Hugh Falkus "sea trout fishing"

[brabant]

Thank you Ken - I really enjoyed that.

"The Kommandant's cat well-fed and plump, lurked outside the wire and had preyed on Falkus' mind for days...

He and Wallace Cunningham lured the cat into the compound, stalked it, finally cornered it and put it to death. The stewed meat was divided among nine or ten men.."


I read somewhere that it was stewed with just one black market onion. It may have been in Bill Fowler's book.

I'll post his 'interesting' cormorant recipe when I get the chance and on a cormorant thread.


PiB

The Commandant of Colditz's cat met a similar fate at the hands of my father-in-law. They had a dinner party and invited the French!

 

[st7]

The Commandant of Colditz's cat met a similar fate at the hands of my father-in-law. They had a dinner party and invited the French!

Why did the commandants all have cats? I know cat people are wierd but are they all Nazis?

 

[ayr_salmon]

was orwell a cat person?

 

[aenoon]

was orwell a cat person?

naw, he liked pigs.
regards
bert

 

[st7]

Having spent 20 years fishing with Bill Arnold, Tony Debruslais and Hugh Falkus on the Cumbrian Esk and the Derwent with my twin brother Ken.

I have managed to unearth video tapes with hours of unseen footage of the Cumbrian Esk, Knott End, Some smashing Hugh Falkus footage including a film of Hugh netting a 16lb salmon for my twin brother Ken (Fishdee in this thread) whilst we were fishing together on the Derwent at Cammerton. This fish had been 'arsing about all day' according to Falk.

My brother is getting the films converted from tapes onto discs, I hope to get some footage added to this thread if there would be interest from people?

Any update to this post?

EDIT: Bump

 

[MicklemusH]

Lee, I can advise that Kathleen actually owned Donalds pool and the run and Corner pool below this. When Kathleen died the fishing was left in her will to The Falks and Kath's lawyer Anthony Desbruslais QC, former crown prosecutor of Nottingham and master cellist,The Falk affectionately called Anthony the scraper.I used to fish with them on the Derwent with my brother David most summers for many, many years.

I recall asking him one evening whilst having a barbecue at Bill and Maries house,Knott End, what his best sea trout catch was for a season on the Esk.He replied "823 sea trout Ken , those were the days! the river bottom was blue with fish!" . I have so many good memories of visits down there and the many parties and barbecues.I recall after he died Kathleen had a barbecue at Cragg,organised by Bill and Marie and their son Peter Arnold, where Fred J Taylor did some wonderful food in his dutch ovens.Many of Falks friends came that night,Fred Buller, David Burnett from Witherby's, Malcolm and Audrey Greenhalgh , Dave Evans etc,so many, and the fireworks display my brother Dave provided later that night was excellent.No firework shooting that night but the Falk did like to shoot rockets in the dark for fun with friends.

Ken Reid

HUGH FALKUS What a man..... Although I was basically a fly fisher for trout on the Derby Railway Institute Fishing club water at Darley Dale I learned how to fish with bait from 7 years old ,gave me a good grounding re the depth of the water. I thought it was time to read about a new quarry for me due to having caught a sea trout on the Fowy, first cast with a 1" devon and so I bought Hugh Falkus's Sea Trout Fishing from Tom Saville in 1975. Tom said I would enjoy reading that super book.
I cannot think of a more enjoyable paragraph than Hugh's depiction of a sea trout pool at evening time, and all Sea Trout fishers should read that paragraph. I always have thought it so romantic!
It is always a satisfying experience for me to relate to what he was thinking in respect of transmitting
his thoughts to the end of his line.......... All those I've seen fishing down faceless pools with their chuck it and chance it style of fishing will never achieve what Falkus had achieved through his unique and exceptional intelligence he possessed. It brings home the fact that we could all do with living 150 years to be able to enjoy what we learn over the first half of that amount!
Hugh's books will remain the very best advice for the experimental fishers of sea trout and salmon for
eternity. Thank you sincerely to Hugh Falkus..... What a man.

