A venue where the same story of absolute monsters that had never seen the bank before abound, which contains likely the widest carp to ever swim in the UK. Clearly all down to anglers viewing a carp in the water so wide, if it had the length to it would break 80lb, not 60lb.
The Ocean was by far the hardest pit to fish that I have ever angled on. Absolutely everything was against you. Divers who carried knives to cut lines with on sight. The bottom of the lake filled with sunken boats, scaffolding erections and various other things for the divers to dive down and view. Boulders more than forty foot in height, clumped together with crevices where your lead could slide down and disappear never to be seen again. A venue used for wild water swimming every single day by numerous swimmers. These who would swim around the edge at first light all summer, wiping out your lines at the traditional bite time for carp fishing. The aforementioned boat rental port, where kids and any budding sailor could rent out a big boat to completely ruin your day. Home owners who did not want you there. Screaming kids by the many hundred, all day, everyday. The UK eel population was under threat. Not in the Ocean. It was alive with them! You could never use any type of boiled bait at night. It would be gone within minutes. You would catch eel after eel on tigers from the deep water. I have never encountered another venue with such an eel infestation. Cormorants would dive, all day, every day, coming up with a large eel every single time. It could literally drive you crazy. It was no wonder that hardly anyone ever fished it. But it also contained many old world carp, fish from another era. Fish with no names, it was also a venue that really could easily throw up the biggest of surprises, more so than any other venue in the UK at the time.
The first year I started fishing very late in the Spring. I was soon to find out that the lake contained a type of weed that was literally impossible to fish around. By May every single year it became virtually un fishable out into the lake. Once that weed came up from the depths, you could not even reel in and rigs would need to be retrieved with a boat. How you would ever stop, or land a monster carp in that scenario would be near impossible. That first year I gave up after two months with a plan to return the following Spring. I needed to be there before that weed came up. I also decided the larger, more open end of the venue was best left to the public masses. The venues split up in to two sections, split by an island with channels either side. The smaller end, backed onto the Island side of R&I. Although this was where the divers would enter before moving up to the larger end of the pit... Cutting my lines as they went! It was far quieter in terms of boats, open water swimmers and the like. They all tended to stay up the other much larger end, rarely venturing down past the island. This would be where I would target the lakes carp. At this smaller end, likely around 25 acres, there was also a monstrous bar, a long raised area of gravel that warmed the water far faster than anywhere else in the entire lake. At the end of this massive expanse of gravel, it narrowed down to a narrower gravel bar, dropping down to around five foot, before falling off into the depths. The moment I saw this area from the boat, I knew it was ‘the' spot. Bait wise, I needed to do something different. These were wild fish. They did not need anglers bait. Throwing lots of boiled baits in was completely futile in my eyes, due to the eels. Sacks of hemp would be the way forwards, 100's of kgs at a time. These fish had to be turned away from natural food which abounded. They had to be ‘made' to turn onto the hemp by giving it to them in the type of quantities that would get their attention. I started carting a big double burner with a big stock pot that sat over both rings down the lake. I placed a cork fixed by 2lb mono at the shallow end of my bar spot. Making it very easy to replace rods when they got wiped out by divers. Once all plans were made, it was just time to start baiting it early in the Spring. For a while, it was pointless. The tench would snaffle the hemp, but there was no sign of any carp. Later the same Spring, I finally saw the first carp on the spot. I had been there for a couple of nights and was about to leave. I went out in my little Bic boat to place twenty kilo of hemp on the spot. As I was putting it in off the side of the boat, I caught sight from the corner of my eye of a big carp watching me. I had clearly disturbed her when I first appeared above the bar. I had to leave, was already completely packed up with all of the gear in the car. I left that day, knowing that twenty five years of Ocean dreams, were going to be for filled next time. I returned to the lake a few days later, with a stupid amount of dry hemp. Seven or eight twenty five kilo sacks plus a double cooker.
The Ocean was by far the hardest pit to fish that I have ever angled on. Absolutely everything was against you. Divers who carried knives to cut lines with on sight. The bottom of the lake filled with sunken boats, scaffolding erections and various other things for the divers to dive down and view. Boulders more than forty foot in height, clumped together with crevices where your lead could slide down and disappear never to be seen again. A venue used for wild water swimming every single day by numerous swimmers. These who would swim around the edge at first light all summer, wiping out your lines at the traditional bite time for carp fishing. The aforementioned boat rental port, where kids and any budding sailor could rent out a big boat to completely ruin your day. Home owners who did not want you there. Screaming kids by the many hundred, all day, everyday. The UK eel population was under threat. Not in the Ocean. It was alive with them! You could never use any type of boiled bait at night. It would be gone within minutes. You would catch eel after eel on tigers from the deep water. I have never encountered another venue with such an eel infestation. Cormorants would dive, all day, every day, coming up with a large eel every single time. It could literally drive you crazy. It was no wonder that hardly anyone ever fished it. But it also contained many old world carp, fish from another era. Fish with no names, it was also a venue that really could easily throw up the biggest of surprises, more so than any other venue in the UK at the time.
