Tried & Tested: A Piker’s Progression - 11/01/2010

A Piker’s Progression By John Watson

David Hall revisits an iconic book that’s been completely updated and is a must for every predator angler

This is a most unusual book for a number of reasons. In 1991 John Watson wrote a ‘A Piker’s Progress’, a book that charted a lifetime in the pursuit of pike. It was a lovely book, especially for me, as it featured so many of the anglers I had met and who had written for me in the early years of Coarse Fisherman magazine. Names like Chris Binyon, Barry the Hat, Mick Brown, Bob Jackson, Barry Burton (sadly lost at sea while out fishing) and his brother Gord, Dave Ball, John Holden, Jim Lee, Steve Harper and a whole host of others. What makes this book unusual is that John has updated ‘A Piker’s Progress’ with new text and new photographs and added six new chapters – hence the new title. A friend of some 30 years, I once described ‘Watto’ as a “likable anarchist.” For as long as I have known him he has always lived his life to ‘Watto’s rules’. The words ‘out of bounds’ or ‘no fishing’ were an anathema to him, as he freely admits in this delightfully entertaining book. What makes it so readable is his sheer enthusiasm. Living in Blackpool as he did, he would strike out in all weathers to places as far afield as Bala Lake in Wales, Hobhole Drain near Boston, in Lincolnshire, Loch Lomond in Scotland, the Fenland drains, the Middle Level, the Sixteen and Forty Foot. And always in search of pike.

Based in Norfolk for the last 30 or so years, it seems that Watto has met, eaten, drank or fished with most of the great post-war big-fish men. For me it was a lovely walk down memory lane with tales of derring do and one or two that might just test the laws of libel. But written in such an easy style, there always was that ‘Just William’ aspect to Watto’s character, that ‘What me sir?’ The book doesn’t set out to make the reader a better piker, it sets out to entertain and it certainly does that. You can’t help liking John and I promise you if you like things ‘pikey’, you’ll like his book. Its great strength, apart from being delightfully entertaining, is that it captures the fun of fishing. I’ve never been a piker but I guess the measure of this book is that I read it from cover to cover. I was also delighted to find that on page 87 I got a mention. Albeit a scurrilous one – drink and drugs, you know the kind of thing. It’s a lovely book, which I will treasure for a long time to come.

• David Hall

A Piker’s Progression by John Watson

Available online at: www.pikersprogress.co.uk
Price: £35, plus £6 p&p
To order your copy, send a cheque for the full amount to John Watson, The Old Rectory, Church Lane, Stratton St Michael, Norwich, Norfolk NR15 2QB
Tel: 07939 68664