1984 Part two:
Welcome to 1984 part two, slightly more boring than part one, as hard as that is to believe, I know. The bad news is this 'extra added' boredom' but the good news is that there will be a few larger carp on show so as to jazz it up a little.
As a half time review of sorts, the first half of the 1984/5 season had been a bit up and down, overall mostly up if I'm honest as I'd have been blown away with how many Carp I'd already caught by then. That said, I can't help thinking as I sit reviewing this self centred nostalgic rubbish all these years later on that I'd been a slight sort of 'incy wincy' bit unlucky in as much as I hadn't caught any of the larger Fordwich Carp up to this point, well except for Muscles in early September. In retrospect there may have only been two very large Carp in Fordwich in 1984, the fish known as Hunky and Charlie, so perhaps this would have been more the norm at the time? I really, really, really would have wanted to bag Charlie at this time, Hunky wasn't anywhere as large a fishy celebrity back then.
Session 14: The Richies, Fordwich, 5 nights, September '84. 16 Carp, lost 6.
A photo from this very session, my rods on the right hand side and Geoff 's on the left ... as is evident, it did rain a tad.
The 14th session of the year turned out to be yet another very good session. Geoff and I fished side by side on the Richies I see, me on the right hand 'island' side with him on the more open water left, as the above photo testifies to. The weather was very autumnal by all accounts, being very wet on and off and turning the entire swim into the usual quagmire as can also be seen in the above image. The wind was generally light and from the southwest my notes inform me, meaning that any baiting up and casting would have been aided, as long as it was done between the showers anyway. I also went on to read that I changed the flavouring of my baits for this session, I can only assume that I moved away from my staple of Evaporated Milk and Ice Cream due to my large 500 ml bottle of it running low? I was catching well, especially after I'd changed onto the 50/50 Milk protein/Sluis dry mix, so why one earth change? I can only surmise that I wanted to get another bait going, so I decided to change everything, from the base mix to the flavour. This new flavour combo I used from there on was: 3 parts Liquorice, 1 part Clove, 1 part Strawberry and 1 part Cream. The liquorice was more of an essence, being quite weak and it had bits of liquorice actually floating about in it, the other three flavours were all 1000:1 high concentrated alcohol based flavours. The blend was like no other I even seen nor sniffed, it was black due to the liquorice, actually having coagulated bits floating around inside the bottle, and smelt vaguely of some vile cough mixture type thing. I also started colouring the boilies a bright turquoise blue too, so not only was the flavour a bit odd but so was the colour too, they were rather vivid, almost requiring sunglasses to look at. I do remember choosing this after reading an article about studies made as to what colours Carp could see in murky water, though whether or not this had something to do with my rather gaudy choice at this particular time I can't actually remember for certain? In my mind I think I was just going out on a limb to use something different, I was throwing in lots of bait at the time, so perhaps I just wanted the fish to recognise my boilies as just that, my boilies? Again I could be wrong? Anyhow, whatever colour I used or whatever the baits smelled of, as it turned out the Carp certainly liked them.
During the first full 24 hours of this session I had three takes, the second day four more, two more on day three then a ridiculous fourth day when I had nine takes eventually landing eight more Carp! To end it off very nicely, I then got four more takes on the last day too. I was casting my right hand rod at about mid range over a large bed of boilies alongside the adjacent islands and the left hand rod was whacked out at range into the more open water. I had 13 of the 22 takes on the right hand rod lobbed out about 80 yards alongside the islands fishing over the larger bed of boilies and 14 of them on my new blue/mixed flavour combo fished at range over a wider 'scatter' of loose free baits catapulted as far out as it was possible for me to get them. The other takes came on my old bait of red evaporated milk flavoured boilies used in the same Sluis mix as the other flavour. Quite why I wrote all of that lot of stats out both back then and just now is anyone's guess?
Day one saw me getting two takes after dark then another in the morning. Unfortunately I only landed one fish, Old Faithful (again) at 17 lb 15 oz, was she following me around? Being stalked by a Carp is a real thing y'know. Anyhow, as the session wore on it became apparent that there was no set pattern to the time the fish were feeding, I was getting a few after dark, in the mornings and the afternoons too, I make mention of this as the Carping on Fordwich wasn't always like this. A few of the captures were notable and none more so for me personally than when I finally bagged the Hog, a fish that I'd been hoping to catch for ages after seeing on the bank and in other anglers photos on numerous occasions for years by this stage. I also got to bank another one off my most wanted list too, a large brown mirror with two large scales on one flank, a Carp we went on to call the Big Brown Fish.
So here's the entire 16 Carp haul ...
Top: Old Faithful yet again at 17 lb 15 oz and bottom: a 14 lb 12 oz common and Voodoo Mask (again) at 15 lb 7 oz, the Richies, Fordwich, September 1984. More skew whiff scanning I'm afraid ...
Top: A small stocky of 9 lb 4 oz and bottom: the Big Brown Fish at 23 lb 13 oz. I was really happy to finally bag this Carp having seen and photographed it on the bank a couple of years prior.
Spot again at 21 lb 13 oz, taken for the third time since June and the second time in under two weeks.
19 lb 13 oz, the Richies, Fordwich, September 1984. I believe that I caught this un-named Carp on five plus occasions too.
At long last the Hog ... not before time too. Here she weighed in at 19 lb 4 oz. It got named 'the Hog' by Ian Brown, as for a period of time pretty much every time he cast out this fish would charge down from various corners of the lake and eat his hook-bait. It took me five years to finally bag it ... not for the last time either as it was to turn out.
The Kinky Leather again at 19 lbs, the Richies, Fordwich, September 1984.
9 lb 2 oz, the Richies, Fordwich, September 1984. The same scaly mirror I caught off the Trees during the first week of the 1984 season. I wonder whose arms they are? One of my Mungs no doubt?
14 lb 13 oz, the Richies, Fordwich, September 1984. I caught this well known but once again un-named large headed carp four or five times over the years ...
Top: 17 lb 12 oz and bottom: Scale out of Place at 20 lb 5 oz, the Richies, Fordwich, September 1984. The image is enhanced no end for me by the inclusion of Veggie Mick, a lovely bloke was old Veg ... I wonder what he's up to these days? Our on the bank mates acquired all sorts of nicknames back then, these nicknames actually making it impossible for me to remember the persons real name. It was Lockie that started referring to Mick as 'Veggie' ... his surname would have been known at the time of course, it's just been lost and is now irretrievable to my middle aged grey matter.
