In reply to Post #9
Just had the pleasure of reading this. Absolutley brilliant
Pioneering angling
So many people at it nowadays I'm sure when we look back it just won't have the nostalgia as you have captured here Ken. Brilliant
So many happy times I guess
The old ones are the best
Just had the pleasure of reading this. Absolutley brilliant
Pioneering angling
So many people at it nowadays I'm sure when we look back it just won't have the nostalgia as you have captured here Ken. Brilliant
So many happy times I guess
The old ones are the best
a great read Ken, brought back many memories of the early years, how it got from what we did then to what it is now is truly amazing, BTW I spotted the ABU 155 the same as I use to use, they were the dogs.... then, look forward to more of the same
In reply to Post #2
That was a great read Ken, thanks.
Like a few others of late it seems, I haven't been present on these forums for a couple of years (or the bank for that matter, no matter how much you say that you'll still go fishing through having young children! )
Anyway, it's great to see a couple of years on that you are as always adding great content to the forum. Please keep it going.
That was a great read Ken, thanks.
Like a few others of late it seems, I haven't been present on these forums for a couple of years (or the bank for that matter, no matter how much you say that you'll still go fishing through having young children! )
Anyway, it's great to see a couple of years on that you are as always adding great content to the forum. Please keep it going.
Lots more to come. Just writing the material and scanning some more old pix for this thread. Be patient and I'll be back a.s.a.p.
In reply to Post #19
Can you re-post the old articles from the old South West Memories thread of a few years ago? I loved reading about College Lake and could read through all that again.
Can you re-post the old articles from the old South West Memories thread of a few years ago? I loved reading about College Lake and could read through all that again.
This is the story of Salamander Lake and of Big Daddy , the Pride of Cornwall, and this is the road to paradise!
I had been fishing at Ockenham in the late 70s and had enjoyed wonderful fishing, and quite a few great socials with Bill, and had leaned the secrets of particle bait fishing using pulses such as black eyed beans, kidney beans and so on. Bill was a fantastic guy to share ideas with and in the many years I have known him he has put me onto a wealth of good ideas, venues, baits and tactics. I owe the guy a lot!
It was coming towards the end of the 70s when heard about a tiny park lake less than a mile of my home that was rumoured to hold carp. At first sight the two-acre lake was not all that inspiring and though there was a guy who fished there from time to time, when I tried to chat him up about the carp he wasn't very forthcoming about the place (and in hindsight I didn't blame him!).
One day I was walking around the lake, idly watching the world go by and not really taking a lot of interest in the lake, when some gulls came sweeping down to scoff some of the bread that was being thrown in by dog walkers, mums with kids in gaudy prams, always it seemed with at least one wheel that squeaked abominably, old folk on zimmer frames and in wheelchairs; you name it, they were there!
They were there to feed the hundreds of ducks that lived on the lake and in the surrounding marshland, and believe me, those ducks got thrown so much bread that they would even stop eating it at times. This left quite a bit to float on the surface or drift down through to the lake bed and the floating stuff attracted the gulls. As they shrieked and screamed at each other in aggression over the bits of bread, they swooped down on the surface and as they did so they spooked several large fish that were also showing a interest in the floating food. So there were carp in there after all!
I was too busy fishing Rashleigh and Ockenham at the time but I filed the nearby lake away for a rainy day, knowing that at least it held carp and judging by the swirls of the spooked fish, pretty big ones too. Even while I was fishing other venues my curiosity kept drawing me back to the park lake and further investigation seemed warranted.
Chatting to an old boy who walked his dog round the lake each day, the story was that a local collector of exotic amphibious creatures had released his pet salamanders into the lake when he could no longer look after them - don't ask me why...it could all be rubbish. Whatever, I called the venue Salamander Lake, a name that stuck with the place for many years. That little lake became a major part of my early angling life and just walking over the bridge over the stream that feeds Salamander was enough to get my pulse racing in the years to come. Later it became a hotspot for anglers from all over the county, then the south west and finally even up country, more of which later. This is a view of the lake from about 1977 or '78
Fishing Ockenham with Bill had shown me the benefits of getting up a tree for a better view of the lake and one day I was perched in the branches of a rather flimsy willow when three or four shadows ghosted across my field of vision. They were lead by a fish that looked to my inexperienced eye to be enormous, and it was not alone! There were several others that while slightly smaller that their leader were still pretty impressive. It was all the encouragement I needed to start fishing there.
-
I had been fishing at Ockenham in the late 70s and had enjoyed wonderful fishing, and quite a few great socials with Bill, and had leaned the secrets of particle bait fishing using pulses such as black eyed beans, kidney beans and so on. Bill was a fantastic guy to share ideas with and in the many years I have known him he has put me onto a wealth of good ideas, venues, baits and tactics. I owe the guy a lot!
It was coming towards the end of the 70s when heard about a tiny park lake less than a mile of my home that was rumoured to hold carp. At first sight the two-acre lake was not all that inspiring and though there was a guy who fished there from time to time, when I tried to chat him up about the carp he wasn't very forthcoming about the place (and in hindsight I didn't blame him!).
One day I was walking around the lake, idly watching the world go by and not really taking a lot of interest in the lake, when some gulls came sweeping down to scoff some of the bread that was being thrown in by dog walkers, mums with kids in gaudy prams, always it seemed with at least one wheel that squeaked abominably, old folk on zimmer frames and in wheelchairs; you name it, they were there!
