" I get into the most dreadful trouble with my fellow members of the Carp Catchers' Club whenever I fish in their company. My rods are examined minutely with many shakings of the head, and the state of my reels and lines cause sundry clicks of the tongue. You see, the truth is that if you are to be an expert fisherman you must be a very tidy, precise sort of person, who can fiddle with almost invisible flies and casts and keep every particle of tackle in its proper place. This is utterly beyond me. My reels get dirty, even rusty, I am guilty of using the same line season after season and I never, under any circumstances, take the trouble to dry it. So you can see why I do not consider myself a fit person to offer advice to anyone. Yet strange as it may seem, I have caught a large carp and have played and landed large trout so I am not a complete duffer. Moreover I possess (though I say it myself) a keen eye for likely localities and am blessed with that subtle sixth sense of the sportsman, the sort of sense which tells me the best place to waylay a wily greylag goose on the dawn flight and the most likely lie for a trout in a brook. "
"BB" (Wood Pool)
“BB” - DENYS WATKINS-PITCHFORD
Writer and illustrator Denys Watkins-Pitchford, better known as “BB”, was born in Lamport, Northamptonshire on 25th July, 1905. His father, was the rector of All Hallows Church in Lamport and Denys was his second son (one of twins). “BB” grew up in Lamport Rectory, a large house in a rural setting and it was here he developed a great love of the outdoors. “BB” was first encouraged to go fishing by an angling uncle, who taught him how to fish for trout. However, "BB" was obsessed with carp, ever since he first discovered one as a small child, in a pond along a country lane.
"BB" began his writing career after leaving Art School, when he obtained a position as assistant art master at Rugby College. He remained there for seventeen years and regularly contributed to the Shooting Times magazine. His first book The Sportsman's Bedside Book was published in 1937. He wrote almost all his book using the pen name "BB" (the size of lead shot used for shooting geese), though he continued to sign his illustrations with his real name. In 1949 he published Be Quiet and Go A-Angling under the name of Michael Traherne, a pseudonym he used only once as sales of the book suffered as a result and he was later to re-release the book under the title A Fisherman's Folly using his usual name "BB". This was to be his last book, published in 1987. He wrote more than fifty books, many of them children's stories and In 1942 he won the Carnegie Medal for The Little Grey Men. 'BB' also illustrated over thirty books by other authors.
Though he went on to become an enthusiastic all-round angler, catching salmon and trout, that vision in a carp pond stayed with him all his life and resulted in the publication of Confessions of a Carp Fisher, in 1951. He also played a leading role in the legendary Carp Catchers’ Club, along with Richard Walker and Maurice Ingham. In 1989 his contribution to literature was officially recognised when he was awarded the MBE. He lived for many years at the Round House, Sudborough and died in 1990 at the age of eighty-five. In 2000 the BB Society was formed as a focus for admirers and collectors of "BB"s books, paintings and illustrations.
A potted biography of "BB" is available in Andrew Herd's book Angling Giants.
Medlar titles By "BB":
Be Quiet and Go A-Angling (written as Michael Traherne) 1949, Medlar edition 1998 and 2011
The Whopper 1967, Medlar edition 1997 and 2011
A Carp Water (Wood Pool) 1958, Medlar edition 1996 and 2011
"BB" also contributed significantly to the The Carp Catchers' Club.
Writer and illustrator Denys Watkins-Pitchford, better known as “BB”, was born in Lamport, Northamptonshire on 25th July, 1905. His father, was the rector of All Hallows Church in Lamport and Denys was his second son (one of twins). “BB” grew up in Lamport Rectory, a large house in a rural setting and it was here he developed a great love of the outdoors. “BB” was first encouraged to go fishing by an angling uncle, who taught him how to fish for trout. However, "BB" was obsessed with carp, ever since he first discovered one as a small child, in a pond along a country lane.
"BB" began his writing career after leaving Art School, when he obtained a position as assistant art master at Rugby College. He remained there for seventeen years and regularly contributed to the Shooting Times magazine. His first book The Sportsman's Bedside Book was published in 1937. He wrote almost all his book using the pen name "BB" (the size of lead shot used for shooting geese), though he continued to sign his illustrations with his real name. In 1949 he published Be Quiet and Go A-Angling under the name of Michael Traherne, a pseudonym he used only once as sales of the book suffered as a result and he was later to re-release the book under the title A Fisherman's Folly using his usual name "BB". This was to be his last book, published in 1987. He wrote more than fifty books, many of them children's stories and In 1942 he won the Carnegie Medal for The Little Grey Men. 'BB' also illustrated over thirty books by other authors.
Though he went on to become an enthusiastic all-round angler, catching salmon and trout, that vision in a carp pond stayed with him all his life and resulted in the publication of Confessions of a Carp Fisher, in 1951. He also played a leading role in the legendary Carp Catchers’ Club, along with Richard Walker and Maurice Ingham. In 1989 his contribution to literature was officially recognised when he was awarded the MBE. He lived for many years at the Round House, Sudborough and died in 1990 at the age of eighty-five. In 2000 the BB Society was formed as a focus for admirers and collectors of "BB"s books, paintings and illustrations.
A potted biography of "BB" is available in Andrew Herd's book Angling Giants.
Medlar titles By "BB":
Be Quiet and Go A-Angling (written as Michael Traherne) 1949, Medlar edition 1998 and 2011
The Whopper 1967, Medlar edition 1997 and 2011
A Carp Water (Wood Pool) 1958, Medlar edition 1996 and 2011
"BB" also contributed significantly to the The Carp Catchers' Club.