Another known fish, I caught this one at least four times too. Here it weighed in at 18 lbs.
The two-tone Carp at 14 lb 14 oz. It might not look very two-tone here but it was. I only caught this fish on this one occasion though it was a known fish to us at the time. I stumbled across a photo just recently of Gonzo holding this particular Carp.
The final Carp of this incredible session and a fish I caught in 1982 and again in 1987. Here it weighed 14 lb 12 oz.
Session 15: The Richies, Fordwich, 1 night, September '84. 4 Carp.
I arrived in similar, rather inclement weather for yet another short stay session. I see that by this time that I had completely ditched the red coloured Evaporated milk flavoured boilies and used just the blue mixed flavour Sluis mix for not only this session but for the duration of the season. Not doubt that the actual reason for me using them at all after devising the new blue mixed flavour baits was that I had a bag or two of the old one's still laying around in the freezer. The old notes go on to inform me that the wind was light, from the west and it rained on and off like it had been doing for the previous month or so by the looks of it. After setting up on the right hand (Island) side of the Richies, I was almost immediately into the fish, getting two Carp on that first afternoon. Both of them mirrors, one of 21 lbs and the other 18 lb 3 oz, the takes coming between half past three and five o'clock. The following day I then got a 13 lb 4 oz mirror in the morning and a 19 lb mirror before I had to pack up and go home. That 19 lb mirror was some fish, I'll include a brief summary of how I caught this rather mad Carp next to the photo of it below.
21 lb, the Richies, Fordwich, September 1984.
18 lb 3 oz, the Richies, Fordwich, September 1984.
13 lb 14 oz, the Richies, Fordwich, September 1984.
And finally the maddest fighting Carp in the world, 19 lbs of rocket fuelled mayhem taken off the Richies in September 1984. This thing was probably the Carp that gave me the most exciting fight that I ever had of any I ever took from Fordwich. It just went like an Exocet missile, from the moment it picked up the bait it just flew ... the take was one of those blistering belting things, the Optonic a single tone blur and from the moment I pulled the rod into the fish and it just kept on taking more and more line. Rather incredibly the fish fought on the surface for the most part as I remember it, and even though I originally hooked it at a vast distance, we could see the fish churning and bow waving the water all the way almost to the opposite bank, especially so as the lake was flat calm at the time. I was actually a bit worried about running out of line as I'm sure I was down near to the backing line at one point. I'd never seen this fish before and never saw it afterwards either, it looked at the time as if it had never seen a hook? I think that it was just one of those fish that never got caught very often. The way it fought you would have thought that it was foul-hooked ... but it wasn't, it was just very, very angry after it made a rare error, picked up by baited rig and got hooked.
Session 16: The Richies, Fordwich, 5 nights, late September '84. 13 Carp, lost 4.
Another cracking six day/five night session. Apparently I set up on the left hand side of the Richies fishing the more open water on the opposite side to where I'd been fishing previously. I have no clue who I was fishing next to but it would have been someone else as had I the swim to myself I'd no doubt have preferred to fish the right hand side? I was well set for the left hand side of that particular swim as I would have arrived armed with a large bucketful of gobstopper sized boilies, the sort you needed to to catapult 120 yards of more if you wanted to fish over a bed of ground bait. The low pressure was still in command, it rained on and off throughout the week ... the wind was still light and from the west etc, so all round good Carping conditions even though I much preferred southwest winds. The fishing went like this ...
After setting up during daylight hours I then had a take at 20.50 which turned out to be a fish I'd been salivating over after seeing it amongst Ian Brown's mass of Carp photos, a fish he named Big Scale. This was a Carp that I'd never seen on the bank in person, just in Ian's photos. It was a lovely black Fordwich Carp and was unlike any in the lake having one diagnostic gigantic silver crescent shaped scale on its right hand shoulder. She would have been bunged in a sack and kept for the morning's photo session.
Day two produced two takes, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, initially from a 14 lb 14 oz mirror then in the afternoon from a 15 lb 6 oz common.
Day three saw me getting three more takes, a 13 lb 1 oz mirror in the morning then two after dark from a 16 lb common then an 18 lb 12 oz mirror just before midnight. Oddly I can find no photos of the mirror, one of two Carp I had this session that I appear to have mislaid the photos of it somehow? I say these photos were mislaid but I do recall not getting a full quota of photos back from Boots after the processing. Perhaps I never had these photos at all? You did used to get the odd processing mishap back in the day, we never knew why. A bad film or a mistake in the lab, human error ... we had no clue. You would just take your 36 exposure film cartridge down to Boots, pay the express extra fee, go back an hour later and hope that all of your photos had been successfully processed and printed. By this time we all had decent Canon SLR cameras but you were still at the mercy of the film maker and the unknown person who did the processing.
Day four followed suit and I had three more takes, the Hog again at midday, a 20 lb 5 oz mirror at 1.30 in the afternoon, before I lost another Carp 4.00 pm.
Day five was the best day for takes but I lost three Carp on this day. At 3.00 am I was awoken by a take from what turned out to be a lunker, well a lunker to us at the time, it was thirty six years ago bear in mind, which when netted weighed in at 24 lb 10 oz. Oddly this was a fish we didn't recognise at the time and one that I never laid eyes on again on the bank but I did once see in someone else's photos I think? I then lost another fish at 07.00 am before landing an 18 lb 1 oz mirror at 07.35, a Carp that in time went on to be one of the big Fordwich Carp. I then lost two more at 08.00 and and 17.30 before hooking and landing Trio at 21 lb 4 oz after darkness fell.
The sixth and final day saw me getting two more fish in the afternoon just before I packed up, a 14 lb 13 oz mirror and Long Barbels at 22 lbs exactly.
I'd never caught so many Carp in my life, it was a doddle, turn up, catapult a load of free-baits out into the lake and then just sit back and wait.
Another much wanted fish ... Big Scale at 21 lb 5 oz, taken off the Richies on the last day of September 1984. I first saw this Carp amongst a pile of Ian Brown's photos ... it went into the 'I need that fish' column in my brain immediately. The following autumn and she was mine ...