They were there to feed the hundreds of ducks that lived on the lake and in the surrounding marshland, and believe me, those ducks got thrown so much bread that they would even stop eating it at times. This left quite a bit to float on the surface or drift down through to the lake bed and the floating stuff attracted the gulls. As they shrieked and screamed at each other in aggression over the bits of bread, they swooped down on the surface and as they did so they spooked several large fish that were also showing a interest in the floating food. So there were carp in there after all!
I was too busy fishing Rashleigh and Ockenham at the time but I filed the nearby lake away for a rainy day, knowing that at least it held carp and judging by the swirls of the spooked fish, pretty big ones too. Even while I was fishing other venues my curiosity kept drawing me back to the park lake and further investigation seemed warranted.
Chatting to an old boy who walked his dog round the lake each day, the story was that a local collector of exotic amphibious creatures had released his pet salamanders into the lake when he could no longer look after them - don't ask me why...it could all be rubbish. Whatever, I called the venue Salamander Lake, a name that stuck with the place for many years. That little lake became a major part of my early angling life and just walking over the bridge over the stream that feeds Salamander was enough to get my pulse racing in the years to come. Later it became a hotspot for anglers from all over the county, then the south west and finally even up country, more of which later. This is a view of the lake from about 1977 or '78
Fishing Ockenham with Bill had shown me the benefits of getting up a tree for a better view of the lake and one day I was perched in the branches of a rather flimsy willow when three or four shadows ghosted across my field of vision. They were lead by a fish that looked to my inexperienced eye to be enormous, and it was not alone! There were several others that while slightly smaller that their leader were still pretty impressive. It was all the encouragement I needed to start fishing there.
-
In reply to Post #9
As mentioned previously Bill and I were both fishing side hooked black eyed beans at Ockenham, and having great success with them so it seemed like an obvious starting point for the start of my attempts to catch the Salamander Lake fish. I have touched on my initial days on the lake in a previous post but I hope you don't mind if I go into a bit more detail now.
One day in early autumn of 1978. I wandered down to the lake with a stalking rod and my trusty centrepin reel loaded with 8lb line and a bag of blackies. I walked around the lake and spotted a few fish here and there, but they seemed to be interested only in basking in the sunlight. Then on my second tour around I found a group of four fish really close to the bank. Despite this I decided to have a chuck and using a swan shot link ledger I cast a single blackie side hooked mounted on a size 4 Au Lion d'Or hook towards the area where the group was mooching about rather aimlessly, I thought. Still, you never know...
I dropped a bait in a few feet away from the group, not wishing to spook them with the splash, and then chucked a few freebies in on top of the hookbait. I crouched down, hoping to hide myself from the fish.
(I fished that lake on and off for nearly twenty years and would always try to keep myself as unobtrusive as possible. I don't know why. Often a dog walker, pedestrian or mum with a pram would stand right next to me and talk in a loud voice that I felt sure would spook the fish. It never did, not even when a council worker in a bright orange boiler suit came and stood right next to me as I stalked a huge humpy-backed fish only a foot or so from the bank. "Caught anything me 'ansome?" he asked in a loud Cornish brogue. Willing him to please go away (or words to that effect) I whispered that I'd had nothing so far and was unlikely to do so while he stood there in his garish garb and with his booming voice. The fish meanwhile took no notice but it was clearly not in a feeding mood as eventually it waddled off and I did not see it again for weeks.)
Meanwhile, back at the lake...
I was still trying to disguise myself as a bush when the rod hooped over and the reel screeched as a fish grabbed the bait and legged it. A brief scrap followed and eventually a perfect leather carp came to the net. Leather, pure leathers I mean, are as rare as hen's teeth in the UK so this was doubly rewarding. The fish weighed eight pounds, and I was delighted! It was my very first fish from Salamander.
The fight had spooked the rest of the group from the area and as they fled a huge swirl showed just a yard or so out, not where the group had been showing. Was this the biggie and I hadn't noticed it in the edge? Had I blown my chance for good?
I had no more chances that day but returned a day later. As before there was a group of four fish in virtually the same place as before. Searching a bit more closely I noticed a large indistinct shadow a few feet closer in, lying in the shadow of a small bush. Again the side hooked blackies were lowered in, followed by a dozen or so freebies and I saw the shadow slowly move off. I left the bait in place in the hope that one of the group might move further in towards the bank and take it, but they seemed oblivious to its allure!
Suddenly the rod was almost wrenched from my hands and the handles of the 'pin nearly broke my knuckles! A big bow wave showed on the surface as a good fish bolted from the margins where the bait had been lying. Was it the biggie? Damn right it was! The scales went round once, twice and then well into the green to settle on 18lb 8oz, my biggest carp to date!
I was so chuffed I packed up immediately and headed back across the bridge and up the hill to the local pub where one pint followed another and I meandered home in a beer fuelled haze. I would be back!
As mentioned previously Bill and I were both fishing side hooked black eyed beans at Ockenham, and having great success with them so it seemed like an obvious starting point for the start of my attempts to catch the Salamander Lake fish. I have touched on my initial days on the lake in a previous post but I hope you don't mind if I go into a bit more detail now.
One day in early autumn of 1978. I wandered down to the lake with a stalking rod and my trusty centrepin reel loaded with 8lb line and a bag of blackies. I walked around the lake and spotted a few fish here and there, but they seemed to be interested only in basking in the sunlight. Then on my second tour around I found a group of four fish really close to the bank. Despite this I decided to have a chuck and using a swan shot link ledger I cast a single blackie side hooked mounted on a size 4 Au Lion d'Or hook towards the area where the group was mooching about rather aimlessly, I thought. Still, you never know...
I dropped a bait in a few feet away from the group, not wishing to spook them with the splash, and then chucked a few freebies in on top of the hookbait. I crouched down, hoping to hide myself from the fish.