The first year I started fishing very late in the Spring. I was soon to find out that the lake contained a type of weed that was literally impossible to fish around. By May every single year it became virtually un fishable out into the lake. Once that weed came up from the depths, you could not even reel in and rigs would need to be retrieved with a boat. How you would ever stop, or land a monster carp in that scenario would be near impossible. That first year I gave up after two months with a plan to return the following Spring. I needed to be there before that weed came up. I also decided the larger, more open end of the venue was best left to the public masses. The venues split up in to two sections, split by an island with channels either side. The smaller end, backed onto the Island side of R&I. Although this was where the divers would enter before moving up to the larger end of the pit... Cutting my lines as they went! It was far quieter in terms of boats, open water swimmers and the like. They all tended to stay up the other much larger end, rarely venturing down past the island. This would be where I would target the lakes carp. At this smaller end, likely around 25 acres, there was also a monstrous bar, a long raised area of gravel that warmed the water far faster than anywhere else in the entire lake. At the end of this massive expanse of gravel, it narrowed down to a narrower gravel bar, dropping down to around five foot, before falling off into the depths. The moment I saw this area from the boat, I knew it was ‘the' spot. Bait wise, I needed to do something different. These were wild fish. They did not need anglers bait. Throwing lots of boiled baits in was completely futile in my eyes, due to the eels. Sacks of hemp would be the way forwards, 100's of kgs at a time. These fish had to be turned away from natural food which abounded. They had to be ‘made' to turn onto the hemp by giving it to them in the type of quantities that would get their attention. I started carting a big double burner with a big stock pot that sat over both rings down the lake. I placed a cork fixed by 2lb mono at the shallow end of my bar spot. Making it very easy to replace rods when they got wiped out by divers. Once all plans were made, it was just time to start baiting it early in the Spring. For a while, it was pointless. The tench would snaffle the hemp, but there was no sign of any carp. Later the same Spring, I finally saw the first carp on the spot. I had been there for a couple of nights and was about to leave. I went out in my little Bic boat to place twenty kilo of hemp on the spot. As I was putting it in off the side of the boat, I caught sight from the corner of my eye of a big carp watching me. I had clearly disturbed her when I first appeared above the bar. I had to leave, was already completely packed up with all of the gear in the car. I left that day, knowing that twenty five years of Ocean dreams, were going to be for filled next time. I returned to the lake a few days later, with a stupid amount of dry hemp. Seven or eight twenty five kilo sacks plus a double cooker.
It was time to go back to the complex that I had grown up on. At the time, the best fish on the complex, in the entire country in my own mind was Limp Tail who lived in the Road & Island. Or the 'Clive Williams' fish. A stupendous scaly mirror of the most epic proportions. That was most likely dead being unseen for a good few years by this point. The R&I was to be my first port of call. Johnsons was now very different from my childhood. A massive housing complex had been built where my beloved Snag lake used to be. Old man Johnson had sold the complex to developers and the local council. Mid Kent fisheries now controlled the fishing. The Snag had been filled in, along with the bay of the Ocean described earlier. The best mirrors in the Snag lake had been robbed, moved to other crap ponds further down in Kent controlled by the club. The odd one or two had been moved by complex anglers who knew what was coming. The Snag lake mirror in the R&I being one. Unfortunately all of the small stunted commons they did not want, were thrown into the R&I & the Ocean. Absolute sacrilege. Limp Tail was the fish that I was there fishing R&I for. I caught lots of fish including what was now the biggest fish in the lake. Limp had not been banked for some two years at that point. This was not unusual. The fish could go many years not being caught due to the nature and difficulty of the pit. Limp Tail had not appeared all over magazines. For so many years, the carp fishing media had been full of Yateley this, Yateley that constantly. The boom in carp fishing magnified this intensely. Limp Tail was ‘proper' in my own personal eyes. Older than all of them ex Kent carp from Hampshire who were publicised over & over again constantly. She was never whored to death like the others from the West side of London all were. Speak to 99% of carp anglers in the UK, they would have never even heard her name. She was as ‘proper' as proper could be. The lake itself, even more so. Unfortunately after viewing the same big fish in the water over & over again, it soon became clear to me that Limp Tail was no longer there. The R&I big un had passed.
