1984
I can see from my old worn out thirty year old plus notepads that at long last I actually have some more properly set out and detailed notes to hand for this 'bit' namely the 1984/85 fishing season. These ancient 'notes' written out by hand in the biro of the day, include some awful yawningly boring stuff for the reader - stuff such as the session by session weather conditions, time spent on the lakeside, even the times I had the takes - also the bait used and written records of lost fish, but in retro detective mode as I've been working on this as some sort of warped cold case, these otherwise tedious notes were a great help to the old worn out memory banks that I find myself lumbered with nowadays.
When I eventually found it, this particular thirty five year old notepad had in fact fallen to bits during the intervening three decades meaning that I was forced to piece it all back together aka some forgetful archaeologist handed a bucketful loaded with the Dead Sea Scrolls. I was hoping that there were no odd missing pages lost amongst this papery rubble ... and when I eventually got all these loose bits in order then guess what ... it was! As in 'all there' (unlike me) and perfectly legible too. Joking aside, it did help me make some sense of that long lost part of my former life and of all the years to have such notes this was the most valuable one of them all due to 1984 being the most fantastic year of carp fishing for me. In truth this breakthrough year would go on to prove in time to be a large part of my eventual downfall I reckon? Okay, I caught lots of Carp but in the vein of the old saying that 'the chase is better than the catch' well I'd say that much of the fun, alongside any personal sense of achievement pretty much went out of the fishing window due to this. Gradually the mystery went, the element of difficulty verses reward fell by the wayside too. To feel that certain bit of satisfaction there has to be an element of difficulty and I caught so many Carp in 1984 that I think that I took it all too much for granted. If you caught a fish every chuck you'd either have to enjoy it on a different level or it would get boring ... mundane. ??? I make mention of all this in retrospect as, being a bit thick as I am, I was in no way aware of this at the time. I actually thought I was having the time of my life. Hindsight is a wonderful thing as they say.
(This means that I'll be able to write out what happened in even greater detail, okay probably far more boring for the reader as that's a given, but far better from my overly nostalgic writing/remembering point of view as I sit here trying to apply all of my detective skills whilst trying to bring back to mind what actually occurred back then. You have to take into account that this is the first time I've reviewed this part of my life in over thirty years, these notes and old photos have sparked off so many buried memories that I now think I can have a half decent stab at getting this particular slab of my fishing life written down far more accurately.????)
June 1984, the season begins ...
The start of the '84 season was an odd one for Geoff and I in some respects as we decided for the first time in a while not only to fish Fordwich (from the off) during the first week of the season, but also to enter into the debacle the enter the pre-season draw for swims too, perhaps the only time we ever tried this? I use the word 'perhaps' as it might not have been? Anyway, I think it was so I will go with that for now. The June 16th new season kick off date on Fordwich was a rather manic affair even back then, so our usual early season Carping on Fordwich tactic up till this time had been to allow this early season rush to dissipate and start fishing a week or so into the season. Even waiting for just three or four days into the new season could make all the difference as the post three month close season rush soon died down and you could often get yourself a half decent swim to fish from then onward. The plan was for Geoff and I to choose a double swim and fish together 'if' we got a decent draw. If not, well then we'd have a rethink and choose another option? If nothing else having two names in the draw would give us two chances and getting somewhere half decent to fish? The draw was (as usual) to be held in the Fordwich Arms pub and Geoff and I arrived on this particular day when the draw was to take place in good time and in fine fettle. The atmosphere was the usual thing - many overly hyped anglers packed into the small bar, all shapes and sizes and of varying scales of the social scale ranging between the hooray Henry 'jolly hockey sticks' sort of brigade right down to those who looked as if they just needed a good bath. Geoff and I would be somewhere in-between perhaps. We all can bring to mind the atmosphere when a load of blokes get together, it's a pretty galling and overly plastic affair or postulation and impression. Geoff and I picked a quiet corner of the pub, no doubt throwing a light bit of banter at those we knew, ordered a beer and tried to keep out of the main overly enthusiastic uproar going on around us. Anyhow, the draw started and first out of the hat was Tim Attwood ... we knew where he'd pick as he was a particle freak, so this meant that the Spit swim was gone. The next name out of the hat time came ... AND ... it was ME!!! Yippee!! I almost had a coronary!* No doubt once this turn of good fortune had sunk in then Geoff and I would by then be headed toward the bar for a refill, high fiving each other with job done written across our happy and rather smug faces? We ignored the rest of the draw, soon deciding to fish the Trees swim. I can't remember exactly but it would possibly have been a toss up between there and the Richies? In retrospect we may have had to shout out where we wanted to fish immediately meaning that all of the planning had already been taken care of prior to the draw? Exactly how this went, well I can't remember thirty six years on but the bare bones of the above account is about right I'd say.