(I fished that lake on and off for nearly twenty years and would always try to keep myself as unobtrusive as possible. I don't know why. Often a dog walker, pedestrian or mum with a pram would stand right next to me and talk in a loud voice that I felt sure would spook the fish. It never did, not even when a council worker in a bright orange boiler suit came and stood right next to me as I stalked a huge humpy-backed fish only a foot or so from the bank. "Caught anything me 'ansome?" he asked in a loud Cornish brogue. Willing him to please go away (or words to that effect) I whispered that I'd had nothing so far and was unlikely to do so while he stood there in his garish garb and with his booming voice. The fish meanwhile took no notice but it was clearly not in a feeding mood as eventually it waddled off and I did not see it again for weeks.)
Meanwhile, back at the lake...
I was still trying to disguise myself as a bush when the rod hooped over and the reel screeched as a fish grabbed the bait and legged it. A brief scrap followed and eventually a perfect leather carp came to the net. Leather, pure leathers I mean, are as rare as hen's teeth in the UK so this was doubly rewarding. The fish weighed eight pounds, and I was delighted! It was my very first fish from Salamander.
The fight had spooked the rest of the group from the area and as they fled a huge swirl showed just a yard or so out, not where the group had been showing. Was this the biggie and I hadn't noticed it in the edge? Had I blown my chance for good?
I had no more chances that day but returned a day later. As before there was a group of four fish in virtually the same place as before. Searching a bit more closely I noticed a large indistinct shadow a few feet closer in, lying in the shadow of a small bush. Again the side hooked blackies were lowered in, followed by a dozen or so freebies and I saw the shadow slowly move off. I left the bait in place in the hope that one of the group might move further in towards the bank and take it, but they seemed oblivious to its allure!
Suddenly the rod was almost wrenched from my hands and the handles of the 'pin nearly broke my knuckles! A big bow wave showed on the surface as a good fish bolted from the margins where the bait had been lying. Was it the biggie? Damn right it was! The scales went round once, twice and then well into the green to settle on 18lb 8oz, my biggest carp to date!
I was so chuffed I packed up immediately and headed back across the bridge and up the hill to the local pub where one pint followed another and I meandered home in a beer fuelled haze. I would be back!
In reply to Post #9
Chatting to Tat later she wanted to know all about the capture and as I described the fatness of the carp she said that it sounded, "as big as Big Daddy", a well-known figure in wresting that was hugely popular on ITV on Saturday afternoons, and thus was the fish named.
Though I had vowed to return to the lake more often I still had to make a living and while the weather lasted and the sea remained relatively calm we spent as much time as possible doing the other kind of fishing, commercial fishing so it wasn't until the late autumn that I returned to the lake. By now thanks again to Bill I was privy to 'the great secret' of the Robin Red based boiled bait. The recipe was simplicity itself; eight ounces of Nectarblend and two of Robin Red with four ounces of muscovado sugar dissolved in the minimum of hot water and then added to the eggs. Flavour was one of young Mr Kemp's finest that Bill had been using up-country, the flowery Perfume Spray. This was another of the big secrets in carp fishing in those days as Kemp and SBS were the prime purveyors of quality essences to the carp fishing fraternity and the Perfume Spray was one of the best thanks, I was later informed, to the inclusion of the essential oil of geranium (needs confirmation! as wiki would say).
I was still not a fully fledged carper in the accepted sense of the word. No bivvy, bedchair or buzzers for me. I was strictly a stalking man using a float rather than a buzzer and a side hooked boilie to tempt them into the weed that had appeared in the time I had been away. From up the tree I could see the bright gravel of the lakebed in the holes in the weed and a few crumbled up boiled baits with pinches of break flake chucked around the float provided the additional temptation that I hoped would draw the carp into the swim. The tiny dot just off to the left of my rod tip is my float, under which is a boiled bait lowered into the hole in the weed that is clearly visible.
One such area I found at the northern end of the lake, where the weed was not quite a thick. I baited up most evenings and fished though till dark but had nothing. The lake seemed dead and lifeless, as if the falling temperatures had made the carp lethargic and unwilling to feed. But despite this I kept putting a few bait in when possible, and Tat did the same for me while I was away. Finally, come November of that year I actually saw the fish again. They were nosing around in the weed and appeared quite lively and my hearts skipped a beat when I saw Big Daddy scoffing the Robin Red boiled bait.
This was proper margin fishing. Rod on the deck, float dotted right down, with me standing back pretending to be a tree! It was great stuff and when I saw the weedbed quiver slightly as a fish nosed through, I thought my heart was going to explode.
Suddenly the float shot under and the line poured off the reel. Fish on! I grabbed onto the butt of my home made SS5 (a rod that had so much bend in it I am sure you could have put the tip to the butt had you tried hard enough without it breaking!) as the fish made off through the weed. Like most fights in weed, the fish soon got bogged down in the stuff and with its eyes covered gave up the fight. I eventually netted a great big bundle of weed and (hopefully) fish.
Laying the net on the grass (there were no unhooking mats in those days) I peeled back the weed to reveal an enormous fish. At the time I did not recognised Big Daddy (for it was he) and it was only when I had the photos developed that I compared the scale patterns and then all was revealed. Incidentally, you may wonder about the black and white photos? I can explain...I was taking a college course in photography part time through the winter - weather permitting - and it was considered very arty to be shooting in black and white. Hmmmm!
Up on the Avons in my rudimentary weigh sling that Tat had made for me and the needle went further into the green than I had ever seen it go before: twenty pounds twelve ounces. My first twenty! The pub beckoned!
