We've been here before? With an archive of many, many thousands of very sad, old, slides, stored inside shabby boxes and carousel cartridges, it comes as no surprise that they're not in particularly good condition. However, what they do have is an incredible ability to transport me back to an insane period of my life, one where responsibility was completely ignored due to the obsessional desire to chase big fish!
Why do I have so many? Simple really. I worked for Kodak in the Distribution - Southern Region Warehouse, during the eighties, and the ability to obtain, process paid, Kodachrome, slide film, at a very competitive(?) price, was a brilliant spin-off.
Looking back through these snap shots has been an incredible insight into the crazy journey that my angling has taken me on. There are so many images of fish of which I have absolutely no idea where, or when, they were taken? This is the very opposite to modern, digital image capture, where date, time, camera model and umpteen other statistics are recorded as standard. If I'm lucky there might be a hand written note to accompany a slide? One other nice distraction has been seeing the faces of some very old mates, many of whom I've not seen since leaving Hertfordshire in 1993.
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| Ronnie Thomas with a 23 lbs plus from Emberton Park |
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| Cuddles with a Zed at Three Holes |
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| Paul (Elbs) Elborn with another Fenland Zed |
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| A Mapledurham pike - a low double from The Thames in the snow |
That they mean very little to the rest of humanity doesn't prevent me smiling as I revisit these memories.
The markings on that Emberton pike captured by Ronnie Thomas are simply stunning and is one of the most outstanding beautiful example of Esox I have seen!
ReplyDeleteHi Phil,
DeleteAs nice as that pike appears, I don't recall it being anything special, looks wise. My guess would be that the fish appears so much more striking due to unusual camera angle. All of the classical poses offer the fish on the same level as the camera in either the vertical or horizontal presentation. This snap-shot is a quick, one off, as Ron prepared to return the fish to the gin clear water of Grebe Lake. Really happy that you passed comment as it might be a photo that I will now deliberately attempt to recreate the next time a big pike is encountered.
All the best - Dylan
My collection of old fishing pics is tiny in comparison Dyl, but likewise makes me smile at the memories. Keep 'em coming I say...
ReplyDeleteMapledurham in the snow. Brilliant. Only fished it for pike a couple of times, and only remember catching a small one of about 7lb from the mill pool on sprat. Once drove down with two mates and found I'd left our deadbaits behind... Rob caught his first 4lb chub from Mapledurham when he was about 12 or 13. My one and only Thames carp caught there by accident while chubbing, an 11lb leather. Rob netted it for me. Yep. Memories. Great, aren't they?!
Mapledurham was very kind to me during those Kodak years. Loads of pike, top weight 20 lbs 1 oz, from that mill pool, plus some decent perch and topped off by a 9 lbs 2 oz barbel from a peg some way downstream. I'll have a look through my slides, there might be a blog post in it?
DeleteCheers for the comment - Dyl