Just A Boy Still Learning - Part 2

What’s your fishing like these days? How often do you go to France, and how many nights a week do you do, domestically?
“I go to France as often as I can, probably at least four or five times a year.”

Chasing the very biggest?
“No, I’m fortunate to be able to fish very nice waters. I like to fish any of Carp Ascends venues. Oliver (the owner) knows what he wants to achieve from them. He has a nice balance; he’s been an angler, he knows that anglers want space and a chance of a bite, and that’s what he provides. He’s obviously got a shilling or two to do that, and he buys good fish and stocks his lakes properly.

“Mar-Peche was one of my favourite lakes, and it still is. I haven’t fished it for a few years because you can’t keep doing the same thing. Iles-3 is full of big fish now, and a couple of weeks ago it did nine sixties in a week, which is ridiculous. It did a 33-kilo carp last week, and another of 37.5 kilos—huge fish!”

Have you fished Rainbow?
“Yes, I went there. I was in a nice swim and I caught some nice fish, but I didn’t feel as though I could do anything different to anyone else. I’d go out in the boat, drop it off on a shelf, put a few baits out and then go back and sit behind the rods. I couldn’t find a nice spot and develop it, and to me, that’s what carp fishing’s about. I could’ve gone back the year after, in Swim 21, but I’d have had to go out in the boat through a gap, then down to my left to an island. I thought to myself, If a ten-pounder does that to me, in the middle of the night, I’ll be goin’ home! I thought, No, I won’t even go. I’ll give the opportunity to someone else. I wouldn’t have enjoyed it.”

What’s your French PB?
“Eighty-two and a half, from Mar-Peche.”

Your thoughts on Euro Aqua Lake?
“You can go there, I don’t want to. For me, it’s not about the pursuit of the absolute largest… I wouldn’t be able to pick it up now, anyway. [laughs] I have a job with a fifty these days!”

So you’re not looking to better that eighty-two anytime soon, necessarily?
“No, but if it hung on the end, I’d be very happy. Carp Ascends has got big fish in—we’re going next May, and hopefully again the following May—and that could do a ninety-pounder. There are several commons, and mirrors of eighty pounds-plus in there. They don’t get caught much, and I would dearly love one of those to hang on the end, yes. It’s certainly not the be-all and end-all, though. We went to one of the other waters a few weeks ago, and we had some nice carp, up to sixty-one and a half. They were lovely fish, and I’d quite happily go there again.”

Domestically, you’ve mentioned the Foundry, in Lincolnshire. Are you fishing other waters?
“Yes, I’m on a few at the moment, including one where I’ve had two or three fifties.”

How many UK fifties have you had?
“No idea.”

Have you lost count?
“Yes.”

Over a dozen?
“Oh yeah, but that’s not important.”

What is important, in your domestic fishing?
“Just going fishing. I wouldn’t want to fish a lake without forties in, but at one of the waters I’m fishing now, you’re more likely to catch a thirty or a twenty. There aren’t that many forties in there, but I don’t fish that water all the time—very rarely in fact. It can be about targets, and I suppose I’ve been there and done it, and have the T-shirt, as they say. I don’t really chase big fish anymore, though. To go and sit on a lake with one sixty-pounder in it would not be my idea of fun. I want a bite, but with the chance of a decent one.

“A thirty-pounder’s still a great big fish, and people lose sight of that. There are so many of them, now. One of the waters I’m fishing at the moment, if you fish it regularly, you’ll catch a lot of fish. In the spring I had to reel in at night because I couldn’t handle it. If they’re feeding, it gets a bit mundane.”

You seem to be quite self-effacing and unassuming, but it’s fair to say that you catch more than most. You don’t shout about them, so are there any well-known fish you’ve caught that anglers may not be aware of?
“No, probably not. I haven’t really fished those waters. It wasn’t for me to go down to Yateley and sit with a load of drunks. That was the scene at the time, but it certainly isn’t mine. I will very rarely drink when I’m fishing. For a start, it’s dangerous, and it’s not why I go fishing. I’ve been a pub man all my life. I haven’t been in a pub hardly, during the last two years, because of restrictions, obviously, but I wouldn’t miss a night after work. That was how I was brought up, but things recently have certainly changed my perspective regarding going to a pub.

