Dylan Wrathall

This blogging lark has hidden depths, one of them being the privilege of connecting with fellow bloggers in a far deeper way than just reading what they write and leaving the odd comment on their blog. I have, over the years, met up with several of them and corresponded on a more personal level with a few more. One of them was Dylan Wrathall. His blog 'Of Esox and observations' was a regular stop off of mine. At first glance it seemed to be mainly about fishing, something that I have not taken part in since I was a surly teenager being dragged along to a riverbank by my Dad and fishing brothers. But Dylan's reputation went far beyond that of an angler as he was a well-known Kent birder, who for a time tore across the county in pursuit of year list records, so I knew that there would be a fair number of ornithological nuggets to find, particularly from his home in Dumpton. And together with the posts about birds you'd also find those dealing with moths, butterflies, insects and his laid back take on life in general. Something for everyone.

Dyl and I got off to a rocky start, with a 'keyboard warrior' exchange about pan-listing and the practice of collecting voucher specimens with which to prove identifications. It was soon obvious that Dylan's bark was a lot worse than his bite and this was just a case of his self-confessed 'shooting from the hip' when it came to exchanging thoughts and ideas. Very soon we were swapping conciliatory emails away from the blogger platform and continued to correspond on a fairly regular basis, especially when either of us went through good or bad times - there was always a virtual 'pat on the back' or an 'arm round the shoulder' from him which I hope I reciprocated with.

Dylan's fishing journey was nothing short of fantastic. From angling the Tring reservoirs in Hertfordshire as a youth, to targeting specimen fish in Scotland and planning campaigns across the waters in East Kent, his fishing life was one well lived and totally fulfilled. His blog was full of writings and photographs that took the reader on a wonderful journey not just through Dyl's time on the river, loch and reservoir bank but also into the very history of angling in Britain over the last 60 years. I devoured his posts even though I did not fish because his writing and the detail used was infectious. I put him onto Luke Jennings’s wonderful book 'Blood Knots' and suggested to him that the following quote summed up his angling and - if you replaced the word ‘fish’ with ‘birds’ - our birding:

"The late Bernard Venables, author of the classic Mr Crabtree fishing books, used to say that there are three stages to the angler's evolution. To begin with, as a child, you just want to catch fish - any fish. Then you move to the stage where you want to catch big fish. And finally, with nothing left to prove, you reach a place where it's the manner of the catch that counts, the rigour and challenge of it, at which point the whole thing takes on an intellectual and perhaps even a philosophical cast."

He agreed! Part of the charm of his blog was that he introduced the reader to his family of which he was obviously close to and very proud - his late wife Bev and son Benno immediately spring to mind. He also took us readers with him on his frequent holidays to the Greek Islands. I had never met the man but felt as if I knew him. Yesterday I received a message from Wes Attridge letting me know that after a short illness Dyl had passed away. It was a shock. His last post was made on 24 December last year, wishing his blog visitors a Merry Christmas and mentioning that things had not been too good for him recently.  Re-reading his last few posts, with hindsight, is difficult.

To his family I can only offer my sincere condolences and hope that they realise that he has left a big impression on those that knew him (whether we knew him virtually or in reality). To Dyl I will say this - “tight lines my friend.”