Chatting to Tat later she wanted to know all about the capture and as I described the fatness of the carp she said that it sounded, "as big as Big Daddy", a well-known figure in wresting that was hugely popular on ITV on Saturday afternoons, and thus was the fish named.
Though I had vowed to return to the lake more often I still had to make a living and while the weather lasted and the sea remained relatively calm we spent as much time as possible doing the other kind of fishing, commercial fishing so it wasn't until the late autumn that I returned to the lake. By now thanks again to Bill I was privy to 'the great secret' of the Robin Red based boiled bait. The recipe was simplicity itself; eight ounces of Nectarblend and two of Robin Red with four ounces of muscovado sugar dissolved in the minimum of hot water and then added to the eggs. Flavour was one of young Mr Kemp's finest that Bill had been using up-country, the flowery Perfume Spray. This was another of the big secrets in carp fishing in those days as Kemp and SBS were the prime purveyors of quality essences to the carp fishing fraternity and the Perfume Spray was one of the best thanks, I was later informed, to the inclusion of the essential oil of geranium (needs confirmation! as wiki would say).
I was still not a fully fledged carper in the accepted sense of the word. No bivvy, bedchair or buzzers for me. I was strictly a stalking man using a float rather than a buzzer and a side hooked boilie to tempt them into the weed that had appeared in the time I had been away. From up the tree I could see the bright gravel of the lakebed in the holes in the weed and a few crumbled up boiled baits with pinches of break flake chucked around the float provided the additional temptation that I hoped would draw the carp into the swim. The tiny dot just off to the left of my rod tip is my float, under which is a boiled bait lowered into the hole in the weed that is clearly visible.
One such area I found at the northern end of the lake, where the weed was not quite a thick. I baited up most evenings and fished though till dark but had nothing. The lake seemed dead and lifeless, as if the falling temperatures had made the carp lethargic and unwilling to feed. But despite this I kept putting a few bait in when possible, and Tat did the same for me while I was away. Finally, come November of that year I actually saw the fish again. They were nosing around in the weed and appeared quite lively and my hearts skipped a beat when I saw Big Daddy scoffing the Robin Red boiled bait.
This was proper margin fishing. Rod on the deck, float dotted right down, with me standing back pretending to be a tree! It was great stuff and when I saw the weedbed quiver slightly as a fish nosed through, I thought my heart was going to explode.
Suddenly the float shot under and the line poured off the reel. Fish on! I grabbed onto the butt of my home made SS5 (a rod that had so much bend in it I am sure you could have put the tip to the butt had you tried hard enough without it breaking!) as the fish made off through the weed. Like most fights in weed, the fish soon got bogged down in the stuff and with its eyes covered gave up the fight. I eventually netted a great big bundle of weed and (hopefully) fish.
Laying the net on the grass (there were no unhooking mats in those days) I peeled back the weed to reveal an enormous fish. At the time I did not recognised Big Daddy (for it was he) and it was only when I had the photos developed that I compared the scale patterns and then all was revealed. Incidentally, you may wonder about the black and white photos? I can explain...I was taking a college course in photography part time through the winter - weather permitting - and it was considered very arty to be shooting in black and white. Hmmmm!
Up on the Avons in my rudimentary weigh sling that Tat had made for me and the needle went further into the green than I had ever seen it go before: twenty pounds twelve ounces. My first twenty! The pub beckoned!
In reply to Post #9
I should perhaps make mention of the lack of an unhooking mat and the hessian sack that I used to sack the fish while I ran back home to get Tat to take a look and do the photos. I would never use such a horribly coarse sack these days, but you will have to forgive me; at the time I knew no better. Modern carpers don't know they are born, what with proper mats, slings and the like! As for proper scales...Try convincing others that you have had a thirty, or even a twenty and the first thing they'll do is question what colour the needle showed on the dial. Yes, there were a few anglers around - we called them 'ultra-cult' carpers! - with all the latest gear, but I wasn't one of them. Ultra cult my arse!
Some of you may not get the relevance of that, but back then the best scales were Avon 32lb that weighed in increments of eight pounds at a time. Each increment was indicated by a different colour on the dial, as the needle could go around the dial up to four times (4 x 8lb = 32lb). If the needle ever went round into the purple section that meant it was a possible thirty...a what? Unheard off down this way at the time.
Daddy was not the only fish I caught from Salamander the winter but following that November capture I did not see the fish for quite a while. However, I got to grips with Salamander more and more as the months passed and though I am not fond of this Billingsgate shot, I does show that my so-called skills were improving. Three on the bank in half an hour.Was I keen? Well the photo below was takena bout 5 hours after I came home from hospital, stitches still in my balls after my vasectomy!
The intermittent nature of my day job interfered seriously with my carping, as I know it does for most of you, and I even started throwing the odd sickie so I could pop down to Salamander for an hour or two. Sadly my mate John who was also my skipper knew full well the hold that carp fishing could take on a person and he soon found out where I was doing all the skiving! Mind you, as soon as he saw how avidly the fish were feeding on the 'new improved' boiled bait he couldn't wait to beg a rod off me. John was a carper of many years experience but he had drifted away from the sport in the early 60s to take up the banjo and guitar, playing in the London folk clubs with some of the best names in the business at the time. His work name then was Johnny Orange. It's unlikely you will have heard of him but you never know. John fished a lot around the Staines area and probably fished lakes that are well renowned nowadays but where unknown and unfished back then. I think Moor Lane was one of them
Once John had seen the size of some of the fish in Salamander he soon rediscovered the bug!
