of Chris Yates' rod:

viewtopic.php?f=192&t=21063&p=322772#p322772

Pete

[JPC]

Chris did not catch the 51 on a Walker built Avon, he caught it on a B James Mk1V !
I first saw this rod on the day Chris obtained it, from memory he swapped it rather than bought it. When he showed it to me it was in a bit of a state, the handle and part of the butt section was covered in crud and grime but it was fairly straight. He informed me it had been made/built by Walker himself, when I asked how he knew that he told me "the guy I got it off told me". When I looked at the rod I was a bit surprised, it had intermediate whippings which I knew Walker was not keen on and a screw winch fitting which again Walker was not a fan off. However at the time Chris had also acquired an Ambidex reel which needed sorting, groved pick up, very stiff, sized clutch etc which I had to sort out for him.
Later when Chris put in the record claim and it was rejected Walker wrote on several occasions in his column in support of Chris's claim and mentioned it had been caught on a rod made by him, at this point I thought I must have been wrong to doubt it.
About four years ago I became very friendly with angling artist John Grant and after sorting out a little problem for him he invited me to spend a couple of days at his syndicate water, which I gratefully accepted. A week or two before our trip he rung me to ask if I would bring my Arbery net which landed Chris's fish along, when I asked him why he told me his friend had recently bought the Yates Avon from Barry.
When we met up John's friend (also a John) produced the rod which I recognised although a tad shorter in the tip section and passed it to me. Now John the new owner had not had the rod refurbished or renovated but he had had it cleaned, the crud and grime was all gone, when I looked at the butt there somewhat faded but still clear enough was the legend B James and Son Mk 1V Avon. When I saw I let out a "I knew it" the two Johns asked me why and I related the story, John the new owner was not aware of the claim (far too young) and just believed it to be a James Avon. Sorry to disillusion everyone.