*Note: Not a Sean Coronary.
After this we started off a 'pre planned pre baiting' scheme, visiting the lake in the evenings and lobbing in as many boilies as we could be bothered to make. Seeing as my name came out of the hat first we decided that it would only be fair that I would get the first pick of the three pitches that the Trees as a swim had on offer. I chose the best bit, the 'middle' Trees swim as it was referred to, whilst Geoff settled on the not quite as good right hand side bit of the swim. The Trees had three areas for fishing and the middle bit was the bit that I knew best, hence me picking it, it allowing you to cast through a gap into some Islands about 70 yards away, a nice area that was out of reach from any other part of the lake, a nice easy swing to get into a good Carpy spot anyhow. There were two nice gravel bars off this area and one of the rods, the one cast through the gap between these Islands placed your bait in some slightly deeper water. It was an area that I'd not only fished quite a bit but had caught Carp from in the past, meaning that I would have been ultra confident of at least getting some action. The right hand swim had less features to aim at, having only one edge of the islands to cast to. The third 'bit' to the left of the middle swim was just an ultra close range or float fishing swim, this bit was no good at all for serious Carp fishing apart from stalking should a fish be seen there.
So both the draw and the choice of swim went awfully well but from that moment onward things really started to go wrong for me BIG TIME as about three weeks before the season kicked off I broke my right hand, a real nasty break too, I could actually see the two broken bits of bone poking up beneath my skin and this after actually hearing the bone crack as it snapped. I wont mention how this accident occurred as to be completely honest I am far too ashamed and embarrassed! Anyhow, taking into account that we were so close to the start of the fishing season I was utterly heartbroken when I took stock of the situation and I remember going to Margate Hospital to get my hand fixed and the first thing I asked the doctor was "will I be able to hold a fishing rod by mid June?" I was told that I had absolutely no chance. I was gutted and after feeling sorry for myself for some time I rallied, got my head sorted out and in a fit of unusual positivity decided to do everything within my power to be there on Fordwich, in that swim and ready to fish on opening night. After about a week passed by and rather obviously, I still couldn't even pick up a rod properly. I could still feel and see the bone moving when I tried to use the hand ... it was horrible, painful too. For whatever reason they decided not to place a plaster cast over the hand but just to tightly bandage it up which is why I could see the break moving about. To cut a long story short, although my hand was still hurting by mid June, it did get to the point that when I got to the swim on the afternoon of June 15th I could just about pick up the rod and cast out. My main worry thereafter was what was going to happen if or when I hooked a Carp? How would the still healing break deal with the pressure of a rod with a Carp on the other end? I was right to worry too, as when I did hook a fish it was really really painful, both physically and psychologically, though I wasn't going to allow a bit of AGONY to stop me fishing during that first week, not in those days and especially so after going through all of the shenanigans of the draw and the pre baiting etc. I just allowed the adrenalin to take me over and get me through it. So this was my preamble, the tale of the lead up to that particular years fishing season.
From here onward I will write out the sessions one by one in chronological order as this season went awfully well even though there were a few sticky patches stuck in between every now and again.
Session 1: The Baldwin Fordwich, 2 nights, January '84. 1 Carp.
