CARPology Classic: Redmire Legend

ack in the 50’s and 60’s, carp fishing was just being born. If you wanted buzzers, a decent landing net or a fine set of rods, you had to make it yourself. If you caught a carp most of the time it was of the ‘wildie’ strain and weighed around the mid- to low-single mark. And the only reading matter there was on the subject came in the form of BB’s Confessions of a Carp Angler.

“That was part the excitement of fishing back then – making all your own kit,” an 83-year-old Eddie Price tells me. But can you imagine the excitement and joy of fishing Redmire Pool in this era? Dick Walker had caught Classia at 44lb, bigger ones had been seen, and later, Eddie himself snapped a fish that is reckoned to have weighed over 70lbs and been over 4ft long. That picture captured the imagination of millions of kids and adults all over the world. Now, for the first time, Eddie Price tells some of the tales of what it was like fishing there at that time and a few more details about ‘that picture’…

“Eddie, how did your connection with Redmire begin and what was the year?”
“I would hazard a guess that it was sometime in the 50’s. It would have been not long after Bob Richards caught his first big fish from there. I was introduced to Bob by my father-in-law when we used to go to Gloucester market every Saturday and I’d always have a chat with him for half-an-hour or so when my father-in-law was buying his tobacco from him. Now he didn’t have transport and I did, so we joined forces.”

“Can you talk us through what it was like back then? The excitement of fishing Redmire and not really knowing how big those monsters went to.”
“I knew that the big fish I caught was in there long before I caught it, but during the first two years I didn’t see a single fish. It just so happened that each time we went there they weren’t visible because of the thick weed, but thereafter I used to see them every time we went. We caught a couple of small ones up to 10lbs.

“I also had the ambition of wanting to beat Dick Walker and I did my best! I caught my forty and the following year I had a 26lber. I took Bob’s place in being given permission to fish the pool, and in the late 50’s early 60’s I used to write to the owner J.F. MacLean to get permission to fish a couple of times a year, usually with a mutual friend Alan Hinds, there wasn’t ever more than three of us fishing the pool at a time.” I always had the feeling that MacLean was always watching us when we were there because when I caught a duck on a piece of bread and I owned up when leaving, he said he knew because he’d been watching with binoculars from a bedroom window. Before Bob died in 1964, I had moved away from the Redmire scene to fish more local waters.

"You just mentioned you didn’t see a fish for two years. How many fish would you predict there were in the pool at the time?"
“I couldn’t even suggest. I really wouldn’t have any idea.”

“Who was fishing the pool at the time?”
“There were the members of The Carp Catchers Club, but I don’t remember all of them, but two of them were Dick Walker and Peter Thomas. During my trips to the pool I always went with Bob Richards because he couldn’t get there except by bus, which meant he wouldn’t get to the pool before 4 o’clock on the Saturday afternoon and he had to get back by Monday morning. He and I and Alan Hinds used to go together generally speaking.

“We then met up with a chap called Peter Walker who was a dentist from Stow-on-the-Wold and he was a very keen fisherman. He took me to some of his waters and we returned the favour by giving him and his lady friend the odd weekend at Redmire.

“Peter once fished for a carp that was well over thirty-pounds and was coming in under the dam every morning. He baited up the area all weekend and every day the fish would come in and eat everything apart from his hookbait. On the last morning of the trip, the fish took the bait, Peter hooked it and a few seconds later the hook came out! He said he nearly felt like jumping on his rod.

“I fished with Dick Kefford a couple of times at some pools near his house in Suffolk. I never met BB, although I have corresponded with him. I didn’t really meet any of the others.”

Eddie with his homemade landing net

Redmire Pool in 1952

26lb leather carp, September 21st 1960 from The Stile Pitch

“Eddie, what bait(s) would you have been using during your time on Redmire?”
“Predominantly I used bread in those days. I would go and get stale bread from the bakery in the next village. We dabbled with worms, but the eels were a problem at times. I don’t think I ever tried potatoes there, although I did use them elsewhere and did very well on them.”

“Who, at the time, had the greatest influence on your fishing?”
“I don’t know if we had any influences at all. It was just a question that if you were fortunate enough to be accepted to be eligible to go and fish Redmire. I thought it was a great honour to be accepted to fish there.

“I had read Confessions of a Carp Angler by BB and that did have some influence on me. I think The Carp Catchers Club did have meetings, but I never made it to any of them, although they did have a newsletter; well I suppose it was a notebook that they would make notes in and then pass it on. I did have access to that through Bob Richards.

“I corresponded with Dick Walker once or two. He was a very neat writer. When I built my own rod I was worried to death because it used to creak and I wrote and asked him about it, but he never replied on the subject!”

“I’d like to talk about that famous photograph you took of that monstrous carp sat in the weed. How big was that fish? It looks huge in the picture, but is there some form of trick photography going on?”
“It was July 58 and the weed was very thick. Not as thick as I have seen it because moorhens used to walk across it on most occasions we were there. I was sitting on the dam looking up towards the far end and I could see some fish moving out in front of the willows.

