Page 13 of 14: Stonar then College Reservoir 1987 and 1989

Stonar Memories ... 

An overview of Stonar, nicked off the interweb from the C&DAA's website and placed here just to make my Blog look a little more pretty than it otherwise might be. I'm having fun even if you as a reader perhaps aren't? In the late 1980's the Lake wasn't being run by a club like C&DAA but was purely a day ticket water (charging £2.00 per day) called Stonar Lake (Water Activities Centre) with an address in Sandwich. I'm not sure when Canterbury and District took over but it was well after my time.

I fished a few areas of the Lake back then but this was my favourite spot. I hate to think how deep much of the lake is/was and you were frightened to plumb the areas out too hard as inevitably you'd get snagged up on whatever foreign objects laid unseen beneath the water. This swim had a shallow shelf around the edge of the bank for about fifteen yards or so, hence I ended up baiting and pretty much fishing the margins. Some of the other swims were full of all sorts of rubbish which made them hard to fish or else were so deep that it used to put me off even trying. I'd not be surprised if some of the areas out in the middle were forty or fifty feet deep? 

By 1989 I was all out of places to fish. Geoff had gone right off fishing Yateley as I remember it (??) preferring Darenth (which I hated) so the only local places that I had any access to for Carp by 1989 were Chilham Castle and Stonar, a place only recently stocked with many tiny Carp. I did tag along with Jock and Martin Daley, cadging a lift to Yateley after getting booted out of the C&DAA, but not very often by '89 ... if at all in retrospect? I think I was done with Yateley by 1988 even though I did get a ticket for the 1988/9 season. I would hazard a guess that I pretty much fished just Chilham and Stonar by this time? Bamber was on the scene by the late '80's, being a full partner in the bait business and I can remember going to Chilham with him a couple of times, otherwise all I did was the odd session on Stonar for a touch of easy tiddler bashing Carping. I used to quite enjoy Stonar though only from one swim, a spot where there was a nice ridge of shallow relatively un-snaggy water round on the river bank side of the pit. Stonar was incredibly deep and also incredibly snaggy too. I'd usually just pop down for a one day/one night session, bash out a few Carp and then go home, sort of scratching an itch fishing just to get the rod bent. I did a few winter sessions there, it was still easy to get those Carp feeding no matter how cold the temperature fell, well within reason anyway. 

A winter scene, Stonar, 1989.

I must have already been planning to fish Stonar for the long haul as I found a photo album full of photos of each tiny Carp showing the weight and both sides for future recognition. Some of these Carp were lovely looking fish and unlike anywhere locally had a fair head of fully scaled mirrors. Little did I know at the time but within a year I'd have given up fishing entirely.

The heaviest Stonar common I could find amongst these photos was this one at 9 lb 8 oz ... 

... the largest mirror at just 10 lbs 12 oz.

I caught this fully scaled mirror twice, here in the winter of 1988, the first year I tried Stonar I'd guess? I nicknamed it as Arnie after the famous cricketer Arnie Sidebottom as the fish was distorted and its vent was sticking out of its flank as you can see if you look closely just above the anal fin ... hence sidebottom. I'm not entirely certain as to who it is holding this Carp in the photo but if I was to take an educated guess I'd say it's Bamber? Those green wellies were his I think? 

An old Stonar day ticket found loitering amongst a load of old permits and rod licences.

College Reservoir

A stop gap solution to having no access to Fordwich (or any other decent sized Carp fishing locally) was to arrange a trip down to Cornwall, which we did once in 1987 then two more times in 1989. The first trip I partnered up with Geoff and two others in June of 1987 ... oddly I can't remember who? There were four of us in two cars, I think it might have been Andy Wilkes and Terry Pethybridge as I do remember driving down to Cornwall from Richmond with Terry as he was in a heavy period of listening to U2, a band I no longer even like but at the time could just about tolerate. I have clear memories of listening to the track the Unforgettable Fire at a very loud volume in Tel's white Van with us speeding down the motorway eating up the miles in the dark ... the music fitted the night-time atmosphere like a silk glove, it was darn near perfect, the background noise only pierced by Tel's incredibly loud laugh ... a happy memory, heading to a new Carp lake with my old mates. I have a vague idea we might have driven up to Terry's Surrey flat in Geoff's van, 'three up' as in Geoff, Wilkie and me, then split into two cars when we got to Terry's for the drive down to Penryn? This does sound about right?  For the second visit in June of 1989 four of us went, Tony and Alex in one car whilst I went with Clive Whitlock in his tiny but fast Ford Fiesta XR2 then I'm 'fairly sure' for the third trip in August of 1989 I went with Mark Sturge ... it's all a bit of a muddle to me now. I have all the times, dates and fish written out but little other info to go on other than some thirty plus year old faded memories. 