After consulting the bits of old diary I see that I had already caught a Fordwich Carp in 1984, a rare winter fish. At the turn of the new year a mild spell arrived, the winds were strong and from the southwest, perfect winter conditions for Fordwich, so Tony Philips and I decided to try a two night stint fishing off the points. I fished off the Baldwin, Tony would have fished off the Killick Point (or the Corner swim, nearby anyhow, I can't remember?) and at 02.00 am on the night/morning of December 31st/January 1st I read that I had a take on a white evaporated milk and ice cream boilie and a bit later on landed a small grey mirror Carp of 12 lb 11 oz. We did so little winter Carping in those days that I'd have been over the moon getting even this relatively small sized Carp. It's hard to describe how it felt back then, even a 12lb fish in the winter was a real prize. All the more so from a lake like Fordwich where the winter Carping could be awfully difficult.
The 12 lb 11 oz mentioned in the above, taken during a mild winter spell of weather in strong SW winds off the Baldwin on 1st January 1984. Apparently I had the take at about 2.00 am, just two hours into the new year which would have meant something to me at the time.
Session 2: The Trees Fordwich, 6 nights, June 15th till June 21st '84. Landed 10 Carp, lost 7.
Or the first proper session of the 1984/85 season mentioned earlier on. I have lots of memories from this session, as already mentioned in far too greater detail in the above preamble. You recall that a few weeks prior I had broken a bone in my right hand (yawn!) which made things more than a bit tricky. Then, on hoicking our gear up to the swim at some time of the day before the midnight kick off and another problem hoved into view, namely that Geoff gave permission to an awfully snobby committee member to fish the swim alongside of me. Okay, he only stayed for that first night and the following day, but wow did it put a downer on that first session of the new season. What got me was that this particular committee member had previously treated me like he had some sort of a foul smell under his upper middle class nostrils when we crossed paths and had been treating me with this distain for years prior. He rather snidely went and asked old 'soft touch' Geoff if it would be okay, when not only was it my swim in reality, having won it through the draw system but he wouldn't be fishing near to Geoff, no, he was wedged in next to me. I'm not blaming Geoff, I realise there wasn't too much he could say to stop it but I was far from happy to be honest. Had he had the gall to ask me I'd have let him fish there, of course I would, I was just more put out by the underhanded way he went about it on the back of his previous attitude toward me that got my goat. Anyway, that aside the fishing itself went really well and I read from my notes that I had 17 takes in all during the following six nights fishing, landing TEN Carp the largest weighing 23 lbs. I was walking on air ... who cares about old snobby draws next door, who cares about one of the bones in my right hand being snapped clean in two, I'd taken a third of season's Fordwich Carp in that first week alone. I would have been a little put out after losing those seven fish no doubt but wow, was that a cracking way to start the season for me at the time. The hand held up far better than I expected too even though it did have me grimacing on many an occasion.
The weather that week was fairly settled and warm by the looks of it and I was getting almost all of my takes in the afternoon which is odd for Fordwich. Perhaps the fish were moving into the Islands for an afternoon's mooch/come siesta given the hot weather? I also see that I had all but one of the takes on just one of my two rods, the rod cast through the Islands. I did catch just one of the other Carp on the other rod dropped closer in, into the silty gully situated on my side of the main gravel bar.
The weeks haul started with this common of 17 lbs 3 oz, the Trees, Fordwich, June 1984. There's old snobby draws gear in the back of shot ...
Top fish 8 lb 13 oz and the bottom one is Popeye at 16 lb 10 oz, the Trees, Fordwich, June 1984. The bandage on my right hand is just about on show here, having a broken hand caused me no end of problems ... did I already make mention of this? Hmmm?? Wonky scanning at no extra charge to the reader ...
Top fish 9 lb 11 oz and the bottom one 22 lb 4 oz, the Trees, Fordwich, June 1984. The photos were scanned out of sequence, I caught the larger of the two first.
16 lb 2 oz, the Trees, Fordwich, June 1984. I see that I was taking to wearing my emergency 'keep the bandage dry' huge red rubber glove by this stage of the session.
Spot, a fish I caught on numerous occasions over the years, here for my first ever time at 23 lb 1 oz.
Top fish, one of the newer stockies at 6 lb 15 and bottom, Popeye again (!!) at 16 lb 2 oz. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw it in the net again just three days after netting it for the first time during the same session. I had already bagged Popeye on a couple of occasions prior to this session, in fact she was once my second largest Fordwich common when taken at 18 lb 4 oz off the Mound in October of 1983 so she was already an old mate of mine.
