Sixty Years a Fisherman

John Wilson’s influence upon British angling, through his photography and writing spans nearly four decades and includes over 30 hardback books, plus another 30 in which he has contributed either copy, photos or both. From crewing on a big game boat whilst living in the tropics, to fishing around the world when working on a cruise ship, to owning and running a Norwich tackle shop for over 25 years, his enthusiasm and involvement with angling has never waned. His long running series for Anglia Television ‘Go Fishing’ which was regularly screened on Channel 4 (he made 108 half hour programmes) spanned a staggering 17 years, followed by the much acclaimed ‘Fishing Safaris’ and ‘Dream Fishing’ series for Discovery Television.

Together with his own sell through videos and DVDs, over 150 half hour TV programmes featuring John’s unique, often humorous and very personal slant on angling have appeared on our TV screens during these last two decades. In 2003 in their ‘50 years of fishing’ birthday special, Angling Times, Britain’s largest angling publication, voted John the greatest angler of all time. Ask a non-angler to name someone in fishing and the name ‘Wilson’ immediately comes up. In this honest, sometimes even raunchy and controversial autobiography (politicians and water authorities beware) John documents the 60 years he has loved going fishing.