“I was recently away for a fortnight at Carp Ascends. We stayed at Oliver’s, and the guy who owns Carp Ascends let us use his lodge after the first night when we stayed in the house. On the Saturday night, in-between there and us moving on to the Labyrinth, yes, we did have a drink. [laughs] I’ll have a glass of wine or something if I’m away for a week, and if someone comes along with a beer, then I’m happy to have a beer, but not much more than that. Unfortunately, you see the fraternity, shall we say, and they’ll have more beers than bait!”

So you’ve not fished Wraysbury, or those kind of circuit waters?
“No.”

Do you often catch fish that you can’t publicise, even if you wanted to?
“Yeah. I can show you lots of pictures, but I’m not great with photos. In the UK, if it’s not over forty-pounds, I won’t take a picture of it. And in France, if it’s not over fifty, it hasn’t got a chance.”

Are you meticulous with keeping records, though?
“Yeah, I suppose I am, but I’m not brilliant with photos.”

Have you had a UK sixty?
“Yes. That was from one of Kevin Maddocks’ waters. It was a few years ago and it was sixty-one and a half, that one.”

Are you on waters now, where you could better that?
“Not at the minute, no. In the next year or two, perhaps…”

Anglers are aware of the Linears, for instance, and other circuit waters. You seem to find waters with fifties in, though, which anglers don’t know about, so are those opportunities around?
“Oh yeah, there are lots… a lot more than you might think.”

Are you in a privileged position, being in the trade, to be able to tap up these waters?
“No, you still have to go through the proper channels. You know, who am I? I’m just a carp angler. People treat some anglers as gods, and all they’ve done is catch a few carp, and they’re the most stupid things in the world, aren’t they?” [laughs]

You’ve no fear of running out of domestic fishing, then, even with issues like predation and access?
“Oh no, not in my lifetime; there are too many to go to. Am I in a privileged position? I don’t know. Someone said to me the other day, ‘Oh, I could get you in on my syndicate. It’s just done a fifty-eight common.’ That’s all very nice, but when am I going to go?

“I’m on two syndicates at the moment, and another water. I’ve managed to get to the Foundry just three times this year. I did have a bit of a hit there, mind, with fifteen takes in three days, banking two forties… all right for an apprentice, and just a boy still learning!” [laughs]

So no one ever really masters carp fishing?
“Oh no. I recently sat all week in France, with fish passing by, and with bubbling off my rod tip… I never had a bite! You’ve never sussed it, because they always know better than you. They eat little round wriggly things quite a lot, and that’s a major problem. At certain times of the year, you can’t compete with that.”

You mentioned Kevin Maddocks. I believe you’ve spent some time with him over the years?
“Yes, I saw him catch his first carp. That was at Waterways. He was fishing with his mate, on the end of an island and I heard him shouting, ‘I’ve got one… I’ve caught a carp!’ I was about twenty, and he’s the same age as me. I didn’t know him, only from turning up there. He wasn’t into carp fishing then, but the following year he turned up with Lenny Middleton. I packed it in for a while around that time, in 1976. I’d been off work, having injured myself playing badminton, and so did an awful lot of fishing. After about sixteen months, though, I went back to work, doing the prototyping stuff.”

So did you know Lenny as well, then?
“Yeah.”

Did you have the Hair Rig at that time?
“No, and he didn’t either. A few years later, though, Kevin was on a Duncan Kay water, and he was catching quite a few fish. I wasn’t a member on there, but a mate was. It got to the stage where Duncan wouldn’t let Kevin fish until he’d told us what he was doing. Of course, he was very reluctant, because no one knew about the Hair Rig then. Duncan said, ‘You’re doing something…’

“Kevin didn’t want to lose his ticket on there because he was trying to make himself popular, and he was catching twenty-pounders. Duncan made him show all the members what he was doing. My mate then told me, but I didn’t use it for a couple of years.”

Were you suspicious of it?
“Yes. I didn’t think it would work, because we weren’t using hard baits then. We were using soft baits, and we struck through them. I used gelatine a lot at the time. I was getting enough bites and I was quite happy.

“Then, one day—I’ll never forget it—I was on The Point at Arlesey Lake. I tried the Hair Rig and a fish whacked it up to the top and spun the handle, as they did in those days. I never looked back, as they say, and I started developing firmer baits. In those days, the Hairs were two-inches long, at least.”

For those who weren’t around at the time, did bite-offs really occur?
“Oh yeah, definitely. They were just walloping it down, troughing it, and we were using quite long hooklinks as well. They were 15- or 16-inches long. In fact, I mentioned Trevor earlier, well, his brother does now. He’s on Grenville, and he’s walloping ’em on our Pink Mix. He’d told me that the carp were in the weed…

‘Fish in the weed, then,’ I said.

