Garth Ethelston - Nash Off The Hook Podcast - S2 Episode 75

This week joining Hassan is a man who has been a huge part of the fishing industry for over 20 years. He’s a very modest understated man who has caught incredible fish from rivers and lakes across the UK both back in the “good old days” and he’s still out there doing it today! Now an integral part of Blakes Baits it’s the one and only Garth Ethelston.

Garth is somewhat of a “secret squirrel” with a huge catalogue of incredible carp captures from iconic history waters such as Horton back in the 1990s through to modern day non publicity waters. He also has a huge number of funny tales about the great and good of carp fishing who he’s shared the bank and worked with over the years. In the podcast he finally speak about it all.

Starting with his days fishing around Derbyshire where he was born, he talks about discovering carp fishing with his brother as well as his ever present love affair with river fishing, a passion which he takes with him onto the Thames where he targets the chub and barbel now.

Garth talks about Horton and how this became a huge influence on him and how he found himself on there doing work experience as a schoolboy. During his years spent on there whilst doing his university degree he talks about his angling and the infamous great anglers he met on there as well as the crazy times down the local pub. He talks about the sadness of the big fish kill and how he fished the lake after this managing to catch iconic carp including shoulders.

Garth continued his angling quests under the influence of Ian Russell who he met and befriended him on the Horton Complex. Garth shares a number of stories about the more “interesting” antics the pair go up to as they fished Summerleaze and Fox pool together post Horton. Garth also accredits a huge amount to Ian in terms of him influencing his angling and getting him into the fishing industry as a career.

Garth talks about his more modern angling and why he has chosen to go down the non-publicity water route. He does share an awesome chapter on the North Herts Club water which lead to him capturing some incredible carp whilst suffering from a heart condition which required three separate surgeries to fix.

Finally, Garth talks about his career from his early days at Gardner, DHP, Korda and now his work at Blakes Baits. He talks about his life, the future his passion for the river and how he splits his precious time between carp fishing and the river. Gareth is a brilliant storyteller, such a humble and well respected bloke (rightly so) and this podcast has everything you could want in terms of humour, history, mega carp and everything in between.