The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

There's a saying I think it goes "Never Meet Your Heroes"
RW was a great angler and a human being... and they come with all sorts of quirks, foibles and idiosyncracies... no one is perfect... In the 80's and 90's a racing motorcyclist called Carl Fogarty was one of the riders I most respected... I met him once and I found him boorish, arrogant and downright nasty... as they say Never meet your heroes...

Aitch wrote: ↑Fri Sep 25, 2020 9:58 pm There's a saying I think it goes "Never Meet Your Heroes"
RW was a great angler and a human being... and they come with all sorts of quirks, foibles and idiosyncracies... no one is perfect... In the 80's and 90's a racing motorcyclist called Carl Fogarty was one of the riders I most respected... I met him once and I found him boorish, arrogant and downright nasty... as they say Never meet your heroes...

You may have just caught him on a bad day Aitch! Many great sportsmen and other successful people have been lacking in warmth and tolerance toward members of the public. The media these days are merciless when someone 'offends' them. Another saying is "Never speak ill of the dead" but how often is that honoured these days?

Lea Dweller wrote: ↑Fri Sep 25, 2020 10:48 pm

Aitch wrote: ↑Fri Sep 25, 2020 9:58 pm There's a saying I think it goes "Never Meet Your Heroes"
RW was a great angler and a human being... and they come with all sorts of quirks, foibles and idiosyncracies... no one is perfect... In the 80's and 90's a racing motorcyclist called Carl Fogarty was one of the riders I most respected... I met him once and I found him boorish, arrogant and downright nasty... as they say Never meet your heroes...

You may have just caught him on a bad day Aitch! Many great sportsmen and other successful people have been lacking in warmth and tolerance toward members of the public. The media these days are merciless when someone 'offends' them. Another saying is "Never speak ill of the dead" but how often is that honoured these days?

Sadly Ted a few folks I know in the Racing and Marshalling fraternity who have dealt with him all said the same thing about Fogarty... still never having met Walker my image of the man remains untarnished despite what folks say... to me he was a great angler and innovator... and that is how I remember him

Aitch wrote: ↑Fri Sep 25, 2020 9:58 pm There's a saying I think it goes "Never Meet Your Heroes"
RW was a great angler and a human being... and they come with all sorts of quirks, foibles and idiosyncracies... no one is perfect... In the 80's and 90's a racing motorcyclist called Carl Fogarty was one of the riders I most respected... I met him once and I found him boorish, arrogant and downright nasty... as they say Never meet your heroes...

Yes, Foggy was well known in Blackburn...and not for any good reasons. Hell of a racer though.

The thing with RW was that in addition to the published articles that did himself a disservice there was the situation where he spent hours of his own time and his own money replying to all the letters sent to him by anglers. And the gracious gifts of tackle to complete strangers. I think that there is a complex depth to RW's character that hasn't properly been explored in the biographies.

Richard Walker made no big impact in my youth. Everyone said he was just in the right place at the right time and if he had been alone he would never have landed the record carp.
Bigger impacts were made by the top match men and we could all buy into them with something as little as a Billy Lane float.
This may be down to the north south divide and the fact there were no carp waters up here until the 80s.
The north east was full of match anglers sea anglers and fluff chuckers. I really cant remember any record chasers in my youth.

I own a few Walker books and I love the science he puts into catching fish. I feel an alliance because I am constantly thinking of ways to improve fishing tackle but maybe thats just me enjoying tinkering in the shed. With Walker, I believe he looked at it as a way of adding to the bank balance.
His inventions were just versions of things that already existed but clever marketing made them look like new inventions.
Just because a Hardy LRH doesn't have CARP written on it, doesnt mean it's not a good carp rod. Walker said he designed the MKIV as there wasnt a suitable carp rod in existance. There were lots of very good carp rods out there already but they didn't have WALKER written on them. And he knew anglers then just like anglers of today, have to have the latest gear, be it longer, more powerful, slimmer, cammo, matt black etc money is no object when keeping up with the top names in angling.
Thats the Walker I think about, clever and quite Machiavellian.

Wal.

Good analysis Wal, my thoughts follow yours in many ways, although I must be the worlds worst at “” looking up to or admiring “ anybody really, be that in fishing or indeed any other aspect of life.
I make no bones about it, if an article , in my eyes is fit for purpose then thats all it needs to be , be it a Walker designed rod / reel/ or any other article, as you say there are many other examples of equally good , or dare I say even better items of tackle contempraneous with the Walker era.
Thats not to say if I came across an unknown Walker item of tackle I would not snap it up, more for the rarity value than any other reason .

Walker undoubtedly spent a lot of hours selflessly answering correspondence, which is to be commended , but his rant about his achievements did make me smile a little, and also in my opinion shows a little insecurity, maybe he thought he was being sidelined or outclassed by other anglers / innovators that were in the limelight ?

OMR

OMR

It wasn't all about carp though. He made some very good catches of chub and perch and never tried to profit from them. Same could be said about his fly-fishing exploits. I agree that towards the end he may have succumbed to commercialism to a degree, but his innovation of cutting DT fly lines in half and making shooting heads didn't benefit him financially, nor did he make anything from the Arlesey bomb.

I think that where he crossed the line was in endorsing the B James range of rods. Prior to catching the record carp all his carp rod blanks according to himself, were sourced from JB Walker. I don't know what or if he made anything from that, but somebody certainly did.

Machievelian,quite possibly ,certainly gifted with forward thinking. Donating Clarissa to a zoo ensured accurate weighing and record verification whilst saving her from a glass case of the more permanent type was a clever coup but it also meant she couldn't be caught again. Imagine if the Record Committee had agreed to her release and she put on a few pounds and was caught by someone else .Who knows what the effect would've been on Walker's standing and tackle edorsements. With his innovative mind and writing skills he would doubtless still have been rightly revered but he wouldn't have been "That bloke that caught the record carp."
I feel he gets too much credit for the proliferation of carp orientated fisheries and bedchair tactics we see today . He may have planted the seed of an aspect of angling that gives thousands of anglers pleasure but l think it would've happened anyway. With the growing ability to travel ,more money for tackle and bankside comforts ,coupled ,paradoxically, with greater leisure time and the modern craving for reliable results in many things , not just angling , l think it was an unavoidable progression.
Back to the question ; friend or foe of traditional angling? Definately an enemy of stagnation and promoter of advancement but l don't think he begrudged people enjoying themslves .

I agree Kev.
Clarissa was already a record when caught at 40lbs a couple of years earlier. However the captor who's name I dont recall at the moment, put the fish back to become Walkers crowning glory.
To be honest I am surprised he didn't have it stuffed.

Wal.