I had a ticket, so I started briefly fishing Larky 2 & the Railway for a short while, but it was time to have a good look at the Ocean. The lake had changed out of all recognition since my childhood. It was now a country park with manicured paths all the way around it. Tonnes of dog walkers, families with kids feeding the ducks. Not just these, but now there was a boat rental outlet on the lake. A dive centre had also been set up on the complex, the lake they dived on was the Ocean. The O gets its name from its depths. It goes down to seventy foot plus in places. A completely wild lake, where the inhabitants, although older than myself, were pretty much unknown except to a few very secretive anglers. Mid Kent getting the complex had brought a few anglers who fished on Conningbrook under Mid Kent to the venue. One angler who was on there when I first started had fished the venue full time for two entire years, but was still yet to catch a fish. This would be a challenge, the lake contained a couple of very big fish, but it was more the mystery of what it could throw up. The Ocean is a venue steeped in mystery on the very famous complex. At least it was back then. On a complex with some of the best strains of fish the UK has ever produced, this was a venue still shrouded in complete mystery. Sightings of record size carp a plenty. I have never fished another venue, before or since, where the reputation & difficulty of the pit, lent itself to the most incredible tales of sightings of massive un caught carp. If a known fish died and went missing from one of the other venues on the complex... According to everyone it was secretly placed in the Ocean, and was now 70lb+. During my relatively short time fishing the pit, I lost count of the number of anglers who walked into my swim on the O, proclaiming there had been an unknown 50 banked out of here last week, did I know? Of course these were all wild stories. The lake did contain a mid 40 common, short and dumpy, so incredibly wide. When viewed in the water this fish would look much bigger than it actually was in reality. But this one fish, I am convinced led to so many stories of absolute monsters. If you imagine a diver seeing a carp that's more than a foot wide across the back, you can see the stories that would spring up. I encountered something similar many years later on Theale Lagoon.
I had a ticket, so I started briefly fishing Larky 2 & the Railway for a short while, but it was time to have a good look at the Ocean. The lake had changed out of all recognition since my childhood. It was now a country park with manicured paths all the way around it. Tonnes of dog walkers, families with kids feeding the ducks. Not just these, but now there was a boat rental outlet on the lake. A dive centre had also been set up on the complex, the lake they dived on was the Ocean. The O gets its name from its depths. It goes down to seventy foot plus in places. A completely wild lake, where the inhabitants, although older than myself, were pretty much unknown except to a few very secretive anglers. Mid Kent getting the complex had brought a few anglers who fished on Conningbrook under Mid Kent to the venue. One angler who was on there when I first started had fished the venue full time for two entire years, but was still yet to catch a fish. This would be a challenge, the lake contained a couple of very big fish, but it was more the mystery of what it could throw up. The Ocean is a venue steeped in mystery on the very famous complex. At least it was back then. On a complex with some of the best strains of fish the UK has ever produced, this was a venue still shrouded in complete mystery. Sightings of record size carp a plenty. I have never fished another venue, before or since, where the reputation & difficulty of the pit, lent itself to the most incredible tales of sightings of massive un caught carp. If a known fish died and went missing from one of the other venues on the complex... According to everyone it was secretly placed in the Ocean, and was now 70lb+. During my relatively short time fishing the pit, I lost count of the number of anglers who walked into my swim on the O, proclaiming there had been an unknown 50 banked out of here last week, did I know? Of course these were all wild stories. The lake did contain a mid 40 common, short and dumpy, so incredibly wide. When viewed in the water this fish would look much bigger than it actually was in reality. But this one fish, I am convinced led to so many stories of absolute monsters. If you imagine a diver seeing a carp that's more than a foot wide across the back, you can see the stories that would spring up. I encountered something similar many years later on Theale Lagoon.
Larkfield One. The Ocean.
