Secret carp lakes

[The Flying Tench]

The angling literature has various stories of finding secret, hidden lakes which turn out to have monster carp lurking in their depths. Good evocative stuff!  But am I right in thinking they can't have been that secret, because the monster carp (for a time called 'King Carp') would all need to have been stocked with fish brought from the continent from 1920s onwards?

[wotnobivvy]

I would hazard a guess that most were estate lakes and the carp were added for ornamental value rather than for angling so would not have got onto the grapevine. Also carp were not really fished for in the 20's as most anglers were on the bankside of rivers rather than the opposite like today

[chesters1]

I remember reading a story as a yooof called the monster of mordern mere (it was a pike though) as a kid there were 'secret' lakes with "monster" carp in them but in those days monsters were double figures, unlike today. It got me very excited and a great deal of effort was put into locating this magic place and then finding info was books so it slowly left my imagination and I got real it was just fiction

Nowadays hushed voices talk of lakes with few or no carp! the carps mystique  has long gone, now some 30lb massive bellied  import is looked on with distain when your after some carp caught 20 or so times or more it even has a name !

I remember the dark shadows in the top lake at keston ,impossible to catch there was so much weed but they kept up the enthusiasm now long gone .

The pond i bailiffed had a handful of koi ,had there been carp with capital letters ,i wouldnt have bothered bailiffing sometimes its nice not to know whats in a lake and those with named fish put me off its like being the second person to climb a mountain ..completely pointless your just second !

I remember me and a couple of mates planning the weekend as we heard a carp was caught in the military canal but we never caught it but it stayed for years as the top of our list never quite knowing it was true ,it must be quite down heartening  when you catch the biggest fish in a lake and know for sure thats it ,just pointless  especially when you see it caught every week and you were beaten to it.

Nope old fashioned angling is for me ,talk more talk but never quite certain lol there could be unknown carp in lakes but they wont be monsters because monsters need food and food in abundance from carp anglers to become monsters ,it would be nice to find a lake with wildies in it ,they are real carp and still fun unlike dragging in lumps with beach casters!

In my teens me and a mate with a car got a map marked all the blue (water)  and drove round asking farmers if we could fish ,most smiled and said theres nothing in them but have a go ,most had a great deal in them carp included but we kept those quiet lol

Angling has changed i dont like how its changed ,what was effort and cunning and the skill is now just technology and not appreciating nature just the effort to over come it and go for the biggest without enjoying your surroundings incase it gets in the way of your object fred or piggie or whatever. Nothing else matters it seems, If i was starting now i am not sure i would keep it up as i have and i must admit i go fewer times today the club scene or the way to an end fish wise isn't  a priority anymore .I am happy going out just for the reason not to be in ,fish catching never has been a priority when i go fishing its even less of one now ,i still go but my river stretches are hard going gin clear so one walk along it spooks everything so the trip is short but worth a walk. My other hobby is metal detecting ,dirt fishin ,you never know what you are going to catch next unlike some waters lol

Edited December 21, 2020 by chesters1

[The Flying Tench]

Interesting that you are into metal detecting, Chesters. I know of several anglers who share that interest. Maybe you're right that it's really a type of angling!

Re finding fish in the farmers' lakes when they didn't think there was anything there. Were the carp wildies or King Carp?

[Chris Plumb]

I think Redmire was originally stocked (1930s) as an attempt to suppress weed growth in the pool (and the rest - as they say - is history!)

Edited December 22, 2020 by Chris Plumb

[chesters1]

  On 12/22/2020 at 12:16 PM, The Flying Tench said:

Interesting that you are into metal detecting, Chesters. I know of several anglers who share that interest. Maybe you're right that it's really a type of angling!

Re finding fish in the farmers' lakes when they didn't think there was anything there. Were the carp wildies or King Carp?

Expand  

Most were what was called wild carp then (dont have an interest in fish biology to know even what a king carp is)fully scaled lean hard fighting fish with a distinctive first part of the top fin that was thick and looked like it had a barb that caught in the landing nets ,great fun on a 12ft float rod they went like steam trains and took some stopping under 8lb anything bigger on that tackle straigthed the hook and were gone unless you went with heavier tackle which removed most of the fun as the bigger ones were very rare in double figures.

I caught my first "real" carp which was 18lb and big enough to get the fish of the week and its crap unberrella when i was 15 or 16 at horton kirby which was then becoming a hot spot but just 3 anglers was pretty much all that fished overnight then ,milk train saturday morning home late sunday ,looked at as nutters then !

We never knew who owned it ,rarely saw anyone but the machinery was still on site and it had moved in the week between trips .I can only remember 2 lakes a shallow one with an island in the corner and the big one with shingle banks ,looking at the map it seems to be a "complex" now and nothing fits my memory 

Many years ago i read a post somewhere with someone fishing hearing a very loud buzzer and a lot of swearing ,i made that for a mate who slept like a log ,he woke up so fast the sun lounger catapulted him into the shallows in his sleeping bag ,good times lol

Thinking about it it wasnt a buzzer it was the siren from a front door lock that went off if you pushed the door open more than a few inches. It was incorperated into the heron bite alarm box ,when it was said to be loud it was VERY loud! Always liked tinkering and could have been the first to use bleeptones in a heron ,other mates dad worked for GPO lol

Edited December 22, 2020 by chesters1

[Phone]

ALL,

We don't have secret lakes any longer

 

Phone

[chesters1]

The lakes come to you!

It seems a bit strange these carp are not harvested for protein ,we spend a great deal of money sending boats out to catch sand eels to feed animals depleting natural stocks yet your problem could produce a huge amount and its a captive species its not going to swim overland to escape!

A few revolving fish traps could harvest tons a day! Some v8 versions of these! For some reason the vid showed then went!?

Employ one crew per trap to let native species escape or some bit of tech could do it if tech can identify colours of glass and eject it i am sure its possible to only kill your jumpy carp

Try again

https://youtu.be/FLRNRFekdQQ

Hmm on chrome the embedded vid plays fine! firefox just updated thats the problem grrr

Edited December 24, 2020 by chesters1