Why we went to Cornwall would be my first question sitting here in 2020 ... no doubt it was yet another Geoff induced decision and as we were joined at the hip at the time I'd have thought 'that's a great idea' and just tagged along? We used to see photos of some of the College fish in the Angling Times and Anglers Mail by the mid/late 1980' and back then of course any close season fishing was hard to find as I remember it? I have some very clear memories of arriving at the lake from that first trip. I remember parking by the dam and walking round that end of the lake looking for some 'famous' Carp angler that Geoff had contacted prior to leaving Thanet who he'd planned to meet up with. I'd assume we took him some bait, probably an order he'd given Geoff over the phone at work. Anyhow we found this bloke after a bit of hunting (no mobile phones at the time) and I can recall he was older than us, came from Portsmouth and had an accent like an old Pirate! He' was a great bloke, real friendly and again 'I think' I set up in the spot I initially fished from due to his say so? I ended up fishing a shallow bay in the SW corner of the lake, an area I think the old Pirate told me he'd seen a few Carp in? I also recall it was an enormous walk getting to this spot with my gear. It took me two trips with a large rucksack and a piled up fishing trolley and the path was awful for pulling a trolley as there were lots of exposed above ground tree roots. I was as fit as a flea at this time of my life but can still remember that this arduous journey had me near out on my feet ... it's odd innit just how the human memory works ... or doesn't work as the case may be? 

More 'extra added' mappy boredom ... my fun continues whilst your dullness become almost overpowering. The above rather expertly marked yellow numbers denotes where I set up for the first trip 1: being the shallow weedy bay, 2: the ol' Pirates swim (the Ponda Rosa perhaps?) and 3: my final move of the 1987 trip. The pink 4 is the swim I moved to after getting kicked off the shallow Bay in June '89 and the blue 5 was roughly where Mark and I fished in August of 1989.

A multi overlapping photo of College Reservoir taken during that first trip in June of 1987. The top right joins to the bottom left, providing a complete panoramic view if you were wondering? Behind me as I took these photos was a heavily wooded bank, all deciduous trees, mostly Oaks from what I can remember, the far east bank being less wooded with lots of arable farm fields behind it as you can see. The weedy Bay (the first spot I fished) is in the bottom right hand side photo looking down in the far right corner, when I took these I was in the middle part of the lake where I fished for three nights during my second move. These were the pre-digital camera days kids, there were no trick scenic shot settings on those old SLR's we used back then, if you wanted any wide angle scene shots then you had to take lots of photos and build them yourself!

The lake itself was quite nice, very different to what we were used to back home. The reservoir was on the outskirts of a place called Penryn near Falmouth and was like no other lake I'd ever fished. The water itself was very odd, being clear and full of little flecks of tin, so much so that when disturbed the margins would resemble one of those those old snow globes that people used to have in their houses when we were kids. I assume the lake was over an old Cornish tin mine? The lake was at a guess about twenty odd acres, quite large and open, pretty featureless in truth with no islands at all, just a big expanse of water with nothing to go on as to where to fish with us not knowing the various spots. This shallow Bay that I first set up in was obviously more shallow than the rest of the pit as it was quite weedy. Also there were Carp present there, I could see them moving every now and again between the weed also moving in and out of this Bay created by a point opposite me at about 70 yards range (??) which ran parallel to the bank I'd set my gear up on providing the back end of this small Bay. It looked interesting anyhow and I think I felt quite at home almost immediately. You do get a feel for a water quite quickly and I think I liked the overall feel of College, the surroundings were nice, Oak woodlands, mewing Buzzards, singing passerines ... what's not to like? At night lots of Long Eared and Pipistrelle type Bats would fly around the wooded margins feeding and we caught a few in our landing nets, we knew no better at the time, not that we did them any harm of course. Once again it's odd that so many memories of my time at the lake are still as sharp as anything whereas others are awfully vague for whatever reason?

