Tom Cull
Pike Fly Fishing Association Vice-Chairman & East RO
Growing up I always had a fascination with water and what lay beneath it. Without having and family or friends who fished to show me the ropes I learnt for myself the hard way picking up what I could from books and magazines and testing it out on the local rivers and small still waters. Often cycling down to the river with my rod strapped to my handlebars and a rucksack with what limited tackle I had, the way so many of us are introduced to fishing. Fly fishing was something I read about but was so far removed from what I was doing that it seemed completely inaccessible. Fast forward to my 20’s when a friend at work revealed he had fly fished when he was younger and was going to do a beginner's course with Anglian Water to get started again. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance and spent the next few years trout fishing, first on still waters and then rekindling my love of river fishing, which remains my passion. Living quite a distance from my nearest trout stream I began to seek out other species on the fly which led me inevitably to pike. A fish I actively feared as a child suddenly captured me, and the rest, as they say, is history.