I see (in the end anyway, see below) that I did far less Carping in 1986 and mainly for reasons already put into print in the previous page. Was it in 1986 that we started up Premier Baits? If so, then this would have no doubt taken up some of my energy, the whole process of starting up a bait company with my best mate was rather exciting if I'm honest. The actual timescale of all this may be lost but I can easily bring to mind the buzz of it all. It was all Geoff's idea in truth, I think I've already written in a previous page that whilst I thought he was a egg sandwich short of a picnic thinking that starting a bait company was in any way an actual goer then the egg (sandwich) was certainly on my face given time. Within a fairly short time once back home he'd convinced me it was at least wroth a try. Okay, we'd need a few bob to start this embryonic business up, but once up and running it would provide us with a job, some spending money for fishing gear and all the boilies we could eat. The bad thing was that I decided to sell my old Les Paul to get the initial starting up money together (we all put in £1800 as in £600 each, three ways, with Jock on board) and whilst I did buy a brand new Les Paul about three years later, it was never as good as that old thing I felt the need to pass on to a new home to raise some funds. Anyway, it's long gone now, I'm a full on Stratocaster guy and no longer even want a Les Paul, so why am I writing all this out here? Oh yes. we needed £1800 quid for stock between the three of us to get the company up and running, that's why. I went off on one there didn't I?
Sorry.
Les Paul tenuous link ...
Look at that, I'd completely forgotten that I even had any photos of this, my first ever Gibson Les Paul. This was a pretty impressive instrument, well, if you like Les Paul's it was anyway. It has a bit of a back story too. When I was eighteen I had a job and enough money to buy myself a proper guitar. I already had a few instruments but they were mainly all copies of Strat's ... I even had a bright pink Les Paul copy, and it was as awful as it sounds too. Seeing as I was by this time a full on Ritchie Blackmore nut, I'd set my heart on getting a proper Fender Strat and now that I had the money then a trip to London was in order. We ended up in an enormous shop on the outskirts of London, I was like a kid in a toy-shop ... the walls were festooned with Strat's. Yippee!! I had £350 burning a hole in my pocket and to cut a very long story short I played about fifteen Stratocasters of all colours but all of the ones I could afford, well I hated all of them. There were however two that I fell in love with but they were too expensive, I think they were £550+ or even more? I'd been in the shop for ages and seeing my disappointment the bloke working in the shop asked me if I'd be interested in buying a second-hand Les Paul? I told him that I wouldn't mind having a look, but he then went on to tell me that the Guitar wasn't in the shop but was a private sale?? Smelling any rats yet folks? He then made a phone call, finding out that the owner would accept exactly £350 (coincidentally!) and then he got in his car and drove us to this house in London (we followed him in our car) and there in the kitchen was this thing, cradled on the vinyl floor on a guitar stand next to a tiny practise amp. I was immediately visually disappointed, as the pick up's were low output (known as P90's) and I would have preferred proper humbuckers but as soon as I picked it up I had this 'wow' moment. It felt amazing in the hand and once plugged into the amp sounded unbelievable, so I handed the £350 over and came home grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat! Back home through my gear it sounded even better, rich and creamy with bags of sustain. I took one of the foil backed covers off if it one day and etched into it with a scribe 'this guitar loves to play Ice by Camel' as it did. Years later and I needed £600 to start the bait business up, I'd had a few proper Strat's by this time, so decided to sell the old Gibson. A shop in Canterbury gave me £550 (or £650?) I already knew it was worth more than I paid for it as the bloke who owned the guitar shop was a mate of my brother and had played this guitar in my bedroom and fallen in love with it. He shifted it on immediately, no doubt for a good profit and it was then that he told me that the guitar has been stolen at some point in it's history. When I bought it, although I was too green to notice it at the time, it had no serial number on the back of the headstock. That said, I knew something was odd as it had a loose fitting bit of mother of pearl on the back of the headstock, it used to fall out on occasion and I later found out that what had happened was that the serial number had been shaved off and the hole covered over with this bit of poorly fitted mother of pearl. Hence all of the cloak and dagger stuff many years before when I bought it from that shop in London! I now am left wondering many things ... did the new owner find my Camel message and play Ice on it? Also, how old was that guitar, it was already quite old when I bought it in 1980, you can tell. If it was a 1960's model it would be worth a small fortune now, well into five figures. Anyway, the bait business took off and in 1989 I did what I said I would and bought another Les Paul, a black Custom, new this time from a shop in Maidstone. It was £950, I offered the bloke £850 cash and we shook on it. This one had humbuckers (P.A.F. type things if anyone knows what they are?) and was a stunning looking thing but wasn't a patch on that old one. The black Custom is in Canada now, I sold her to Dave Beadle about fifteen years ago after I gave up playing altogether. I am now back into guitars but I pretty much only use Fender Strat's these days. I realise it's meant to be a fishing Blog but the above tale does have a tenuous link to angling as I got the money to pay for my third of the bait business with it and then bought even more guitars with the money I earned from it.
Anyway, no more guitar waffle, I (sort of) promise ... so, back to the boring old fishing it is ...
Unlike '85 I have lots of written reminders from 1986, lots of photos and semi-proper notes and I did a fair bit of time on the lakeside that year ... er ... I think? Who knows? No hang on ... that's wrong. I just consulted my diary from 1986 where I see that I only did twelve Carping sessions all season, three sessions on Yateley and nine on Fordwich ... I fished nowhere else. This does make it look like the Carping wheels in my head were already falling off after that 1984 season. I am still finding it weird that I can't find my notes or photos from 1985, if I could lay my hands on these then I'd know for certain.
