A Family Affair

So when did it all start for you, Neil?
“My mum’s partner first took me – I must have been seven or eight at the time – and he took me down to the local pond. We were float fishing sweetcorn for the rudd. There were literally two or three carp in there, old wildy commons and lo and behold, my very first ever bite on a float was a carp, a 5lb common! I remember it like it was yesterday, it’s a powerful memory.”

So you were bitten by the carp bug immediately very young. Most people go through an apprenticeship first. You tried and skipped it!
“There was loads of other stuff in there: roach, rudd, chub and tench but I never caught another carp from there. That was the start of my fishing and I was well and truly hooked after that. At school all I could think about was fishing all the time. I spent my days gazing out of the window planning the weekend, whether it was float fishing, feeder fishing for smaller carp or a bit later pike fishing. The friends that I went with had caught bigger carp so we started to go and target them and I guess I have been properly carp fishing for at least 20 years now.”

Neil White…

…With a Northey 41lber

I guess with your family connection to Gary Bayes it was inevitable that you would go carp fishing anyway?
“I didn’t see much of Gary back then as he had moved down to Essex at that point. I just used to go with my friends from school. As I got older I learned to drive and Gary would invite me down to Fen to see him. I did my carp fishing apprenticeship a little bit backwards, as by the age of 19 I had caught my first Fen carp. I spent a few years on Fen, before all those bigger ones like The Client became known about. I caught a good few to just under 40lb. One of those was the Lumpy Common and that’s probably getting on for 50lb now, if it’s still about, I’m sure she is. I think one of the bream anglers caught her after the floods. Anyway, after Fen, when I did eventually move on, other waters just seemed a bit easier. From fishing Fen, where angling hard could result in six to 10 fish a year - and that was good going - I suppose anywhere would seem easier. I had caught a few thirties before I went on Fen, so it wasn’t like I went straight in at the deep end. I did have a bit of a clue.”

So what was your first memorable capture, that first carp aside?
“My very first double from the local garden centre lake. The fish are still in there in fact, hungry as anything. They don’t get fed so I took a bucket of pellets down just before Christmas and you have never seen anything so mad! But yeah. back then. my mum bought me my first carp rod, a Kingfisher rod from Argos, for my birthday that year. I was 12. We used to use those chubber floats, swan shot and a big lump of bread down the margin. That was the one. It took me ages to get that fish in and it weighed 10lb 8oz. That was my most memorable. My first 20lber I caught on my very first time night fishing on my own actually. I was 14 or 15 at the time and it was from Richmond Lakes in Lincoln. That weighed 21lb and I went on to catch a few twenties to 27lb.

“From there I went on to another water in Lincoln which is a little bit harder, and that’s when I first really understood the power of the Scopex Squid. It had eight fish over 25lb in there, the biggest being a low-thirty common. I had been speaking to Gary and as a result I was encouraged to bait up before I fished. Pre-baiting was the way forward he said. I baited the tree-line on the far margin a few times and on the very first trip to the lake I caught all the big ones. In three nights fishing I had every single 25lb-plus fish, including The Big Common. I thought I had it in the net - it had a bald spot on one side and I kept seeing it and thinking it has to be the big one. Anyway, I got it out and realised it wasn’t actually the big one on the mat, but that it was still a nice fish, at which point I had another bite on the other rod. I quickly slipped the other one back and played in the second fish. Well, I might have thought the first fish was The Big Common, but this second one actually was, just a few minutes after! And that one was my first 30lber. I was 18 or 19 at that point.

“From there I went on to a reservoir in Lincoln and caught a few thirties out of there. I think that was 2000? It was the first water I had fished that had more than one thirty in it. It was an awesome place that taught me a lot. It was so weedy it was ridiculous. It felt like a proper man’s water – a stepping stone. I was fishing around really good anglers, like your Dave Moores and you can’t help but learn, not that they used to tell a youngster much at that point anyway. However, my good friend Pau Atta, who was a bit older than me, had been instrumental in my own fishing. He is a very good technical angler. I have a lot to thank him for, taking me fishing before I could drive and he got me on one or two waters in recent years.

“Anyway, I got on alright that first year on the res. I didn’t catch one of the thirties but I had half-a-dozen fish in a few trips up to 28lb. That was days-only but it was a nice bit of fishing. Again, I was baiting with Scopex Squid and it seemed to make it easy. The fish just used to love it.