The bait I was using was a Peach Melba flavoured Sluis/Fish Meal with added Garlic Powder. I had quite a lot of bait and no doubt would have put a fair bit in on arrival I'd assume, this would be my usual tactic anyway. The areas I was fishing were a short lob compared to back home on Fordwich, so it was all very comfortable fishing once I lugged all of my gear the eighty four miles round the lake and into position. The swim was lovely and sheltered but one problem I had was that I was forced into casting out by having to wade out into the shallows wearing waders as the overhanging trees didn't allow a good swing of my twelve foot Carp rods. The bank was at a nice height for sitting on and I spent most of my time sat there (still in my waders) behind the rods looking at fish cruising in and out of this Bay. There was also a second problem - namely weed! The shallows were full of it, it caused me no end of problems and I lost a fair few Carp due to it, so I ended up moving after just two nights fishing even though I was still getting plenty of action. I did land five Carp but lost as many as I landed due to them weeding me up, so after losing yet another fish and feeling absolutely exasperated I decided to move back 200 yards or so along the same bank and fished the weed free open water. The swim I moved into was the same one that the Pirate from Portsmouth had been fishing when we first turned up on day one.

The weedy Bay on that first trip, showing the Island as I referred to it, though in fact it was more of a point jutting out into middle of the southern end of the lake. Also my rather odd three rod set up can just about be seen, one on its own fishing the very shallow water to the right and the other two, the rod tips just about in shot on the left, one cast in front of the so-called Island and the other moved around at longer range in the open water. I would guess the Island/point was about 70 yards from the bank where I'd set up? I must have taken this on the third days fishing as on that day the wind blew down the lake right into the Bay, so a light northerly wind This was the only day that any sort of breeze even rippled the lake in that Bay so my diary reads, the other few days the water was pretty much flat calm.. 

A typical College mirror of 15 lb 7 oz, taken in June '87. One of five Carp I caught from the shallow weedy bay in the SW corner of the lake. The others were 11 lb, 11 lb 12 oz, 12 lb 4 oz and 14 lb 12 oz, all orangey coloured mirrors like the one above with similar scattered gold scales, lovely fish all of them. The weed had me pulling my hair out and after losing many other Carp I packed upped and moved. 

The second place I tried was in the open water in the middle part of the lake and whilst hopeful of getting takes in this weed free area of the lake, things didn't exactly go to plan. I fished this second area for three more nights but after getting just one take it appeared that my gamble hadn't paid off and I'd wasted half the trip by fishing the wrong area. So, once again I decided to move and was forced to hoick my mountain of gear to yet another distant part of the lake. This first move wasn't a complete waste of time however and the fish I did get was a crackerjack of a Carp which unlike so many of those hooked in the weedy Bay didn't slip the hook which was a bonus. It gave me a great fight too.

22 lb 7 oz, College Reservoir, June '87. I was well pleased with this Carp even though I was shocked it didn't weigh far more than 22 lbs. In the water it looked huge and even on the bank looked easily a mid Twenty, not that it matters when you've caught such a fish from a new water. I did one more night on the strength of catching this Carp then moved for the last two nights of out allotted stay to another area. 