So the 1986/87 season kicked off and Geoff and I decided to up the anti somewhat and start off on the Copse lake at Yateley in Surrey. We had many preconceived ideas about Yateley and pretty much all of them were wrong as it happened. We thought the lakes would be full of ultra serious heavy duty dudes, seeing as at least three of the known seven (or eight?) UK forty pound plus Carp frequented this place but it was in fact the total opposite, the attitude was very laid backed and unfortunately for me and the place my head was in at that time, it was often a full on party time sort of atmosphere and before long I craved the lakeside parties more than the fishing. Sometimes whilst fishing on Yateley I used to end up in other places, as in other lakes, my rods and gear on one and me (partying) on the other! I remember waking up in the Car Park of Longfield or Wrasbury one morning when my rods were on the North Pit at Yateley many miles away. One other time I was in this disco at some unknown place (I think with Steve Alcott and some other bloke?) and I got so anxious and freaked out that I said to them, "do me a favour, get me out of here will you?" and someone or other ended up driving me many miles back to Yateley. Things were getting very odd. Mad thing used to happen back then. Geoff made friends with this bloke from North Kent who was much older than us. He was cracking bloke ... his name was John something? The 'something' isn't referring to his surname, it's just that I've forgotten his last name! Anyhow, I was fishing on the Copse (at Yateley) this day when I was reminded that there was a big party for this John back near his north Kent home in this very large hall. It was a big secret at the time, prearranged by John's wife and what had happened was that I'd gone fishing and got my dates mixed up or something and hadn't taken any decent gear to wear for this party, in fact it had completely slipped my mind. Now all of the Carping lads were going, it was all arranged as I say but none of my close mates were fishing Yateley during this session, so Geoff arranged for me to get a lift with one of the local lunatics who'd be on the Copse at the same time as I was, a bloke called Hippy Paul. Now don't get me wrong Hippy Paul was a great bloke and all that, okay he looked and spoke very roughly but he was kind hearted soul once you got to know him. Geoff and I got to know him really well. Now the odd thing was that up till this point was that I knew Hippy Paul didn't have a car, like me he couldn't drive, hmmm? So how as he going to drive me to this do in north Kent as Geoff said, double hmmm? As it turned out, a week or two before and unbeknown to me, Paul had bought himself a little yellow Post Office van, he'd driven it to the lake for the very first time I was to find out. Now another thing that I didn't know was that not only did he have no driving licence but he had also never had any driving lessons or had ever even driven a car in his life until that particular week! Quite how he jumped in this van for the first time and got to Yateley 'still alive' from Crystal Palace in south London is beyond me. Well I say that, I was soon to find out how 'he'd driven' which was .. er ... not very well at all! The arrangement was for Paul to drive himself and me to his flat in south London, I'd have a bath at his place, then we'd drive to this party in North Kent where I'd meet up with Geoff and he'd drive me and my weeks fishing gear back home the next day. After the party in this large hall in north Kent, we then all went back to John's for a late drink and then stayed at John's house that night, and if I say that I woke up in the morning on John's lawn in broad daylight, staring into the lens of a video camera in 'record' mode, then you might get the gist as to what sort of party it was. That party was just mad, when we got there we were met by lots of 'normal' people and quite what they thought of us lot of lunatics and renegades is anyone's guess? John had a really nice big house and garden (or bed/sleeping surface as I'd refer to it) it was just crackers with all of us different types from every echelon of the social scale being in the same space at the same time. Anyhow, back at the lake the day prior, at the end of our allotted time on the lake, we both packed up, filled this van up with our gear and it was then that Paul told me he couldn't drive too well and that his first ever driving experience had got him as far as the Car Park we were currently stood in! My heart sunk, so I was right, he couldn't drive. The following journey once we got going was the worst imaginable ... we kangaroo'd out of the Car Park and onto the first main road with an outraged Paul trying to find a gear and turning the air blue with every failed attempt, before we hit traffic on the outskirts of Camberley. The scene was one of utter mayhem, this small yellow van cutting everyone up as it jumped along the road, often in the wrong lane, cars were tooting at us as Paul shouted back at them like a maniac out of the open drivers window and we hadn't even got to the Motorway as yet. Can you imagine trying to drive into London sitting alongside a very angry and frustrated madman who couldn't drive? No? Well I can and it was hell, awfully amusing looking back but at the time it was as scary as it sounds. How we didn't get arrested or killed is once again beyond me, in fact as I recall we never really got all that close to having an actual accident, I was more scared about getting arrested.
Anyway, enough about Yateley and that first session. So much happened during that first try at Yateley that I'll write the lead up to it out in more detail later on, I'll stick to the fishing from that 1986 season for this bit.
Session 1: Yateley, Copse Lake, June '86. 5 nights.
The Copse lake, Yateley June 1986, as viewed from the Stilts swim.
