There is no doubt that Zyg Gregorek is an angling obsessive — or that his various “slams” demonstrate real angling skill, great determination and, not least, a pocket deep enough to take him to the exotic locations where the fish he pursues are found.

But in truth angling has obsessives by the creelful. The sport is so complex, its attractions so varied and the numbers pursuing it so great that statistically it could not be otherwise.

And so, outside the relatively tiny numbers who have the interest and means to pursue the same fish, Gregorek’s achievements will make scarcely a ripple.

They have little relevance to British angling as a whole — and none at all to the man slinging his hook from Scarborough pier.

Indeed, the term “slam” itself is almost meaningless. It is applied to a near-infinite combination of species, depending on their availability in the location being tackled and the equipment being used. For saltwater fly-fishermen in the tropics where Gregorek pursues many of his fish, for example, the best-known grand slam is made up of entirely different species — tarpon, permit and bonefish.

Not every angling obsessive is interested in exotic combinations or in physically big fish, as is sometimes supposed.

Denis Flack, of Lakenheath, Suffolk, is one of Britain’s most interesting specialists. Flack operates at the other end of the scale to Gregorek: he has dedicated much of his life to catching little fish — monster little fish. He has made a speciality of catching the largest specimens of the tiniest fish in freshwater.

So far, his dedication has given him the British records for the three-spined stickleback (an arm-wrenching seven grams); for the bitterling (a bone-grinding 21 grams) and for the bleak (positively hospitalising at 114 grams), among others.

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