‘But I’m only just getting a drop…’

‘Well, that’s good enough,’ I told him.

“He’s fishing mono, with Knotless Knot, and a 16-inch hooklink. They’ll eat it, wherever it is: up in the weed, on the bottom, wherever. I told him to just be confident. He is now, but having a 64lb 12oz fish helped.” [laughs]

Would you fish Grenville?
“I have fished it. I joined it for three years. There was no weed in it then, and I never saw a fish close enough for me to cast to. I know Paul, quite well, through shooting mainly—he’s a good clay shot. There were two main problems for me, one being that he shuts it during the time when I want to be fishing, and as I say, I didn’t see a fish roll close enough for me to cast to. It’s different now, because it’s weedy. They’re coming in closer, and there are an awful lot more fish in there. I think five or six hundred escaped from the pens—it’s just happened again—and they’re all forty-pounders now. It’s a ridiculous water… lovely, beautiful, and the work Paul’s put in there is tremendous.”

Will it do a record?
“Oh yeah, without a doubt. There’s probably one in there now, but I don’t know what the record is, to be honest.”

Does the current British record matter to you? Are you aware of Holme Fen?
“If it makes that buzzer go, then I’m quite happy. As a mate of mine, Alan Taylor said, ‘When it comes over that landing net, and it makes you smile, that’ll do.’

Officially, the British record is still Dean Fletcher’s the Parrot, from Wasing. Holme Fen has probably produced half a dozen fish over that weight of 68lb 1oz, which haven’t been accredited. Does that matter?
“Hmm. I’d say that if they’re put in at over twenty or thirty pounds, then I’m not so keen. I’d like a fish to grow in that lake, if nothing else. There’s no such thing as an English carp, as we all know. They were all brought over from Belgium or wherever, the Leneys and all that, and we know the scenario of how various strains were mixed to make them grow quicker, and the Simmos come from that strain. If someone brought in, say, five hundred fish from wherever, at five pounds, and put them in a lake I was fishing, then I’d be quite happy to catch one at seventy pounds. If they were put in at forty pounds, and they then grew a bit bigger, then I’m not quite so keen. I think there’s a line to be drawn.

“It got stupid with trout years ago, at Avington, I believe. A big fish would be stocked one week, and the following week Dick Walker would go down there and catch it. Then they’d stock a bigger one the next week and his mate would catch it… crazy! That’s not really what it’s about.”

What other hobbies do you have, if you have time for them?
“I used to play a lot of squash, and I played county badminton. I enjoyed those, but I got hit in the eye with a shuttlecock. I’d cleared a shot at the net, and the bloke was on it to smash it. My partner was there and I’d have ducked away, but it hit me right in the middle of my eye. I’ve got a plastic lens in it now. When it happened, they couldn’t do it, but they did it later.”

Is your sight impaired at all, say when tying knots?
“No. My left eye’s all right, but it impaired my shooting for a long while. In fact, I learned to shoot left-handed and did that for a good while. I wasn’t as good left-handed as right-handed, but I was okay. I’ve shot since I could hold a gun, really. I’ve shot a lot of game, and a lot of pigeons. I shot those for two years for a living. That was when they were being sent to France. We were getting 50p each for them in the late ’70s, so that was very good.”

How much time do you allocate to fishing now?
“Two or three nights a week through the summer, but I don’t night-fish in the winter. I shoot through the colder months. Game shooting’s become too expensive, but I still shoot clays once or twice a week in the winter.”

Do you fish for perch or grayling at all?
“No, they’re little. [laughs] It’s a bit like trout fishing. I love my trout fishing, and the casting, but they’re little. I’ve caught some huge pike whilst fly fishing, though… thirty-pounders, on tiny little flies. Everything eats buzzers. There’s not a fish that swims which won’t eat a buzzer. The same as trout do, and everything else—the bream, the roach, the perch—they just swim through the soup… you catch everything on a buzzer.”

Do you predator-fish?
“No, not anymore. I did a lot, years ago. In fact, I’ve got a really old photo of me with a pike from the Fens. I think it was about twenty-pounds. I even had quite long hair when it was taken. That was on the River Delph.”

Were you a rocker?
“No… everyone just had long hair then—well, I did!”

Are you still involved with bait making, and rolling baits yourself?
“Yeah, me and the wife.”

You don’t outsource?
“No.”