“It was quiet and I knew I could drift across in the punt quietly. I got the punt out and as I drifted along I bumped into the odd fish. Then I saw this great big chap and decided to go back to the bank to get my camera.

“I managed to get back without spooking him and managed to get two photographs of it, but only one came out and that was the one of its head and shoulders. I got that photograph and then the punt drifted over him and the head was one side and the tail was the other! It has to be the same fish that the others saw which they named ‘The King’, and they said it was 4ft long and looked 70lbs!”

Redmire July 1959, fishing in The Stile Pitch

“For goodness sake, take the photo, I can’t hold it for much longer!”

“Why do you think Redmire was so special? How could this small, three-acre lake produce such a large number of huge carp?”
“I always put it down to the fact that apart from the trout, it was a virgin lake, and there was some open cattle yards up near the shallows. That was always full of cattle in the winter and there was always slurry and effluent coming down the little stream into the pool. I’m quite sure that made the pool rich. Back in the 60’s you could look into that water and it would be absolutely shivering with daphnia – absolutely solid. I think that was bred from the effluent that came from cattle yard.

“There are also springs coming up from the bottom of Redmire, which gives the water lots of oxygen and that’s where the bloodworm beds are.”

“Do you believe Redmire did once hold a larger carp than Chris Yates’s record fish? There was talk that ‘The King’ could weigh as much as 70lbs. Do you believe this to be true?”
“That fish I photographed probably was, but I wouldn’t have known that there was one as big as that until I actually saw him, but I knew there were thirty-pounders in there because Bob Richards had two, Walker had a 44lber, and he also netted a 58lb that was stuck down in the shallows, but he never wanted to upset Bob Richards with his other fish he caught, so he said it was 31lbs.”

“What was the strangest thing you witnessed during your days on the pool?”
“At the top end of the pool you had these willow trees that stand over the water – it may have changed now but during my days they used to get cut every couple of years for basket making. I was sitting there one day with a rod out and this big carp came in and started rooting between my legs – literally – into some moss that was on the trees!

“I was sitting there and I can always remember thinking, ‘now if I get my landing net..!’ I didn’t and eventually he finished and he went away. I think that was one of the strangest experiences I ever had at Redmire.”

40lb 8oz, September 1959

“Were there any ghosts in those days, Eddie?”
“No, no, no, no. There were meant to be headless ghosts and God knows what at one of my local waters, but I never saw or heard anything.”

“Can you tell us about your 40lb 8oz carp now?”
“It was a foggy, frosty morning and really cold. The other two who were fishing with me were frozen and they decided to have a brew-up and I said I’d come round and have one with them. I had a tin of baked beans with me and I thought I’d eat them while I was around there.

“While it was heating up, I just had this sudden feeling that I had to get back to the rods – that’s all there was to it. We were in the corner by the dam and the willows, and I went back up, over the gate, over the stile and sat down, and as I sat down, the buzzer on one of the rods went.

“The rod I caught the fish on was simply flicked down the margins under some brambles, only a couple of rod lengths from me. I remember putting the net in the water thinking I’d have him straight away, but that started him off! He then went out into the middle and just plodded around in large circles. Eventually he came round close enough and I scooped him up. It was tiring!

“We had some scales with us that went up to 50 or 60lbs just in case, but MacLean had some official scales. There were some scales that came off the fish and they were looked at eventually, but I believe that fish wasn’t caught again until 1967, so it went uncaught for eight years.”

“That’s incredible that a fish can go uncaught for eight years in a lake the size of Redmire. Could you now tell us about some of the tackle you used and some of the items you made yourself?”
“I built up my own split cane rods. The blanks were from Walkers of Hyde, who was a fishing tackle manufacturer at the time and I put the rings and cork handle on myself. I made my own landing net pole and net. I laminated the bamboo and glued it and made the spreader block from a melted down saucepan! The net mesh was made out of ex-army camouflage netting.

“I stuck to split cane rods because that was the best in those days. It was either that or greenheart, but the split cane was far better. Things like buzzers, if you had any knowledge, you just automatically built them yourself.”

The rod that landed the 40lb 8oz carp

Redmire today

“Was that part of the excitement back then – making your own fishing tackle?”
“I think so, yes. I got a lot of pleasure out of making my own gear, and from my experience, what I made was just as good, if not better, than what was currently out there at the time.”

“When did you stop fishing Redmire and what were the reasons behind it?”
“The thing was I got interested in local history, and in fact I found a Roman Villa on the farm where I live, and a man – who become a great friend of mine – started to excavate it in 1961. He started on a Saturday and I came and helped out on the Sunday. It turned out that it was the kitchen of the fourth century Roman house and the first thing I uncovered was a basket of burnt corn and that hooked me.

“Thereafter the fishing gradually finished and after 1965/66 I didn’t really fish at all. The local history has turned out to an interest for the rest of my life. I’ve published two books, with a third on the way and a fourth one planned. I did think about going fishing again, but I just never got around to it. I caught a forty-pound carp, a near 4lb perch, along with some other big fish – so could I have ever bettered myself?”