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Chris Yates Rod/Reel Collection

Aaron Littlefield

Senior Member
Does anybody know what Chris Yates uses these days as far as rods/reels? I must confess I'd love to have a quick peek in his study which apparently houses lots of rods etc...

Other than rods by Barder, Richard Walker MKIVs, and that Aerial (Allcock?) as seen quite regularly on A Passion for Angling - does anybody know his regular 'rigs'?

Speaking of 'A Passion for Angling' am I correct in saying he was using one of Richard Walker's original rods, the one he caught the 44lb Carp 'Clarissa'?

I'd love to find out more, I hear he's given up carp angling and concentrates on barbel these days.

Aaron
 
Hi Aaron,
i would assume that Chris would use just the main line with a hook tied on the end, there would also be a shot or two for the weights, Chris is a master at the Wallis cast, and a master at touch legering, i dont think he would use any "rigs", i am sure that someone who knows Chris will put you straight.
Well that's my opinion.
Brian.
 
Does anybody know what Chris Yates uses these days as far as rods/reels? I must confess I'd love to have a quick peek in his study which apparently houses lots of rods etc...

Other than rods by Barder, Richard Walker MKIVs, and that Aerial (Allcock?) as seen quite regularly on A Passion for Angling - does anybody know his regular 'rigs'?

Speaking of 'A Passion for Angling' am I correct in saying he was using one of Richard Walker's original rods, the one he caught the 44lb Carp 'Clarissa'?

I'd love to find out more, I hear he's given up carp angling and concentrates on barbel these days.

Aaron

In addition to the above I think you can add a Chapman's Hunter.
 
I think you're right Brian - keep it simple, that's all I tend to use when ledgering: light ledger bomb to anchor it down, hook at the end and some bait...although I do use quiver tip rods (cheapish Drennan rods if anybody is interested).

Always amazes me at the way in which barbel take the bait - no nibbles and knocks just a large yank of the rod. Love it! :) I remember losing a fish once whilst aiming for tench (on virtually the same setup), despite fishing next to some lillypads fairly closein, the way in which the rod bent and the way in fought makes me think it was a barbel afterall. Tench have, and always, alude me....as do carp funnily enough. I must be one of the few anglers in Britain who have yet to catch one! *oh the shame*

I *may* have caught one when I was younger on a canal, but I suspect it was a bream...although it didn't look quite so lumpy shaped as a bream so you never know :rolleyes:

Back to Chris...rig wise, sorry yes - you are correct to point this out, and I wish I knew how to touch ledger, from the 'Passion...' films he seems to loop it round several of his fingers. I would like to know about his rod/reels in more detail (I'm guessing its not changed much)...odds on its a Bader rod.

Aaron
 
"Always amazes me at the way in which barbel take the bait - no nibbles and knocks just a large yank of the rod. Love it!"

Get ready Aaron....In coming!!!:D

Daz.
 
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Too much fetishizing of semi-decrepit, often well-past its use-by date, tackle, and not enough here-and-now fishing...?
 
Possibly true Paul...although I suspect Chris Yates might disagree! :) I don't mind dabbling with older tackle here and there, a centrepin with a modern rod works really nice - I've yet to be talked into giving up on my cheap and cheerful Drennan rods. Although Harrison rods look quite yummy...

With regards to Chris, he's probably one of my angling heroes, as is John Wilson, when I see the old angling videos its quite hard not to get a bit curious about older tackle. So yes it probably is a bit of fetish, mingled in with a bit of nostalgia...I'd still like to see his collection though. Do you think he'd have tonnes of stuff, or would he be quite conservative with his tackle, say favouring a select few?

Aaron
 
Don't wish to "mix it" with or take pops at anyone, Aaron, but, just like C.Y., I grew up using such tackle, and can use it rather well - both efficiently and elegantly, then and now (on occasion) - but am a man and an Angler who is ever moving on...
 