The swim on the Copse lake that I've since forgotten the name of? It was the scene of my famous monster Yateley common capture ... read on in awe! [The swim was called the Royal Box]
I haven't got too many notes from that first session, well at least not in the diaries I have to hand. I think Geoff started off in the Pig Swim or the Dug Outs (??) I went for this swim known as the Stilts, a picturesque little spot under some overhanging trees along the north bank of the pit. I could see a couple of open areas to place my baits whilst climbing the trees on lookout earlier on and though I fished this spot for a few nights at least I didn't get any takes nor did I even see any fish in the swim, well not proper Carp anyhow. I then moved, right over to the opposite side of the lake where another swim had just been vacated ... as I sit here now I don't know exactly why but would guess that seeing as this was my first session on the pit that I would have wanted to try a few areas just to get a feel of things? In my head this would have been somewhat of a reconnaissance mission, providing a few things to mull over for further visits? I wouldn't have been too bothered about catching nowt initially as I knew it would a long haul both to get to known the lake and catch any of the very few Carp present there.
In my rather sparse notes I wrote regarding that first trip to the Copse lake that the weather was very hot with an easterly breeze for the most part, not good conditions for fishing bottom baits anyhow. The amount of early season angling that first week would have sent the Carp into hiding mode anyway, especially so as we were all partying, hollering at the TV watching the football with it being the World Cup year (Mexico '86) and suchlike. As I say, at some time during my stay I upped sticks for whatever reason and moved right across the other end of the pit (called the Royal Box) where I stayed for the duration of that first visit. Whilst fishing this Royal Box I decided to use Tiger Nuts as a hookbait on one rod, I'd taken a large bucket of fermented Tiger's with me, mainly to use as a groundbait but decided to try them on the hook for some unknown reason, I'd been using boilies as hook-baits up till then. So, I stuck two 'tigers' on a hair rig using them as almost a floater, one nut being chiselled and filled with a polystyrene ball to make the whole hook-bait sink very slowly or waft about if approached by a large Carp, lobbed it out and went to kip.
Anyhow, after a decent nights kip I dragged myself out of the sleeping bag at 6.00 am apparently (I just read) when I noticed that one of my lines was tight and the line was at some strange angle off the rod tip?? On further inspection I could then see that it looked like a bit of line was missing off the spool too, had I got a take in the night? I can't have slept through a take as I'd trained myself with military precision at that time to get out of bed and run to the rods at the slightest bleep of the buzzer during my Carp fishing days, even now that metal regime still affects my sleep and I am the lightest of sleepers, anything wakes me up due to that paranoid carp take training of old. As it happened the alarm just hadn't registered the take, it wasn't broken but the battery had failed. I picked up the rod to find the line snagged solid in a weed bed a good thirty plus yards further out than I'd cast it the evening prior, but was there a Carp attached to the hook? I pulled and pulled and eventually it moved, and then I felt a kick so the fish was still on! Eventually it started to move very slowly toward me, a fish plus a whole lot of weed and I ended up just pumping the whole lot straight in. Still hopeful of seeing some big fat thirty pounds plus mirror staring back at me, I would have been rather disappointed when all that I next saw was a whole lot of weed and a tiny Common. I netted the whole lot, cleared the weed, gave Geoff a shout and took a few photos ... for what they were worth. For a good few minutes or more I was hopeful of having hooked a lunker, it just wasn't to be I'm afraid.
The rest of the session was only notable due to a huge hatch of Darter type Dragonflies. Earlier on in the week the nymphs had been crawling out of the lake, they were everywhere, some of the earlier pupated adults were already emerging. A whole new experience for me was that. One other thing that springs to mind about the Copse lake was that in future session I became aware of some other species in the lake? The front of the Stilts swim had a very gradual decline and I kept on seeing these smaller fish, at first I didn't know what they were? It turned out they were Crucian Carp, a species that we never had access to in our bit of the southeast back home in those days. During a later session in that same swim I set up a float rod and started bashing them out on sweetcorn, cracking little things they were and some of them a good size too reaching about two and a half pounds.
Session 2: The Richies and the Mungs, Fordwich, 3 nights in June '86. 3 takes, 1 Carp.
It was back to Fordwich for the second fishing session of 1986. Apparently I spent one night in the Mungs before moving into the Richies where I fished for a further two nights. Rather surprisingly I can still bring back to mind the feeling from this trip all these years later as I suffered a complete loss of confidence about catching anything, a strange feeling for me back then. Up to this time I was taking catching the Fordwich fish for granted but after that first session on the Copse at Yateley and then struggling to get a fish for a good while during this session, I still remember that my attitude was affected ... quite why this feeling is so crystal clear is all a bit odd? Anyway, I couldn't get a Carp on the bank for love nor money initially, I didn't get a single twitch fishing the Mungs on the first night but once in the Richies I then got two takes but lost both fish. To make matters worse my notes tell me that after losing one at 11.00 am the day prior, I then hooked into another at 10.00 am the following morning which felt like a good fish and when I got it in close it turned out to be Hunky, one of the biggest two Carp in Fordwich at the time but it fell off right at the netting stage. It would have been a good upper twenty pound Carp at the time too. My one consolation was that at least it was one of the fish that I'd already caught before, I'd still have been very extremely awfully gutted of course. The third and final night went without any takes apart from Tench (which were plaguing me this session by the looks of it) but on that last afternoon before I packed up I had another take at 1.00 pm, eventually landing a really dark moody looking 16 lb 6 oz mirror. Phew!
A fish is a fish I suppose but this one felt better than most. Okay. it's just a 16 lb 6 oz mirror but I was just pleased to catch anything by the time I netted this one, it took me three days to get it at all.
Session 3: Killick Point, Fordwich, June '86, 2 nights. Huge blank.
