OK – I admit the first thing that attracted me to this book was the wildly differing prices people seemed willing to pay for it on e-Bay! I have seen bids in excess of £40, yet most second hand dealers will sell it to you for under £20. My own copy, which is in tip-top condition, I acquired for £15. I expected to make a killing – but no-one has yet offered to double my money!!
The King Carp Waters is written by carp historian, Chris Ball, and tells the story of the Donald Leney stockings of Galician strain carp into a number of (now) famous waters in the 1930`s and 50`s. The book looks at 6 venues in detail: Redmire (of course!), Frensham, Billing Aquadome, Savay, The Army Lake and, the odd one out, The Electricity Cut on the River Nene at Peterborough. As a by-product, this book also stands as a testament to the development of modern carp fishing from Dick Walker, who started out using a bait that Izaak would have recognised (bread dipped in honey), to the birth of the boilie.
Nearly a third of the book is dedicated to Redmire and it was this chapter that I was most interested in. Chris must be praised for his meticulous research and the style of the book is factual and down to earth. He will often quote from his original source material, so the story of Clarissa`s capture for example is told in Dick Walker`s own words. (As an aside the name Clarissa was thought up by a journalist – Dick wanted to call it Ravioli!).
Chris`s matter of fact style makes some of the revelations about Redmire all the more shocking. The standards of fish care in the 1950`s would cause uproar if practised today. Many of the early captures didn`t survive the experience! The victims of incompetence or vanity. The first 30 to be caught was gaffed (twice!), there being no net big enough. The next biggest fish (a 28lber) was removed to a water in Hitchin where it promptly expired. Two big fish (a 31 and a 25 ) died in inappropriate sacks, and another 25lb was taken away to be set up. The fish that was to become known as The Bishop and the new British record when Chris Yates caught it was actually once taken in a wet sack to the nearby village to be weighed – the anglers not having brought a big enough set of scales. Given that there were only 50 carp put into Redmire, anglers in the 50`s literally (as in 1 in 10!) decimated the original stock. It makes Dick Walker`s efforts to get a still living fish to London Zoo seem positively enlightened! All this Chris reports dispassionately and without comment.
I do have one big criticism with this chapter though. All the early legends pertaining to Redmire are faithfully reported. There`s the story of the HUGE (58lb) stranded mirror – rescued, weighed and released by Walker, and there`s a copy of the famous Eddie Price photo showing a leviathan of perhaps 60-70lb. But the story ends in the late 60`s. Of Yates`s capture – the first fish over 50lb and the third British record from the water – surely Redmire`s finest hour, there isn`t one word – just a single colour plate. I found it very strange that a story of Redmire didn`t contain this tale. I finished the chapter disappointed and feeling cheated that the full story of this extraordinary water hadn`t been told. A circle had been left incomplete.
The rest of the book may be described thus: tales of dedicated (and often secretive) men spending huge amounts of time to slowly reveal the potential of a water at a time when carp fishing wasn`t fashionable. The repeated tales of triumph and big fish caught sometimes de-sensitised me to the colossal effort that had gone into their capture. It is a credit to Chris Ball`s powers of persuasion that he got so many of them to talk of their experiences.
Perhaps the most interesting of the remaining chapters is the one on Savay. Modern carp fishing methods weren`t actually invented here but they certainly came of age here and allowed many a famous carper to `cut his teeth`. This was particularly so during the 1980 season when a syndicate containing such luminaries as Andy Little, Lenny Middleton, Kevin Maddocks, Ron Hutchinson and Mike Wilson (to name but a few) hammered the water week in, week out, with spectacular results. Long range casting, hair rigs, boilies and baiting pyramids were all `proved` at Savay.
All in all a fascinating angling history – well researched and well told.
40 quid anyone?
First Published 1993 by The Crowood Press ISBN 1 85223 726 0
Editor’s Note: Copies do occasionally appear on Amazon. Click here to view them.