Later that year I saw Daddy looking decidedly the worse for wear. As far as I knew I was still only one of two or three anglers fishing Salamander and I knew Ian, the other guy on there, had not been down for a while. I wondered if the fish was ailing. The fish were pretty obvious to anyone who had eyes to see and really look for them (as opposed to look but not see, as was the case with the rest of the park users). Then one day I saw one of the local kids down there with, believe it or not, a bow and arrows and he seemed to be taking pot shots at the carp. I 'had a word' with him and though he said he had not even hit one, I couldn't help wondering if he hadn't wounded BD. I couldn't see any obvious signs of damage and when I tried to net the fish to take a closer look he shot off like a scalded cat. I guess he was OK. As turned out to be the case when that summer I landed the big bruiser at just over twenty one pounds. It would be the last time I saw the fish on the bank for four years! The reason for this was the call of Rashleigh returned as Steve, Tat and myself started fishing together again. Then a year later we discovered the reservoir 'down west' and things were about to change dramatically. Much larger carp were about to come our way!
I should perhaps make mention of the lack of an unhooking mat and the hessian sack that I used to sack the fish while I ran back home to get Tat to take a look and do the photos. I would never use such a horribly coarse sack these days, but you will have to forgive me; at the time I knew no better. Modern carpers don't know they are born, what with proper mats, slings and the like! As for proper scales...Try convincing others that you have had a thirty, or even a twenty and the first thing they'll do is question what colour the needle showed on the dial. Yes, there were a few anglers around - we called them 'ultra-cult' carpers! - with all the latest gear, but I wasn't one of them. Ultra cult my arse!
Some of you may not get the relevance of that, but back then the best scales were Avon 32lb that weighed in increments of eight pounds at a time. Each increment was indicated by a different colour on the dial, as the needle could go around the dial up to four times (4 x 8lb = 32lb). If the needle ever went round into the purple section that meant it was a possible thirty...a what? Unheard off down this way at the time.
Daddy was not the only fish I caught from Salamander the winter but following that November capture I did not see the fish for quite a while. However, I got to grips with Salamander more and more as the months passed and though I am not fond of this Billingsgate shot, I does show that my so-called skills were improving. Three on the bank in half an hour.Was I keen? Well the photo below was takena bout 5 hours after I came home from hospital, stitches still in my balls after my vasectomy!
The intermittent nature of my day job interfered seriously with my carping, as I know it does for most of you, and I even started throwing the odd sickie so I could pop down to Salamander for an hour or two. Sadly my mate John who was also my skipper knew full well the hold that carp fishing could take on a person and he soon found out where I was doing all the skiving! Mind you, as soon as he saw how avidly the fish were feeding on the 'new improved' boiled bait he couldn't wait to beg a rod off me. John was a carper of many years experience but he had drifted away from the sport in the early 60s to take up the banjo and guitar, playing in the London folk clubs with some of the best names in the business at the time. His work name then was Johnny Orange. It's unlikely you will have heard of him but you never know. John fished a lot around the Staines area and probably fished lakes that are well renowned nowadays but where unknown and unfished back then. I think Moor Lane was one of them
Once John had seen the size of some of the fish in Salamander he soon rediscovered the bug!
Later that year I saw Daddy looking decidedly the worse for wear. As far as I knew I was still only one of two or three anglers fishing Salamander and I knew Ian, the other guy on there, had not been down for a while. I wondered if the fish was ailing. The fish were pretty obvious to anyone who had eyes to see and really look for them (as opposed to look but not see, as was the case with the rest of the park users). Then one day I saw one of the local kids down there with, believe it or not, a bow and arrows and he seemed to be taking pot shots at the carp. I 'had a word' with him and though he said he had not even hit one, I couldn't help wondering if he hadn't wounded BD. I couldn't see any obvious signs of damage and when I tried to net the fish to take a closer look he shot off like a scalded cat. I guess he was OK. As turned out to be the case when that summer I landed the big bruiser at just over twenty one pounds. It would be the last time I saw the fish on the bank for four years! The reason for this was the call of Rashleigh returned as Steve, Tat and myself started fishing together again. Then a year later we discovered the reservoir 'down west' and things were about to change dramatically. Much larger carp were about to come our way!
In reply to Post #19
Great read, really enjoyed that. Thanks for sharing
Great read, really enjoyed that. Thanks for sharing
In reply to Post #26
The next four years we spent chasing the Rashleigh fish again until we got lucky and tripped over College Reservoir down west in 1982. The story of College deserves a serious mention, as it played a very significant part in my angling and working life, but I'll come to that later.
Meanwhile, back at Salamander in 1985, the fish were getting on with life, largely untroubled by other carpers. Ian J. continued to fish there and so did one or two others, but considering there was at least one twenty in there - a rare thing for Cornwall - it was surprising that the lake was paid such scant attention, not that the few in the know were complaining!
The main reason I started fishing Salamander again was not down to Daddy, though obviously he was still a significant prize in the Cornish carp scene. However, by then College and the other reservoirs were loosing a bit of their glitter for us, mainly due to the influx of visitors from other parts of the UK that still had a Close Season. The region covered by South West Water allowed 12 month a year fishing on it's coarse fisheries, and with the growth in carping more and more evident, up country anglers were looking to Devon and Cornwall as places where they could get their carp fishing 'fix' during the shutdown on their local lakes. Our main carping reservoirs began to attract considerable interest, and at times it was impossible to get a swim on College. We guessed that the visitors would clear off once the close season ended and we could return to the ressies but in the meantime there was always Salamander. Luckily our visitors did not know about Salamander then.
