R.B.T’s Avon Calling

Edited by the author taken from ‘Dick Walker the Legend’ by Martin James and Friends. Waters Edge Publications 2019.

They say that 1967 was The Summer of Love but I first fell in love with a fishing rod in 1969 as a five-year-old boy, taken for a day’s fishing on the river Rother on the Kent/Sussex border, deep on the Romney Marsh, by my father and Uncle Brian. Little was I to know that this love would be a lifelong affair, one that grew and matured as I learned and experienced new adventures along the way; an appreciation of the countryside, nature and the great outdoors was forged in a young heart and mind that very day.

Growing up in an angling family I was party to many grown up conversations amongst the men folk. Talk of tackle, fishing trips, methods, bait, fish, venues and famous anglers, all of this information was being going in bit by bit, perhaps a drip fed education of this wonderful sport. One particular name that cropped up regularly in these conversations was that of a certain Richard Walker. He, it seemed, was revered by the men in my young angling life, and held a big influence over the way they approached their fishing. On trips with my father to the Hampshire Avon, the Norfolk Broads and closer to home on the rivers Medway and Beult, I’d often be shown something on the bankside with the words, “This is what Walker would probably do” … and this held sway over an impressionable young angling mind.

It appeared back then that all of my angling mentors, father, grandfather and uncles had one thing in common apart from a great love of angling; they all had a two piece Avon rod of some description or other, most of which were built from split bamboo, a rod that seemed to have a multitude of uses. I remember well, regularly walking down to Chas’ Williams’ tackle shop on the railway arch in Tonbridge on the way fishing with my grandfather and staring in wide eyed wonderment at the rods displayed in the window. Most were split cane in the early days and, as the years progressed, they were gradually replaced with glass fibre, but it was the sight of the built cane Avon which really grabbed my attention. It was those burgundy whippings on the crafted hexagonal cane of the 10ft Avon that I remember so vividly, the stuff of dreams – and dream I did!

My teenage years saw very little cane apart from at school, where I dodged it and received it in equal measure! Yes, I saw the glass successors in the shop window by B. James and Hardy and later the carbon fibre rods; but for me nothing came close to the sheer beauty of those Richard Walker Mk IV Avons and boy did I want one! Most of my fishing at this time was undertaken with an old hand-me-down split cane Edgar Sealey ‘Octofloat’ passed on to me by my grandfather. Without doubt it was and is cherished because I still have it and use it regularly in the summer months for tench fishing down on the marsh drains here in Kent.

On my way to school each week I’d buy a copy of the Angling Times with my dinner money and my best friend Kev and I would read it together during break times. Without exception the very first article we turned to was always Walker’s. From those early days when I’d first heard his name mentioned, he had now become an inspiration for my own angling and for that of many of our class mates who also fished. I grew up in a time where boys had a bicycle, an air rifle, a dog, a football and lots of fishing tackle; life was simple and our needs but few. Most of our free time was spent out in the countryside enjoying ourselves and learning more about life than we ever did in the classroom.

Each week Walker would impart a little more of his wisdom and observations upon us through his column and we eagerly digested every word. When we fished we tried our very best to emulate Walker, floppy hats and all! We were young specimen hunters and completely under the spell of the man. I remember well the day I was at Kev’s house and his dad Pat said, “I’ve got something to show you two.” Off he went and a couple of minutes later he came back with an envelope. The envelope contained a letter to him from Walker himself; we were in awe!

Pat had written to him some years back regarding a query relating to carp angling and this was the reply, three pages of it if I remember correctly? Kev himself became a celebrity amongst our class mates, just because his dad had a letter from the great man; hilarious when we look back but surely a measure of the man’s high regard among anglers both young and old at the time.

Of course there were other anglers that we loved, Fred J. Taylor, Peter Stone, Jack Hargreaves and indeed the highly respected Bernard Venables to name but a few; giants amongst men in the world of angling. Fred and Peter had a very close connection with Walker and had become well known in their own right, thanks to the encouragement they were given to write about their angling exploits; it opened a new world when we discovered their offerings, which were gratefully accepted.

In the late seventies I became interested in carp. At the time there was very little written information save from ’BB’ and George Sharman but of course the ‘Bible’ at the time was ‘Still-Water Angling’. I borrowed the book so many times from the local library I’m surprised they didn’t give it to me as a prize for the most borrowed book by one person! In the end they brought in a rule which meant you couldn’t borrow the same book more than twice in a row! I couldn’t afford a copy myself back then, only earning a meagre weekly wage as a Saturday boy on a local estate.