 

[glueman]

You can stay in his cottage in Eskdale it is now a holiday let,I believe it has some of his original stuff in it

 

[taffy1]

HUGH FALKUS What a man..... Although I was basically a fly fisher for trout on the Derby Railway Institute Fishing club water at Darley Dale I learned how to fish with bait from 7 years old ,gave me a good grounding re the depth of the water. I thought it was time to read about a new quarry for me due to having caught a sea trout on the Fowy, first cast with a 1" devon and so I bought Hugh Falkus's Sea Trout Fishing from Tom Saville in 1975. Tom said I would enjoy reading that super book.
I cannot think of a more enjoyable paragraph than Hugh's depiction of a sea trout pool at evening time, and all Sea Trout fishers should read that paragraph. I always have thought it so romantic!
It is always a satisfying experience for me to relate to what he was thinking in respect of transmitting
his thoughts to the end of his line.......... All those I've seen fishing down faceless pools with their chuck it and chance it style of fishing will never achieve what Falkus had achieved through his unique and exceptional intelligence he possessed. It brings home the fact that we could all do with living 150 years to be able to enjoy what we learn over the first half of that amount!
Hugh's books will remain the very best advice for the experimental fishers of sea trout and salmon for
eternity. Thank you sincerely to Hugh Falkus..... What a man.

Some of us know our local rivers as well as Falkus knew his, lies at different heights of water & where & when sea trout can be expected. Admittedly, he wrote excellent books to convey his thoughts for others to broaden their experiences & success.

 

[micka]

Successful Sea Trout Angling

...by Moc Morgan and Graeme Harris surely makes Falkus's book look so dated.

For a romantic sea trout journey during the close season .....Charles McLaren or Bill Currie.

Yes a brilliant reference book but Falkus' is by far the much better read.

Mick

 

[tingvollr]

I did find Hugh Falkus' book very helpful when I first started sea trout fishing many years ago. The chapter on fishing for them in salt water helped and encouraged me to understand their feeding habits.

 

[jaybeegee]

I bought his book on salmon fishing at a time of my life when I really couldn’t afford it. Shortly thereafter I caught my first salmon on fly; his writing gave me an understanding of the fish and effective technique that would have taken me years to gather otherwise.
B

 

[micka]

The trouble with Falkus is he attracts eulogies. He possessed a superb ability to construct lucid prose and pen beautiful books and as a person charisma flowed from him. But he pretended he invented a system for night fishing for sea trout as a trail blazing approach. It was nothing of the kind and he knew it. He was consciously dishonest in describing his Second World War exploits as a pilot and as an innovator in sea trout fishing. In the pre-internet age he thought he could get away with pretending to develop a new strategy for nocturnal fishing but Alan Round and others caught him out. It had been tried and proven successful by previous pioneers.

Anyone who saw Falkus could see he had charisma by the bucketful and he has seduced many an angler of yesteryear and of recent times (as witnessed in this thread) because of it. His disciples adulated him and his so called achievements often without knowing much about the man and his works in depth. As a human being he was immature, dishonest, egotistical, philandering, disloyal and a snob. Given time he turned against most of his former friends and he never fulfilled the role of a father to his most talented family or showed any real love to them. Malcolm Greenhalgh said it was a matter of time before Falkus turned against him - and he adored the man.

Chris Newton in his brilliant biography captured Falkus fully and recognised many of his undoubted and very considerable talents. As Malcolm Greenhalgh, one of the closest men to Falkus in his last years said, "Newton's biography was spot on" - warts and all, and there were plenty of prominent warts. But Falkus' brilliant if highly derivative books, especially Salmon Fishing, (Oglesby was by far the more experienced salmon angler and could more justifiably write about the subject in depth, but lacked Falkus' beautiful prose) leave a wonderful, though flawed legacy to posterity.