I have no clue why I picked the area that I did for the last two days of fishing but I must have had some reason as once again it was mammoth move, right the way round into the SE corner on the opposite bank, more than a half mile walk with a back breaking amount of gear, it would take me two goes to get all of my gear moved too. The only thing that makes any sense is that from this new area I moved to it did allow me to fish close to the weedy Bay where all the Carp were moving in and out of, if only from the other side of the lake. Okay, I wouldn't be able to cast right into the Bay where I'd had ten plus takes on those first two full day/nights but I could cast just up to the entrance of the Bay. That said it was a long old chuck, well over 100 yards. One good thing about College was that it allowed you to use three rods meaning you could cover lots of water. If memory serves correct I did catch a few fish at medium range from this third spot, and not all of the takes came on the rod cast at ultra range. It was glorious looking spot anyway, surrounded by Ferns and Oak Trees with a nice grassy spot at the back with the Island/Point area out in front of me at uber range. The first afternoon and night I caught nothing but at 09.00 am I got a take that ended up with me netting a 16 lb common. Later on in the afternoon and one of the other rods went steaming off and this resulted in a 15 lb 12 oz mirror.

16 lb 1 oz, College Reservoir, June '87... one of two Carp taken that day so at least I was back amongst the fish again.

Odd things spring to mind about the end of this session fishing in this new spot. I remember that I had the radio on one night and the announcer said "and now listeners I'd like to welcome onto the show Mr Robert Fripp" and I almost fell out of my bed chair! Being from the pre interweb days this would be the first time that I'd ever heard Fripp's Dorset drawl accent and being a fan then (as I still am now) of King Crimson, then this springs back to mind rather vividly. I also heard another memorable thing on the local Radio Station during some debate phone in wotsit, when this rather irate Cornish bloke uttered the immortal words "Wot theeese people's 'ave got to rimmemba is thaat we aint English wee's Carneesh!!" it was hilarious, I could imagine him banging his fist on the table as he said it. I can't remember what the phone-in debate was about but boy was something up this blokes Cornish knicker-leg? Anyway, I digress. The second night I got a take in the wee small hours and hooked this fish which when I netted it I was rather cock a hoop about as it was a properly fully scaled mirror. At that time I don't think I could possibly have ever have seen a fully scaled mirror on the bank before? 

17 lb 10 oz, College Reservoir, June '87. A rather wonderful looking fully scaled mirror.

The final day came and I got two more takes, the first at 4.30 in the afternoon, a mirror of 16 lb 9 oz then an hour later from a smaller mirror of 12 lb. The 16 lb mirror was odd as unlike all of the other College mirrors I caught wasn't a scaly/linear type Carp but more like one we'd see at home. So then, the session had started and ended well, a nice and successful first trip anyhow. I'd landed 11 Carp but lost loads too whilst trying to fish that weedy swim during those first two nights. 

16 lb 9 oz, College Reservoir, June '87. 

College Reservoir, Trip Two. 

The second trip was just utterly bonkers mad. By this time it was June of 1989, two full years after the first visit, and I'd arranged to take the drive down in the passenger seat of my mate Clive Whitlocks car. We'd planned to drive down overnight so as to avoid the traffic and I well remember Clive turning up and pulling up outside my house in the evening with the car already packed full of his gear. He had a little Ford Fiesta XR 2 at the time, a racy little hatchback and it wasn't exactly the best mode of transport for two rather large blokes and a weeks fishing gear, bait, food, cookers etc in fact it was nothing of the sort. I looked at the car and panicked whereas Clive being Clive, well he was totally nonplussed, taking the whole thing in his stride. We did have one trick up our sleeves, a roof rack, without it there was no way we could have carried all of our gear. After fitting the roof rack and re-jiggling Clive's gear, we did manage to get my stuff into and onto the car, if only just about. This came as a massive relief to me as I was getting awfully negative about fitting everything into the car. Anyway, with the roof rack piled up with rods and anything else we could bungee strap to it, the car was almost as high as it was long and to be perfectly honest it was a 'wee bit' very awfully dangerous! The car swayed when you changed direction and when we hit any wind when on the motorway you could feel that the car was overly top heavy during every turn. When you think about it Clive and I would have weighed in at over thirty stone alone, it was any wonder we didn't have a tyre blow out and it was so obviously unsafe and at one point I said to Clive that I wouldn't be surprised if we get a pull off the Rozza's. Now Clive just laughed at me "Don't worry PM" (PM or Prime Minister being his silly name for me) as he changed lane at 80 odd MPH with the car wobbling about like a six feet tall jelly but I was right, we did get a pull but by this time we'd got all the way into Cornwall. Spirits were high anyway, Clive was giggling away, making joke phone calls on his joke plastic car phone ... it was fun all the way ... until ...

