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Our thanks go to Allan Shepherd of Sportfish for taking the time to be interviewed – here’s what he had to say…

Q: How often do you fish and what do you fish for?
I try and fish once a week and mix it up to keep things interesting. For instance, the week before last I was trotting with my favourite centre pin on the Wye for barbel and chub. Last week I was 30 miles off the Welsh coast fly fishing for blue and porbeagle sharks. I have always been an all-rounder but have had the odd obsession over the years – pike and salmon are two good examples. I strongly urge newcomers to the sport not to limit themselves to just one type of fishing – get out there and experience the lot!

Q: What are your earliest fishing memories? Who taught you?
I grew up longing to fish the kind of waters depicted in the Crabtree cartoons. For a youngster growing up in Surrey this seemed impossible until I joined my local fishing club and started to travel round in a coach most Sundays in the season fishing the upper Thames, Dorset Stour etc. and various lakes. This was great as I was surrounded by mentors and some were really great anglers. I learnt a lot from these guys. Also I have two older brothers, both were and still are keen anglers.

Q: Is there anything in fishing that you haven’t done? What are your ambitions?
There are a few fish I would love to catch – in fact I would swap body parts for some of them! Top of the list would be a mako shark on fly tackle from UK waters. Tough but not impossible by any means. Also I would love to catch some sort of billfish – a marlin or sailfish again, ideally on fly tackle. I’ve done a bit of big game fishing over the years but never really had a red letter day.