Will's with his Perch, River Wensum

We’re delighted to have the wonderful John Bailey on board with Mr Crabtree.  He (and other Crabtree supporters) will be writing regularly for us on the site. Here John reminisces about one of his many ‘Crabtree moments’ and recognises that same passion as he passes on his knowledge to another aspiring young angler.

I’ve just had a birthday. It reminds me that forty-five years ago, my mentor in the northwest, Pete Warburton, took me out to one of our canals in his battered old Austin. That particular birthday was golden. I remember landing ten glorious canal roach to four ounces in weight, laying them on a white towel and taking a photograph with my Kodak. I was buzzing for days and days afterwards.

Pete was a gem. He taught me canal fishing, river work and the beginnings of my carp and tench career. I’m forever grateful and forever in his debt for shaping my life.

Saturday, the day before my birthday and I was with Will on the River Wensum to christen his float rod and centrepin. Three hours of careful trotting and feeding later he was on fire, playing and landing and cradling a personal best perch.

I recognized his total excitement, his thrill of the catch and how he caught it. I’ve been there myself, over the moon with a fishing triumph, aglow in the dark of a cold winter afternoon.

Will is sixteen, going on seventeen. I’d like nothing better than to think in forty-five years, he, too, is teaching a child, a son, a daughter, a grandson or granddaughter, whoever, to fish. Perhaps, as well, to fish a lovely river in the dusk with skill and dedication for a superbly bristling perch.

This really is the essence of Crabtree. Believe me, forty-five years on, the giving is every bit as good as the taking. All this is possible because, of course, angling is the one sport that changes lives from childhood to old age. That’s how it once was and how it should be in the Crabtree future that we are recreating.