My bad spell continued. After setting up in flat calm red hot conditions the weather changed and looked really good for the Killick, a strong SW wind was steaming down the lake apparently but during 3 days and 2 nights fishing I didn't even register a take. I knew the bait was good, I'd been using various versions of our fish meal boilies for over a year by this time but I was in the middle of one of those bad runs where you can't get a fish for love nor money. In truth it did look like the weather was mostly utter pants for Carping at the time? All high pressure systems inducing a lake full of lazy lacklustre, spawny, not interested in feeding, cruising Carp.
Session 4: Richies, Fordwich, July '86. 3 nights. 7 takes, 7 Carp.
At last a few fish but once again I struggled to get the fish properly on the feed, well apart from the Tench anyway, I wrote down in my notes that I landed 9 of those little green red-eyed critters. It was around this time that we'd had a plan. As we (Geoff/Wilkie etc) were all using pretty much the same bait, we decided to stick to an area, in this case the Richies where if possible we would arrange to fish as often as we could. Our arrangements must have worked out well as I fished nowhere else between July and early October, well either there or next door in the Mungs, it was all the same sort of area of the lake give or take. We had a good number of our mates fishing the lake by this time, all of them using the same fishmeal mix as us, people like the Minster Village idiot Andy Wilkes, Roger Stanger, Andy Clarke etc. and our network of local spies and co-workers kept us well up to date with who was fishing where and for how long ... stuff like that.
Anyway, the first afternoon and night came and went and in this time ... er no takes at all. No doubt I'd have been pulling my hair out with this not catching lark continuing my near barren spell, I just become accustomed to not struggling very often by 1986 I assume? However, after going asleep on the second night I was then awoken by a take at 3.00 am and landed Scargill at 18 lbs, then in the hours of daylight (at 08.00 am) I then caught another mirror, Spot at 20 lb 8 oz. It got better as at 8.00 pm I then caught a 14. lb 14 oz common, so things were looking up at last. In the last 24 hours of the session I then went on to get four more takes getting a 19 lb 12 oz mirror at 1.00 am, a 17 lb 14 oz mirror at 09.00 am, an 8 lb 1 oz mirror at 1.50 pm then at 2.45 pm a very spawned out scrawny looking Muscles weighing just 21 lb 6 oz. After such a poor run I'd have been well happy with this turn of events, well during that last 48 hours anyway?
Spot (again) at 20 lb 8 oz.
A very thin looking Muscles at 21 lb 6 oz.
Session 5: Riches/Mungs, Fordwich, July '86. 3 nights. 11 takes, 8 Carp.
I fished the first two nights in the Richies before moving and doing the last two nights in the Mungs. I can only deduce from this that the fish were more out in the open water at range and not moving to and from the Islands off the right hand side of the Richies? I am somewhat perplexed however as I was catching from this initial spot, so why move, not unless it had been prearranged? Anyway, the first night in the Richies I had one take at 11.30 pm, I landed the Carp and landed Scale out of Place at 21 lb 5 oz. A good start. On the second day I then got three more takes at 7.40 am, 2.00 pm and 4.00 pm and landed all three fish, the first one being Scaly at 21 lb 2 oz, the second Spot (again!) at 21 lb 3 oz then lastly a 13 lb 3 oz mirror. On the third day in the Richies I had four more takes, losing three and only landing one Carp, a 14 lb 4 oz common in the afternoon. After I moved to the Mungs for that last night I did get six more takes, two Tench plus a 15 lb 1 oz common, the Big Brown Fish at 21 lb 4 oz, I then lost a fish before ending off by landing another 17 lb 1 oz mirror before I went home. Eight Carp was a fair return I'd now surmise after that long really hard spell. It would have been hard losing those other three mind you, it's just horrible losing any Carp isn't it? I can still bring to mind the disappointment of it even now.
Scale out of Place at 21 lb 6 oz.
Scaly at 21 lb 2 oz.
Spot for the umpteenth time, at 21 lb 3 oz.
The Big Brown Fish at 21 lb 4 oz.
Session 6: The Copse, Yateley, August 1986. 7 nights. Blanked.
An awful session. The conditions were better than my last visit (I wrote in my diary) but I caught nothing apart from a stack of very easy to catch Crucian Carp. I must have fished the Stilts again, not that I wrote this down but I know that was the only place that I even tried to fish for the Crucian Carp on the Copse.
Session 7: The Car Park Lake then the North Pit, Yateley, Aug 1986. 6 nights. Blanked.
Another session allowing the penny to drop as to just how hard the fishing was at Yateley. I'd done three full weeks there by this time and in all that time had only seen one Carp actually on the bank, that thirteen pound common from the Copse first week. My notes tell me that I did 4 nights on the Car Park with Geoff before moving for the last two nights onto the North Pit, my first ever session there. I never liked the Car Park lake and had much more of a feel for the Copse or the North Pit. I see I did at least get 9 Tench fishing the Car Park, I failed to get a sniff on the North Pit. Another abysmal failure, all money in the bank though, sooner or later it would be my turn surely? Surely??
Session 8: The Mungs, Fordwich, Aug 1986, 3 nights. 8 takes, 3 Carp.
Another appalling session yet again. I lost five Carp in all and only landed three, a 10 lb 4 oz common on the first day, the take coming in the morning just after first light, then Scargill the following morning at 19 lb 3 oz. Other than lost fish and more and more Tench I did get a 13 lb 13 oz mirror in the early afternoon on the third day.