Mick

 

[albacore]

He’s an interesting character beyond doubt. I haven’t read Hugh Falkus’ seatrout book, but the salmon one. It’s a great read for it’s anecdotes. I catch so few salmon I couldn’t tell you if that book is any good. The reasons I find him interesting is for all of the reasons mentioned so far. He did have a tempestuous personal life. He also appears to have been a type of Englishman that isn’t so much portrayed in tv and film. Anymore that is. He comes across as a swashbuckler and very direct or dry, or both. I’ve also come across mentions(I think it was a feature about him in a fishing mag) that he did not attribute all of his patterns to the people he got them from. That’s difficult and could have been him writing an edited version of events for the sake of the narrative of his books. Or it could have been that it simply wasn’t clear. If we look at modern flies like say, the Intruder style it’s difficult to find the original inventor. To carry on the film role figure idea, I’d say Hugh Falkus is one of the few, perhaps the only fishing figure that a feature film could be made about. All that controversy and excitement in all aspects of his life; not just fishing. It’s interesting that a fair number of ex-army special forces and so on seem to end up as fishing guides(I know one in the U.K. and I’m told it’s a thing in Russia). I would guess Hugh Falkus may be in that tradition; uncompromising individualists who prize excellence and do not suffer fools gladly.

 

[taffy1]

Surprisingly enough, since those books were written, there's not a lot changed where it concerns tactics or ideas. They still work strangely enough.

 

[micka]

Surprisingly enough, since those books were written, there's not a lot changed where it concerns tactics or ideas. They still work strangely enough.

Too true taffy and they are both still wonderful reads.

Mick

 

[PaulD]

Falkus's book was, for many years, held with almost biblical reverence as the reference point for sea trout fishing since it was first published in 1962 and followed by the larger, more comprehensive second edition in 1975.

Around the same time Charles McLaren published his 'Art of Sea Trout Fishing' (1963), but similar to Falkus's which is entirely focused on the Border Esk, McLaren's book is entirely about how the sea trout was pursued ,in Scotland.

In 1987, Peter Jarrams published 'Sea Trout Run'. Quite a short guide, based very much on sea trout fishing in Wales but the text doesn't take night fishing tactics to anywhere near the detail of Falkus.

1989 brought us 'Successful Sea Trout Angling' by Graeme Harris and Moc Morgan and this has been a favourite of mine for many years. The Chapters, Night Fishing: Anticipation and Night Fishing: Realisation are essential reading for anyone hoping to be 'successful'.

Other books worth investigating are:-
Sea Trout, How to Catch Them - Charles Bingham - 1998
The Sea Trout and the Fly - James Waltham - 2006. Excellent fly dressing advice.
The Sea Trout Diaries - R.W. Mountjoy - 2007

However, I'm saving what I consider to be the 'best' until last - 'Sea Trout. Tips, Tricks and Tribulations' - Steffan Jones, 2017. Of all the books since Falkus first issued in 1962, Steff's book is the one that really has a 'modern' perspective. I think it's a great book and clearly reflects his depth of experience and remarkable understanding.

 

[LukeNZ]

Surprisingly enough, since those books were written, there's not a lot changed where it concerns tactics or ideas. They still work strangely enough.

I have found that my chances of catching improve beyond most anything else, when at least I have a fly in the water..

 

[taffy1]

Well without a bait or lure in the water, your chances of catching is extremely reduced to zero. Surprisingly, there are millions of anglers that know that.

 

[LukeNZ]

Well without a bait or lure in the water, your chances of catching is extremely reduced to zero. Surprisingly, there are millions of anglers that know that.

Exactly. Nothing has changed.

 

[PaulD]

Surprisingly enough, since those books were written, there's not a lot changed where it concerns tactics or ideas. They still work strangely enough.

Have you read Steff's book, compared the content with Falkus?

Yes, a sea trout is still a sea trout and the way you fish may be the same and will undoubtedly still 'work' but ideas and methods expand and change.