No offence meant Paul, certainly wasn't criticising you, I respect your opinion, likewise I was just expressing mine. I'm new on here and I'm afraid I don't know of your experience, but I'm always happy to hear what more knowledgeable anglers think :)

You mention moving on...nothing wrong with that, everything evolves, I just find it amusing that I find myself moving back; but I'm from a more recent angling background and only just discovering this sort of tackle...hence my curiosity with Chris Yates' equipment. Maybe I'll also realise that a lot of it is semi-decrepit ;)
 
Paul, purely as a point of discussion - if you could give advice to a new barbel angler (like, erm, me) what's the best advice you can offer regarding rods? Are the old ones (split cane) really that bad? Maybe we should all beat Chris Yates up for spreading lies about the merits of traditional angling! "Oi Chris - behave yourself!" :) ....I once read he uses carbon rods in his greenhouse to grow runner beans on :eek:
 
Paul, purely as a point of discussion - if you could give advice to a new barbel angler (like, erm, me) what's the best advice you can offer regarding rods? Are the old ones (split cane) really that bad? Maybe we should all beat Chris Yates up for spreading lies about the merits of traditional angling! "Oi Chris - behave yourself!" :) ....I once read he uses carbon rods in his greenhouse to grow runner beans on :eek:

Carbon rods as bean sticks? Absolutely, a required habit if you wish to become a fully paid up member of the Golden Scale club :D

Cheers, Dave.
 
Aaron - I guess the point is; we all have a choice. Some would argue for style over substance. Similarly with cars, there are those who prefer vintage despite them being costly to maintain, generally slower and less well equipped. Take your pick....... :)
 
I use both cane and modern rods and without a doubt a modern carbon rod is ALWAYS better than cane. It is, however, missing the point to ask which is best really. The reason I use split cane is that it's different: somehow more enjoyable if you are feeling nostalgic, that's all.
 
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This is cut and pasted from another website. It's written by John ollif-cooper, I believe. He sums it all up rather well.

To return to the rod/wife analogy, and to borrow from South Pacific, another Rogers and Hamerstein musical: once you have found her never let her go. When you have your rod, go fishing, and forget all else. The vintage tackle collection craze has blinded many to the fact that we are, or perhaps should be, anglers first and foremost. I believe unshakably that my wedded bliss with ‘traditionalist tackle’ has given me an essential compatibility with the world of British (I feel here that I should be saying English) freshwater fishing. My cane rods seem to sit well in the picture before me. They bend and blend to the crease of the current where who-knows-what? may dwell. They require my care, and repay me with boundless pleasure in their company. I do not spend my days on the river dwelling on the necessity to acquire the latest, the greatest, the strongest, the thinnest, or the one with the highest modulus. My rods were not made with the aid of a degree in chemistry, but by a man with a big piece of Chinese bamboo, and a sharp plane - and that somehow makes it right: it’s nature within nature. I just sit with my happy partnership established, understood, appreciated, and valued. Nice, isn’t it.
 
I am also of an age when cane and pin were the in thing and learnt how to use them well, but now have progresed to carbon, and modern reels. I would not however suggest that others should be denied that learning experience and pleasure if that is their desire.
Each to their own Aaron, give it a go and find out. After all some people fill their houses with antiques while others prefer modern furniture.
ATB
Colin
 
Hi again Aaron,
it's like driving an old 60's car, there is no comparison to our modern vehicles, so just like old cane rods,if you love em, and are prepaired to hold them all day, being so heavy, then good luck, but for me, just like Paul, i have moved on, new rods and new cars, you can't beat em.
Not all barbel rip the rod out of your hand, when touch legering you can feel the fish mouthing the bait, you feel the bait crossing the river bed and the gravel, once mastered, it's one of the best things in angling.
One thing that you must remember, and that is how to hold the line when touch legering, i use my index finger and my thumb, i just grip the line with these digits, i also hook the line around the tip of my index finger, please bear in mind that you may get a vicious bite and the last thing you want to happen is to have one of these bites with the line wrapped around your finger, and that would be a big ouch.
Try the web for some advice on touch legering, once mastered it's a pleasure to use.
Brian.
 