An awful session. The conditions were better than my last visit (I wrote in my diary) but I caught nothing apart from a stack of very easy to catch Crucian Carp. I must have fished the Stilts again, not that I wrote this down but I know that was the only place that I even tried to fish for the Crucian Carp on the Copse.
Session 7: The Car Park Lake then the North Pit, Yateley, Aug 1986. 6 nights. Blanked.
Another session allowing the penny to drop as to just how hard the fishing was at Yateley. I'd done three full weeks there by this time and in all that time had only seen one Carp actually on the bank, that thirteen pound common from the Copse first week. My notes tell me that I did 4 nights on the Car Park with Geoff before moving for the last two nights onto the North Pit, my first ever session there. I never liked the Car Park lake and had much more of a feel for the Copse or the North Pit. I see I did at least get 9 Tench fishing the Car Park, I failed to get a sniff on the North Pit. Another abysmal failure, all money in the bank though, sooner or later it would be my turn surely? Surely??
Session 8: The Mungs, Fordwich, Aug 1986, 3 nights. 8 takes, 3 Carp.
Another appalling session yet again. I lost five Carp in all and only landed three, a 10 lb 4 oz common on the first day, the take coming in the morning just after first light, then Scargill the following morning at 19 lb 3 oz. Other than lost fish and more and more Tench I did get a 13 lb 13 oz mirror in the early afternoon on the third day.
Scargill for the second time in a month ... here at 19 lb 3 oz.
Session 9: The Mungs, Fordwich, September '86, 6 nights. 8 takes, 8 Carp.
Although the action wasn't exactly frenetic I did get at least one Carp every day and some of them were the larger fish too. This was odd, as my method of fishing usually meant that I often used to build the swim up with bait and would get one or two days over a longer sessions where I'd catch many fish in clusters. It might take a day or two to get the Carp attracted and onto the bed of loose baits but once they did I'd often end up getting a hatfull during the longer stays ... not this session by all accounts?
The first night passed without any takes but at 06.00 but in the morning I hooked into a big fish. It gave me a good old fight and once in the net left us all perplexed as it was a fish that none of us recognised? It weighed in at 25 lb 13 oz too, a new fish to my eyes, it was mint looking as well. Later on the same morning (at 11.30 am) and I was in again, another lunker too. In the net we could see it was Hunky, this time weighing in at 25 lb 9 oz. Early the following morning just after dawn, I then got another take. This one went to the opposite extreme, a tiddler of 10 lb 12 oz, one of the newer stockies, a little cracker all the same. At 3.00 pm and I was in again, and this was yet another lump. In the margins I could hardly believe my eyes as it was the big fish, Charlie, the one I'd been waiting to catch for years. Anyway, into the net she eventually slid and on the scales registered the very odd weight of 'just' 25 lb 1 oz??? Charlie should have well into the upper twenties by the autumn, so what was going on? In truth many of the fish were low in weight that year having heavily spawned back in June by the looks of it? It was a tad worrying at the time, the fish looked awfully fragile to me? That said, we needn't have worried, we didn't know this at the time of course. The following day I got a take at 10.00 am, this one was the Big Brown Fish again at 21 lb 14 oz. I then caught another at 9.00 am the following morning (Scaly at 20 lb 2 oz) then a 16 lb 11 oz mirror on the fifth afternoon before a 15 lb 6 oz mirror on the sixth afternoon.
Although the action wasn't exactly frenetic I did get at least one Carp every day and some of them were the larger fish too. This was odd, as my method of fishing usually meant that I often used to build the swim up with bait and would get one or two days over a longer sessions where I'd catch many fish in clusters. It might take a day or two to get the Carp attracted and onto the bed of loose baits but once they did I'd often end up getting a hatfull during the longer stays ... not this session by all accounts?
The first night passed without any takes but at 06.00 but in the morning I hooked into a big fish. It gave me a good old fight and once in the net left us all perplexed as it was a fish that none of us recognised? It weighed in at 25 lb 13 oz too, a new fish to my eyes, it was mint looking as well. Later on the same morning (at 11.30 am) and I was in again, another lunker too. In the net we could see it was Hunky, this time weighing in at 25 lb 9 oz. Early the following morning just after dawn, I then got another take. This one went to the opposite extreme, a tiddler of 10 lb 12 oz, one of the newer stockies, a little cracker all the same. At 3.00 pm and I was in again, and this was yet another lump. In the margins I could hardly believe my eyes as it was the big fish, Charlie, the one I'd been waiting to catch for years. Anyway, into the net she eventually slid and on the scales registered the very odd weight of 'just' 25 lb 1 oz??? Charlie should have well into the upper twenties by the autumn, so what was going on? In truth many of the fish were low in weight that year having heavily spawned back in June by the looks of it? It was a tad worrying at the time, the fish looked awfully fragile to me? That said, we needn't have worried, we didn't know this at the time of course. The following day I got a take at 10.00 am, this one was the Big Brown Fish again at 21 lb 14 oz. I then caught another at 9.00 am the following morning (Scaly at 20 lb 2 oz) then a 16 lb 11 oz mirror on the fifth afternoon before a 15 lb 6 oz mirror on the sixth afternoon.
The unknown mirror at 25 lb 13 oz.
Hunky at 25 lb 9 oz, here the second time I'd caught her. I'd also lost her at the net in the early summer of '86 as well.