The last fish of the session, a severely mangled mirror of 13 lb 8 oz. I went home a very happy chappy regardless of the busted hand. These sorts of deformities are not all that uncommon with Carp.
One other startling thing about that first week session is that I see that my bait was one that I'd stopped using the season prior, my red evaporated milk and ice cream milk protein/baby food bait. But why? By half time of the previous season I'd noticed that this milk protein bait was being out-fished by my bird food mix, so why did I go back to a bait that I already felt was inferior? Hmmm? Beats me? Not that it did me too much harm during that first weeks angling of course. In time it did start to affect my catches mind you. A rethink was required.
Session 3: The Spit then the Richies Fordwich, June '84. 2 nights, blanked.
The 'bits' of diary reveal that I set up on the Spit in very hot conditions for this next trip and after fishing there for one night I then upped tools and moved down to the Richies where I fished for the second night, my notes make no explanation as to why I moved? I caught now't from either swim, I didn't even get a take apparently, not even from a Tench.
Session 4: The Killick Point Fordwich, late June '84. 1 Carp and lost 1 other.
Another short session apparently, no doubt I was fishing during gaps in my work at the time, I can deduce this as at the time I would never choose to go Carping at Fordwich for just one night at a time, it just wasn't my style, no doubting any time spent on the lakeside was at at a premium. The high pressure system was still in charge I see and being in June the weather was still hot and sunny. All in all not very good Carping conditions anyway. I did catch a 16 lb 11 oz mirror on the first day at 13.45, then nothing during the night (apart from Tench) before hooking and losing another Carp the following morning. I was still using my red coloured evaporated milk and ice cream milk proteins at the time. In retrospect I really ought not to have been and I should have gone back to my bird-food mix. The penny did drop, just not immediately.
16 lb 11 oz, the Killick Point, June 1984. Another Carp I caught on multiple occasions and went on to get the name of Trio.
Session 5: Corner swim Fordwich, 1 night, late June '84. 1 Carp.
Another short session I see? Had I not got all of this in writing I'd have thought this to be wrong but there you have it, another one nighter! Anyhow, I had a take at 8.00 pm on the first day which resulted in me landing a 19 lb 12 oz mirror, this another re-capture of a fish that I first took off the Easterns swim in July of 1980 at exactly 15 lbs, a personal best Carp for me back then.
19 lb 12 oz, the Corner, June 1984. Back in 1980 this had been my biggest ever Carp (at 15 lbs) and I later went on to catch it again in the autumn of 1986 at over 25 pounds.
Session 6: Layer Pits, 2 days, July '84. 3 Carp.
Geoff Bowers ... oops, I am so sorry, I ... er ... mean Geoff Newington, here sporting his sailor/pirate look apparel hoisted aboard the waters his home made raft at Layer Pits in deepest Essex during the summer of 1984. Believe it or not the water beneath him is twenty eight feet deep, he was a wizard at making deep wooden piles to support his pretend rafts. To my eye all that he's missing is the cutlass, the eye patch and the keg of rum ... oh, and the parrot of course. That must be my gear on the left.
