Quantum Leap?

[Julian]

Just finished reading Quest for Carp by Jack Hilton; an amazing book that covers his exploits on waters like Ashlea and Redmire during the late sixties and early seventies and it got me thinking - If you had the opportunity to do your carp fishing in a different era – would you take it?

 

I must admit that I’d jump at the chance to do my fishing in a bygone age. I’m never happier than when I’ve got my head in an old fishing book reading about the ‘pioneering’ days of old when it was as much about finding a water with carp in it, as it was about trying to catch them!

 

How about you? Would you prefer to fish in the present day with the possibility of catching a UK carp over 60lb! Or even in the future – you have to wonder how big home-grown UK fish will be in twenty years time!?

[poledark]

Having started my carpfishing in 1949/50 I do remember the quest for waters containing carp, mostly wildies in those days. But there were a few "big carp" waters around, remnants of waters stocked in the late 1930's with King carp (the name referred to the mixed mirror strains bred for eating on the continent)

By the late 40's early 50's most of these fish had either died out or been caught and eaten and there offspring had reverted to the "common" scaling. Very few of these fish resched more than 15lbs and the wildies rarely exceeded 9lbs.

So just finding a water with carp in was exciting, but if you were lucky and did find one then the fishing could be very easy for a season or two.

Surface fished bread was very successful, stalking in particular, most of the waters were quite small estate lakes..in fact I don't think that I fished a bottom bait for the first three years I carpfished!

 

Correction here , I did fish on the bottom, but only at night, went stalking again as soon as it got light.

 

Mid 1950's were exciting, discovered a gravel pit at Badshot lea, got my first double here, bought a James 98cc M/Bike and travelled.

 

Netted a couple of 14's and an 18 at Parkdene Pool (Goffs park, Crawley) and lost an upper twenty at the net when the Claw pickup Mitchell backwound and the line went twice around the pickup...I almost got pulled in, and was in a state of shock for days. (Now you know why I NEVER backwind )

 

Late 50's early 60's were very productive and it was PB's all the way The switch from potatoes and bread to the first specials like Bemax and sausage meat meant we couldn't stop catching carp, (nor did we want to, work suffered, some marriages fell apart and in the late 1960's my fishing mate died.............................

 

Work, Trout and Salmon and Sea fishing put carp on a back seat, but in 1979 I started back coarse fishing and watched a bloke catch 3 20+ carp one afternoon and I was hooked again, and my next fish was a 35+ Mirror (still hadn't caught a twenty:)

 

Now I fish "hard" waters, sometimes they can be incredibly easy, but once the first flush of spring warmed catches are over, then they settle down to "quite difficult" This winter has been a "hard" one but the average weight has been over 25lbs so I am not complaining,,,could do with a nice SW blow though

 

For all the right reasons, I would like to go back to as it was in the early 1950's, but as that is not possible then I am happy to be alive and fishing in 2006.

 

Den

[smalltincup]

Great topic for a post

 

What would I do ? Interesting

 

Would we be aloud to take the gear that we have now or would we have to fish with the gear of that time? (just a thought)

 

I think I would move forward in time, i would like to see what would happen in the future, say about 100-150 yrs. As it is unlikely that i am going to be around then or even if I am it would be quite likely i will only have a couple of marbles rolling around in my head i will be well past fishing, even fishing for Minnows.

 

I would like to see what advances there would have been in the tackle that is used, what the fish have grown in to.

 

Also would the change in Climate have had any effect on the carp fishing?

 

I wounder if Two Tone will still be around (Probably not)

 

Yep the future.

 

So look out for me i will be the one fishing like this in 100 yrs time

 

 

 

Great post.

 

STC

[Elton]

I'd like to go back and fish with people like Den.

 

An age where floats were used.

 

An age where there were people making 'technological breakthroughs' like they are today, but were still everyday blokes with jobs and families.

 

I may be looking through rose-tinted spectacles, but in decades past it seems to me that it was about the fishing and not just the results. I'm not denying that anglers were obsessed then. I bet some of them were more obsessed than they are today - nowadays, many want the instant results that new baits and tactics published on the web and in magazines offer them. I suppose it was more about learning things yourself and a bit of word-of-mouth a few years back.