At long last Charlie, here at 25 lb 1 oz. It was becoming a bit of quest trying to catch her.
The Big Brown Fish (again!) at 21 lb 14 oz.
Scaly (again) here at 22 lb 2 oz.
And this beauty, taken on the last but one day weighing in at 16 lb 11 oz. It's almost monochrome, a truly wonderful looking Carp.
Session 10: The Mungs, Fordwich, September 1986. 6 nights. 8 takes, 7 Carp.
Another near full week session and another where I caught a few but it was hardly what you'd call hectic yet again. I had no takes for ages after setting up on the Mungs, but on the second full morning after two blank nights I hooked yet another lunker just before dawn. It fought for ages in the margins and once netted and hauled up on the bank we were left scratching our heads again ... it was yet another very large unknown fish. Well, unknown to us at the time, in actuality I had seen this fish before but just misidentified it on the bank at the time, it was just one of those fish you get in all lakes that rarely ever gets caught. I ended up sacking the fish and getting it back out for the photos once the light came up a bit. It was as I thought in the early morning gloom an absolute beauty, not any mark on it and although it looked slightly larger it weighed in at 24 lb 12 oz. In the afternoon I then had another take at 5.30 pm, this one a 14 lb common. I then had two takes after darkness fell, firstly from a 16 lb 14 oz common at 1.00 am, then a 18 lb mirror at 05.30 am. I then had a 14 lb 8 oz mirror at 2.00 am on day five, a 10 lb 9 oz mirror on day six then on the seventh and last day a 12 lb 2 oz common at 08.00 am before losing another Carp at 10.00 am. Soon it would be time for home, bait making and planning the next trip.
Another near full week session and another where I caught a few but it was hardly what you'd call hectic yet again. I had no takes for ages after setting up on the Mungs, but on the second full morning after two blank nights I hooked yet another lunker just before dawn. It fought for ages in the margins and once netted and hauled up on the bank we were left scratching our heads again ... it was yet another very large unknown fish. Well, unknown to us at the time, in actuality I had seen this fish before but just misidentified it on the bank at the time, it was just one of those fish you get in all lakes that rarely ever gets caught. I ended up sacking the fish and getting it back out for the photos once the light came up a bit. It was as I thought in the early morning gloom an absolute beauty, not any mark on it and although it looked slightly larger it weighed in at 24 lb 12 oz. In the afternoon I then had another take at 5.30 pm, this one a 14 lb common. I then had two takes after darkness fell, firstly from a 16 lb 14 oz common at 1.00 am, then a 18 lb mirror at 05.30 am. I then had a 14 lb 8 oz mirror at 2.00 am on day five, a 10 lb 9 oz mirror on day six then on the seventh and last day a 12 lb 2 oz common at 08.00 am before losing another Carp at 10.00 am. Soon it would be time for home, bait making and planning the next trip.
Yet another of the larger Fordwich Carp, a stunner of 24 lb 12 oz.
Session 11: The Richies, Fordwich, October '86. 3 nights. 4 takes, 4 Carp.
Yet another very odd sort of session in as much as I caught a few but yet again not too many. I always used to look back at my style of fishing Fordwich that from 1984 onward that I'd either not catch any or get many, well during a longer session anyhow? You couldn't apply this template to the shorter sessions of course as you had no time to build the swim up with freebies and draw the fish in. On the shorter sessions you were often relying on pure luck and you'd either land on top of some feeding Carp or not, as the case may be. Fordwich was often a hard water to read, there were no hard and fast rules I don't think. Okay it would always fish better in cloudy low pressure sort of weather systems and could go mad after long spells of hot weather if the wind blew up from the SW, oxygenated the water and got the fish on the feed again. In winter we'd often get a fish or two during gales, once again especially when the wind was blowing from the SW, and if it was a warm wind (what we'd refer to as a hairdryer wind) then I'd almost head off up to the points, the Baldwin or the Killick, half expecting takes even in the winter. The fish used to move around an awful lot which is why the 'bait up heavy and sit on it' technique worked so well I think? I used to laugh to myself after chatting to other anglers who had these hair-brained theories as to why they caught fish. You'd have to actually be a fish to be aware of what some of these madman thought they knew about what the Carp were up to in the lake. I just used to join the dots up so to speak by making conclusions after taking into account what actually happened in the real world, things that happened either to me or the other anglers who were catching or not catching. It wasn't exactly rocket science. Once you knew a few individual fish you could then form a far better opinion as to their movements. Fordwich wasn't the sort of place where you could climb trees and watch the fish too often, so you'd have to subject all your theories though a process of who caught what wherever and on what bait, using what method etc. After a while it was obvious that the fish moved around the lake, not in one hour or one day but every now and then. Once you had the lay out of the lake, the bars, the Islands and that sort of stuff in your head it was easy to see that the sit and wait method was one of the most productive methods. I'd just set a trap, a large bed of baits scattered over a reasonably large area and wait knowing that if just carp found the area attractive that soon a few of his mates would too.