Tat and I had done quite a few nights at College together an so it was natural that we started doing the same on Salamander. Though far from the peace and calm of College, being a busy park lake, after dark the locals left it to the rats and me and the missus. Naturally she got the cheapo-cheapo supermarket bedchair while I had the Rolls Royce of bedchair, the Lafuma 8-Leg!
We both thought that the lake, at a tad over two acres, was too small for six rods, though SWW actually allowed four per angler at the time, so we decided to fish just three between us. I think this worked to our advantage, as by now the carp in the lake knew what lines were and what they meant, so night fishing became much more productive.
Both of had been using a milk protein base mix on College that Tim had passed on to us. In effect this was the prototype of what would become Nutrabaits Hi-Nu-Val and the Addits, and a darn good bait it was (more later) so there was no reason not to carry on with it on Salamander. We'd had considerable success using really small baits so this is what we went in with on our return to Salamander. These are the 8mm baits we rolled using the then brand new Gardner Rolling Table. It took us half a lifetime!
Though the mini boilies worked well initially there was no sign of Daddy. However, I did catch a new fish and a twenty to boot that Tat rather un-glamorously named Gutbucket...Every lake has got one.
The next four years we spent chasing the Rashleigh fish again until we got lucky and tripped over College Reservoir down west in 1982. The story of College deserves a serious mention, as it played a very significant part in my angling and working life, but I'll come to that later.
Meanwhile, back at Salamander in 1985, the fish were getting on with life, largely untroubled by other carpers. Ian J. continued to fish there and so did one or two others, but considering there was at least one twenty in there - a rare thing for Cornwall - it was surprising that the lake was paid such scant attention, not that the few in the know were complaining!
The main reason I started fishing Salamander again was not down to Daddy, though obviously he was still a significant prize in the Cornish carp scene. However, by then College and the other reservoirs were loosing a bit of their glitter for us, mainly due to the influx of visitors from other parts of the UK that still had a Close Season. The region covered by South West Water allowed 12 month a year fishing on it's coarse fisheries, and with the growth in carping more and more evident, up country anglers were looking to Devon and Cornwall as places where they could get their carp fishing 'fix' during the shutdown on their local lakes. Our main carping reservoirs began to attract considerable interest, and at times it was impossible to get a swim on College. We guessed that the visitors would clear off once the close season ended and we could return to the ressies but in the meantime there was always Salamander. Luckily our visitors did not know about Salamander then.
Tat and I had done quite a few nights at College together an so it was natural that we started doing the same on Salamander. Though far from the peace and calm of College, being a busy park lake, after dark the locals left it to the rats and me and the missus. Naturally she got the cheapo-cheapo supermarket bedchair while I had the Rolls Royce of bedchair, the Lafuma 8-Leg!
We both thought that the lake, at a tad over two acres, was too small for six rods, though SWW actually allowed four per angler at the time, so we decided to fish just three between us. I think this worked to our advantage, as by now the carp in the lake knew what lines were and what they meant, so night fishing became much more productive.
Both of had been using a milk protein base mix on College that Tim had passed on to us. In effect this was the prototype of what would become Nutrabaits Hi-Nu-Val and the Addits, and a darn good bait it was (more later) so there was no reason not to carry on with it on Salamander. We'd had considerable success using really small baits so this is what we went in with on our return to Salamander. These are the 8mm baits we rolled using the then brand new Gardner Rolling Table. It took us half a lifetime!
Though the mini boilies worked well initially there was no sign of Daddy. However, I did catch a new fish and a twenty to boot that Tat rather un-glamorously named Gutbucket...Every lake has got one.
In reply to Post #33
I fished whenever I had the opportunity - which was usually when it was blowing a gale, but Tat was limited to doing weekends by her job. To be honest weekdays or weekend, it made not a scrap of difference as the park was busy for all the daylight hours with people feeding the ducks and the swans or just out for a stroll with the dog or the kids. The local school even brought classes of screaming kids down to go pond dipping. Such fun.
One thing I did notice, though. When the ducks were going ape on the surface, tiny bits of bread would get broken off and drift slowly downwards and in time the carp would cruise below the birds picking up bits of bread. In fact this became quite a popular method for a few years before the carp wised up to the fact that it wasn't always a good idea to eat the bread meant for the ducks. However it did not need to be bread; if it was edible they ate it when the ducks were churning the surface to foam and one day I picked up BD on a Robin Red boilie fished right underneath the ducks in all that commotion, slightly up in weight at 22lb.
Ever since those Ockenham days with Bill, I have always loved watching carp feed. Observing them in their natural environment, seeing how they react to various angling situations and to baits and rigs can be a real eye opener and you can learn more in an hour of watching than you can in a month of grinding it out at 100 yards plus behind a battery of rods. Salamander provided the perfect opportunity not only to watch them but to catch them too, for the carp would venture right into the edge a foot or so off the bank. Can you spot the tiny dot in the middle of this photo? That's my float, fishing for carp feeding right in the margins.
I caught the majority of the Salamander carp on the float, fishing for feeding fish just a yards at most from my feet. It was a tremendous experience, one I would not swap for the world. Here I am stalking at Salamander.
While limited in the amount of time she could spend by the water Tat was also catching a few and one particular fish, her first from the lake, was to become known as Carole's Pet, for it seemed that nearly every time she fished there she caught this fish (slight exaggeration but you get my drift). The fact that it took me several more years to catch the Pet made it all the more galling when she landed it yet again. This is Tat with her Pet first time of asking, a lovely black backed 18lber.
I fished whenever I had the opportunity - which was usually when it was blowing a gale, but Tat was limited to doing weekends by her job. To be honest weekdays or weekend, it made not a scrap of difference as the park was busy for all the daylight hours with people feeding the ducks and the swans or just out for a stroll with the dog or the kids. The local school even brought classes of screaming kids down to go pond dipping. Such fun.