“My mate caught a fish at low-thirty that has actually just been caught at 49lb and one of the other low-thirty mirrors in there, one that I didn’t actually catch, that one is now 50lb so I might be revisiting my old stomping ground this year. The ticket only costs £25, and it’s still days-only but I don’t mind a bit of day fishing – getting up really early and getting there before first light. It’s a bit of a buzz. Even if you get up at first light you are often asleep and missing that first bit when it’s actually daybreak. It’s in my blood.”

Are you an early bird then?
“Yeah, normally. I like to get up early and have a look. Even if you get up early you can still go back to bed at 8am, and people think you are still asleep yet I have been up for four hours watching. Sometimes I will have moved onto activity, leaving people thinking, ‘where’s he gone?’ I’m off!”

What’s the best bit for you?
“I love carp fishing, it’s awesome just being there but you can’t beat the buzz of the bite. Everything that goes into it and you get that bite, that’s the adrenaline buzz that you go for. Playing the fish and landing the fish is awesome but that initial buzz of getting that bite and your hearts beating away. Especially on the waters I fish nowadays fishing for bigger fish, a lot bigger fish approaching 50lbs, that is the pinnacle. Thinking ‘is it that one?’”

Lumpy Common: an upper-thirty from Fen

So how influential has Gary been to your fishing?
“Oh massively. From the Fen days when I first came across him actually in a fishing situation, I have always been in contact with him. When I’m getting bait he will always tell me, “Oh you want a bit of this” or “a bit of that”. He is a bloody good angler, but he just doesn’t go fishing that much. He has started to go again but back in those days of catching those carp like he did out of Fen Drayton when it was absolutely rock hard, and catching Two-Tone from Conningbrook, I was totally in awe of him. He had just caught the biggest carp in the land at that point.”

Winter trawlin’!

He was the British Record holder. I guess that’s the highest accolade for an angler in this country.
“Yeah, it is amazing. He has told me the story many times. I could recite it here but I wont’!”

Do you like fishing in the winter?
“Yeah, I love winter fishing. The solitude, you get more sleep, there are no mosquitos! They are savage in the summer – and Fen is the worst place I have ever known for mosquitos. It’s ridiculous!”

Fen has a unique appeal. What makes it so special - apart from the mosquitos?!
“You can’t beat going out in that boat finding spots amongst the weed and having a boat battle. There was this fish called The Tadpole. I was on the Jungle Bank and was fishing about 100 or so yards out. I had boated the baits out and dropped them as it’s weedy and you would never get the rigs in those little holes in the weed casting. At 2 o’clock in the morning my rod absolutely melted off. It was ridiculous. This fish towed me round the lake for 45 minutes. I thought at the time I had one of the mythical beasts of Fen Drayton on. To the far side it’s probably 500yds and when I netted the fish and looked up I was practically touching the far bank. That fish weighed 32lb but the fight from it was next level! I’ve never had such a hard fighting fish and when you are on Fen it could have been anything! That was probably the most memorable battle I have ever had from a carp.”

A winter thirty

So from Fen to Bayeswater Day Ticket Lake where we have met today… That is two very different types of fishing situation!
“Through the summer months I prefer fishing the likes of Fen or the current waters that I am fishing now – they virtually shut up shop in the winter don’t they and you have a very slim chance of getting a bite. So I like to have a few trips to the likes of Oxford or down here just to catch some nice carp in the winter. You can’t beat it on a cold January morning. My hands were freezing cold this morning when I got one in the net. I almost couldn’t feel them it was that cold. Can’t beat it!”

A Bayeswater Day Ticket linear, part of an eight fish January haul in just a few hours

It’s a sweet pain…
“Especially when there is one in the net!”

Well you have had a few of them today! (two thirties, four twenties and a couple of doubles!)
“From a fishing point of view I have got one target common that is close to 50lb for this year for when it warms up. In the previous couple of years I have fished another couple of waters where you can use boats, and boat fishing to me is the pinnacle. Generally you are on those bigger waters, lower stocked waters and getting a bite from a carp in those places is what carp fishing is for me now. That is the special moment. You just can’t beat boating around the lake looking for spots, finding fish and seeing the lakebed.”

On night watch

Is it cheating using a boat?
“Nooo!” (laughs)

I don’t think so but some people maybe don’t understand boat fishing. It’s a very different approach isn’t it?
“I’d say to some of those people, of course you can catch from the bank at Fen, and many people have. But you go to Fen for a year and you are massively disadvantaged not using a boat. It’s hard enough anyway trying to catch one. Plus the weed in there is ridiculous and if you haven’t got a boat the chances are it is going to get weeded up playing it from the bank. If you lose one of those special prizes because you haven’t got one…

“Often you are fishing a bit further out and you are looking for tiny holes in the weed with gravel spots. You have not got a chance in hell of casting on one of those tiny polished spots.