14 lb 14 the Richies, October 1984.
15 lb 6 oz, the Richies, Fordwich, October 1984. This is one of the known Fordwich commons, recognisable by the large patch of missing scales beneath the rear end of the dorsal fin. I banked this fish on at least two occasions and saw a few other anglers catch it too.
13 lb 11 oz, the Richies, Fordwich, September 1984.
16 lb, the Richies, Fordwich, October 1984.
The Hog again ... 19 lb 5 oz, the Richies, Fordwich, October 1984. According to my written notes of the day I also had an 18 lb 2 oz and a 20 lb 5 oz mirror either side of the Hog but have no photos of either fish??
This was a weird one, an unknown fish and it weighed 24 lb 10 oz. We didn't know every fish of course but a new mid twenty out of the blue certainly raised eyebrows.
18 lb 1 oz, the Richies, Fordwich, October 1984. This went on to be one of the big lumps, weighing in at over 27 lbs by the autumn of 1986. It became known as Wendy's fish after one of the other Carp anglers left his rods untended with his wife (Wendy) sitting behind them ... the inevitable happened, he wandered away, one of the rods went steaming off and when he got back she had this thing in the net. To make matters worse it would have been a PB Carp for him too! I am fairly certain that the offending Carp angler was one Mr Andrew Clarke of Hersden, Kent. It would have been just typical if I remember correctly that it was Andy.
Trio for my third time in 1984 alone, here at 21 lb 4 oz.
14 lb 3 oz, the Richies, Fordwich, October 1984.
And last but not least here we have Long Barbels at 22 lbs. The first of three times I caught her. That's Geoff's (rubbish) old original landing net, I'd recognise it anywhere. He now wont use a landing net that isn't at least gold plated and diamond encrusted. I say use, I really should have used the word 'own' to be more accurate. He uses a vast range of servant ghillies to net his fish these days I hear.
Session 17: The School Pool, Faversham, 1 day, early October '84. 2 Carp.
The School Pool at Faversham ... we'd have just loved this Google Maps malarkey when we were kids. I am still a bit of a kid of course ...
The School pool!!??? Wha??? Quite why we went to the School Pool at all is a complete mystery to me as I sit here writing all of this backlog of self indulgent nostalgic nonsense out? We were hammering the fish at Fordwich, so why on earth go somewhere else? Now I can only think about blaming Geoff, that's my current reasoning anyway? I wonder whether or not he might have been sniffing around to get his hands on a ticket to fish the School Pool and thought that by going and meeting some of the locals that he might have been able to wangle us both a membership there? Hmmm?? This does sound about right? Only the Faversham Angling Clubs members could fish the lake at night you see, non members were restricted to day only fishing and as the water had a reputation of being harder to fish than Fordwich, then fishing days only was surely a no no to those of us that hated day only waters? That would be the only possible logical reason surely? The only way I would have ever considered putting any concerted effort into fishing this pit anyway would have been by acquiring a season ticket and fishing it regularly, I had no long term interest in day only waters as they didn't suit my way of going about things.
Anyhow, this place did have its appeal as there were two real lumps in this twenty or so acre pit. This appeal largely being centred around a large common, which on occasion went over thirty pounds and a big orange scaly mid thirty pounder known as She, a really famous fish and one we'd seen photos of in the angling papers from time to time over the years. I also have recollections of reading an article about some famous angler catching She, it may have even been Kevin Maddocks and perhaps I read about it in his book Carp Fever? I haven't laid eyes on the pages of Carp Fever for over thirty years, so I may well be wrong? Anyway, as was my way at the time, wherever Geoff went I'd usually tag along, so I'd have gone for the ride, perhaps even just out of curiosity as it was a famous water and I just fancied a look? Even though I'd been reeling them in for fun on Fordwich at the time I wouldn't have been too confident about catching anything I don't think?
After writing the above I later decided to Google 'Carp Fever' and as I suspected the original 1981 first edition not only shown KM with She, but him with the said fish was actually on the front cover. It would have taken a huge leap of faith and imagination to even contemplate that within three years of acquiring this historically important book that not only would I have fished on the School Pool but that I'd have caught the fish too. I had very few Carpy ambitions in those days, everything that I required was provided me by fishing on Fordwich. I was never much of a go getter ... nothing much has changed in this regard with me three and a half decades on. I can still recall the emotion of the time provided by the photo used in Carp Fever shown in thumbnail size in the bottom left of this screenshot. I can still bring to mind the angler, it was Peter Springate and those fish were taken either from Longfield or Wraysbury ... I'd go 60/40 % for Longfield if I was pushed to guess? The second hand price for this first edition is now £140 I see. I have no clue where my copy went.
We did have just the one initial problem with heading off to the School Pool ... we didn't know how to get to the lake! It was quite a large problem as it happens? As it turned out one of our mates (Joe) very kindly offered to meet up with us on the roadside just outside of Faversham and takes us to the lake. Joe was a member I think? I'm not certain about this next bit, but I think another bloke (Mick) tagged along with us making up a foursome for this trip too but I am very vague about this and I might be getting muddled? Mick was a sea angler but I just have this feeling he came along with us as weird as this may sound? Anyway, after setting off an hour or two before sunrise on that autumn morning we met up with Joe at a pre-arranged meeting point on the side of the Duel Carriageway quite near to the lake as and then followed Joes car into Faversham proper. Soon after and were pulling up in the car park of this much talked about but unknown lake. It was still very dark when we arrived and was still dark when we got to the swims we chose to fish from. After setting up and biting the rods I remember that I decided to chuck a couple of rods out each, a totally random choice. I also had a bit of a lead about' as in drag a few casts in slowing to determine what the lake bottom felt like, as already touched upon, I had no clue where I was casting. Joe had a rough idea of the depth etcetera but I still wanted to feel for any weed or gravel. As it turned out we all ended up on the south facing housing estate bank, I fished alongside Joe about midway along that stretch of bank whereas Geoff wandered further away, well down to the right of the bit me and Joe set up on anyway.