One thing I did notice, though. When the ducks were going ape on the surface, tiny bits of bread would get broken off and drift slowly downwards and in time the carp would cruise below the birds picking up bits of bread. In fact this became quite a popular method for a few years before the carp wised up to the fact that it wasn't always a good idea to eat the bread meant for the ducks. However it did not need to be bread; if it was edible they ate it when the ducks were churning the surface to foam and one day I picked up BD on a Robin Red boilie fished right underneath the ducks in all that commotion, slightly up in weight at 22lb.
Ever since those Ockenham days with Bill, I have always loved watching carp feed. Observing them in their natural environment, seeing how they react to various angling situations and to baits and rigs can be a real eye opener and you can learn more in an hour of watching than you can in a month of grinding it out at 100 yards plus behind a battery of rods. Salamander provided the perfect opportunity not only to watch them but to catch them too, for the carp would venture right into the edge a foot or so off the bank. Can you spot the tiny dot in the middle of this photo? That's my float, fishing for carp feeding right in the margins.
I caught the majority of the Salamander carp on the float, fishing for feeding fish just a yards at most from my feet. It was a tremendous experience, one I would not swap for the world. Here I am stalking at Salamander.
While limited in the amount of time she could spend by the water Tat was also catching a few and one particular fish, her first from the lake, was to become known as Carole's Pet, for it seemed that nearly every time she fished there she caught this fish (slight exaggeration but you get my drift). The fact that it took me several more years to catch the Pet made it all the more galling when she landed it yet again. This is Tat with her Pet first time of asking, a lovely black backed 18lber.
In reply to Post #34
I had one more close encounter with Big Daddy but lost him at the net. He lay there on the surface long enough for me to get a good look at him and even though I had caught him not that long before, he looked to have put on a bit of weight...He looked mid twenty at least, I thought. then I heard on the grapevine that someone had caught Daddy at nearly 25lb, so my guesstimate had not been far out.
The season opened up-country, and as we'd hoped the hordes departed Cornwall leaving behind a nasty legacy, which I'll touch on later, however, this meant we could reclaim our ressies so Salamander was put on the back burner till the following year. However, I heard on the grapevine that Big Daddy was up in weight at twenty-five pound plus.
The following year I decided to have another spell at Salamander as I felt I needed to catch Daddy one more time. Our love afir with the pool was cooling gradually but one futher encounter with the legendary (for Cornwall) carp was called for, if possible. Then, I promised him, I will leave you alone for good. So I started to bait the lake regularly with the frozen milk HNVs chopped into tiny pieces. I did this mainly after dark to defeat the ducks.
Tim's bait was the one he was writing about in Carp Fisher and Coarse Fisherman (if I recall) and he called it his HERVE or higher HNV. It contained a couple of ingredients that carried the protein-specific enzymes Bromelain and Trypsin and it was heavily reliant on rennet casein and NZ Lactalbumin with egg albumin to keep the boiling time to a minimum (no more than 50 seconds). This bait had already accounted for a whack of fish from College including my first thirty, which I'll tell you about later, so I was brim-full of confidence in it.
Initially we used Richworth Blue Cheese flavour but when we found a source of n-butyric acid this was used instead. To be honest I am sure the Richworth product contained a fair amount of N-BA anyway so perhaps there wasn't much point, other than it was a hell of a lot cheaper! Another attractor was Cajoler, then sold out of Bankside Tackle in Sheffield but later to join the Nutrabaits stable. This is a fantastic powdered sweetener and flavour that is still used to add attraction to calf milk supplements to make them more palatable.
One peculiarity about the bait was that it seemed much better after it had been frozen. It was almost as if freezing was part of the process that kicked off a reaction. Personally I have no idea but Tim seemed to think that freezing the bait helped no end, and it was his 'baby' after all: Who am I to quibble! All I can tell you is that I would always freeze the bait even if I wanted to use it the next day.Fifteen ml of both Minamino and Liquid Liver added yet more attraction and the way the carp wolfed this bait down it was clearly a winner. It was just a matter of getting Daddy to trip up on it...again!
I had one more close encounter with Big Daddy but lost him at the net. He lay there on the surface long enough for me to get a good look at him and even though I had caught him not that long before, he looked to have put on a bit of weight...He looked mid twenty at least, I thought. then I heard on the grapevine that someone had caught Daddy at nearly 25lb, so my guesstimate had not been far out.
The season opened up-country, and as we'd hoped the hordes departed Cornwall leaving behind a nasty legacy, which I'll touch on later, however, this meant we could reclaim our ressies so Salamander was put on the back burner till the following year. However, I heard on the grapevine that Big Daddy was up in weight at twenty-five pound plus.
The following year I decided to have another spell at Salamander as I felt I needed to catch Daddy one more time. Our love afir with the pool was cooling gradually but one futher encounter with the legendary (for Cornwall) carp was called for, if possible. Then, I promised him, I will leave you alone for good. So I started to bait the lake regularly with the frozen milk HNVs chopped into tiny pieces. I did this mainly after dark to defeat the ducks.
Tim's bait was the one he was writing about in Carp Fisher and Coarse Fisherman (if I recall) and he called it his HERVE or higher HNV. It contained a couple of ingredients that carried the protein-specific enzymes Bromelain and Trypsin and it was heavily reliant on rennet casein and NZ Lactalbumin with egg albumin to keep the boiling time to a minimum (no more than 50 seconds). This bait had already accounted for a whack of fish from College including my first thirty, which I'll tell you about later, so I was brim-full of confidence in it.