“I was fishing another boating water in the last five years, also in Cambridgeshire, and that was tough. The fish in there are old school; they were stocked in the 60s. I have caught them up to 35lb so I was handling fish that were probably 40- or 50-years-old, or more.

“These fish used to look so old as well, and on the mat they would tense up and curl up like nothing else I have seen. They really didn’t like being hooked and brought ashore, they were definitely not used to it as they hadn’t been caught much. A friend of mine, Elliot Symak, showed me a picture of a carp he had caught from there in 1969.”

Cold water success

Wow. So what makes a carp special for you? Is it size? Is it history? Is it looks?
“Well, everybody wants to target the biggest fish that they can, but then mix that with a bit of heritage. I don’t think there were many fish over 40lb in that lake but the heritage of the fish there is what was special. They were in there before carp fishing really existed, stocked in the 60s! They come from a different era. But now I want to catch a big common, 45lb plus. I was targeting one at Northey Park and I really enjoyed my fishing there, it was awesome. A proper carpy little place. I caught quite a few of the other better ones in the lake. I did have two 40lb mirrors in one night. It was nice to catch them along the way but unfortunately the fish that I was there for passed away but the bug was there for that big common as I had seen him on the bank a few times.

“A ticket came up for a water in Northampton that also contains an awesome big common, perhaps not as special as Kitch would have been if I’d landed her, but this fish is pretty epic in its own right and an absolute beast. That’s my target for this year, but I do want to get back to the boat fishing on bigger waters. It’s just peaceful, and you tend to get a lot of water to fish to yourself.”

The most perfect common

It’s funny that you are sat here on a busy day ticket lake as it’s such a completely different type of fishing! I guess if you love fishing you love fishing!?
“It’s like Alan Blair: he just loves fishing. His enthusiasm for fishing is something else.”

So you keep that buzz by going and getting bites too
“Coming from Lincoln, there are a few nice fish about that I want to catch but they are lower stocked waters again and not really winter waters. I can’t actually think of a water that fishes in the winter within 45 minutes to an hour from there.”

So you have to travel?
“Yes, but you can’t beat fishing for thirty-pounders in the winter, especially coming from up North.”

We have only come for a chat today but you have ended up trawling them! A brace of thirties and four twenties… I’m starting to lose count now! I know you are quite a fan of flavours in your bait. I guess you get that from Gary?
“You can’t talk to Gary and not pick up on his enthusiasm for bait. The little edges that he comes up with to give me a bit more of an advantage fishing waters where there are others using the same bait as me. I’d ask him, “Give me a bait edge” and now my box of bits is massive, full of these additives that I have collected off Gary over the last few years. I have got my special hookbaits that I make. I always roll my own pop-ups. Little edges I call them.

“Even if it’s 1% better than I had before, that 1% could catch me the fish that I really want, or get me an extra bite through the year. I’m sure the ‘little edges’ are more than 1% to be fair!”

30lb-plus Northants lump, taken using Key Cray

35lb of Bayeswater Syndicate mirror caught using Neil’s favourite bait, Scopex Squid

I guess on certain waters it does make a massive difference?
“Definitely. I borrowed some hookbaits off Gary as I had run out of corkball pop-ups. I was going down to Grendon, and I had three takes using his pop-ups. He rang me and asked “Have you had anything on those pop-ups?” I replied, “Yeah, what’s going on with these then!?” I knew that there was something special about these pop-ups and I had literally 12 of them. The next time I went I had another three on them but I had now run out! I was on him again! “What’s going on with these, I need more!” They weren’t even round, but that’s Gary’s hand-rolling skills for you, but that didn’t matter. These pop-ups were something else. It turns out he had put his little bits and pieces in and once he had taken them out of the boiling water he put them in cold water that he had diluted some aminos in, and then he puts them straight in the freezer so they absorbed that liquid. That was his secret. I tried it after that and continued to get bites through the autumn. That was definitely an edge that he could have told me about a bit earlier!”

A 35-plus Northants common

You have to keep the odd thing back!
“There is another boating lake I might see him on in Lincolnshire this year and I’m sure he will have a few tricks up his sleeve that he will keep away from me on there.”

Do you fish together now?
“Yeah, we do. I speak to him four or five times a week now. We are always chatting about something. 99 per cent of the time fishing-related as that’s our common interest.”

