I'd recommend buying it this week just for the DVD of "catching the impossible".

"Catching the impossible" what?


Give me a clue - I do buy the odd edition that catches my eye.


PiB

www.catchingtheimpossible.info I presume? What's the DVD though?

The DVD is a 30 minute sample. I watched it last night.

It contains some superb underwater footage of various species, (I might buy the DVDs on the strength of that alone). There’s also a sequence where Bernard Cribbins catches an upper double carp, and another partial sequence where Martin Bowler hooks and plays a large Great Ouse barbel. This second sequence abruptly ends, (a predictable cliff hanger…..), before he nets, (or maybe loses?), the fish.

The atmosphere is inevitably reminiscent of Passion for Angling….… beautifully filmed lush landscapes and exquisite wildlife, accompanied by the same narrator and similar mournful music.

But mercifully, the extracts on this DVD, (and hopefully the full series), are free of any “twee wine drinking in a punt” style affectations. Martin comes across as quiet and down to earth, with no obvious irritating mannerisms.

Looking forward to seeing the film - can't believe there wont be a little too much tweeness in it for my taste but you never know. The only possible time I would buy the Angling Times would be if I needed something to light my fire with.

Reg Wyatt

The camera work is utterly brilliant- I was gobsmacked how good it is and they certainly have one customer here.AT has actually improved immeasuarbly since Bauer too over - it is no longer a Sunalike carp comic but a surprisngly good read sometimes.Shame about the ranting about immigrants which - as elsewhere - has just become race hate frankly.

Someone even set up a petition to get the BBC to broadcast it.
http://www.petitiononline.com/catchit/petition.html
http://forum.bbcwildlifemagazine.com/tm.asp?m=2866

I've just signed the on-line petition Gunmaker mentioned above; bringing the total signatures up to 60.



PiB

It was apparently a four year project filmed by Hugh Miles who also filmed A Passion for Angling and the aim was that Martin Bowler would try to catch "Impossible" fish, which are defined as "once in a lifetime fish".

There are previews on You Tube and he was on Tight Lines talking about it last week. It is indeed beautifully filmed and is one of the best ever fishing projects and after initial pessimism there is apparently now a good chance that it will get on TV.

He and his companions did catch some huge fish, that barbel was over 15lbs, they also got a 4lb+ crucian, a 5lb+ perch, a 3lb+ river roach and a 30lb+ river pike amongst others. They also had a 7lb chub but I'm not sure if that is included on the DVD.

Martin is a highly competant angler (I think he currently holds the UK crucian carp record) who has a good delivery style with plenty of instructional content and there is none of the affectations in the commentary and performance that pervaded A Passion for Angling. I believe that he is related to John Wilson but doesn't have the chuckling/oops style of delivery.

He and some mates have just had a big 30lb pike from the Wye which I think missed the DVD but will be featured in AT in a forthcoming issue.

__________________
“There is no more lovely country than Monmouthshire in early spring. Nowhere do the larks sing quite so passionately, as if somehow inspired by the Welsh themselves. There is a blackbird on every thorn and a cock chaffinch, a twink as they call him there, on every bush...... It moved me profoundly. I had been spared to see another spring, and I thank God for it.”

Oliver Kite
“A Spring Day on the Usk”
A Fisherman’s Diary

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