This story goes back to some of my earliest memories in life. Growing up, fishing dominates the very first memories I have on this planet. My father was a compete fishing addict. Not just carp fishing which was still really in its infancy. Pike, barbel, chub. Yearly trips to Ireland bream fishing, mainly on the river Shannon or the warm water cut at the Lanesborough power station on Lough Ree. Around 1980 I started to get taken to the Johnsons complex in Kent. I was actually the perfect ruse/excuse for my father's fishing trips with my mother.... “The boy is obsessed”. It was him that was obsessed really, but he imparted that onto me. Night fishing was for fishing, not for sleeping during the hours of darkness. Although we had all the very latest kit, beds were absolutely banned at night and only allowed out during the day. It was drummed into me constantly, “if you want to sleep at night, stay at home with mum and sleep, we are here to night fish, not to sleep”. I very quickly learned that I would catch far more during the hours of darkness on my little float with a starlight on top than during the day anyway. The night time was the time when everything on the lake came to life. The Johnsons complex was made up of five pits back then. Johnsons Railway, Larkfield 2, Road & Island, Snag Lake & Larkfield 1 (The Ocean). The Railway was the well known one. Some of the greatest carp anglers in history fished the complex back then. Men like Rod Hutchinson, Steve Alcott & the rest of the ‘Famous Five'. As a young carp angler, the books from men like Rod & Rob Maylin were the inspiration that were consumed over and over again. Fred Wilton who invented the concept of high protein baits.... These were the kind of men who were fishing the complex. My most favourite lake on the complex back then was the Snag lake. A small intimate water covered in systems of gravel bars. These gravel bars were covered with thick gorse bushes growing out of the water along their entire lengths. Likely almost a quarter of the lakes entire surface covered in bushes. Just along from the Snag lake on the same road bank lay the Ocean. One day whilst fishing for tench on the Snag lake, my father came running into my swim. “Quick Mark, get your arse here”. As he ran along the edge of the snag lake to a large bay in the corner of the Ocean, I chased after him as fast as I could. I had never seen him so animated before, what I was about to see would change my life forever. As we made it into the bay of the Ocean, he darted under a big over hanging tree and just froze with one hand raised behind him indicating for me to stop, telling me to get down. As we sneaked down to the edge, he put his polaroid glasses onto my head and got me into a position to see what all the fuss was about. There underneath the tree lay the biggest of all carp! It was monstrous! I had seen so many big carp at this point being held by my father, I had caught many myself, but this one was by far the biggest I had ever seen in the water. At this point you never saw anyone whatsoever fishing the Ocean. Over the next year or two, my father became totally obsessed with that fish we had seen that day. The trips to the Avon & the Stour in Dorset stopped. The trips to the Medway roach fishing stopped. Even the trips to Ireland stopped. Every fishing trip was now about that fish that we had seen in the large bay of the Ocean. We never saw another carp in the Ocean again back then though. As a child, that became very boring, very quickly. I would spend my time fishing on the Snag lake for tench whilst he banged his head against a brick wall.
Fast forwards to 2007/8. I had spent many years getting as far away from all carp anglers as is humanly possible, mainly carp fishing on the river Thames. But I was then craving some big fish. After catching most of the big fish in Sutton 2 as a brand new member in 2006, I had become a bit disillusioned again instantly with carp fishing on busy lakes, the sheer problems that catching ‘to many' fish in that scenario starts to bring. I yearned for something different again.
This story goes back to some of my earliest memories in life. Growing up, fishing dominates the very first memories I have on this planet. My father was a compete fishing addict. Not just carp fishing which was still really in its infancy. Pike, barbel, chub. Yearly trips to Ireland bream fishing, mainly on the river Shannon or the warm water cut at the Lanesborough power station on Lough Ree. Around 1980 I started to get taken to the Johnsons complex in Kent. I was actually the perfect ruse/excuse for my father's fishing trips with my mother.... “The boy is obsessed”. It was him that was obsessed really, but he imparted that onto me. Night fishing was for fishing, not for sleeping during the hours of darkness. Although we had all the very latest kit, beds were absolutely banned at night and only allowed out during the day. It was drummed into me constantly, “if you want to sleep at night, stay at home with mum and sleep, we are here to night fish, not to sleep”. I very quickly learned that I would catch far more during the hours of darkness on my little float with a starlight on top than during the day anyway. The night time was the time when everything on the lake came to life. The Johnsons complex was made up of five pits back then. Johnsons Railway, Larkfield 2, Road & Island, Snag Lake & Larkfield 1 (The Ocean). The Railway was the well known one. Some of the greatest carp anglers in history fished the complex back then. Men like Rod Hutchinson, Steve Alcott & the rest of the ‘Famous Five'. As a young carp angler, the books from men like Rod & Rob Maylin were the inspiration that were consumed over and over again. Fred Wilton who invented the concept of high protein baits.... These were the kind of men who were fishing the complex. My most favourite lake on the complex back then was the Snag lake. A small intimate water covered in systems of gravel bars. These gravel bars were covered with thick gorse bushes growing out of the water along their entire lengths. Likely almost a quarter of the lakes entire surface covered in bushes. Just along from the Snag lake on the same road bank lay the Ocean. One day whilst fishing for tench on the Snag lake, my father came running into my swim. “Quick Mark, get your arse here”. As he ran along the edge of the snag lake to a large bay in the corner of the Ocean, I chased after him as fast as I could. I had never seen him so animated before, what I was about to see would change my life forever. As we made it into the bay of the Ocean, he darted under a big over hanging tree and just froze with one hand raised behind him indicating for me to stop, telling me to get down. As we sneaked down to the edge, he put his polaroid glasses onto my head and got me into a position to see what all the fuss was about. There underneath the tree lay the biggest of all carp! It was monstrous! I had seen so many big carp at this point being held by my father, I had caught many myself, but this one was by far the biggest I had ever seen in the water. At this point you never saw anyone whatsoever fishing the Ocean. Over the next year or two, my father became totally obsessed with that fish we had seen that day. The trips to the Avon & the Stour in Dorset stopped. The trips to the Medway roach fishing stopped. Even the trips to Ireland stopped. Every fishing trip was now about that fish that we had seen in the large bay of the Ocean. We never saw another carp in the Ocean again back then though. As a child, that became very boring, very quickly. I would spend my time fishing on the Snag lake for tench whilst he banged his head against a brick wall.