At the risk of being sent for a long prison sentence for the heinous crime of uploading some of the most worthless and boring images on the interweb, well here's the swim that Joe and I set up on ... well, I think? It looks different due to the angle of the image and whilst I am quite tall, the ground still wouldn't be so far away even at my height, also the trees and bushes have grown too over the years I would guess? Trees and bushes tend to grow a bit if you don't look at them for 36 years then go back and look at them again. It just could have been that we were in the larger swim next door, one along to the right and that large sticky out bush just right of the rather expertly painted yellow X [marks the spot semi pro graphics] was the one that was to cause me a slight bit of mental anguish later on after we set up?
Now, after my quick preliminary 'lead around' and while it was still dark, I decided to catapult thirty or so baits out at what felt/sounded about about 80 - 90 yards range, I had to be careful as free baits weren't allowed on the School Pool, it was hook baits only there for whatever reason? I still remember that during these a few casts around in the dark just to get a feel of the bottom that it felt clear, as in little or no weed anyhow and I ended up casting out my two hook baits roughly where I thought most of my free boilies had gone ... this was all fishing using my imagination, up till then with it not being properly light yet, I'd never once even seen this lake. Once the daylight broke I then reeled in and had a recast, placing both pop up hook baits about 90 yards out roughly in the middle of the pit. Little did I realise just how good a series of decisions that this all turned out to be. It was all just pure good fortune of course.
At 09.00 am and totally out of the blue, one of the rods went flying off and after a double take I pulled into what immediately felt like a really heavy fish. No one would have been more shocked than I was, I was just going through the motions up till this time and I never once even entertained the thought that I'd actually get a take all day let alone hook what felt like a big Carp on my first proper cast. The fish initially came in rather easily albeit very slowly before kiting to my right before then coming back in front of me. To my right hand side there was this rather terrifying looking submerged bush and I was more than a little worried that the fish was going to snag me up in the tangle of branches going down into the murky deep. I remember at one point thinking to myself that if I could keep the fish away from that snag then with a little patience I should be able to get the fish in, there were no more obvious hazards, no weed or submerged snags were around out in front of me, so I felt that I had a the situation in control ... well, apart from that darn bush. Soon things got awfully heavy - mentally heavy I mean. After a while I had manoeuvred the fish away from the one snag and had it plugging around in what appeared to be some deep margins. A few minutes more of this 'plugging around' passed before I then saw this thing for the first time, it was swimming to my right, close enough to the top of the water to make me think 'it can't be ... surely not??' ... I said to Joe who was by then kneeling down the bank in front of me with my landing net in hand "crickey Joe", I said "it looked like She??" it was all a bit surreal to be honest. Then came the confirmation as I then saw this enormous long scaly Carp head to my left, there was no doubt this time ... it was definitely She. To be honest I more than a little lost my head and Joe came to my rescue a bit, he was absolutely brilliant and did a ten out of ten job. He barely twitched a muscle and just kept on saying (kneeling with the net, his back to me) "Phil, shut up ... shut up" in truth I think that he was ultra nervous too, my knees felt a bit giddy I know that. Just a few minutes later and it went into the net first time and the next thing I know I was running off to get Geoff ... but where was he? I had either not seen him since before first light or he'd been up to us for a natter as all I can remember was thinking 'where on earth is he?' so I must have had no clue where he'd set his gear up. Soon, as I ran along the top bank I looked down and there was Geoff laying on his bedchair behind his rods, he looked up at me and me at the top of the bank above him and he looked really kippy and I said to him "Geoff, Geoff I've got She" and he just rolled over and looked up at me thinking it was a gag and said "Oh yeah?" but when he saw my face, his dropped, as he could just see at a glance by the look in my eyes that I wasn't pulling his leg. We then jogged up to where Joe had the fish, he had taken the fish out of the water, it was still in the landing net and he was looking at the hook hold, perhaps even trying to unhook it. I then remember the panic of the situation thinking back to Brooklands the year prior when I'd had a fish fall back into the lake when we unhooked it, so I rather hurriedly moved the net with the fish inside just to be on the safe side. I remember this bit vividly all these years on. The fish was real looker too, huge ... a wonderful thing.
34 lb 4 oz, The School Pool, Faversham, October 1984. What a handsome lump eh ... the old fish ain't too bad either?
We did get a little bit of hassle from the bloke next door. Now when I had initially set up that morning it was still dark and what I didn't realise at the time was that to my right hand side there was another angler hidden behind the same snaggy bush I mentioned earlier. It was good thing that I hadn't seen him or else I doubt whether or not I'd have picked this swim at all. Anyhow, he had a bee in his bonnet about me catching this fish and starting talking all sorts of nonsense, accusing me of casting over his baited area, which even if it was true, which of course it wasn't, then why hadn't he mentioned this earlier, the baits had been in the lake for two hours or so when I got the take? Had he told me then I'd have been happy to move the baits and cast somewhere else. He was definitely hallucinating somewhat anyway as at one point he tried to tell us that the fish was pooping out his bait and this was utter nonsense, we weren't complete idiots. Anyhow in the end I got fed up with listening to his rubbish and we had a little bit of an eyeball to eyeball Mexican stand off before he wandered back to his swim muttering away to himself as he went.
Things then got even better. At midday (ish) I then got another take on the same rod cast into a similar spot, a real screaming take this one and the fish belted off once hooked, it took a fair bit of line off me as soon as I pulled into it. I remember saying to Joe "It feels like a bigger fish than She" okay, a rather obvious cheapo joke but I'd have been floating on cloud ninety nine at the time so forgive me. This second Carp gave me a great fight anyhow and I can still bring to mind how small it looked once I got it into the margins prior to netting it ... it wasn't small at all, it was just one of those short round mirrors exacerbating the size difference between it and the last Carp I'd seen plugging up and down in that same margin a couple of hours or so earlier.
Second fish of the day, 20 lb 4 oz, The School Pool, Faversham, October 1984.
So that was the rather saucy tale of my first ever day on the School Pool. A myriad of good fortune all compressed into one short trip out of the house.
Session 18: The Richies, Fordwich, 2 nights, October '84. 6 Carp, lost 1.