 

There are some people today with whom I'm happy to fish with, as I think they have the 'right' attitude. Julian is actually one of them. To me, the environment I'm fishing in is often as important as the fishing and I'd fish in any era with the right people. Actually, I suppose "Who would you like to fish with?" could be a thread on its own....

[RUDD]

I would go back to my teens when I had all the time in the world and wasted it away on parties, booze, girls, a few naughty substances and alot of time in bed sleeping it off.

 

Then again it was enjoyable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Julian]

Den,

 

That’s one of the most enjoyable posts I’ve ever read! And it definitely confirms that I’d love to go back and fish in that era; amazing stuff. Sounds like you had some exciting times in discovering new venues – and had some very impressive fish along the way – the lost upper-twenty must have hurt!

 

I’m like you in fishing the hard waters – much prefer the challenging environment, and they are usually much quieter.

 

Very interesting to hear you comments on bait as this is mirrored exactly in most of the books I’ve read, with bread flake outfishing most other methods initially. Out of interest, how did you fish the potato hook baits, there is much mention of them in many books, including Quest for Carp, but only about the size used – nothing about how they were actually fished and/or prepared?

 

Cheers…

 

Julian

[Si...]

I`d like to go back to the time that Lenny Middleton developed the hair rig.

 

I`ve personally met him on the bank, even though he like to keep himself to himself, if you get chatting with him, you`ll discover that the story thats published and commonly well known is in fact about 40-50% true.

[RobStubbs]

I guess I'd just like to have started carping (and fishing in general) when I was younger. I did dabble as a youngster but never got far. In my early 20's I started again - sea fishing, then coarse then carp. I would liked to have gotten into carp fishing say 10 or 15 years earlier and spent more time looking for magical waters and stalking fish. I have still done that but nothing like as much as I'd of liked. And now I have so little fishing time that I opt for waters I know well and that have big fish in. I also know the whole syndicate on one water and there's a lovely river side bar opposite the lake. So in summer I can get easily distracted when I do go fishing .

 

Rob.

[poledark]

Jules,, here is how we used to put spuds on the hook. You need a baiting needle to pull the loop thro the spud until the hook is buried up to the bend. We used big hooks, No 1 Aberdeens if I remember right.

 

Later on I used to insert a tube (straw) into the spud and tucked a piece of card under the bend, this was to stop the cooked spud from flying off, but actually helped catch some fish because as the fish sucked up the spud, sometimes the hook would get sucked out and hooked the fish. This was proved by the fact that on occasion the fish was landed with the spud sliding free up the line. I sometimes wonder if Lenny read my little piece in AT describing the effect!

 

 

 

The other little pic shows how we used to fish...the spud/paste ball was freelined (no lead weights in those days !! ) and after casting out, the rod tip was wound down close to the water and a dough "bobbin" was pressed on to the line. The rod was then backwound to allow the tip to be pointed up in the air and the bobbin adjusted so it showed dropbacks as well as lifts. VERY effective, and I believe it was a method perfected by my mentor C A Stone (Lob to his friends) Check him out in Kevin Cliffords History of Carp Fishing, page 33. I was priveledged to witness his Wadhurst fish and the Keston fish.

 

 

Den

Edited January 18, 2006 by poledark

[Vagabond]

Only just found this thread.

 

Started my carp fishing before Dick Walker became well known.

 

My guru then was J H R (Jim) Bazeley. Twice winner of the All England and a "specimen hunter" long before that pretentitious term was coined.

 

Jim Bazeley was advocating floating crust for carp as early as 1938

 

However, I would prefer to take a REAL quantum leap, and go back to the Late Cretaceous Era (thats 95 to 65 million years ago)

 

I would fish with BIG livebaits (say a 20 lb shark), seeking a Xiphactinus - a big toothy predator up to twenty feet long.

 

Sponsors apply here, it ain't gonna be a cheap trip........