Bob Richards Record Carp

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Gary Bills
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Re: Bob Richards Record Carp

Post by Gary Bills »

JimmyBobkin wrote:
FarliesBirthday wrote:
Julian wrote:..... On the other hand if CY hadn't caught the Bishop in 1980 on cane rod, vintage reel and simple method and bait, would interest in Redmire have dwindled? and more to the point would interest in vintage tackle and simple methods for carp ever have developed ,and therefore would this forum exist today :shocked:
Maddocks was saying there was nothing big in Redmire, Kevin Clifford said there was no record in Redmire, based on his 1976 drought year observations...the capture of the Bishop really was a game changer for Redmire. I remember my delight as a schoolboy, hearing the news. It put Redmire back on the map and it was, once again, the place of dreams for many anglers.
All that, of course, is a very long time ago, and I'm still to fish the pool! Perhaps next year...
I know folks say you should fish Redmire for the atmopshere, but I still have fantasies about hooking the fabled big linear, or perhaps that huge common which St John saw last year...
On the other hand, I'd probably blank! :shocked: :Happy:
tell me more about this?
Well Jimmy - most of the stuff is in the Redmire Carp book, where Maddocks said he had "no doubt that Redmire is finished as Britain's premier carp water..." Kevin Clifford also writes that, during the 1976 drought, when not a great deal of angling was going on, he spent time fish-spotting up trees and saw now carp larger than the "38", the fish that became "The Bishop" a few years later. I remember a good Chris Ball article too, on the Redmire monsters, where Kevin's views were discussed. Kevin's argument, as I recall, is that a large fish in a dwindling pool would need at least as much oxygen as a smaller carp, probably more. If so, why were no really outsized fish seen in 1976? In a way, both Yates and Clifford were right - the largest carp in the pool in 1980 may have been The Bishop, and Yates of course landed it as a new record and the UK's first fifty pounder!
Now, of course, we are entering the debate about the Redmire Monsters, and I leave that to folks who have fished the pool!

As for my schoolboy memories - well, some of the more pessimistic views on Redmire reached the Angling Times etc, as I recall, prior to Yates' record, and some of my fishing friends took these opinions on board and absolutely believed those views. When Yates caught the Bishop, they were amazed. I remember a group of us looking at the Angling Times report, by the school's tennis courts... I was 15 then! Times flies.

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Marc
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Re: Bob Richards Record Carp

Post by Marc »

Its probably a sad indictment on me that I've not heard of this fellow, however that won't prevent me from raising a glass to him this evening. To Bob!
Marc. (Prince of Durham)

“A life that partakes even a little of friendship, love, irony, humor, parenthood, literature, and music, and the chance to take part in battles for the liberation of others cannot be called 'meaningless'...”

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JimmyBobkin
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Re: Bob Richards Record Carp

Post by JimmyBobkin »

FarliesBirthday wrote:
JimmyBobkin wrote:
FarliesBirthday wrote:
Julian wrote:..... On the other hand if CY hadn't caught the Bishop in 1980 on cane rod, vintage reel and simple method and bait, would interest in Redmire have dwindled? and more to the point would interest in vintage tackle and simple methods for carp ever have developed ,and therefore would this forum exist today :shocked:
Maddocks was saying there was nothing big in Redmire, Kevin Clifford said there was no record in Redmire, based on his 1976 drought year observations...the capture of the Bishop really was a game changer for Redmire. I remember my delight as a schoolboy, hearing the news. It put Redmire back on the map and it was, once again, the place of dreams for many anglers.
All that, of course, is a very long time ago, and I'm still to fish the pool! Perhaps next year...
I know folks say you should fish Redmire for the atmopshere, but I still have fantasies about hooking the fabled big linear, or perhaps that huge common which St John saw last year...
On the other hand, I'd probably blank! :shocked: :Happy:
tell me more about this?
Well Jimmy - most of the stuff is in the Redmire Carp book, where Maddocks said he had "no doubt that Redmire is finished as Britain's premier carp water..." Kevin Clifford also writes that, during the 1976 drought, when not a great deal of angling was going on, he spent time fish-spotting up trees and saw now carp larger than the "38", the fish that became "The Bishop" a few years later. I remember a good Chris Ball article too, on the Redmire monsters, where Kevin's views were discussed. Kevin's argument, as I recall, is that a large fish in a dwindling pool would need at least as much oxygen as a smaller carp, probably more. If so, why were no really outsized fish seen in 1976? In a way, both Yates and Clifford were right - the largest carp in the pool in 1980 may have been The Bishop, and Yates of course landed it as a new record and the UK's first fifty pounder!
Now, of course, we are entering the debate about the Redmire Monsters, and I leave that to folks who have fished the pool!

As for my schoolboy memories - well, some of the more pessimistic views on Redmire reached the Angling Times etc, as I recall, prior to Yates' record, and some of my fishing friends took these opinions on board and absolutely believed those views. When Yates caught the Bishop, they were amazed. I remember a group of us looking at the Angling Times report, by the school's tennis courts... I was 15 then! Times flies.
Thanks FB. I remember the Yates capture too. It fired the imagination in Carp fishing for me, previously I was into tiddler bashing...still am as it happens.

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Mark
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Re: Bob Richards Record Carp

Post by Mark »

Some nice pictures of Bob in this thread.

viewtopic.php?f=118&t=288
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Kingfisher
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Re: Bob Richards Record Carp

Post by Kingfisher »

Prince of Durham wrote:Its probably a sad indictment on me that I've not heard of this fellow, however that won't prevent me from raising a glass to him this evening. To Bob!
Any excuse PoD. :Wink:

Jimmy, 1980 was the year I moved to Wales and the time when i was allowed to go fishing on my own. I was shocked when i heard the record came from just down the road. I kept pestering my Dad to take me to Redmire, Still do as a matter of fact. :Wink: it isn't working though.

I'll be raising a glass to Bob later aftre picking my son up from college. He's training to be a chef and has the restraunt toinght. :Angry:

God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.

Izaak Walton

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CraigM
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Re: Bob Richards Record Carp

Post by CraigM »

Was Bob's fish the one caught on an Allcocks Lancer?

Having re-read the "Lancer" thread it was.

Have just given mine a pat in memory of quite a feat on a stepped up roach rod :Thumb: .

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Troydog
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Re: Bob Richards Record Carp

Post by Troydog »

I think that top performing people in all walks of life have a certain 'tension' between them. Dick Walker and Bernard Venables for example. Even Ivan Marks was known to ruffle Dick's feathers on occasions even though they were never in direct competition. You can see it in football, even in cycling recently.

Top performers inevitably have a certain arrogance about them. Two of my heroes are Bob Dylan, the singer / songwriter and Denis Law, the footballer. Arrogant? yes. Great performers? Yes!!
Trouble is, the fish just don't read the books......
John Harding

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