The memory is a funny old thing. The memory is a funny old thing ... oh hang on I just wrote that didn't I? No, as I rather wrongly remembered it after all of the years, I thought by using my memory that I pretty much gave up fishing in 1984 after catching She but I now see after consulting my notes that this was utter poppycock silly fat-headed, twitfaced nonsense. That said, catching She did affect me and in a rather weird way too, as I can remember that my heart wasn't into my Carping for a good time afterwards and it was this emotion that got a little twisted in my memory banks I think, there's no arguing with a diary written at the time is there. It might just have been that I didn't have the urge to go for a week or two, but it did definitely affect my enthusiasm if nothing else? I then go on to read that at some time during October, perhaps a week or two after that School Pool trip that I was actually back fishing on Fordwich and I fished for two nights off the left hand side of the Richies. I see that soon after setting up that I had a take that first afternoon but lost the fish. I then had a second take at 2.30 am from a 15 lb 2 oz common and had to wait for another 24 hours before the next take when Scargill picked up my boilie baited rig at 2.10 am on the following morning. The last day was the best of the bunch providing me with two Carp in the morning then two more in the afternoon, fish of 20 lb 4 oz, 19 lb 2 oz, 18 lb 1 oz and lastly a 26 lb 14 oz mirror that decided to pick up my bait just as I was packing my bivvy away at 5.00 pm. The last fish was the second largest Carp in the lake at the time, a fish named by Ian Brown as Hunky, my largest ever Fordwich Carp and second on my my wanted list at the time. Wow, was the fishing going well at that time eh? Everything just clicked into place. Ideally I'd have caught this fish before I caught She ... beggars can't be choosers as they say, but had I caught this fish in September before the School Pool visit then I'd have appreciated catching Hunky a whole lot more. After getting the largest fish Charlie, Hunky would have been the second most wanted on the Fordwich list at the time.
15 lb 12 oz, The Richies, Fordwich, October 1984.
Scargill, 18 lb 8 oz, the Richies, Fordwich, October 1984.
20 lb 4 oz, the Richies, Fordwich, October 1984. I can still remember Paul Lehane standing there as whoever it was took the above photo, I nicked his woolly hat off his head and stuck it on mine. Paul was a good lad and was famed due to having the biggest feet you've ever seen ... he wore size 14 or was it 16 trainers if I'm not mistaken? He wasn't as tall as me but took shoes two or perhaps four sizes larger than my size twelves. He had his trainers hand name by a firm usually known for making small boating pool dinghies. He was the only man in the southeast who could drink 15 pints of Stella and not fall over ... well apart from Lockey of course albeit for a different reason but with Paul the weight of his body couldn't over topple his planted plates of meat. Of course if I'm right and his feet were that size with size 16 feet it's impossible to fall over ... Paul could probably sleep standing up taking into account the size of those flippers on the end of each leg.
The Hog for the third time in less that two months ... after many years of being Hogless too. Here she weighed 19 lb 12 oz. Guess what ... after finally getting the fish then catching it three times in two months I never ever caught the Hog ever again.
18 lb 1 oz, the Richies, Fordwich, October 1984. I look a tad narked don't I? Grrr ... snarl ... Some of those Common Carp really played up when on the bank as I remember it.
Just as I was packing up one of the rods trundled off and about half an hour later I had Hunky in the net, here weighing in at 26 lb 14 oz. I might not look all that pleased though believe me I would have been to some greater degree than is evident in the above anyway but I had to pull some sort of a face as I just hated having my photo taken. I had two modes of photo pose, using either the cold blank stare or the look at the ground or fish stance thingamy. Either way I must have been thinking that it was the super cool way to go about such things and I do look rather dashing in that cheap nylon shirt, black woollen jumper and two quid body warmer combo, a hard act to pull off is that. This was the first of three times I banked old Hunky, I also lost her when the hook pulled out right over the net one other time too.
Session 19: The Baldwin then the Richies, Fordwich, 2 nights, October '84. 2 Carp, lost 1.
Yet another post She capture Fordwich trip ensued I see. Who'd have thunk it eh? Not me that's for certain. On this occasion a stiff southwest breeze was blowing so I headed off to the points, ending up settling for just one night on the Baldwin before moving down to the Riches. I lost a fish off the Baldwin on the first afternoon before fishing for the fish/bite free night there, then, after moving down the lake for the second night, I managed to claw out two Carp, a 19 lb mirror (Scargill again) then a leather of 22 lb 6 oz.
Scargill again at 19 lbs, the Baldwin, October 1984.
The yellow or nude Leather here at 22 lb 6 oz, the only time I ever caught this fish. It had a deformed dorsal fin, having just a small hint of a fin at the front end, then nothing before the bottom third of the fin was intact. In the middle it's back was as smooth as the Carps belly.
Session 20: The Mound, Fordwich, 1 night, October '84. Blanked.
My last session of the year on Fordwich as it was to turn out. My notes read the following:
'The Mound October, one night calm and overcast, blue Sluis/protein, blanked'
And that was that for any more Stour Valley Carp fishing for 1984 .... the end of a cracking season at Fordwich for me anyway, the day on the School Pool had been a bit of a let down, just two Carp in those few hours fishing .... titter ... chortle ...
Session 21: Brooklands, Dartford, 2 Nights (one full day) November '84. 3 Carp, lost 1.
Oooh ... look at all the pretty coloured numbers ... classy eh, sheer class! Other than the coloured numbering system, what we also have here is a migrating Invisible Auks eye view of Brooklands in Dartford. What ... you've never heard of Invisible Auks? Really?? Okay, no one has ever actually ever seen an Invisible Auk and okay again, their actual existence is currently only theoretical, but if I am correct they do exist but are just very very difficult to see due to being ... er ... oooh ... invisible. Hence the current debate as to their feeding, breeding and migration routes and habits. Hang on? Where were we? Oh yeah, Brooklands. Now I fished Brooklands on only five occasions, a day visit on 1983 with Tony and Al where we set up on the north bank (figure 1 ... gottit?) then the second and third visit with Lockey in November 1984 (when we fished areas 2 and 3 then area 4 on the third visit) then area 5 in December 1984, once again with Lockey. I did also fish area 3 for one last trip in the winter of 1987 but can't for the life of me remember who I went with? I have an inkling that it was pent in the rather wonderful company of Clive Whitlock? Does it matter ... well once again 'yes' to me and 'no' to you lot, but indulge me for one minute please wont you, I'm having fun playing around with these pretty pictures that I snagged off the interweb.