Fast forwards to 2007/8. I had spent many years getting as far away from all carp anglers as is humanly possible, mainly carp fishing on the river Thames. But I was then craving some big fish. After catching most of the big fish in Sutton 2 as a brand new member in 2006, I had become a bit disillusioned again instantly with carp fishing on busy lakes, the sheer problems that catching ‘to many' fish in that scenario starts to bring. I yearned for something different again.
In reply to Post #328
Great Read Mark,
Thanks for sharing
Great Read Mark,
Thanks for sharing
Love stories like this, you certainly have a way with words, from evoking childhood memories of fishing with your dad and those most intense periods of insomnia when sheer graft and anticipation of a reward take over.. I'm certain that the book will be well worth the wait 👍
In reply to Post #328
Brilliant read, Mark. Was looking forward to this one.
I briefly fished Larky 2 during the summers of 2005/2006. I used to hear all sorts of rumours about huge uncaught carp that lived in the ocean. I never met anyone brave enough to take on the challenge.
Looking back, all the lakes on that complex were way above my skill level at the time. I remember, one night on larky 2, waking up to shouts, cheers, car horns beeping. Apparently, someone had caught Limp tail from the road and Island. I never even saw a picture of that fish until years later.
A great complex of lakes, back then with really special fish and some very good anglers.
Brilliant read, Mark. Was looking forward to this one.
I briefly fished Larky 2 during the summers of 2005/2006. I used to hear all sorts of rumours about huge uncaught carp that lived in the ocean. I never met anyone brave enough to take on the challenge.
Looking back, all the lakes on that complex were way above my skill level at the time. I remember, one night on larky 2, waking up to shouts, cheers, car horns beeping. Apparently, someone had caught Limp tail from the road and Island. I never even saw a picture of that fish until years later.
A great complex of lakes, back then with really special fish and some very good anglers.
Thank you, all three of you for the kind words. 
In reply to Post #332
Fantastic storytelling.
Fantastic storytelling.
In reply to Post #328
Another fantastic story Mark, honestly you really should write a book
Another fantastic story Mark, honestly you really should write a book
Thank you both for the kind words.
In reply to Post #335
Mark ,you really need to write a book. I love reading a book have shelves of angling books but read anything when angling . People tell me too get a kindle but its not the same as paper for me .
Mark ,you really need to write a book. I love reading a book have shelves of angling books but read anything when angling . People tell me too get a kindle but its not the same as paper for me .
In reply to Post #328
Thanks Mark - great read and all freeeeee!!
I had a complex ticket for a few years and really wanted to target the Ocean. But got caught at Dartford in traffic a few too many times and ended up thinking suff it - for me it's a lake that got away.
Thanks Mark - great read and all freeeeee!!
I had a complex ticket for a few years and really wanted to target the Ocean. But got caught at Dartford in traffic a few too many times and ended up thinking suff it - for me it's a lake that got away.
In reply to Post #335
incredible story and angling Mark . Awesome to say the least
incredible story and angling Mark . Awesome to say the least
In reply to Post #328
A great read Mark. I also fished Johnson's in the 70s through to mid 80s. Your description of watching a float all night, reminded me of the same - you could see that bloody light wherever you looked!. I was obsessed with Tench, and still occasionally fish for them now.
A great read Mark. I also fished Johnson's in the 70s through to mid 80s. Your description of watching a float all night, reminded me of the same - you could see that bloody light wherever you looked!. I was obsessed with Tench, and still occasionally fish for them now.
In reply to Post #339
anyone needing to armourmes their bait,im having them whittled down by roach in next to no time
anyone needing to armourmes their bait,im having them whittled down by roach in next to no time