So flavour-wise I know Gary is a massive Scopex fan. Is it your favourite too?
“Scopex is, yeah, but I also like the Key Cray as well. I have caught a lot of carp on that in recent years.”

Are you predominantly a boilie user?
“Oh yeah, definitely. I do use particles too. I did on the lake in Cambridgeshire with the old ones in to combat the eels. They were a problem fishing with Chod Rigs believe it or not. You’d get a couple of bleeps and in the morning your Chod Rig would be slid up off the leader up the line and tangled up. It was a nightmare. You could get the bites on boilies, on the Scopex Squid, but they generally came when the baits hadn’t been in the water that long and before the eels arrived. Tiger nuts thankfully they just don’t eat and carp love tiger nuts. Again, like my maggots today, they are also flavoured with Scopex and sweetener, but not quite as much. Only a little drop in the water as they are soaking. They just have a tiny sweet taste to them.

“The ones that Gary makes in the Nash Particle range that we unfortunately no longer sell are awesome too. I stocked up when we discontinued them. I have got boxes, but this year they have really done me proud and I have caught some mega fish on them so those Gary Bayes edges definitely do something special to those particles.

“I don’t think Gary ever casts a bait out that hasn’t got some sort of edge to it. Even pike fishing he uses liquid attractors. Cat fishing too. Even his bread flake fishing for chub, my Mum used to remember him making it in the kitchen at home when he was about 12 and that was flavoured too, mixing it with cheese. Literally everything is flavoured and sweetened.

“There is no doubting how effective it is. It’s something that I have picked up off him as well, using sweeteners and mixing them. You were talking about flavouring maggots earlier on and how people just pour neat flavour on them without sweetening it? That is not the one. You definitely need it. Near enough every bait recipe will have some sort of sweetener in, even the Key Cray which smells like something else. It makes it palatable, and I guess there is a difference between something being attractive and palatable. It’s like drinking neat fruit cordial. I suppose the carp taste neat liquid flavour like that. The sweetener dilutes that neat flavour like water, and changes it to make it taste good to them. And you can drink lots of it - you couldn’t drink neat liquid cordial!”

Scopex is my ‘number 1’

Do you think some people really think deeply enough about what they do to bait?
“No, I don’t think so. They just think this flavour or that flavour looks good and pour that all over the maggots, but they don’t quite realise what they are doing. Maybe it’s time for Gary to make a maggot flavour that’s ready to go, already mixed Scopex and sweetener that you just need to pour a capful in to so many maggots.”

Well watch this space… who knows! If you had to pick one special capture you could go back to and relive the moment…
“Of course I would go back to Fen and my first capture, but that was so many years ago. The one that really stands out in recent years is from last year. The lake with the big common also has a couple of other 40lb plus commons, and I had a take one morning just as it was getting light, and there is one fish in there that they call Geordie’s and it has a proper overslung mouth that’s black on the outside and white on the inside. It hardly ever gets hooked. I played it in the half light and the head hit the spreader block but the tail was still out. When I saw the width of it I knew it was a proper one, but it wasn’t until I had a proper look and realised I had got what literally is the hardest fish in the lake to catch, and I’d done it! It was, as it happens, a 40-pounder as well, which makes it even better but the awesomeness of this carp in the first rays of the sun. The scales, perfect overslung mouth, black lips and big barbules. It was long with a nice tail and not a scale out place. That was definitely one of my stand out moments.”

Are you a social or antisocial angler?
“I can be social, but I do prefer fishing on my own if I’m honest. When you are on your own you do your own thing and no one else is upsetting your fishing. I am quite happy to fish with a mate as well and have a barbeque and a beer but generally my fishing is done on my own. It’s do as you please. Fishing with a mate and you want to move, you feel like you have to move them with you. You are not fishing at your best. I’ve always got mates on the lake but your paths cross while you are walking around looking. Winter is a good time for socials. I need a cameraman!” (laughs)

Has your local fishing been affected badly by otters?
“The Northampton water I fish is rife with them. It’s not just a problem, it’s a massive issue. Most places across the country are being affected by otters in some way, and it’s not going to be long that there isn’t anywhere left that isn’t otter fenced. There are one or two waters with really special ones, old fish, that are not fenced. It’s only a matter of time so I really had better go out and get these carp caught while they are still around. It upsets you a bit to think that it could be such a carp’s last year, not dying through natural causes but at the claws and teeth of an otter. I almost don’t like having to fish for a fish because it’s a race against time against the otters. It’s a big problem everywhere…”