Because you don’t trust anyone else with the rolling?
“Yes. You can’t outsource it, because they’ll cut it. If someone wants ten kilos of my bait and you put it out, they’ll cut it, and they won’t get ten kilos of my bait.”

So do you roll to order?
“Yes. We’ve been rolling all week, this week. Don’t get me wrong, we don’t make loads. It’s minimal, and in the winter it stops. Come November, that’s it. Anyone in the bait trade who says they’re busy in November, is full of crap.” [laughs]

Will you ever retire?
“I hope not, no. I’ll probably get a job in November, and go and work for somebody. I like to keep busy. I can’t sit at home… I’d definitely go downhill. That wouldn’t be for me, at all.”

Aside from bait, are there any more products in your head?
“Loads.”

Will we see any come to market?
“When I sold the tackle side of MCF, Matrix wanted to buy the machines as well, because they wanted to use them, but I sometimes go and work for them. I do bits and pieces, mainly moulding, because they bought my small injection moulding machine. I go there occasionally to help them, but not that much, and they’re not interested in developing the kind of products we’re talking about.”

Do 3D printers interest you at all?
“No. They were one of the main reasons I got out of prototyping. The skill went. If you wanted a new mobile phone, for example, I would make it. I would start from scratch, machine it and make it all. Now, you just tap, tap, tap and it makes it layer by layer.

“The company, Prototype Projects, is now one of the biggest in Europe for SLA—stereolithography. With materials like ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene), you’ll get a handset the next day. It’s quite incredible, really.”

A final thought: carp-fishing innovation. In the 1970s and ’80s we had the Hair Rig, particles etc., and then technology moved on during the 1990s and 2000s. Have we reached a ceiling, do you think?
“I think there’ll be a peak, and products have reached it, I think. People will say that they’ve developed this or that, but all they’ll have done is copy something. They’ll have put a new gadget in or something, but basically it’ll be the same. They’ll claim that their designers have spent goodness knows how long developing a product, and I’d say, ‘Well, you wanna sack ’em, ’cause all they’ve done is copy what I did 25 years ago, mate.’ [laughs]

“They might not see it, because it looks different, but it’ll be the same product. It’ll be the same as what was there before, and that’s quite depressing. I think that’s why I never really took it seriously. There are always people who aren’t innovators. They’re copiers… Xerox people, and they just copy things. They’ll say that they’ve made it better because they’ve done this or that to it, but it’ll still be the same. They might make it work better, they might not, but they’ll have copied it.”

But you’re happy and relaxed, and you don’t bear grudges?
“No, life’s too short. It was always a problem to me, trying to make a living out of my hobby.”

Many people have tried and failed…
“Oh, without a doubt. For instance, I can teach people to shoot, not a problem, but I went on a course to learn how to coach people, shall we say. I thought to myself, What am I doing? I am now, taking another one of my hobbies and trying to make a living out of it… just pack it in! I didn’t carry on with the course.

“I got into taking people out for fishing sessions and what have you… well, what a waste of time that was! I did quite a few, but no, it was a waste of time. Unfortunately, people have a concept of carp fishing, and it isn’t mine. It’s the commercial side, and turning up at a lake with millions of carp in it. You put a feeder on, or a boilie, but there’s no watercraft. There is skill, but there’s no watercraft involving finding the drop-offs, and the bumps that the fish follow, because there’s a dirty great shoal of ’em and they’re going to mop everything up as they come through. That’s reality.

“In a way, it all taught me quite a lot, because I don’t realise what I do when I arrive at a water. It opened my eyes to what the other side of carp fishing is, and that was quite interesting, more from my perspective than whoever I was trying to coach. Some of them got it, and we had some nice feedback when anglers said that they’d use the marker more, for instance. You can’t really teach people that sort of thing, though, because you’ve got to have that feel. You either feel it, or you don’t. And if you don’t know why you’re looking for that spot…

“I love it when anglers say, ‘It’s all flat out there, mate. There’s nothing to put it on, so you can cast anywhere…’

“It might all be flat out there, but is there a little bit of gravel? Is there a firmer spot, or a hump or a bump? It might be only a small area, but that little bit, can be quite a lot. All these little areas make a difference. Other anglers might look at me when I’ve thrashed the water to a foam when I get to a venue, or a swim, but things change on lakes, and if you don’t fish them that much, you need to know. Even if there are a few fish about, you still have to get the marker rod out to see what’s down there.”

To completely wrap it up, what has fishing taught you about life, or what has life taught you about fishing?
“Don’t expect too much. Just go and enjoy the day.”

Read Part One Here!