Brooklands was an odd place to fish, part of me liked it whilst another part of me didn't. I was thinking about this earlier and whilst I initially had only good memories about my time at Brooklands, in truth it would have driven me potty had it been the only lake that I had access to. The negatives were where the lake was situated, it being set amongst a very urban landscape in north Kent, surrounded by factories and houses, the noise of the cars and other machinery seemingly surrounding you as well as by day, various members of the general public being around etc. That said, at night it was a different kettle of peas ... or should that be fish??? It was an extremely atmospheric place to fish at night, perhaps the closest feel to a place that I ever felt like that was on Redmire a few years later on. Now, I'm not saying that Brooklands was anywhere near as nice a place to be as Redmire was, it's just to my mind there were similarities, mostly just the way the lake made you feel when fishing after dark. It had that little bit of mystery to it. I have to admit that think that this feel was totally me just being overly romantic and it was just a mind over matter mental state built up by years of reading and dreaming about Carp fishing during your early years. Brooklands was famous lake to us back in these early days you see. This weird mental state just gave the whole experience an ethereal other worldly sort of feel ... I don't know, it's hard to explain? Let's face it Redmire as pretty as it is, is just a surprisingly small pool on some farmland on the Welsh Border, it's the reputation that the place has that gets the mental juices flowing. I'm sure without having read a word about Redmire then the lake would lack much of the mystique built up in or minds by visiting such a place. In this regard, Brooklands did remind me of Redmire. By this time of my carping life I'd read a fair few articles and heard many tales about Brooklands and some this information had driven itself deep into my psyche.
As mentioned earlier in the Blog of utter woe and torment, a certain Bison headed man from the north (well north Kent) one Mr David Cecil Locke, had moved down south the year prior.* We first met in the summer of '83 and within 18 seconds would be the best of mates. Thereafter I used to visit Lockey in his flat down by the west cliff at Ramsgate where he keep me entertained by playing very loud music, stuff such as Gentle Giant, The Groundhogs, Jethro Tull etc whilst whistling himself into a drunken stupor and thereafter sleep. Often I'd leave with him by that time slumped in his chair/settee looking like a bearded fast asleep Elephant Seal with eight tranquilliser darts in its side. Then, either a few days or a week later go back and do much the same thing all over again. We loved it, talking utter nonsense for hours upon end before the night built up into an ever louder crescendo of 1970's prog. If nothing else it was entertaining, hilarious too. I was no good at the drinking lark but Lockey made up for me and any other seventy four teetotallers you'd care to mention. His beer consumption was utterly staggering. Quite literally 'staggering' at times too.
*This should have read that we may have met the year prior, Lockey moved to SE Kent in 1982 not '83. That said I still think that it took me until the summer of 1983 before our paths crossed? I may be wrong?
Now of course I'd already visited Brooklands with Tony Philips and Alex in the summer of 1983, just that one time up till this point of this sordid little tale though. I'd even caught a Carp but even then the part of the lake that we fished on that hot summers weekend day it felt to me was like fishing in a glorified park rather than the open countryside. It wasn't until I met Lockey the year prior and then fished there again 'at night' that I started to understand all these hidden emotions about the Lake and the fish that resided there. It was during the autumn of 1984 that Lockey had mentioned about us perhaps going to fish at Brooklands, we could take a drive up there and 'fish for a couple of nights' ... nights I thought? You can't fish Brooklands at night you Bison faced silly old billy?? You're not allowed. Now my bearded Bison faced mate was forced to explain his strategy further only this time in greater detail and went on to inform me that you have to fish Brooklands 'at night' as the Carp are far harder to catch during the day and were known to come out at night to feed as these old/clued up fish had learned that after dark they could come out of hiding, have a swim around and chomp on everything chucked into the lake by day. These were old battle hardened Carp and they had learned that it was safer to feed at night. Lockey was from this part of the world and had been Carping from the 1960's, he knew the Lake well. "But what if we get caught night fishing?" would have been my next question ... Lockey said not to worry about it, we'd just pick a quiet spot and if we got caught we got caught, so what? I felt safe with Lockey ... he was a big old lump, as large as a whole Rugby scrum on his own. We'd be alright, he was from North Kent too and understood the general protocol, the way of doing things in this rough tough part of the world, he seemed all very nonplussed about it anyhow. Lockey had been a doorman on the London club scene in the past, so a tap on the shoulder at night by someone in relative authority registered as very low on his own personal anxiety threshold. As for me, well I am a devout semi pro, Olympic level coward ... as Woody Allen once remarked in one of his films "I don't have a yellow stripe painted down my back ... it runs all the way across it' ... that's me too. As Brooklands fished well during the winter months too, as Lockey went on the explain, in November we arranged a visit to one of Lockey's old haunts, the build up to this first trip was all quite exciting.
So the big day came and off we chugged in one of Lockey's old cars headed for deepest Dartford ... he loved his cars did Lockey. I can easily recall two of Lockey's two cars, an old beaten up green VW estate called Kermit and another rather plush 1970's Citroen DS, a huge long luxury yacht of a car that felt as if you were driving on a velvet road due to the amazing hydraulic suspension. Okay Lockey might have looked like the sort of human being who would bite the head off of anyone that looked at his pint in the wrong way but he was most sentimental about those old cars. Of course he would bite the head off of anyone that looked at his pint the wrong way ... the one thing he loved more than his cars was a pint of beer, but you get my meaning perhaps? Anyhow, an hour of wobbling the carriageways, nattering away like two old washer women later like we always used to, and we pulled up at the lake. Well, I say 'the lake' Lockey did in fact park up on an industrial Estate just south of the lake, as it was near to the area that he fancied fishing. You cant beat a bit of local knowledge can you? We got out of the car, he no doubt had a few puffs on his silly pipe, in silly fashion, he would have sniffed the air looking rather silly, surveyed the scene ahead of him as he stood on the lakeside and said something along the lines of "about here will do us Millie" ... we grabbed our gear and set up on either side of a swim that Lockey referred to as the Reeds. It would have been late afternoon by this time but we still had quite a while to settle in as Lockey was hopeful of getting a take or two only after darkness fell. Once again he was right too. It was one those slightly chilly late autumn days, any leaves left on the trees would be yellowed, the rest starting to rot underfoot giving the area that typical fallen leave musty autumnal smell mingled with the smell of the factories and the nearby town. The air was still, there wasn't a breathe of wind, it was almost peaceful, none of the on site surrounding chaos by comparison with the previous years summer's day visit anyway. The distant rumble of the outside world was indeed perceptible and once darkness fell often audible as well as were a pair of noisy Tawny Owls that spent the night tooing and froing around the in the trees right behind and overhead of the area.
