Podcast Drop – Simon Hartop – Pioneering Spirit

We’re back, a few days later than normal due to the festive break but we have a fantastic podcast to kick start 2026. This month we have two great guests, first up is Jake Davoile, a Fisheries Management Advisor who works for the @angling_trust on a variety of predation projects including the one I really wanted to discuss, seal predation. Yes you read that right, it’s a far bigger issue than many even know and Jake plus others have been working tirelessly to re-home seals that ended up in the river Nene with devastating impacts to fish populations. This really is a must-listen as seals in our freshwater systems are on the rise and sadly seal predation has decimated many freshwater river sections in recent years, including a section of the Thames that I was fishing only last year.

We follow that with a thoroughly enjoyable chat with @si_hartop . Simon once caught a carp that rocked the angling world, almost unknown at the time but in my opinion equally as impactful as the Black Mirror but one even harder to catch. We get an insight into that campaign, as well as his time on the Thames and how fishing for odd uns, carp with very few captures has consumed him over the years. It’s not all carp, it was wonderful to touch on Si’s editorial work also with the BCSG magazine and his involvement with Gaz’s Subsurface journals too. To add a little slice of nostalgia to the mix I got to record this chat on Si’s old Thames boat, the Griffin as by some strange turn of fate my good friend Liam now owns it and it’s taken on a new chapter in it’s angling life. Hope you enjoy it and Happy New Year to all our listeners.