January 24th an evening with Dilip Sarkar

'Dilip Sarkar was an original member of the Pike Anglers' Club of Great Britain, aged just 16, in 1977. A year later he succeeded Des Taylor as Regional Organiser for Worcestershire, a role Dilip enjoyed for two years. Growing up in Worcester, he has fished the rivers Severn and Teme for a lifetime, for a variety of species but especially pike and zander. A pioneering pike conservationist in this match and game dominated area, his recent work in setting up the East Diglis Predator Syndicate & Partnership is inspirational, drawing upon his long experience as a police officer championing the multi-agency approach to the problem solving. A dedicated river piking enthusiast, Dilip has caught big pike from both his local rivers and the Wye, and now enjoys targeting both pike and zander on the River Severn in particular. Dilip's Powerpoint presentation includes a little local history, personal history, tales of fishing with his schoolday friends, all still PAC members and with whom he still fishes, and a summary of where the Severn is today so far as pursuing specimen predators is concerned. Well-known for his huge enthusiasm for life and everything he does, Dilip is also the author of 30 books featuring the Spitfire aircraft, which he is now studying for his PhD, and the Battle of Britain. For this effort he was made an MBE in 2003 and elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Historical Society in 2006. His angling inspiration is drawn from the desire to better his 25.01 pike from the Severn (caught on 12 March 2011), catch a truly big Severn zander, and perhaps one day even catch a Wye 30 - something he was cheated of by fate back in 1982 and a tale he will re-tell with both angst and remarkably good humour! Dilip's passion for piking was rekindled two years ago by his wife, Karen, now an established angling artist, and son James, a fishery management student and contributor of the regular 'Young Pikers' page to Pikelines. Karen, also a PAC member, accompanies Dilip on his talks, providing a stand of her artwork. For more information please see www.karensarkarart.com and www.dilipsarkarmbe.co.uk. Dilip is currently, in fact, becoming increasingly involved with PAC again, contributing to both Pikelines and Pike & Predator, and in demand as a speaker by Regions all over the UK.
We are very sorry that we are unable to put on a meeting in December this year, but we are sure you will agree that Dilip's talk will be worth the wait. Please note that this is not the last Tuesday in the month. It is in fact the week before, this is the only date which is convenient for Dilip as he is talking at another region the following week.