Mick Brown

"Professional Pike Angler"

Unless you have been living under a stone or in the big brother house for the last decade or more, then most anglers will have heard of Mick Brown. As one of the UK’s leading anglers Mick has achieved a staggering amount in his angling career but is probably best known for his TV partnership with Matt Hayes. It is a struggle to think of a more natural pairing than Matt and Mick and this has resulted in some great TV programmes and though Mick has made his name in print as predominantly a predator angler, he has achieved great crossover appeal thanks to the TV.

Mick’s first book “The practice and the passion” has been in print for twenty years with Crowood and in that time has sold over 15,000 copies, so it was about time that a new book from his pen hit the shelves, and now it has.

First impressions are everything with a book and though they say never judge a book by its cover, a good cover will unquestionably help sell a book. Here there is no problem as the cover is a mix of a nice catch shot of a big pike in the snow and a stunning scenic shot and the whole cover is very colourful, a theme that continues as you read through the pages as there are lots and lots of big full colour pictures of the best quality which you would expect for someone that writes regularly for magazines.

All the window dressing though would be nothing without good content and the book doesn’t fail here either. Mick has a writing style that I think makes him readable to any level. There is no over flowery description a la a John Bailey, but a no nonsense, approachable style very reminiscent of the author himself. There’s some great tales in the book too. I was particularly interested in the story of a certain thirty pound pike that was caught from one of my local rivers. Thirties from there are so rare and was hoping that there was maybe some big secret to its capture, but to read Mick’s reaction to catching it, the legs shaking and going slightly to pieces, made me smile as I think I would have been equally as blown away and yet Mick’s description of its capture also makes you think that it could be you on the very next bleep of a buzzer or dip of a float.

Mick covers within the pages of the book just about every method of pike fishing you could imagine. Not in a technical way, but in an anecdotal method that draws you into the story and allows you to grasp the mechanics of the method without being dry and boring. But there is more top the book than just the capture of fish. Mick also covers a little bit of piking politics, of how he has made his living from the sport and of course of his time in front of the cameras.

In many ways with the way that just about anyone now seems to be labelled as a “Consultant” or “Field tester”, this book may be almost a historical account of a period in time when it was possible to make a living from this side of the sport, as sadly Mick is probably one of a dying breed and it is really interesting to get his views on the way that he has earned his living.

To conclude I would urge anyone with even the remotest interest in pike angling to get your hands on a copy. It kept me gripped from page 1 until the end of the book, which came very late at night on the same day as I started reading it and you can’t really get a better testament to the book than that!

Price is £28 + postage and packing from mickbrownangling.com