As I say we drove overnight. We left in the evening and arrived at first light after a journey that was funny but a bit silly given how overloaded Clive's little hatchback car was. About half an hour or so from our destination in Penryn and a Police car passed us going in the opposite direction. I saw him clock our car and told Clive to be careful, it was still pre dawn silly o'clock at the time too, so just being out and about no doubt provided a bit of suspicions in a coppers mind. We were chugging through a town at the time and I thought I saw the Police car look as if it was turning around, I was right too and he soon pulled alongside of us and waved us down. I feared the worst, that's just me I'm afraid, fortunately Clive took it all in his stride in typical fashion. The policeman, after giving the car the once over, wanders over to Clive and says to him "You do realise that this car is seriously overloaded sir don't you?" or something along those lines and whilst at first his attitude was a bit stuffy, gradually bit by bit Clive talked him round. At one point we got out of the car and shook the roof rack to prove that nothing was going to fall off and after a bit of a listen and a think he let us carry on. By this time Clive had told him we'd driven about 300 miles and only had a little way to go which I think made up this coppers mind, so it was massive relief when he waved us on our way. I had visions of that roof rack coming flying off on the drive anyway and no doubt when we gave the car that shake by the rickety old thing, I'd have had the word 'phew' going round and round inside my head when we realised that it actually stayed put! Clive, well he didn't give a stuff and I remember him going 360 degrees round a roundabout just to wind me up a little bit more as the little top heavy car creaked and wobbled its way round. He was a bit mad was our Clive, all good fun though. Soon we were on the lake and after a light snooze (in the car) we unpacked the gear, the suspension rose about two inches and we made our way to our swim. Now, and this bit might well be wrong, but I know that Tony and Alex were there during one of our trips and I'm 99% certain that it was this one. We didn't drive down in convoy but met up at the lake, I think they arrived the day after we did? I know that we met with some problems with the local anglers later on during this session and Alex and Tony were both part of the discussion about how to go about alleviating this 'problem' let's say. More about that to follow. 

Clive and I set up in the pre-planned spot on the west bank whereas Tony and Alex set up in the big swim directly opposite us on the east bank, in fact the same swim where I ended off my first session two years prior. I fancied having another go in that weedy Bay and Clive set up about 100 yards along the same bank fishing the mouth of the bay and the open water. The good news was that the weed was nowhere near as bad as it had been the first time I'd fished this Bay, it being so bad at the time that I'd been forced to move swims. After dragging all of my gear round to pretty much the furthest area away from the Car Park and setting up, which would have taken half the day given that we'd had a light kip on arrival, I would have baited up quite heavily knowing that I had seven further days/nights of fishing ahead of me. I was using two different types of fishmeal boilies, one with Robin Red, flavoured with Ham and Shrimp and the other a plain protein/sluis/fishmeal base mix flavoured with my old mixed flavour, a mix I'd been using on and off for many years. The flavour blend was Liquorice, Cream, Clove and Strawberry, pretty much the same as the one I'd been using on and off since back in 1984. The hook baits were all pop up's anchored 2 inches off the bottom I read.

Two images of the weedy Bay. The top one the far left hand side of the Bay in the lakes SW corner and the bottom one looking straight out at the Island/point to the right of the top photo. I think the top photo may well have been taken during the trip in June of '87 as it looks awfully weedy, surely far more so than the second trip as I remember it?