Yet another very odd sort of session in as much as I caught a few but yet again not too many. I always used to look back at my style of fishing Fordwich that from 1984 onward that I'd either not catch any or get many, well during a longer session anyhow? You couldn't apply this template to the shorter sessions of course as you had no time to build the swim up with freebies and draw the fish in. On the shorter sessions you were often relying on pure luck and you'd either land on top of some feeding Carp or not, as the case may be. Fordwich was often a hard water to read, there were no hard and fast rules I don't think. Okay it would always fish better in cloudy low pressure sort of weather systems and could go mad after long spells of hot weather if the wind blew up from the SW, oxygenated the water and got the fish on the feed again. In winter we'd often get a fish or two during gales, once again especially when the wind was blowing from the SW, and if it was a warm wind (what we'd refer to as a hairdryer wind) then I'd almost head off up to the points, the Baldwin or the Killick, half expecting takes even in the winter. The fish used to move around an awful lot which is why the 'bait up heavy and sit on it' technique worked so well I think? I used to laugh to myself after chatting to other anglers who had these hair-brained theories as to why they caught fish. You'd have to actually be a fish to be aware of what some of these madman thought they knew about what the Carp were up to in the lake. I just used to join the dots up so to speak by making conclusions after taking into account what actually happened in the real world, things that happened either to me or the other anglers who were catching or not catching. It wasn't exactly rocket science. Once you knew a few individual fish you could then form a far better opinion as to their movements. Fordwich wasn't the sort of place where you could climb trees and watch the fish too often, so you'd have to subject all your theories though a process of who caught what wherever and on what bait, using what method etc. After a while it was obvious that the fish moved around the lake, not in one hour or one day but every now and then. Once you had the lay out of the lake, the bars, the Islands and that sort of stuff in your head it was easy to see that the sit and wait method was one of the most productive methods. I'd just set a trap, a large bed of baits scattered over a reasonably large area and wait knowing that if just carp found the area attractive that soon a few of his mates would too.
The wonder-bait was the fish mean/fish oil combo, not because they wouldn't eat anything else but just because it worked on every level - nutritionally, digestively plus it provided the extra added bonus of sending an attractive/alluring beacon to the fish in the form of a plume of oil from the bottom to the surface, meaning that even had a Carp swum over you baits ten feet below them then they'd still be able to find them once they got a sniff and taste of that oil. We'd get these hardball milk protein freaks looking down their nose at us fish meal advocates but looking back it was just so idiotic. They'd get swung by some obtuse, overly scientific study article written in a flashy magazine by some moron trying to make a name for himself and they'd swallow the nonsense and just think that they knew better. Of course we often never let them know how many Carp we were catching, we were never one's for rubbing their noses in it and I'm sure that every time a fish picked up one of their highly indigestible rubber milk protein baits every now and again as they would that it would make these hi-protein freaks feel all superior for a moment. What they didn't realise is that at time we were getting about five or six Carp to every one of theirs, they just didn't know as we played it down and kept it to ourselves or at least I did, I think Geoff gave it to the full bore on occasion. It was laughable looking back. I used to watch them pelting out their 15 ml shiny red plastic high tech expensive boilies in all directions about 70 yards out, then cast thirty yards over the top of them as the loose baits were too small to travel too far. It got to the stage that it would have been absolutely pointless trying to tell them to make the boilies slightly larger and heavier and learn to use a catapult properly, as due to the feud of the intellectual 'wool over the eyes' Hi Tech Milk proteins v Neanderthal Fishmeal, they'd have seen it as some sort of one-upmanship. The thing is that Geoff and I would help anybody, it was their own stubbornness and jealousy that stopped them allowing us to help. They also used to twist things ... oh they are always in the best spots, they do two week sessions and tie up the best swims ... it used to get back to us what they were saying. It was all poppycock, an excuse for bad angling on their part and the worst thing was that I'd have thought more of them had they said it to our faces. They were too cowardly, too snide but we used to hear about it. I didn't miss this side of Carping. I'd say that once we got it into our tiny brains after being taught how to fish by the better more experienced anglers like we had done during our carping/Fordwich style fishing apprenticeships when we first started, that we'd have caught much the same by applying the 'put lots of bait out and sit on it' method from any of the swims from the Richies all the way up to the Spit. They used to hear about us catching from the Richies and thought to themselves that's where all of the fish were, I'm near certain about this. No, it wasn't just that. Put enough bait into an area where Carp pass through and you'll attract lots of them ... eventually. I'd have caught more fish even from the deeps or around the Islands than they would have done in these so-called better swims. Proof of this comes in the session after this one and also from many of Ian Brown's catches taken off the Points around this time too. He caught more Fordwich Carp than anyone I reckon and I wonder what he was up to?? Hmmm?? I wonder?? Was it by using tiny high protein boilies?? Hmmm?? I don't think so?
March 2021 addition/update: I finally got round to reading this Blog back to myself many months after the event of writing it and would like to add that although I refer to the last paragraph as a 'rant' a fair bit of hyperbole was applied when I wrote it. I am in no way angry about what amounts to as a mere, very slight difference in opinion, although as you might see I was a little frustrated about it. To me it's no more than that. It's all water under the bridge now anyhow and I'm not one to hold any grudges even though should you read some of my badly written/described attempts to convey my feelings in this here blog it could come across as otherwise? It's not in any way meant to, I just wanted to relate how this affected me from my limited perspective and wrote it down in my usual poorly worded plain speaking English. Anyway, I apologise to anyone who might get the wrong idea about how I felt and still feel. I was a berk back then and am still one from time to time now, just less so I think? No harm was intended anyhow, that's what I'd like to state here.
Meanwhile ... back in a modern day parallel universe known as planet earth circa 2020 ...