Even with big hints to the family at Christmas and on my birthdays for years it never materialised until some years later when visiting John Searl’s lovely shop in Ringwood I treated myself to a first edition copy. In that shop there were also some lovely split cane rods and an exquisite example of the rod that had held my attention since childhood, the B. James Mk IV Avon – to me quite magical as we were only a stone’s throw from the banks of the Hampshire Avon itself.

Quite how I managed to keep my wallet in my pocket still amazes me! Yes I had a Hardy glass Avon which I loved dearly and used regularly… but that cane, oh dear, I slept badly that night in the B&B, only to return the next morning to find that it was gone, having been sold! This was in the days before the Internet and I knew then that it could be a while before I saw another for sale. This was the first I’d ever seen on sale since those far off days looking through the tackle shop window with my old grand-dad. They say in life that you should have no regrets but that was one big one; yes, it would have made a big dent in my bank balance but I could have afforded it. I rarely buy on impulse.

My angling has always been varied; I suppose I come into that general clique called the ‘all-rounder’. I’m happy fishing for tench in the summer, barbel in the autumn and chub, roach and perch in the winter. I’ve fished for pike, carp and had a spell of salmon and trout fishing, but most of all bigger fish of any given species are those that interest me no matter where I am. Walker certainly left his mark on my outlook.

In the early nineties I received a call from my father; Uncle Brian had passed away and I was bereft. He was a man I’d loved so much; he’d taken the time to guide me and along with my father and grandfather he’d been an inspirational figure in my life. His passing left a big hole in my life.

Uncle Brian had moved north to Perth in Scotland some years previously to be closer to his beloved salmon and sea trout fishing. Unfortunately I couldn’t attend the funeral due to ridiculously heavy work commitments and a boss who showed little empathy. I drove north some months later to release his ashes into his favourite salmon pool with my father and my aunt Maggie.

Upon our return to his house, Maggie informed me that Brian had left his fishing tackle to me and that I should take time to look through it after dinner. The first rod bag I opened was of course the B. James Avon; the rod had been unused for years and was in need of a little t.l.c. but was still more than usable and in my eyes still as handsome as the day I’d first seen it.

This was the rod that I’d dreamed of as a kid and for many subsequent years; it was now mine and I don’t mind admitting there was a tear in my eye when I set it up and gave it an obligatory waggle.

Fishing with the rod for the first time could, for me, only be on the Hampshire Avon and that’s where I went. Setting the rod up for the first time with chub in mind was delightful and I just knew that it was meant to be; me and that rod together on the bank, not another rod, this rod. It has become a trusty companion on many a fishing trip since to the Avon, the Wye, the Kennet. It is the rod of choice for my exploits on my local upper Medway for chub and barbel, perch fishing on local ponds and occasionally I give it an outing for tench and wild carp during the summer months down on the marsh where we first met – it just feels right!

The rod has since been fully restored by the master, Wal Sewell, and this set me on a quest of sorts, to see what the other makers of Mk IV Avons had built from Walker’s original specifications for the two piece 10ft rod. Yes, there were Avon-style rods beforehand of course, usually three piece, but Walker took up the idea of producing a two piece general purpose rod, through-actioned and capable of handling specimen fish of most species without being overbearing, a ‘players’ rod if you like.

This has seen me gather quite a reasonable collection of rods from various builders and my favourite example of this most iconic of rods has to be from J.B. Walker of Hythe in Kent. It is light in the hand with a crisp through-action to die for and arguably a better rod than the B. James. Walker, it would appear, had much to do with this firm of the same surname and it has been noted that he used their blanks to make rods for his friends and associates; to me that speaks volumes.

Only recently I was having a pint in a favourite haunt, as one does, when the opportunity arose and an old chap I know approached me at the bar with a rod in his hand: “This has been cluttering up my garage for years but I know you’ll appreciate it and, more importantly, you’ll use it”. He wouldn’t take more than a drink for it and so another Avon came my way and a further ‘project’ for Wal (‘Dr Cane’).

Richard Walker did so much for the good of angling – inventor, writer, inspirer but if he were with us today I’d personally like to thank him for designing that rod; it has brought me so much pleasure over the years… it’s my Avon calling!

All Writing & Images R.B.T. – Autumn 2023