ARTHUR’S ARCHIVES Inside fishing history
Our historian Keith looks back at one of his angling heroes, the late, great Fred J Taylor – legend and accidental innovator
“He kept us match anglers enthralled by his colourful tales”
I’VE HAD many angling heroes in my life, and Fred J Taylor was right near the top.
Along with brother Ken and their cousin Joe, he was one of the famous Taylor Brothers who fished with the great Dick Walker on the Thames, making catches of bream that we mortals could only dream about.
There were stories of the famous tench fishing at Wotton Underwood and of course the magnificent chub and big perch of the Great Ouse, where the group had their famous fishing hut. A larger-than-life character, Fred J was a great storyteller as well as a wonderful angler and kept us match anglers enthralled by his colourful tales.
Our first encounter came in Ireland, after I had qualified for a match using Coax, a groundbait developed by the famous London tackle manufacturer
Efgeeco. Fred J hosted the event along with Peter Drennan.
It was on this trip that Fred ‘invented’ legering with deadbaits for pike. He was working on a feature with photographer Alan Pond while I was practising opposite the match length on the River Erne the day before our event. Fred wandered down the river asking if he could take a few roach to use as wobbled deadbaits on the nearby Woodford River.
In the evening we returned to the Seven Horseshoes hotel, only to see a monster pike lying on a trestle table outside the back door. It weighed 32lb 2oz and was eventually brought back to England to be set up in a glass case.
The story goes that Fred had wobbled one of my roach all morning for one small jack then stopped for lunch – invariably red wine and cheese!
Rather than wind in and stop fishing, he cast his bait out and let it sink to the bottom where, a few minutes later, it was snaffled by what turned out to be a personal-best pike. Legered deadbaits promptly became a method there and then.