Layer Pits was (and still is) a lake in Essex, situated at a rather regally named place called Layer de la Haye just outside of Colchester just a stones throw from the rather massive inland sea known as Abberton Reservoir. Now at the time Layer was famed for having a fair head of twenty plus pound Common Carp so therefore soon attracted our attention and we had no access to commons of this size in our part of the world at this period in history. Quite obviously given the dearth of large common's in our part of the UK we fancied having a try at catching one or two ... but there were certain problems. The two hour drive being one of these problems but the main hurdle was that to get permission to fish on this lake you also needed to live within a small radius of the lake, perhaps twenty or thirty miles? We lived way outside of this range, fifty miles out of this sort of range in fact, but 'ol Geoff, well he had a plan as he often did in such situations. Geoff already knew some anglers in Essex and he asked if they could get him a dodgy address? With these being Essex boys land, well of course they could and once he had an address he then devised to apply for a licence but after noticing the slight snag of only having the one address he then came up with this brainwave. This was to pretend that we were brothers who lived in the same house, meaning that I could go along with him if I decided to follow his lead. As shameful as it sounds to the new me sitting here now, I readily agreed to meaning that we both applied as two brothers from this same dodgy address, he'd be Geoff Newington and I'd be Phil Newington. We both lived at Newington estate in Ramsgate so that's why we chose that as a surname. This underhanded counter espionage plot actually worked and we soon acquired the desired Layer licences meaning that we'd be bashing up some easy twenty commons in no time ... or would we??? Er, no, no we didn't! Not only did we not get the Carps we were after but I am 99% sure that at the time Layer was a day only water and I hated day only waters. Lugging all of your gear round the lake every day and fishing for a short period of time before having to pack up again soon-after etc etc just wasn't my sort of lark? But hey, there were some twenty pound commons to be had, so I'd have to take this little inconvenience on the nose. This also meant we'd have to find somewhere to kip at night and although I'm not certain that this was at Layer, I do remember once trying to sleep in the front seat of Geoff's old blue van somewhere and there was a good chance that this was at Layer. Being six foot five as I am and trying to kip in an uncomfortable cramped small van seat was no fun I can tell you.
Look at that, another blast from the past found on the interweb via the wonders of Googly or whatever it's called, a ringer for Geoff's old van, the same colour and everything. We had some laughs and did a fair few miles in that old blue van. One of my favourite 'blue van' tales came whilst leaving Fordwich Car Park one day. We were fishing this day on Fordwich and decided to reel in and go to the shops for some supplies. On getting to the car park we both got in the van, reversed it out into the middle of the car park to turn around and headed for the drove (or the way out) when we heard this voice behind us "excuse me mister" ... Geoff and I looked at each other then in the back of the van where there was a small kid of about 13/14 years of age, he must have sneaked in and when he saw us wandering toward the car park decided to hide. He was obviously up to no good but what could we do? To be honest we just laughed, Geoff stopped and let him out and we carried on! It was all a bit surreal? I also well remember some very VERY cold journeys whilst winter fishing or travelling around in that old van as the heater broke soon after Geoff purchased the vehicle and we darn near froze to death during one particularly Antarctic feeling long drive to wherever back in the day. Inside it, well it was hellish too, often it had more rubbish on the floor than a landfill site ... it was disgusting, old crisp bags, coke tins, fish and chip wrappers ... eghrr!! No matter, it got us both fishing that was all that we were worried about at the time.
And here we have Geoff Newington's far better looking younger brother Phil with an enormous Layer de la Haye common of 10 lbs 11 oz ... strange that, he does look awfully familiar?? Hmmm??
After all the hassle of getting the ticket to fish there we soon gave it up as a bad job and only went twice to Layer I read, soon giving it up as just not being worth the effort. Both of these fairly long haul trips were disasters from my perspective. On the first occasion we turned up having no clue where to fish, picked a random spot, lobbed out some boilies and hoped! Okay, we caught a few Carp but each time we did they were all very small, Geoff did better than I did I think but I still got three small commons, the largest 10 lb 11 oz. Geoff had also had one larger common, about 13 or 14 lbs I think? We did actually see two of these legendary Layer twenty plus commons, one of which was about 24 lbs (again, I think?) but these were caught by one angler on the other side of the lake. I'm not even sure if this was the first or second try that we saw those twenties? As I say there was no third session ... we didn't think it warranted the long drive and all of the hassle. One last thing that sticks in my memory banks about Layer was that on the first day there we saw these large shoals of fry hanging around in the shallow margins, the gin clear water was absolutely black with them in some places. We soon found out that they were Carp fry and I had lots of fun gathering them up in my landing net, some scoops you'd get twenty or more one to two inch long Carp, all perfect little mirrors and commons ... amazing it was. There must have been thousands of them.
Session 7: Layer Pits, 2 days, July '84. 1 Carp.