That first afternoon I could already see a few Carp mooching about in the swim, so everything looked good. The Lake was flat calm I see from my notes and the fish could be seen moving around in the clear spots between the various weedy bits breaking the surface, so I would have been hopeful of some action. I caught nothing during the rest of that first day, but after dark one of the rods steamed off (at 12.30 am) and I soon landed a typical scaly College Mirror weighing 13 lb 4 oz. I went about the session much as I would fishing back home on Fordwich, I'd pile in a load of bait, scatter hundreds of boilies all around this Bay area and just wait. The fishing was slow initially but once the Carp started finding and searching for more of the loose baits then it went absolutely potty. The following day things picked up and I had many takes, landing 6 more Carp, all mirrors weighing 15 lb 7 oz, 20 lb 11 oz, 11 lb 11 oz, 16 lb, 11 lb 3 oz and 17 lb 3 oz. The problem was that with me catching all of these Carp word started getting around and very soon it would reach the ears of the local morons and cause me a light bit of agro with them. 

20 lb 11 oz, College Reservoir, June 1989. Part of a rather hectic first 24 hours on the lake when I had about ten takes, landing seven Carp. 

The second full day brought more of the same, a few takes and lost fish but this time I only managed to land four Carp. The weed was still causing me a few problems but was nowhere near as bad as the first time I'd tried to fish this Bay two years prior. Amyhow, I managed to land three small mirrors all between 11 and 15 lb but also this thing ...

28 lb, College Reservoir, June 1989. This came as quite a shock. Just after dark (at 10.20 pm) I had another take and soon had a Carp wallowing under the rod tip in the margins. It put up a bit of a scrap and it took me ages to net it and whilst I could see it was of a slightly larger size than the usual College Carp I had not one clue that it was quite so large. I remember netting it and then trying to pull it onto the bank, a two to three foot drop down to the waters edge, which is when it dawned on me how heavy the thing was, I'd had it down as probably being 'about' twenty pounds or so up till this time. A horrid looking thing but no complaints, beggars can't be choosers as they say. There was another really fat Carp in the Lake, a famous scaly Carp known as the Pig, we'd seen photos of this triangular shaped fish in the UK angling press and heard other anglers taking about it and to be honest I thought that the Pig was the largest Carp in the lake at the time. I was soon to find out otherwise. 

The third day came and I had far less action though I still banked three Carp, two commons of 10 lb 6 oz and 9 lb 2 oz plus another twenty pound mirror weighing in at 20 lb 6 oz. It was about this time that I started getting hassle. The first I knew about it was after getting a visit from three local Carp Anglers, one of whom I recognised from the Angling papers. They were very unfriendly and treated me like dirt, the nub of their visit was that they wanted me to move out of the swim. It was quite intimidating and it got rather silly but I stood my ground. They said that the Carp were spawning and treated me like a proper idiot, they also said they'd get me kicked off the lake if I didn't move too. I told them that I would be able to see if the Carp were spawning and they obviously weren't and in the end I told them I wasn't moving and that was that, in the end they left. If the intention was to frighten me away then it had failed. The Bay I was fishing in was very shallow and had the Carp been spawning then I'd have been able to see it, I was hardly moving my eyes off the water. Carp chase each other around causing bow waves and obvious disturbance to the water and when actually egg laying or milting they move or even froth the water seeing as it was so shallow, also spawning carp don't feed, they aren't interested in food at such times so the whole thing was ridiculous. Okay, Carp do carry spawn and still feed but they carry much of the spawn around sometimes for months, so what was I meant to do, wait till July until I cast out? And was I disturbing the fish? Obviously not, I was catching them by the bucket load. Anyway, they left, I breathed a sigh of relief and I carried on fishing. This wasn't the end of it however.

20 lb 6 oz, College Reservoir, June 1989.

