Issue 154

In this issue, No 154

* The fish farmer Donald Leney is famed for creating the carp that once graced Redmire Pool. Now a huge admirer of Leney’s work is trying to continue the legacy of his Galician carp.
* Dolphins in the Amazon basin have learnt to let anglers do their fishing for them. They are causing a nuisance by following boats and stealing fish right off the hook.
* A man who has collected more than 300 prime cases of mounted fish by the world’s leading taxidermists is to open a museum and showroom in Wales.
* High Court judge Sir Peter Cresswell, who has just died aged 81, was a world expert on classic Atlantic salmon flies and owned arguably the world’s finest collection.
* Fish may have climbed out of the water for a life on land at least 10 million years earlier than previously believed.
* Flip Pallot, a man synonymous with saltwater fly-fishing, the host of the TV series Walker’s Cay Chronicles and founder of Hell’s Bay Boatworks, has died from cancer.
* A small fish left homes without power and caused a brush fire that affected more than an acre of land in Canadian village.
* An angler who won a kayak-fishing contest in the US has confessed to cheating for his victory by using staged pictures of his catch.
* King Charles III has withdrawn his royal patronage from a fish-farming company that was responsible for the escape of 500,000 salmon from its sites.
* The vendace, the rarest British freshwater fish, is flourishing after being introduced into a Scottish loch. It is only known at four sites across the British Isles.
* Richard Hewitt of Thomas Turner travels to Sweden to collect a vast collection of 12,000 Atlantic salmon flies by some of the world’s finest tyers.
* The Australian motor racing driver Peter Brock won many trophies – but the one he prized most was for a 87lb 12oz world record giant trevally.
* New moves are underway to curb the inexorable spread of fish-eating cormorants throughout Europe, where it’s estimated they now number around 2 million.
* A new strain of bass unique to three US states has been officially recognised as a new species. It has been named the Bartram’s bass after the naturalist William Bartram.
* An angler who went well over his permitted limit catch of walleye has been banned from fishing for six years and fined thousands of dollars.
* New Zealand has an enviable reputation for its clean pure waters, but research has found poor quality and widespread faecal contamination at more than 3500 lakes and rivers.
* John Mondora, a prolific writer and a man who had a huge influence on Australian recreational fishing, has died
* The Mitchell 300 sold more than 20 million copies, but there is still immense confusion over how to identify the earliest versions and exactly when they were made.
* A New Zealand fish has developed the ability to change its sex from female to male within minutes when the dominant male is removed from a group.
* All our Yesterdays heads back to 1937 to find the first imposition of laws to stop the indiscriminate killing of tarpon.
* A professional bass angler is facing charges of manslaughter after his boat ploughed into another and caused the deaths of its two occupants.
* The European gudgeon may grow to little more than 4oz, but it was once a fish that attracted the upper classes in Victorian times.
* Ken Fraser, the man who set the world record for bluefin tuna with a 1496lb monster off Nova Scotia, has died aged 81. Almost 50 years on, his record is still unchallenged.
* The absence of US bidders failed to affect the appeal of a very rare Haskell Minnow, which has just sold for £12,000 at Angling Auctions.
* Stefan Duma, the author of superbly researched books on the river Trent and Nottingham makers, has died.
* Hybridisation is going to cause an enormous headache, not just for those who hunt records but for the fish themselves as the purity of strains become increasingly corrupted.
* An autobiography of Kevin Ashurst, one of the very best match fishermen of all time, is due to be published next year.
* Neil Freeman believes a new initiative to protect chalkstream Atlantic salmon might just move things forward at last.
* John Bailey is renowned for heading into dangerous and distant climes, and has written widely about his adventures. But he says his days of derring-do trips are over.
* Richard Hewitt heads to Sweden to pick up a vast collection of 12,000 salmon flies by some of the leading tyers.
* Our books pages cover a listing all British cane rodmakers, a masterwork about Mary Orvis Marbury and the memories of John Gierach’s friend.
* We take a look at all the auction action of rarities at Angling Auctions and a vast lures sale at Morphy Auctions in Philadelphia that gross nearly $3m over three auctions.
* Different versions of Orvis’s iconic 1874 reel are still being found, thanks to Charles Orvis’s constant tampering with the design, writes Steve Woit.
* Keith Arthur is mystified by some clubs still insist on banning certain baits such as bloodworm and hemp.
* The belief that Albert Smalley was the inventor of the elder pith float is incorrect, Rod Fisher learns. It’s a lot older than we think.
* Our letter pages talk of memories of the Heads’ bookshop in Salisbury, and reveal new information about the tackle dealer Bambridge.
* We have expanded our diary to devote a whole page to let readers know about upcoming auctions, shows, tackle fairs and conventions.

And lots more…