Drawing on Angling Experience by Ned Pankhurst
$35.00
Drawing on (angling) Experience - a collision of art, science, fishing and life - By Ned Pankhurst
The chance find in a Bristol bookstore in 1981 of an Edwardian illustrated fishing diary started trainee zoology researcher Ned Pankhurst on a gentle obsession to record his fly fishing escapades in a series of illustrated diaries. The obsession has endured for over forty years and follows his path through life, career as a fish biologist, amateur artist and fly angler across continents and oceans. The diaries form the basis for “Drawing on (angling) Experience”, capturing his life as a research scientist and manager, the satisfying intersection of fly fishing and science and the insights this delivers, and the happy fact that a research career can take you to many places, most of them with fly fishing. Fishing is seldom solely a solo event and so it is here. The diaries present a parade of fishing mentors and companions, some of whom have survived 45 years of the author’s angling company among the detritus of fishing triumphs and failures, bad jokes, observations on life; and the quiet understanding that it can’t last forever so you need to make every trip count.
Ned Pankhurst is a fish biologist with degrees in zoology from the University of Otago (New Zealand), and Bristol (UK). His profession has taken him around the world and provided the opportunity to study, conduct research, and to flyfish in many countries. Early in the journey he decided to capture his experiences in drawing, paintings and diary entries, a habit that has endured for 45 years.
His research background is in the reproductive and sensory physiology of fishes across a range of marine, freshwater, Antarctic and deep ocean, and tropical habitats, in the multiple contexts of conservation biology, climate change effects, fisheries management and sustainable aquaculture. For mostly good scientific reasons, some of that research has involved fishing, and the capacity to combine science with an angling addition has provided unique insights into both the lives of fishes and the process of fishing itself.
He has held senior roles across three Australian universities, is now retired and lives in Launceston, Tasmania. He is married and has two adult sons, one of whom fly-fishes and the other is a scientist, suggesting that they were listening at the dinner table.