A near repeat of the first session at Layer by all accounts, only the fishing was even more appalling and all that I got was one 4 lb common, though once again I think that Geoff caught a few, only small things mind you. Some of the local anglers we got chatting to told us they thought the fishing was so bad as the larger Carp were too preoccupied with eating the Carp fry? That said, July can be a hard month for Carp fishing and we would had faired rather better had we tried the occasional autumnal visit no doubt? For me anyhow, after two visits, and taking into account the two hour each way journey alongside the no fishing at night rule I recon that I wouldn't have cared had I ever seen the place ever again.
So, that was us done with Layer Pits, there would be no further visits from Phil and Geoff Newington ... hmmm, I wonder what happened to those two dudes? The taller brother was a rather wonderful chap ... he's probably running some multi-national company or working as an international class male model by now?
Session 8: Corner swim Fordwich, August '84, one night. Lost 1 Carp.
So then, it was back to the rather wonderful familiarity of Fordwich for me I see. On this particular session I set up in the Corner swim, it was another very short stay and apart from a couple of Tench the only other take I had was from 'a' Carp on the first afternoon, ... unfortunately I lost the fish on the way in. Booh hiss etc.
Session 9: Corner swim Fordwich, August '84, two nights. 2 Carp.
More 'extra added' Fordwich and more of the same where the weather was concerned, it was hot, the wind was light and from the east (extra added boo hiss) and I ended up back on the Corner swim, this time having two nights fishing ahead of me. I'd been getting paranoid about my bait by this time and though it had caught well during the first week session, I wasn't happy with how it had been going since then. I next decided to mix all of the protein mix I had bought 50 /50 with a few kilo bags of Sluis bird food, I'd been doing okay using a similar mix during the second half of the year prior, so just gave it another go. I stuck with the Evaporated Milk and Ice Cream flavour and probably pretty much hoped for the best? After a blank first night I then had a take mid morning from a 13 lb 10 oz common then the following afternoon another fish, a lovely deep mirror of 19 lb 13 oz. Well, if nothing else was learned at least I knew that this new/old bait worked, all confidence building stuff.
13 lb 10 oz, the Corner, Fordwich, August 1984.
A Carp, known as Hotlips, here at 19 lb 13 oz, taken off the Corner swim, August '84.
Session 10: The Mound Fordwich, two nights, August '84. Blanked.
A session spent out in very hot weather and the Carp weren't at it, well not off the Mound anyhow ... I didn't get a sniff ...
Session 11: The Richies Fordwich, one night, August '84. 1 Carp.
It must have been yet another very dull session as all that I have written down from this session was 'Richies, one night August '84. Red 50/50 Sluis/protein with Evaporated milk, 15 lb 14 oz leather' It, as in the fish caught, was the infamous Kinky leather as it happened ...
The Z shaped 'Kinky' Leather, here taken off the Richies at 15 lb 4 oz in August 1984.
Session 12: The Killick Point Fordwich, 2 nights August '84. 7 Carp and lost 3.
A view of the rods during that very session. Exciting eh? No?
A gale destroyed my bivvy overnight.
Another short session but a cracking one by all accounts seeing as I had ten takes. The wind was howling on this occasion, a really big south-westerly, cracking carping conditions in such a blow and I managed to get onto the Killick point either by design or pure good luck? The first night was very quiet and I didn't get a sniff but soon after the fish must have moved onto my baited area with the wind and just before first light one of the rods trundled off and I banked a 13 lb 10 oz mirror. From then on the Carp kept on munching away, it all got rather hectic and I had further takes at 08.00, 11.00, 11.08, 11.30, midday, 15.45, 17.30, 22.30 and 23.45 resulting in six more Carp weighing 13 lb 14 oz, 14 lb, 17 lb 4 oz, 17 lb, 10 lb 11 oz and 9 lb 9 oz.
Although I failed to bank any big fish I'd still have been ultra pleased, I'd never caught so many Carp in such a short space of time before. When you think about it, all ten takes came in less than 24 hours which is some going. It did cost me a new umbrella as the huge and at times violent wind broke the spokes on the windward side of my bivvy in the night forcing a botch job just so I could get any shelter and continue fishing.
13 lb 10 oz, Killick Point, Fordwich, August 1984.
