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