Oliver's videos minus vanity plus voddie tonic help me wait for autumn

Do you smell autumn? I do. I am already fantasising about winter things: steak and kidney pies, hot chocolate, and my new parka which I am dying to wear. The fishing picnic, too, will have to change to incorporate things that keep me warm, and lots of snacks – essential to keep me from becoming miserable upon a winter's river bank. I can't wait. (Remind me of this when I am freezing and longing for the sun's touch.)

Until then, I've taken a sort of hiatus from fishing (although I may be fishing as you read this) for a few weeks. I think, as I did so much of it over the summer, I needed to miss fishing and crave it again. So as I lolled around the house drinking a voddie tonic in a Martini glass (the absolute secret is not to use too much tonic) I picked up my September issue of Fly Fishing and Fly Tying magazine. It had a free gift on the front, which is unusual for FFFT. It was a CD ROM. Having recently upgraded to a computer that can actually play them, I slipped it in with some eagerness. And there was Oliver Edwards! Fishing, tying flies... even though I was on my second voddie tonic I could see it was all in absolutely sparkling, film-like quality. The photography was amazing.

Now, you'll rarely find me in front of a fishing programme or video. The only fishing programme I've ever liked was Tales from the River Bank which was superb. But everything else leaves me fidgeting after 25 seconds. There's only so long I can watch a man congratulate himself for catching fish ("oooh, there's a beauty"). I think a lot of people think that just because fishermen tend to be mad about their sport, they will put up with watching any old crap. This CD was an excerpt from a couple of Oliver's videos (there are six in total), which I vaguely remembered seeing in Sportfish (they have quite handsome navy blue covers) but I'd not really bothered with them, for all the aforementioned reasons. But now! I sent off for all six and eagerly awaited their arrival. Christmas had come early.

Unlike almost every other presenter of fishing "stuff" I'd previously seen, Oliver has no vanity. These videos aren't about him, but rather his knowledge. There's a subtle difference. His approach is intelligent, inclusive and refined. The general pattern goes something like this: introduction, fishing, looking at bugs, fishing/casting tips, fly tying. The fly tying bit will elicit cries of "oh, so THAT'S how you do it!". Oliver's flies are individualistic, extremely precise (bordering on the anal – well, he did used to be a design draughtsman) and just to warn you, your flies will probably not look like his to begin with and it'll make you cry. Never mind, we can all strive to do better.

I think my favourite of the four videos I've so far watched was the one where Oliver dredges the river bed (if you've never done this for real, this is a good second best. It opens up your eyes to what's going on beneath your feet. "I wanted," Oliver told me when I asked him about these videos, "to put the fly back into fly fishing.") And then he goes on to explain all about chalk stream entomology in the video of the same name. I could have handled a whole cassette just about bugs, because I find it fascinating, although I had to pause and rewind quite a bit to get my head round the entomological stuff (I still haven't irequite managed it). But it's all extremely nourishing: and if any TV exec out there has any sense they will replace the fishing pap that's currently on our screens with something actually worth watching.

The videos aren't cheap in any sense of the word: £18.99 each plus p&p (for my transatlantic readers – hello! – they also come in NTSC TV format). But Christmas is not too long away (yay!) and they'd make super presents. You can find out more at www.essential-skills.tv or telephone 020 7434 0332. And, just in case you're wondering, no one is paying me to say any of this (don't you know me at all?) I'm just so glad to see someone, somewhere producing something of quality and with a bit of gravitas. I think such projects need to be encouraged.

But back to talk of winter picnics. Carluccio's do this mental hot chocolate. I can't remember exactly what it's called but it comes in a tub and when you make it up it's so rich you're meant to drink it in teeny cups. It blows your head off. I can't help thinking that this, with just a drop of whisky, would make a very fine drink of a fishing morning.

a.barbieri@independent.co.uk