13 lb 14 oz, Killick Point, Fordwich, August 1984.
14 lb, Killick Point, Fordwich, August 1984.
17 lb 4 oz, Killick Point, Fordwich, August 1984.
17 lb, Killick Point, Fordwich, August 1984. Trio again, I'd caught her a few ounces lighter at the end of June a handful of weeks before.
Top: 10 lb 11 oz and bottom: 9 lb 9 oz, Killick Point, August 1984. The top fish is the same one I caught on January 1st seven months prior when it was far more grey in colour and also two pounds heavier.
Session 13: The Spit Fordwich, 1 night, September '84. 4 Carp, lost 2.
A very annoying session. Having finished one of my 'many' short term employment sessions with the company I worked for in Deal, I decided to go to Fordwich for a well earned full weeks fishing. Hurrah! I'd been doing so many short stays, just a night here and two nights there that I'd have been itching to get to the lake for a more relaxing longer session. Anyhow, I arrived with a weeks supply of food and bait and ended up setting up on the Spit. My notes tell me that the long term high pressure system had moved off by this time and when I arrived the wind was coming in from the north with a thick blanket of cloud overhead. It was one of those sessions when the Carp were leaping here there and everywhere for whatever reason and being out on the exposed point of the Spit I could hear everything. The fishing was great pretty much from the off even though it didn't last for too long, in fact five or six nights shorter than planned! At 20.00 on the first evening I hooked and lost a fish but then at 22.30 I hooked and landed a mirror of 17 lb 14 oz. I then had two takes at the same time at 09.00 the following morning but one fell off while I was trying to land the other (which would have been annoying) as the one I landed was only a small mirror of 12 lbs. I then had another take at 11.45 and this fish dragged me half way around the lake, weeding itself and causing me all sorts of agro, eventually (after half an hour or more?) I managed to get it into the net and what a fish it was, a lovely grey and white ghost of a Carp weighing 24 lb 10 oz. An hour later and I was in again, this one a mirror of 21 lb 1 oz ... what a start to a session, I was surely going to fill my boots, the bait was working, the conditions night on perfect, the swim packed with hungry and very active carp? From that moment on everything went wrong and nosedived into oblivion. At some time that same afternoon I was gazing back behind me, off this swim situated on a thin peninsula out into the lake, when I saw a familiar figure hove into view. I was stood surveying the scene when this figure waved and shouted across to me, as happened it was my old man. It turned out that my work had been on the phone (at home, no mobiles then) as a new job had cropped up and they needed me back in. So with a swim full of feeding Carp with another five/six nights ahead of me planned and going awfully well, I was forced to reel in, pack up my gear and trudge back to the Car Park in readiness for going back to stinking work the following day. I can still recall my frustration, I bet my top lip was near dragging along the ground on the way back to my old man's car. I can even remember sitting in Geoff's kitchen that evening, updating him on what had occurred on the lake and bleating about my misfortune as to having to leave a swim full of Carp and go back to work.
17 lb 14 oz, The Spit, Fordwich, September 1984. Old Faithful ... again! How many times did I catch this Carp? Ten times or more?
12 lb, the Spit, Fordwich, September 1984. We used to call this fish Bunny due to it's odd shape - I now wish we'd called in the Porpoise as it does resemble a rolling Harbour Porpoise ... or is is it just me?
One of my favourite ever captures, Muscles at 24 lb 10 oz, the Spit, Fordwich, September 1984. Muscles was my first ever twenty pound Carp in 1981 and I caught it twice afterwards too but this was by far the best time. The fish just looked immaculate, grey and white, a huge mouth and what a fight.
21 lb 1 oz, the Spit, Fordwich, September 1984. It looks as though I couldn't get anyone to walk out to the Spit to take me a proper photo.
So that's the first part of 1984 done and dusted ... so if you've not as yet felt the need to gouge out your eyes with a rusty garden fork after reading the previous pages of tripe and can stomach even 'extra added' more, then for the next exciting instalment named '1984 a mere 36 years after the event' click the 'older post' icon below for extra added ... oooh ... ahhh .... whatever! Whatever in abundance no less!!
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