Anyway, sorry about that, a thirty five year old well meaning rant. I'm over it now ... I think? No ... er ... no, yes I am. Phew! Anyhow, back to this session and on the first full day I had a take at 6.30 in the evening. It was obviously one of the larger fish and lo and behold it turned out to be Charlie yet again, this time looking a bit fatter too, pulling the scales down to 27 lb 4 oz. The heaviest Carp I was ever to catch out of Fordwich as it turned out. Odd to think that I'd been hoping to catch her for many years then had caught her about two or three weeks apart. To add to my run of Fordwich lunkers, the following day one of the rods trundled off again at 9.30 am and after another heavy, powerful fight and I landed Hunky yet again, this time weighing in at 26 lb 1 oz. The last time I'd caught Charlie I'd also landed Hunky as well, another odd fact adding to the rather surreal nature of the captures. My one take per day thing continued and on day three I caught a 14 lb 15 oz common in the afternoon then an 18 lb 12 oz mirror at 9.30 on the last morning.
Anyway, sorry about that, a thirty five year old well meaning rant. I'm over it now ... I think? No ... er ... no, yes I am. Phew! Anyhow, back to this session and on the first full day I had a take at 6.30 in the evening. It was obviously one of the larger fish and lo and behold it turned out to be Charlie yet again, this time looking a bit fatter too, pulling the scales down to 27 lb 4 oz. The heaviest Carp I was ever to catch out of Fordwich as it turned out. Odd to think that I'd been hoping to catch her for many years then had caught her about two or three weeks apart. To add to my run of Fordwich lunkers, the following day one of the rods trundled off again at 9.30 am and after another heavy, powerful fight and I landed Hunky yet again, this time weighing in at 26 lb 1 oz. The last time I'd caught Charlie I'd also landed Hunky as well, another odd fact adding to the rather surreal nature of the captures. My one take per day thing continued and on day three I caught a 14 lb 15 oz common in the afternoon then an 18 lb 12 oz mirror at 9.30 on the last morning.
Charlie again, this time at 27 lb 4 oz. You wait for seven years then get her twice, in just three goes too ... typical.
And Hunky for the third time at 26 lb 1 oz.
Session 12: The Baldwin, Fordwich, October '86. 6 nights. 16 takes, 12 Carp.
A long session and my last on Fordwich till the following season, I'm not sure why? I did use to afford myself a bit of a personal life in the winter so perhaps that side of my life got me all snagged up for whatever reason? I'm not sure what Geoff was up to at this time but I did the near full week with Martin Daley and I only know this as I can see both his arms in one of my photos and his large Salter scales in the back of shot of another. This was just part of my ongoing detective work written about earlier. These little bits of evidence all adding up, giving clues to this and that and sparking off much needed memories seeing as I was writing all of this backlog nonsense from my old life out here.
A long session and my last on Fordwich till the following season, I'm not sure why? I did use to afford myself a bit of a personal life in the winter so perhaps that side of my life got me all snagged up for whatever reason? I'm not sure what Geoff was up to at this time but I did the near full week with Martin Daley and I only know this as I can see both his arms in one of my photos and his large Salter scales in the back of shot of another. This was just part of my ongoing detective work written about earlier. These little bits of evidence all adding up, giving clues to this and that and sparking off much needed memories seeing as I was writing all of this backlog nonsense from my old life out here.
The weather was blustery apparently, mostly overcast with the stiff SW wind, so we'd no doubt have fancied our chances up on the points. It was a bit harder fishing the Richies end in windy weather, it was a bit shorter range from the points and as I've said about ninety times already, the Carp did used to move through off those point swims during a big SW blow. Anyhow, Martin set up on the Killick Point and I fished off the Baldwin and the session was odd for me again as it took a while to get any fish and though we did in the end, for a while it slowed down and got hard work. Then mid session another wave of hungry Carp showed up and we started catching again. The first day came and went with nothing to show for our efforts, then after dark I had a take and landed a 13 lb common. The following morning I then had another fish that I hooked at 10 45, a far larger fish too which when netted was a Carp that I recognised but had really piled on the pounds since I last saw it and it ended up weighing in at 25 lb 4 oz, a good fish at the time. The third day things picked up and I lost a fish at 1.00 o'clock in the morning before landing three in the afternoon, the takes coming at 12.30, 12.45 and 6.40, the respective weights being 20 lb 3 oz, 15 lb 1 oz and Bunny at 15 lb 16 oz. On day four it went all quiet again and whilst I did get a take, I lost that particular fish at just after midday. Day five produced a 13 lb 5 oz common at 12.30, a 9 lb 10 oz mirror at 7.15 pm before I had another take/hook pull out at 8.00 pm. Day six came and I caught 'Old Joe' at 13 lb 14 oz after it picked the bait up after dark at 3.30 am, then in the afternoon I got the Kinky Leather weighing in at 17 lb 12 oz. The final day came and the Carp kept on coming and I ended up landing three and losing one other, the three I landed being mirrors of 15 lb 2 oz and 18 lb 6 oz then just before we packed up I got another take from an obviously better quality fish which turned out to be Long Barbels at 25 lb 1 oz.
All in all a nice way to end 1986, spent with a good mate and catching a few Carp.
All in all a nice way to end 1986, spent with a good mate and catching a few Carp.
25 lb 4 oz. The third time I'd caught this particular fish.
20 lb 3 oz, another fish I'd caught quite a few times, here for my fourth time I think?
Long Barbels at 25 lb 1 oz, I'd caught her twice before too.
No comments:
Post a Comment