Aged 90 and still hooked: Watty loving fishing in his 10th decade

Even though he has been fishing for almost all his life, Watty Harris does not have that many tales of ‘the one that got away’.

But Mr Harris, who has just celebrated his 90th birthday, was in his time one of the best anglers in Britain, and still loves to fish today.

Despite his years, the active pensioner from Shrewsbury says life is too short to sit in a chair and grow old.

He does a set of exercises every morning, loves to box – but can’t join a club because of his pacemaker – and, of course, still goes fishing.

And while he was in his 80s Mr Harris abseiled for charity down St Mary’s Church Tower in the town and even canoed the River Severn.

Although he had a full time job on the railways, Mr Harris used to spend every available moment he had fishing.

He said: “It was all river fishing then, today it is mainly commercial carp fishing in pools.

“It isn’t the same. It took years to learn how to fish the rivers with their changing moods and levels.

"There was a time when the banks of the River Severn would be lined with anglers, today you see very few and a lot of the river banks are inaccessible. It is such a shame.”

Mr Harris captained the Shrewsbury angling team many times and also belonged to a team called Menwal that was in the top five in the country.

He said: “At the time I earned about £45 a week on the railways. But at the weekend I could earn double that in an angling competition.”

He boxed, ran and played football way into his 50s and said he still enjoyed giving coaching tips to youngsters, adding: “I used to go to the boxing club to use the weights and machines but they would not let me put the gloves on because of my pacemaker.”

Now he contents himself with his daily exercise regime.

Last weekend a group of anglers called the GWR – God’s Waiting Room – celebrated Mr Harris’s birthday at the Peacock Pub in Shrewsbury.