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The Fishing race

M

Mike Hodgkiss

Senior Member
Not strictly barbel talk ,but there is not much of that going on so here go's ... Some of you may remember a series of programmes , I think on the BBC with the above title . I think it was in the 80's . Basically it was four anglers [ I think it was four ] chasing around our green and pleasant land trying to catch as many species of fish that they could in a given time . If I recall correctly Jim Gibbinson was involved , someone called Gillespie , possibly Clive Gammon ? The programme was hugely entertaining , the prize for the winners was the '' Golden Maggot '' trophy . I have searched high and low for a copy but failed miserably . I would dearly love to obtain a copy even if on on VHS , can anyone help ? I did punt this on BFW a few years a go but with no luck . Please note this is NOT the fishing race thing that Mick Brown and Matt Hayes did . PS I have just had a quick Google , apparently it was made in the 70's and ran to a second series . Others are pursuing this gem , it would appear with little successs , here's hoping ....
 
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Yeah, i remember it. I think it was called the rod race??? It was on about the same time as Out of town with Jack Hargreaves.
Good luck with finding a copy...
 
Yep, remember it.
Clive Gammon and Gareth Edwards, Jim Gibbinson and Ian Gillespie. Presented by Ian Wooldridge.
Did record it but sadly now lost.
Cheers
Bob
 
Yea, I seem to remember them fishing a pool at a zoo for piranha and claiming the british record.
The object was to catch as many species as possible in the time frame given and The Golden Maggot was the trophy........
It was quite good, surely the BBC can help as Im pretty sure it was their programme
 
Found this:
Presented by Ian Wooldridge.
Broadcast Dates: BBC 2, 7 January 1976 to 13 April 1977 (12 episodes in 2 series)
The first series featured Dennis Darkin and John Darling, Brian Harris and Clive Gammon, and Ian Gillespie and Jim Gibbinson. The second series, set in Sweden, had as competitors Clive Gammon and Gareth Edwards (the Welsh rugby player), Kevin Linnane and Terry Eustace, Jim Gibbinson and Ian Gillespie. The prize for the winners was the Golden Maggot Trophy.
Good luck in your quest,
Cheers
Bob
 
Thanks Bob and everyone else . At least my memory is not completely shot , I remembered some of the details although I was a decade out ! Let's see if someone on BFW can come up with a copy or an idea where to get one . The quest continues ....
 
I vaguely remember it , 3 things that stick out was it was teams of 2 , at one point 2 sneaked into somewhere and fished raw meat and on swinging the fish on one of them pronounced bet no one else gets one of these , it was a piranha !!!!!!!!!! the last incident was in the 2nd series in Sweden when 2 young ladies rowed past one of the teams topless to which one guy said to the other bet the others sent them to distract us but its not working is it , then cameraman panned to the guy he was fishing with and he was looking through some bino's lol
 
I had some involvement in this as I was one of the team who made the rods for the final which was fished in a boat off Newhaven. The company I worked for was Going Brothers (long gone) in Southend on Sea. We made Jim Gibbinson Carp and Pike Rods, John Darling Bass Rods amongst others.

Jim was local to Southend and his younger brother Martin worked there as well. I think Martin now works for a company that make carp baits.

Ian Gillespie died quite some years ago of heart disease I think. The Pirahnas were in a small zoo in Basildon. Can't remember the name of the place but it was some sort of leisure complex. It would have been sometime around 1974-76.

Jim Gibbinson came in one day and showed us the trophy which I have held in my hand.
 
If I remember correctly it was 1 point for each species and a bonus point for the biggest of each species. Gibbinson and Gillespie chartered a boat, I think it was fishing the Thames estuary, and caught eel after eel. Clive Gammon had a huge paddy. He was feeding a school of Chub, Balcombe area of the upper Sussex Ouse I think, and a camera man came crashing down the bank and spooked them all. I can remember Clive fishing from a small boat in Chichester Harbour for Mullet. One day he forgot about the contest, and spent a wasteful amount of time trying to catch a salmon on a prawn. Maybe there is some of that in a lot of us. I might spend tomorrow trying to catch a barbel, on a freezing cold day, after a frost,from the Sussex Ouse. If it is easy, why bother?
Shaun.
 
The boat Jim and Ian fished on was the Aquamanda skippered by John Rawle out of Bradwell Marina.

John did not own the boat but the guy who did got nicked by HM Coastguard one day when he was acting as a supply vessel to one of the pirate radio stations moored offshore.

John worked in another of the local tackle shops when he was not out on the boat. On our afternoons off he used to take us out just for the cost of the diesel used. I'm sure the owner was not aware.

John has since become a legend in his field with his own boat here, a guest house for anglers to stay in and a fishing business in Florida.
 
John Newman said:
The boat Jim and Ian fished on was the Aquamanda skippered by John Rawle out of Bradwell Marina.

John did not own the boat but the guy who did got nicked by HM Coastguard one day when he was acting as a supply vessel to one of the pirate radio stations moored offshore.

John worked in another of the local tackle shops when he was not out on the boat. On our afternoons off he used to take us out just for the cost of the diesel used. I'm sure the owner was not aware.

John has since become a legend in his field with his own boat here, a guest house for anglers to stay in and a fishing business in Florida.
Click to expand...

Now THAT is how to make a hobby pay for itself :D

Cheers, Dave.
 
No wonder I have no memory of this, between 73 and 77 I was living in Germany and having the time of my life pursuing my own personal rod race.
Fishing was the furthest thing from my mind during those four mad years.
 
John Newman said:
I had some involvement in this as I was one of the team who made the rods for the final which was fished in a boat off Newhaven. The company I worked for was Going Brothers (long gone) in Southend on Sea. We made Jim Gibbinson Carp and Pike Rods, John Darling Bass Rods amongst others.

Jim was local to Southend and his younger brother Martin worked there as well. I think Martin now works for a company that make carp baits.

Ian Gillespie died quite some years ago of heart disease I think. The Pirahnas were in a small zoo in Basildon. Can't remember the name of the place but it was some sort of leisure complex. It would have been sometime around 1974-76.

Jim Gibbinson came in one day and showed us the trophy which I have held in my hand.
Click to expand...
My God John, now you have brought back some memories, when i was a DJ, i can remember being at a village hall in Hanningfield with the Gibbinson brothers, it was Martin who was getting married and i was the DJ, Jim and Ricky would take it in turns to stand on a chair in the corner fiddling about in a cupboard, when i asked them what they was doing, the reply came back that they were topping up the electic meter with coins.
Happy days.
Brian.
PS, could the complex at Basildon be called Aquatels.
 
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Yes it was Aquatels. Is it stll in existence? I remember there was a lake there we fished one time and blanked.

I keep a look out for the old Gibbinson carp rods on ebay but not managed to find one yet.

Martin is a consultant for Essex Carp Baits, Jim was a primary school teacher.

I left the Essex area in 1976.
 
Aquatels did hold enormous Bream, yes it is still there, Ricky Gibbinson was the local policeman.
In fact Ricky, Martin, John Rawle and his dad Ernie, along with Del Romang,
( Delkin Alarms) and Derek Ritchie all belonged to Prittlewell and District Angling Club, in fact Derek lived just a few doors away from the clubs lake, i can also remember in the very early days Dean Macey was being introduced to angling at this great water.
Did you know the lake at Eastwood Rise ?
Brian
PS I do believe some filming was done for "The Fishing Race" at the Kings Club lake on Canvey Island, where Dean Macey lived.
http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/authors/introjim.htm
 
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