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Thanks guys for the wonderful advice, one thing about this forum which makes me stay up all night reading the messages is the honest and thoughtful opinions, which are both passionate yet truthful about angling. It's only really in the last few years that I've begun to update my tackle (never had pockets all that deep to buy quality gear) but its true - at the end of the day we're anglers. It doesn't matter what rod or what brand of reel you have, its not important, its being at the waters edge, its making that connection between yourself and the environment - where time stops and life has meaning. That's what matters.

Some of my most wonderful days were spent by the side of a canal with arguably the cheapest, rotten glass rod bought from a car boot sale and enjoyed with amateurish abandon - it was simple but it was glorious fun. Back then I didn't care what I used (much to the amusement of my schoolmates) who seemed to think 'pole' fishing was the best thing and not tired old rods with cork handles...These days my modern carbon rods are undeniably leaps ahead of the stuff I started with...and I embrace them lovingly (even got some old favourites), but I do like the idea of trying split cane...it kind of feels 'right' in a sentimental sense. I like the idea of using something which is older than I am, arguably seen more fish than I have and probably fought bigger fish than I'll ever catch! That's quite endearing to me...

Anyhow, poetic mode over...thanks ever so much for your views - I've found it fascinating to read and will absorb as much guidance as I can from you guys. As you say horses for courses, I'll give it a go and let you know how I get on... :)
 
Pining for the past...

Lovely little programme on BBC Radio 4 on Christmas Eve -


Merry Christmas Morris Minor!

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Availability: Sorry, this programme is not available to listen again.

Last broadcast on Fri, 24 Dec 2010, 11:00 on BBC Radio 4.


Synopsis

Martin Wainwright sets off through the snow to give seasonal best wishes to the owners of Britain's favourite mass produced car - and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the special edition Morris Minor Million - the rarest minor of all.

Highlight of the programme is a special rendition of 'Jingle Bells' from a Morris Minor 'choir.'

Martin has a soft spot for the little car - often described as a large jelly mould with a speedometer sitting like a clock on the dashboard, and orange fingers for indicators. For it's time though, according to Stirling Moss, it was a nippy little car. Martin meets a mechanic who 'soups' the car up, owners like Dave Brown from 'The Mighty Boosh' and the drivers who 'danced ' their Morris Minors at the end of the Manchester Commonwealth Games .

Finally, using the horn, various clunks and clicks from the car door and boot, and a squeak from the chassis, he conducts a unique version of ' Jingle Bells' by the Morris Minor 'choir.'

Producers: Janet Graves and Geoff Bird
A Pennine production for BBC Radio 4.


-- which made me remember the far-off days of my childhood when the local vicar and a good number of other of the slightly better-off in my home, edge-of-London village pottered and spluttered and prettily popped about in them.

Made me smile, made me remember the few months I drove one (after the fairly current Morris 1100 and before the ancient Triumph Herald and succession of almost-as-old, easily maintainable Minis). Poop poop!

Made me remember the time during the mid 1980s when my Old Windsor terraced-house backgarden was filled with graphite rod sections (smashed in their drainpipe tubes by the Post Office and by various private carriers) supporting trussed tomatoes and propping up whatever flowers the current woman in my life was growing this summer...

All very nice added to the soft-focus memories of a boyhood fishing bamboo and biliously green glass on quieter (though often fish-free) waters reached by much-quieter, smaller roads. Could even bring a tear to me "old" eye, if I wasn't (despite being a lifelong dreamer of great dreams) such a feet-on-the-ground "beast".
 
Correction...I would have listened to that!

And that's what makes angling such a conversation piece - everybody has their own methods and tackle preferences, you can be as eccentric or as cutting edge as you prefer. I don't know of any other sport where you can be Mr Crabtree one weekend and Matt Hayes the other. We're a funny bunch...or maybe its just me (worryingly)... ;)
 
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