NEIGHBOURS and friends in Bere Ferrers have been paying tribute to well known fisherman Allen Jewitt who died last week.

Mr Jewitt, 70, spent the last 40 years of life living on the River Tamar and spent much of his time at Weir Quay here he made many friends.

Weir Quay boatyard owner Mike Hooton said Mr Jewitt was a Cornishman by birth and he learnt fishing from his father.

'When the time came for schooling he left the family boat and walked up the long hill to the village school to present the headmaster with an 8lb sea trout as a gift from his father,' he said.

'The headmaster accepted the gift and then wisely said that Allen would be better off at home on the river, learning from his father. He never went back.'

Mr Hotton said despite living on one of the most remote waterways of England, Mr Jewitt was not a lonely man, because, on his own admission, he was married to the river and he enjoyed the company of others when he was inclined to do so.

He had sired two daughters, Sheena and Faye, by different woman, their names joined together to make the name of his last boat.

Mr Jewitt netted salmon. He was the last full time commercial fisherman on the river.

He laid down his nets in 2006 when the Ministry bought out his license to preserve stocks of salmon in the river and thereby closed the book on a working lifestyle that stretched back for millennia.

'From then on he concentrated on eel trapping, rowing out with his nest of hoops falling from the stern and collecting barrels of live eels which he sold to a Dutchman by the stone for the European market,' added Mr Hooton.

'He gave that up in 2010 and gave his precious traps to a younger man.'

In later years the fisherman was almost a local celebrity, giving talks about life on the Tamar at all the sailing clubs and parish halls in the region, always commanding full houses.

Mr Hooton said Mr Jewitt would be missed greatly.

'From now on when I go upstream — tomorrow or next Thursday or in 20 years time, or when I see the morning mist hang late on the river, I will be thinking of Allen.'

Trish Dugmore said Mr Jewitt was her nearest neighbour and part of her landscape for 37 years.

She often pulled nets in with him.

'Most of our conversations were across 20 yards of water but sometimes he'd climb up the steep bank to the house,' she said.

'He marvelled always at the early wild violets and now I will never see one without remembering him.

'My life and many others will be diminished without him.'