Initially we used Richworth Blue Cheese flavour but when we found a source of n-butyric acid this was used instead. To be honest I am sure the Richworth product contained a fair amount of N-BA anyway so perhaps there wasn't much point, other than it was a hell of a lot cheaper! Another attractor was Cajoler, then sold out of Bankside Tackle in Sheffield but later to join the Nutrabaits stable. This is a fantastic powdered sweetener and flavour that is still used to add attraction to calf milk supplements to make them more palatable.
One peculiarity about the bait was that it seemed much better after it had been frozen. It was almost as if freezing was part of the process that kicked off a reaction. Personally I have no idea but Tim seemed to think that freezing the bait helped no end, and it was his 'baby' after all: Who am I to quibble! All I can tell you is that I would always freeze the bait even if I wanted to use it the next day.Fifteen ml of both Minamino and Liquid Liver added yet more attraction and the way the carp wolfed this bait down it was clearly a winner. It was just a matter of getting Daddy to trip up on it...again!
In reply to Post #35
I guess some folk on here may wonder about what seem to be repeat captures of a mug fish, but let me tell you, that carp was no mug. We were then, still are, starved of real target fish in Cornwall, so think of Big Daddy as our Black Mirror if you like, maybe that will put things in perspective for you. At the time I am writing about there was only one...yes ONE thirty in the whole of Cornwall. Though it may appear from these reminiscences that Daddy was a bit of a mug, but that is far from the truth. I would not even guess at the number of hours and days that I spent chasing that fish!
One peculiarity about the bait was that it seemed much better after it had been frozen. It was almost as if freezing was part of the process that kicked off a reaction. Personally I have no idea and only tripped over the freezing aspect by accident. All I can tell you is that I would always freeze the bait after cooling even if I wanted to use it the next day.
I knew that the fish were eating at least some of the bait, though the swans and ducks were stiff competition for it, so I was sure I could catch a few on it with only minimal pre-baiting. One particular area seemed to be receiving a lot of attention from the carp, so much so that they established a very distinctive 'dinner plate' in among the weed. The dinner plate was plain to see even in low light and I often saw fish feeding on it from the spotting tree.
Daddy was a regular at the 'restaurant' and could often be seen scoffing on the dinner plate. Here he takes a siesta with one of his mates after a particularly heavy meal!
I guess some folk on here may wonder about what seem to be repeat captures of a mug fish, but let me tell you, that carp was no mug. We were then, still are, starved of real target fish in Cornwall, so think of Big Daddy as our Black Mirror if you like, maybe that will put things in perspective for you. At the time I am writing about there was only one...yes ONE thirty in the whole of Cornwall. Though it may appear from these reminiscences that Daddy was a bit of a mug, but that is far from the truth. I would not even guess at the number of hours and days that I spent chasing that fish!
One peculiarity about the bait was that it seemed much better after it had been frozen. It was almost as if freezing was part of the process that kicked off a reaction. Personally I have no idea and only tripped over the freezing aspect by accident. All I can tell you is that I would always freeze the bait after cooling even if I wanted to use it the next day.
I knew that the fish were eating at least some of the bait, though the swans and ducks were stiff competition for it, so I was sure I could catch a few on it with only minimal pre-baiting. One particular area seemed to be receiving a lot of attention from the carp, so much so that they established a very distinctive 'dinner plate' in among the weed. The dinner plate was plain to see even in low light and I often saw fish feeding on it from the spotting tree.
Daddy was a regular at the 'restaurant' and could often be seen scoffing on the dinner plate. Here he takes a siesta with one of his mates after a particularly heavy meal!
In reply to Post #36
The dinner plate was turning into a real hot spot for me that summer and I caught a fair few Salamander beauties from it. The tiny yellow baits seemed to blend in very well with the lake bed so possibly the carp were less suspicious of them. One thing is for sure; they clearly found something much to their linking in that spot.
Another area that Daddy liked to frequent was under Quasimodo's Bush. Quasimodo was my nickname for a most peculiar shaped carp with a very deformed spine, so much so that it only seemed able to swim in left-turning circles. This fish was in almost permanent residence under a set of bushes at the far and of the lake and the other fish seemed almost as if they were scared of the poor old creature as it was a real loner. The only fish I ever saw Quasi in company with was Big Daddy. Most odd. Odder still was the fact that no matter how often I fished to that area I never caught either fish from the bush, though both were was happy to oblige in other areas of the lake! This is Quasimodo's Bush.
Though we did more nights together now than was previously the case, when I fished on my own I still preferred stalking. After all stalking them and float fishing for them outnumbered those caught on the carp fishing method by 3:1.
The dinner plate was turning into a real hot spot for me that summer and I caught a fair few Salamander beauties from it. The tiny yellow baits seemed to blend in very well with the lake bed so possibly the carp were less suspicious of them. One thing is for sure; they clearly found something much to their linking in that spot.
Another area that Daddy liked to frequent was under Quasimodo's Bush. Quasimodo was my nickname for a most peculiar shaped carp with a very deformed spine, so much so that it only seemed able to swim in left-turning circles. This fish was in almost permanent residence under a set of bushes at the far and of the lake and the other fish seemed almost as if they were scared of the poor old creature as it was a real loner. The only fish I ever saw Quasi in company with was Big Daddy. Most odd. Odder still was the fact that no matter how often I fished to that area I never caught either fish from the bush, though both were was happy to oblige in other areas of the lake! This is Quasimodo's Bush.
Though we did more nights together now than was previously the case, when I fished on my own I still preferred stalking. After all stalking them and float fishing for them outnumbered those caught on the carp fishing method by 3:1.