Day four and the ridiculous behaviour of the local Carp anglers continued. I'd guess it was about this day or perhaps the day after that I was sat there in my usual spot, legs dangling over the bank looking out at the lake behind my rods, when I heard the sound of footsteps behind me. I could hardly believe my eyes when into the swim marches this bloke, ignores me sitting there, says nothing and goes straight into my bivvy. Now by this time I'd had it, I was angry and let this ignorant moron know it. By the time I stood up he was inside the bivvy and had taken one of the many rigs I had hanging up off the umbrella spokes in his hands. I used to superglue glue parts of my dacron hook-lengths at the time, and they were hanging up drying off from earlier on when I'd made a few up. Anyway, this encounter was a far quicker one than the one with the three blokes before, I towered over this bloke who scarpered pretty much as I started mouthing off at him. The whole thing was weird, I just can't imagine that he hadn't seen me, so what was he up to? There was no way he was going to give me any trouble, so what was his game? Perhaps he hadn't seen me and with the swim I was fishing being very secluded and perhaps he just wanted a quick sniff around my bait box or whatever to find out what I was doing to catch all of these Carp? My bivvy was set up under some trees about twenty feet from my rods and as I say, I was sitting quietly on the bank? I wandered round and told Alex and Tony and Al's reaction was just pure Al', "Let's beat them up"!! I tried to reason with him but Al was having none of it at first, he was raging mad but gradually I got it through to him that if we did have a fall out then no doubt this would mean that we'd have to pack up and go home and it would be better to just bite the bullet and see the session out as we'd planned it. Okay the behaviour was totally out of order but what would be the point of spoiling what was otherwise a fantastic trip?

Anyway, the action picked up on this fifth day and I had lots of takes, landing six more mirrors of 17 lb 3 oz, 18 lb 2 oz, 14 lb 3 oz, 13 lb 6 oz, 12 lb 4 oz and this one ...

26 lb 1 oz, College Reservoir, June 1989. I could scarcely believe my eyes when I saw this thing. At 09.00 am one of the rods went trundling off and I pull into another Carp. A bit later on, by this time with the fish in the margins, I saw it and immediately thought "It's the Pig isn't it?" almost in disbelief. I then remember netting it, sacking it up and running down to Clive who was sat in his bivvy and telling him "What, you got another one them PM?" Yeah I says ... and it's that fish they call the Pig. We then waddled back; weighed and photographed it etc and okay, it was another hideous fat Carp but I was rather pleased to be honest. It wasn't anywhere near as hideous as that 28 lb bag of Jelly I'd caught two nights prior anyway. So, the Pig wasn't the biggest Carp in College, the hideous bag of jelly was! In truth for what I knew at the time there may well have been larger fish in the lake, though the Pig was the famous, most renowned Carp in the lake as far as we were aware anyhow. 

Day five came and I only caught two Carp, mirrors of 13 lb 9 oz and 12 lb 3 oz. In the afternoon a bailiff showed up, a very nice chap and told me that he'd been getting it in the earhole off the local Carp anglers and asked me very politely if I would fish another part of the lake? It was hard to say no, and whilst he wasn't that insistent, I think he may well have been had I not met him half way. I said, look is it okay if I move tomorrow, he was happy with that so I fished on for one more night then moved the following morning. I ended up fishing the open water in the swim next to Clive down on the west bank. I did get another take from the weedy Bay that last morning before I left, it was a mirror of 16 lb 2 oz.

The last day of the trip, fishing the open water along the west bank. I was only using two rods by the looks of things? You were allowed three at College so no doubt I was just slinging a couple of rigs out and going through the motions until it was time to go home?

After viewing this Google map image about three minutes ago, I only just noticed that what I at first thought was a tree covered peninsula attached to the southern end of the reservoir is in fact an Island. I make mention as I wrote the exact opposite in the above poorly researched forgetful tripe. The two yellow arrows indicate what look to me like both swims I fished at the start and the end of the session in June of 1987? The w3eddy bay swim on the left and the other on the right. I know what you're thinking ... why bother? I still have not one clue so can offer no reply. As I sit here I must admit to being very, very, very bored, so perhaps that's why? Hmmm ... 

I fished the open water with Clive for the last night of the week session (catching nothing) before we packed up went home. A fantastic session apart from the whining of some of the the local Carp anglers. Most of the people we met down there were okay, it was just this serious mob who gave us any trouble. That said I do remember us going into the local Pub one evening, though this might have been back in 1987? It was like one of those scenes from a Western where the entire Bar goes quiet the second the door opens. We never went back! Otherwise I loved the lake and the entire area, it was just a shame about the distance we had to travel to get there and those mishog Carpers. I can't remember what the other three caught but I'd had 23 Carp during my stay, a decent old haul anyway. The fishing was easy at College, far easier than at Fordwich.

