Whatever Happened To...

VENUE: LAKE RADUTA
SIZE: 1,000 acres.
WHO FISHED THERE: Steve Briggs, Rod Hutchinson, Tim Paisley, Simon Crow and Rob Hughes all led the charge to Romania at the turn of the millennium.
CLAIM TO FAME: Burst onto the scene with a 78lb mirror in 1997 (the second biggest ever caught on rod and line in the world at the time) and captured anglers’ imaginations for the next few years.
OVERVIEW: Lac Săruleşti was created in the 1980s by communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, who ordered the damming of the River Danube and the flooding of four villages in the process. Residents were given just a few days to get out. Influential Romanian tennis player Robert Raduta then leased the venue in the 1990s after the fall of communism and built a hotel on its banks and stocked the water with carp. The venue went on to produce carp of over 80lb and could also be prolific, but it wasn’t for the faint-hearted. Fishing over flooded graveyards, the presence of curious locals and the extravagance of Mr Raduta himself all bestowed the place with an air of intrigue and danger.  
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LAKE? Raduta held a World Carp Cup in 1999 but suffered a huge fish kill in the early 2000s, meaning its time in the European spotlight was relatively short-lived.
WHAT’S IT LIKE NOW? Still a popular fishery, though not with the pulling power it once had, Raduta is back producing carp over 50lb. 

ANGLER: KEITH MOORS
WHO: Experienced carper who made a name for himself in the 1980s and 1990s.
VENUES HE FISHED: Based in Oxfordshire, Keith plundered the embryonic Linear complex and later developed a passion for fishing in France.
RENOWNED FOR: Keith caught his first carp in 1960 and began targeting the species exclusively in 1967. A regular contributor to Carpworld and other leading magazines in the 1980s and 1990s (including for a four-part series in CARPology in 2006), he had a keen interest in rig mechanics and was also a talented illustrator. He also caught Oxfordshire’s first reported 40-pounder in November 1996. The fish came from Manor Farm on the Linear complex, where Keith spent many sessions.
WHAT HE DOES NOW: Keith runs Moorlands Fishery in France, one of the longest-running English-owned French holiday venues, which he purchased in 2001. 

COMPANY: CHUB
FAMOUS FOR: Muscling in on the bedchair and bivvy market in the 1990s and going on to create a range of rods, bivvies and assorted bankside hardware.
NAMED ANGLERS: It seems a lifetime ago, but Scott Lloyd was a Chub-backed angler when he caught the
Burghfield Common back in 2016. Claudia Darga also promoted the brand, as did Dave Moore and in-house media manager Ed Betteridge.
STAND-OUT PRODUCTS: Known as Chub Leisure in the early days, the company was founded in 1994, and its first product was the Trent Chair, which had distinctive locking legs. Bedchairs with unique pull-pin reclining systems soon followed. Later successful products included the Cyfish Bivvy and the genuinely excellent-value-for-money Outkast rods. Nearer the end of Chub’s life, items such as a retaining sling with a built-in oxygenating pump never really took off.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM? Acquired by the Hardy and Greys company in 2005 and later swallowed into the Pure Fishing empire, Chub found itself in direct competition with stablemates like JRC and Greys and the brand was quietly dropped. The Chub website no longer works, and the brand last posted on Facebook nearly five years ago.

VENUE: HAREFIELD
SIZE: 50-acres.
WHO FISHED THERE: Pete Springate, Rob Maylin, Paul Selman, Dave Lane and many, many more.
CLAIM TO FAME: Cult Colne Valley venue that became nationally known in the 1980s and 1990s, helped in part by the Harefield Haulin’ videos of 1992.
OVERVIEW: Littered with bars and depth changes, Harefield was a formidable water that produced stonking fish. By the late 1990s, it had produced three different 40s (two mirrors and a common) and had featured in numerous books, including Paul Selman’s Carp Reflections, Dave Lane’s An Obsession with Carp and Rob Maylin’s Bazil’s Bush. Harefield’s proximity to the infamous Horse and Barge pub also helped it become the hub of the Colne Valley angling universe.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LAKE? It suffered a fish kill in the early 1990s but that actually helped push up the weights of the remaining residents. Sadly, a more extensive fish kill occurred in August 2017 after a big oxygen crash.
WHAT’S IT LIKE NOW? Under the control of Harrow Angling Society, a restocking programme at Harefield began in February 2018, and the venue is still fished. Up-to-date online catch records on the society’s website show carp to 27lb have already been caught this year.