Above: yet another stunning migrating Invisible Auks eye view shot of the Reeds and below it the same swim back in November 1984 as viewed from the angle of an injured, flightless Peruvian subspecies of the Flatulent Owl, coincidentally it's also a humans eye view too ... funny that eh? Checking out Google Maps shows an unrecognisable area now by comparison. It looks as if a fair old bit of groundwork has gone on with that Reeds swim since our day ... the modern day Reeds swim looks as if it's been manicured? .
Now of course as would be evident to anyone foolhardy enough to have read this part of this here Blog, I was by far the luckiest man in the Universe at the time. Yet again, I set up blind bar a bit of info via Locky, lobbed out a couple of baits, more in the mental mode of let's try and learn something about the lake for future visits perhaps, the start of the usual first visit information gathering mission so to speak, but quite early on in the nights (20.15 I read) and I get a take and soon had rather nice sized Carp in the landing net. After casting back out I then had another take at 02.30 and an action replay took place, half a jiffy later and I had this similarly sized fish plugging away and splashing about in the margins, Lockey netted it and that was that for the first night.
I'd sacked up both fish, so in the morning we got out of our pits, had a tidy up so as to look as if we'd just arrived rather than having stayed the night, then weighed and photographed the two Carp. The first fish weighed in at just over 20 lbs, the second one was a little over 22 lbs. They were cracking fish too, totally different to any that I had seen before. Unlike my first Brooklands Carp which was very dark and relatively un-scaled, these two were quite scaly, absolutely lovely fish they were too.
Another rather excellent view of the Reeds from the opposite bank this time, from the eye view of the very common and most certainly nowhere near extinct flightless Peruvian subspecies of the Flatulent Owl eating, Land Beluga Whale. Land Beluga Whales have a rather excellent sense of smell, hence the rather pongy Flatulent Owls extinction.
Oh, and those two Carp from the first night ... the top one was 22 lb 11 oz and the bottom one was 20 lb 1 oz. They were very nice fish, old leathery skinned dinosaur Carps compared with what I was used to getting back home ... I was well pleased I can tell you. Merci bien Monsieur Locke.
Now for the second night we decided to move and I can only assume that this was because of not being allowed to fish at night that we were in a vulnerable spot as to be being seen? Why else would you move after catching two fish the night before? Anyway, we did move and ended up fishing the west bank, an area that we never saw anyone fishing in and from memory, with it being in the furthest corner of the lake and being so well hidden, then this meant that even people just wandering round could not see you there. The entire bank had a backdrop of dark trees, the reeds swim was far more open, so looking back this would make sense perhaps? Although we had to move our gear to this other bank in reality we could still fish the same sort of area as we'd fished the night prior, you could still cast to pretty much the same spot that I'd had the previous action from. After a quick recce and a light poke about along this other bank, we settled on fishing about thirty yards apart, Lockey fishing the right hand side casting to the area off the reeds, whereas I'd seen this awfully Carpy looking spot and fancied giving this a try. On this part of the lake a large tree had fallen into the lake parallel with the bank and I ended up being able to climb out onto the trunk of this tree carrying one of my rigs and a pocketful of boilies and virtually drop the whole lot right next to this Carp attracting snag. My other rod I'd just be casting around the open water but I just felt that if I was to get another take on that second night then I was far more hopeful of the snaggy area rod being the one to provide me with any further action. I was right too. After the usual daylight hours of catching nothing, I re-baited ready for the after dark part of the session and at 1.00 am I got a take on the snaggy rod. Anyhow, I lost the fish which was all the more annoying as I'd got it away from the snag before the hook pulled in the open water. I had my rig right next to the bank but was fishing from 30 yards away ... I remember saying to Lockey that I was "fishing close in far out" and as I said it his eyes went cross-eyed ... nothing too unusual for our level of tangential waffle of course, some of which was often a bit on the madder side of surreal. Anyway, with it now being dark and being forced to re-cast presented me with a problem as there was no way I was going to climb out onto that tree at night. Brooklands was fairly well lit due to all of the factories and whatnot around the periphery of the lake but I wasn't going to risk falling in the water. I ended up just casting out underarm right next to the submerged tree and paying off line back to my rod rests in my swim. This went well too as at 05.00 am I had another take and soon pulled into a heavy fish and about five minutes later had a similar sized fish to the two I'd had the night prior. It went into the net, out of the lake then into a sack awaiting weighing and photographing once it got light. Once morning came around I then saw this fish properly for the first time, a near linear mirror, dark chocolate brown with big brassy scales ... a wonderful looking thing, in immaculate nick too.
The fish from the second night, 19 lb 14 oz, a real looker too ... deep dark chocolate on the back, glistening brassy scales going into deep orange ... luverly jubly!
No doubt after we'd photographed the fish we would have packed up and driven home as it was a waste of time fishing by day by the looks of it, much as Lockey had said before we left of course. We'd be back and soon ...
Session 22: Brooklands, Dartford, 2 Nights (one full day) November '84. 2 Carp, lost 2.
The above image shows a much younger David Cecil Locke standing on the Reeds at Brooklands in 1984, no doubt day dreaming about consuming barrels of home brew with a background soundscape of some complicated Gentle Giant tune imagined in his inner mind. Look at him ...that tree trunk is eight feet wide, only the merest of smidgens wider that the old Moose headed beer guzzler of Thanet thicky land circa 1982 - 1987.
