We’ll Never Forget You, Rog

Rest in peace Roger Martin. Another inspirational angling friend who helped me so much when I was a young angler. Always positive. Always chatty. Sometimes too chatty, bless him!

Roger absolutely loved talking fishing. He used to ring me up regularly and chat for ages about the matches he’d been on in great detail. If I wasn’t in then he’d tell my mum or wife the same long stories instead, bless him! I even had answerphone messages 10 minutes long telling me what everyone had caught in his match. Still makes me chuckle.

I also still have the bloodworm scraping gear he kindly gave me. That was probably 30 years ago now. I’ll never forget being stood chest deep in the far bank basin of the Grand Union, learning about bloodworm scraping, narrowboats passing us by, each one wondering what we were both up to!

I was so made up when he won the big Shakespeare Veterans match at Evesham with a 9lb barbel and a 12lb carp from peg 3. Amazing feat! And he was 3rd another year too. Plenty of angling legends on those matches.

Such a friendly guy with a very big heart. So many fond memories, especially on the canals. Rest in peace my friend.