“I HAVEN’T GOT A SINGLE REGRET”
John Wilson was never afraid to speak his mind on all things angling. Here is a short selection of his finest words provided through his many interviews with Angling Times
GETTING INTO TV
I had made a few radio programmes for Radio Norfolk and done a few fishing things for Anglia TV, but a separate producer, Peter Akehurst, wanted to make some pilots for fishing videos which were going to be shown to television. Phil Garner at Anglia liked them and he gave us a peanuts budget to go and make six programmes in Norfolk. It all followed from there really. I did 17 consecutive years filming Go Fishing and then three 12- and 15-part specials over the following four years. It was a lot of work.
THE SUCCESS OF GO FISHING
I wasn’t going to be ending up with egg on my face so I put in an enormous amount of research. I’d go to every venue a few days beforehand and check where the sun comes up and where it sets and where the cameras could go. Often I had to fish where the cameraman could film me rather than where I thought I could catch. I don’t think anyone will duplicate the two-camera shoots of Go Fishing, followed by a separate sound dub.
HOW ANGLING CHANGED AFTER FILMING GO FISHING
Signal crayfish, cormorants and otters are all taking such a toll. A farmer can shoot your dog if it’s worrying his sheep but a fishery owner can’t control another predator when it’s eating valuable stock worth far more than a sheep. If a modern-day John Wilson wanted to start up in Norfolk or Suffolk by learning watercraft and catching roach he couldn’t do that because the rivers are silted away and abstracted to hell, and they’re so shallow there are no roach there to catch.
THE FUTURE OF ANGLING
The Environment Agency and Natural England tell us if we want to keep good carp fishing we’ll have to fence it all in. Is everybody in the next 50 years going to be fishing safely within the confines of a fence just to pursue their hobby? Fencing stops foxes, badgers and deer coming down to drink. It stops the movement of wild animals. The thought of everywhere I hold dear in fishing being fenced in abhors me. But fishing fencedin commercials will be all my grandchildren can do unless we actively do something to change the situation.
MOVING TO THAILAND
It’s got a lot going for it as a fishing destination. For instance it’s hot all year, between 85ºF and 95ºF, the water temperature averages between 80ºF and 90ºF and that’s important because it means that all the fish stocked into lakes and rivers grow very fat at an alarming rate and they’ve all got tremendous stamina. There are something like six species that grow to over 100lb and four of those grow to over 300lb, so the fishing there is absolutely spectacular. Apart from that I love Thai food, so does my wife Jo. The little bit of arthritis we both suffer will perhaps go, the cost of living is less and it’s a challenge that we’re really looking forward to.
REGRETS
I like to think I haven’t got a single regret. I don’t wish to grow old as an angry old man moaning that the Wensum hasn’t got any roach in it any more and things like that. I’m going to Thailand, we’re going to have a fishery there, I’m going to follow my fishery instincts with all these weird and wonderful, exciting, colourful species so I’m going on to a new thing. I’ve got no regrets about the fishing in Britain because it is evolving on its own.
OTTERS
To those of you who have not seen an otter in your part of the country and have lots of big chub and barbel, fine, you have no reason to worry – at the moment. But when you do, you’ll understand that the otter is not a little cuddly furry Tarka, it’s the world’s largest predatory rat that not only eats fish, but eats any other little mammal, snakes, toads, newts, frogs and lots of ground-nesting birds. It looks lovely here from my window but I haven’t seen a mother mallard with 10 little ‘bumble-bee’ ducklings following her for three years. Otters take the ducklings off the nest, they take them off the water, they eat the eggs before they even hatch and they take the mum off the nest.
HIS LEGACY TO ANGLING
I think the books that I’ve written will be some kind of legacy, as will all the 160 television programmes I’ve made. It’s kind of nice to think in 50 years’ time some little kid will be sitting down to watch John Wilson chubbing on the Upper Wensum.
“Often I had to fish where the cameraman could film me rather than where I thought I could catch”