Probably by the following midweek and Lockey and I were back and both settled into the same swims we'd ended up fishing the week prior, along that same dark and dingy west bank of Brooklands. Once again the fallen tree swim snag turned up a take almost immediately once it got dark (well at 8.00 pm) but yet again I had the hook pull out similar to the last time I fished this spot. The second night proved to be slightly more eventful. The weather was virtually unchanged from the week before being flat calm and sunny by day with a slight nip to the air at night although on the second night it clouded over and the temperature held into the darkness. On the second night, as I sat there behind my rods hoping for a take, I heard a Carp crash out of the water to my left. I can't remember exactly what happened in any proper detail but soon after I heard either one or a few leaping Carp, from memory it feels like it was a few? Anyhow, it was enough to warrant a change of tactics meaning that I went up for a closer look and no sooner had I arrived on the banks of the Bay in the NW corner of the lake (known as the Slaughterhouse Bay) and as I stood there in the darkness another Carp leapt out. Not being one to look a gift horse in the eye, I then rushed back to my swim, reeled in my roving rod, leaving my snag rod out where I'd last cast it, and threw one baited rig out into the Bay. I could see the ripples on the surface in the lamplit backdrop where the last Carp had thrown itself clear of the water and I cast out roughly in this spot, put the rod on the ground loosening off the clutch and no sooner had I cast but the rod went screaming off and I was into a Carp but unfortunately I lost the fish. This was at 3.30 am apparently, I'd written this bit of info down my 36 year old recollection isn't quite that sharp. I next went at some pace and got a single rod rest and a spare Optonic and cast out into the same rough area of this Bay. At about 04.00 am I was in again, soon landing a 12 lb mirror and then just before it got light, I then had yet another take from the Bay and when I hooked it I knew it was a much larger Carp. It didn't fight too much but it just felt heavier and I had it in the net within about five minutes or so, a big old battered Carp which looked about twenty pounds. I sacked them both up and woke Lockey, the fish was a twenty, albeit just about, weighing in at 20 lb 4 oz. A nice way to end the session.
12 lb 4 oz, Brooklands, November 1984.
20 lb 4 oz, Brooklands, November 1984. Look at that old battle-scarred warrior ... what tales he could tell if he were ... ooh er ... um ... able to remember things and ... er um ... speak English. Joking aside this fish just looked thoroughly ancient.
Two other things of note occurred during this visit. Earlier on the first day we heard this flapping coming from the trees behind us ... this was followed by a light thud and there on the grass beneath the trees was a half dead Wood Pigeon that had just plummeted out of the trees. Lockey walked over to this poor thing and picked it up ... he stroked its back rather tenderly as he held it in one hand and said to me "I think he's had it Millie" and whoosh he pulled its head clean off! The Pigeon wouldn't have felt a thing but wow did it make an impression. Lockey was used to the ways of the Countryside, he knew what he was doing. Lockey always had this assured calmness about his person at times where some people might get flustered. To illustrate, I think back to one previous day when we were wandering along the main path past the lake at Fordwich. Dave was quite new to Fordwich at the time but well known to the rest of us was that one of the locals had and enormous and obviously aggressive Irish Wolfhound. This thing was grey and about four feet at the shoulder and should you have the bad timing to pass him walking this horse of a mutt as he did daily up and down the lakeside path, this dog would often growl at you. It was very intimidating and to make matters even worse the dog wasn't often kept on a lead and it's owner deadly silent. Seeing this dog's behaviour an apology or some reassuring words of some sort was warranted as a minimum, but no he said nowt. Had the dog been two feet smaller he'd have got a mouthful from the old version of me but you have to pick and choose your moments when confronted with the hound of the Baskervilles in the flesh. Anyhow, on this day as we wandered along the path (just me and Lockey at the time) I saw this bloke and hound approaching and as we passed each other on the this rather narrow pathway and true to form the dog glared at us and let out a low deep growl. Lockey then turned round, looks this bloke in the eye and comes out with in a calm but authoritive tone "if that dog growls at me again I'll strangle it" and he meant it too. I remember thinking 'who is this bloke' ... it was all most impressive I can tell you. That dog was off the scale scary. Anyway, back to that second session at Brooklands ...
The second thing 'of note' came on the first night as we got nabbed fishing after dark. It was well after dark too, so it was a slam dunk 'hands up its a fair cop' sort of thing and at first I anticipated trouble. I was yakking to Lockey when this bloke showed up. We heard footsteps headed our way out of the darkness then into view walked this bloke who told us in no uncertain tone that we weren't allowed to fish at night. It turned out that he was bailiff, he was a bit jack the lad too, gravel voiced and looked like he could look after himself. He wasn't at all phased at tackling us two gigantic blokes in the dark in North Kent anyway and when you think about that alone there are a fair amount of nutters in North Kent, so fair dues to him. As it happened Lockey turned on the charm, explaining to this bloke that we were an hour's drive from home, we wanted to fish for two days, we had a day ticket already etc etc and to cut a long story short the bailiff bought it. He even stayed on for a twenty minute yak and a cup of tea, he might have looked and sounded like a bit of an east end gangster sort but he was an okay sort of bloke once Lockie forged some sort of common ground with him. I don't know if he just noticed us by accident on his rounds or whether or not someone reported us? I bet we weren't all that quiet so the former is just as likely? No doubt any of any noise that Lockey and I would have been making at the time would have been raucous laughter of course.
This made me laugh ... I found this old Brooklands day ticket from 1984 amongst a box of old fishing junk and look at that price ... 70 pence!
Session 23: Brooklands, Dartford, 2 nights, December '84. Blanked.
We went back in December of '84 but this time fished off the east bank in an area of the lake that looked as if it had been cordoned off from the rest of the pit? Anyway, neither of us had a sniff of any action and whilst it was noticeably colder than our two visits in November, it was still mild enough to get a bite ... not that we did. [see below]
So that was the year of 1984 over for me. I used to go out drinking at home in the winter in those days, by this time I had non fishing winter drinking buddy mates and my fishing mates, I'd only see my non fishing winter mates once the Carping slowed down. I'd still be visiting Lockey's flat for my amusement watching him whistle himself silly after a few gallons of beer while we listened to increasingly loud music the longer the night wore on. Have you ever seen anyone whistle complex Gentle Giant tunes? I have. Quite often too.
ps: 2021 update: Lockey informs me that he in fact had two carp during this last session, both double figure fish that he took from the margins. This just goes to show how poor the human memory can be from time to time and how much I needed to rely on my old notes and journals taken back in the day, as I have absolutely no recollection at all about these fish. Perhaps the merest whiff of a very feint memory in retrospect, but no more than that.
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