College Reservoir, Trip three.

My third trip down to College Reservoir came about in August of 1989. By this time I was losing my buzz for Carp fishing and though I was doing bits at Chilham and even Stonar by this time it was all just time wasting micky mouse fun fishing, something to do when off work. I think I was on a rota by then of one week on and two weeks off, so I had plenty of time on my hands. Of course I had no access to Fordwich by this time after my ban given me in 1987 for getting caught using three rods whilst Pike fishing on Trenley with Martin Daley. My buzz for Carping was fizzling out by this time anyhow and it wouldn't be long before I sold all of my gear and gave up. Other non Carp related things were weighing heavily upon my mind by 1989 and I needed a change in direction.

The third trip was hard work. I'd arranged to go down for a five or six night session with Mark Sturge in August. On arrival we decided to fish the middle of the lake, pile in a load of baits and sit on it, a tactical mistake as it turned out and I especially, struggled to catch anything. I waited and waited but the Carp just didn't play ball on this occasion. We had a nice time anyway even though I only caught four Carp, I think Mark got about seven or eight, he did far better than I did anyhow. My memory is vague about this trip too, the highlights being of a lovely Carp I caught one night and the food we ate. The weather as usual was lovely and we ended up having a barbecue every day, Mark spoiling me by doing all the cooking and some of the steaks he bought back form the shops were just laughable, they were huge! I remember that bit very well. I also remember he had about three or four Carp before I even got a take which was odd as we baited up one enormous area with him fishing one end of the groundbait and me the other, we were fishing side by side too. The water level had dropped dramatically by comparison with my first two June trips in '87 and '89, the water being about four feet lower than I'd ever seen it. I really ought to have moved but I was having a laugh and no doubt was feeling a bit lazy due to being treated to huge steak meals every day. Both Mark and I were using similar baits, I took two fish-meals, one shrimp flavoured with Robin Red and the other a straight fishmeal mix with seaweed flavoured with Peach Melba.

As I say it took me while to even get a take. The lake was fishing appallingly all over and pretty much no one was catching. It took me a couple of days to get a Carp at all and when I did it was small mirror of 11 lb 12 oz. 

At long last ... a Carp. 11 lb 12 oz of lovely Cornish Carp.

Then just after dark on the third day I had a take (at 10.30) from what was obviously a better fish. I remember someone shining the torch on it in the margins during the fight and it looked large and beautiful in the lake, a stunning linear mirror. Once in the net we saw just how accurate the underwater views were, the fish was mint, a lovely deep orange thing with a big long line of gold scales all the way along the lateral line, one of the nicest Carp I'd ever seen. I can still remember feeling really happy having caught it. We met up with some really nice blokes on the lake this session, it was all very jovial and we ended up having a few on the bank parties. One of the local lads even took lots of my boilies back and kept them in his freezer, delivering them back half way through the week. We saw nothing of those mishogs who drove me potty during the spring visit. 

23 lb 2 oz, College Reservoir, August 1989. A rather wonderful looking thing eh? 

The last couple of days of our stay I ended up getting two more Carp, both mirrors of 16 lb 2 oz and 17 lb 4 oz. Soon it would be time for home and I'd never see College reservoir ever again.

The last two carp of the third trip down to Cornwall, the top one 17 lb 4 oz and the bottom, 16 lb 2 oz. You can see how low the water level was at the time, I'd have been standing in chest deep water stood in that same spot during my previous trips. I see my 'lucky' blue wrangler jumper survived all of this fishing, I had worn that jumper since 1983 and by this time in its life it had more holes in it that a Swiss cheese. The 'lucky' tag was meant in jest, I was never superstitious about anything, to me superstition is utter poppycock to be honest. 

After that trip down to Cornwall I'd have pretty much just fished for tiddlers thereafter. In fact that 23 lb linear would be the last ever twenty pound Carp that I ever caught, I'd never have thought that at the time. I have never once regretted giving up fishing, it was good while it lasted and I met some great people and had lots of fun it's just that the whole fishing thing and me was not a good marriage.