‘It Was A Carp – Not A Baby!’

Roger’s False Teeth

“It was many years ago, when the old crew were at Savay. One night we all came back from the curry house and decided to have a social in a swim called The Boards, which was next-door to a swim called The Rat Hole in Cottage Bay. They’re both quite famous swims for one reason or another.

“It had been pouring with rain all day and everyone was walking around in mud, but no one seemed to care – we were half cut anyway. As we stood around the swim, someone cracked a joke. Everyone started laughing, when I heard a very quiet “click”. It was actually only Bernie Stamp and I that saw what had happened. As Roger Smith was laughing, his teeth had fallen out of his mouth into the mud!

“Both Bernie and I didn’t need to point, because we both knew we’d seen it. The pair of us nearly passed out because we were already laughing at this joke, and then that happened. We could hardly breath. What really capped it though, was Smithy just bend down, picked them up out of the mud and put them straight back in his mouth! It was just another evening at Savay.”

I got soaked and it ruined the fishing. Kids, who’d have ’em?

The Day I saved A Boy…

“In the early days at Savay, I was very, very keen. I was able to fish during the week, which was a major advantage because the lake was quiet. I can remember on one particular trip there was a strong north wind blowing, which was very good for an area known as ‘The Birches’ and ‘The Gate’.

“I got down the lake and there were no motors in the car park. In the early days, you used to get quite a few day ticket anglers turn up for the roach and tench, but on this particular day it appeared as though no one was fishing. I loaded my barrow up and walked all the way down The Canal Bank to The Birches, with the full intension of fishing a swim which is in-between my favoured two pitches.

“As I got to The Birches and I could see a bicycle. I couldn’t believe – the only swim on the lake I wanted to fish and someone was in there. I walked up to the swim to find a kid fishing there; he couldn’t have been any older than 12. I asked him if he’d seen anything and he told me he hadn’t caught anything but there has been some big pike jumping out.” Straight away I knew it was actually the carp, not pike, so I decided to go and set up in The Birches, which was next to him and wait until he went home.

“I couldn’t have been there more than an hour or so and I’d seen a few fish jump to my left, in front of this kid. Occasionally they’d get under the bushes between my swim and this kid. I was just sat there watching the water when I hear this almighty splash come from the swim next-door. ‘Cor, they’re up there; he’s going to have one in a minute,’ I thought. I decided I’d go up and see whereabouts it jumped.

“I went strolling up and this kid wasn’t there. Where’s he gone? I looked down and noticed his rod was off the rest and the tip was bending round. The jammy sods got one and he’s not even here. As I got hold of the rod, I could see this eruption coming up from under these bushes. I looked down and the kid was under the water and all tangled up in the spiky bushes. It looked like he couldn’t get out.

“’Great, that’s the swim buggered,’ I thought. I had to get him out because I couldn’t leave him there – it would complete ruin the swim. I jumped into the water and tried to free him, but his shirt was caught all around these branches. I pulled and pulled and eventually his shirt ripped free. We got out of the water and dragged him up the bank; I went through his pockets like you do, and fortunately for me, he was still semi-conscience, so I didn’t have to give him the kiss of life because he was an ugly little thing.

“I dried him down and helped sort him the best I could before he packed his tackle away and went home. Anyway, I moved up to his swim and sat there thinking about what had happened and how lucky the kid was that I was there, because he definitely wouldn’t have got free.

“The next morning I was sat there, minding my own business, when I heard voices coming along The Canal Bank. I looked up and I could see this big bucksome woman walking along with this kid – the one I’d saved. I said to myself, ‘Oh, here we go, I’m going to get all the ‘thank you’s’ now’. I felt a bit embarrassed to be honest, because I’m not into all that stuff.

“As they got closer, I could then this kid pointing at me. His mum came up to me and said, “Are you Albert Romp?” I said, “Yes, luv.” “Are you the bloke who pulled young Terry out of the water yesterday?” “Yes, but don’t worry about it, it was nothing.” “Nothing? “Are you joking? Have you seen the state of his shirt?!”

It’s a carp. Honestly, officer.

“Johnny Allen once told me a story that happened to him a few years ago over at Wraysbury. One of his mates had been down there and caught a big fish. Not having any batteries for his camera, he decided to sack the fish up near some snags, while he popped into town to get the necessary bits.

“He came back, did the piccies and then buggered off. A short while later, John got a phone call from said chap explaining about this fish he’d just caught and what area of the lake it was from. Not one to miss out on an opportunity, he decided to go for a walk over to the lake and see if there were any fish still in the area.

“When he got to the area where this guy had caught the fish from, he stood watching. As he was standing there, a few bubbles appeared on the surface. ‘Well, that’s definitely something disturbing the bottom,’ he thought. Focusing his eyes on the area harder, all of a sudden, a massive eruption of bubbles started coming up. In all his fishing career he’d never seen anything like it; it covered an area of 10 to 15ft. It was either two or three fish or one truly huge thing.

“He stood there, stunned by what he was watching, when the water surface started moving – large vortexes were rolling on the surface. His mouth was wide out – totally blown away by what he was seeing, when in the next second a divers head pops up. Just as the diver looked up, he heard voices behind him. Looking around he could see two policemen and woman walking towards him, with the woman pointing at John shouting, “That’s him, that’s him.”

“After much explaining, it transpired that this woman lived in a house just across from the lake and she’d seen a bloke carrying what looked like a black bin-liner with some moving in it. That something was obviously a carp, but looked very “baby-sized” to her and was wriggling around. What made it worse though, because the sack has some air in it, he used a couple of sticks to push it under water – which took approximately three minutes!”