fishing
October Opportunities OCTOBER USUALLY BRINGS A REFRESHING CHANGE TO OUR WATERS WITH COOLER WEATHER STIMULATING MANY SPECIES TO FEED HEAVILY PRIOR TO WINTER
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n a personal note October is the month when I seem to encounter more than my fair share of zoo creatures, undoubtedly silure, that make off at high speed with my carefully tied carp and barbel rigs. This year I intend to put a second, more substantial rod out to try and catch the culprits. With the increase in flow rates of the rivers and cooler water temperatures carp and barbel will forgo the shallower water they have spent the last few months in and move to deeper locations. Other species such as roach will also be found in deeper water as the number of suspended hatching insects in the water column decreases as the water cools. I like to fish for roach at the deep end of lakes and dams especially when the wind is blowing that way. Perch and pike are at their best at this time of year and it is a good time to use lures to catch these predators. These next two months are probably the best opportunities for increasing your personal best weights for most species. Go get ‘em! The Fishing Detective These days most rods and reels are identically formed and assembled by anonymous robots in the Far East, but it was not always the case. I have one or two unique items of tackle that were made by real people and it is possible with a bit of research to get to know a bit about the makers. Using online resources and some of the many books devoted to the history of fishing tackle I was able to piece together some history surrounding the makers of the old tackle that I own. One rod that had been mis-described in an auction listing, is endorsed ‘JA Walker, Alnwick’ and was made by James Alexander Walker who I discovered started his apprenticeship at his uncle’s firm of JJS Walker & Co. of Alnwick in 1907. His uncle John James Selby Walker was one of several cabinet makers recruited by the Hardy brothers to make fishing rods for their company in 1879. The Hardy brothers had steamed apart, or ‘reverse engineered’ as they called it, a split cane rod that had been imported
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from the American firm Leonard. Once they knew how these rods had been made they then used skilled local cabinet makers to build their own rods. John Walker was head of the rod making department when he left Hardy in 1907 to form his own business, and nephew James was his first apprentice.
By Clive Kenyon
born in the Midlands and had served time with two of England’s most famous reel makers - Ruben Heaton in Birmingham and Slaters of Newark - before being headhunted by Hardy in 1891 to design and produce ground breaking new models for them. He was head of the reel making side of things at Hardy when he left in October 1911 to join his friend and church fellow JJS Walker.
In 1913 JJS Walker & Co. had been joined by another former Hardy foreman. Charles Bampton, a specialist brass Initially working from JJS Walker’s worker trained as a naval instrument premises Dingley later founded his own maker before turning his hand to fishing company ‘The Climax Reel Works’ in 1916 equipment. Bampton made the brass and went on to produce highly sought fittings for rods and nets and on joining after reels in his Alnwick workshop for the company it became known as JJS many years. Dingley’s reels are famous for Walker their quality and were Bampton & Co. regarded as technically Each one of my old cane rods superior to the models sold by James worked for his uncle up and old reels has a story to tell the leading manufacturer, his to the late former employer, Hardy. 1920s when ill Reels of this type would be cast health forced him to sell the business in alloy by a specialist foundry using the to Farlows. new electro smelting process and left to Following John Walker’s retirement cure for several weeks. Following that it James Walker went into business on his would have been mounted in a lathe in own operating from a new workshop in order for all the holes to be cut or drilled Alnwick up to the outbreak of WW2. out, the casting trimmed and polished and Salmon and trout fly rods made by JA fitted with a hardened steel spindle. Then Walker, Alnwick with their typical claret all the brass and steel components - lever, wrappings and lock-fast ferrules were pawl, adjuster screw, flat springs and retailed by the most renown dealers and straps - had to be cut out of raw metal, are still very much sought after by shaped, drilled, tempered and fitted to the collectors. The one I have however is casting. An alloy spool would be cut out by definitely not a fly rod. The spacing and lathe, shaped, drilled and fitted with design of the lined rings, a delicate reel spokes, handles, a check cog, and drum seat above the slim handle points towards and the release mechanism. It would have this rod being a single handed trout taken Dingley over 27 working hours from spinning rod. It would have been designed putting the casting into the lathe to the specifically to be used with the newfinal polish of the finished reel. fangled threadline reels that were capable Many of Dingley’s reels have a distinctive of casting light lures long distances. This ‘D’ stamped somewhere inside, but his type of outfit was highly controversial in designs and craftsmanship are even more the 1930s with many prominent anglers recognisable, and you will find Dingley forecasting the demise of river trout due to made reels branded by the top retailers of the efficiency of spinning using what are the day who could specify which design now known as fixed spool reels. and finish they wanted for their reels that I also have a reel that shares the Walker / were then branded with their own trade Alnwick history in that it was made in the name. Each one of my old cane rods and same building where young James Walker old reels has a story to tell, and I find worked. The reel was made by William H. using rods and reels that have some Dingley who was responsible for the history far more satisfying than the development of two of Hardy’s finest reels; perfect, super smooth modern tackle that the ‘Perfect’ and the ‘Silex’. Dingley was has little if any character.
