Pre 80s Carp fishing

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Shaun Harrison
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Re: Pre 80s Carp fishing

Post by Shaun Harrison »

Bobby Marlene wrote:I just read the chapter on winter fishing (while sitting in the sun in the garden, this autumn is really nice) and it is so inspiring, I cannot wait until I can try it and sit at the frozen water. Really good book. Bobby
Funnily enough the fish Rod Walker is holding on page 106 in the winter chapter is a fish I put a post up elsewhere of this last week and titled it something like 'One of my hairy moments from my past'.
It was a great time to be carp angling. So different to what I see to-day. There were still no hair or bolt rigs when I caught that fish (yet it seemed we all had the hair to be able to tie one). That fish actually ended up being a bit of a pet of mine over the years being the first one I knowingly re-caught and then a few times more whilst trying to catch its mates, but a fabulous fish all the same.

Rod's capture was a couple of years before mine and the fish was still growing. It never got a lot bigger though despite being caught for a further 20 years or so.

Image

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Aitch
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Re: Pre 80s Carp fishing

Post by Aitch »

I spent a fair chunk of the late 70's and early 80's carping.... Hainault Forest Lake, Fairlop Waters, South Weald Park Lake, The Eagle at Snaresbrook and the Hollow Ponds seemed to be my favourite haunts.... I was quite identifiable on the bank with my Gerry Savage S/U rods and my Mitchells.... my budget went on the important gear, leaving nowt for alarms, I had fairy liquid bottle tops, (with the isotopes glued in) or silver paper with pennies on the reels on my mums Zephyr 4 hubcaps underneath the reels... By the 80's I was all Optonic'd up (after a horrid pair of Bitech Vipers... hateful things) then I just lost interest, and sold my carp gear when discovered a certain bubbly, cute, blonde lass.. (a cuddly blonde is more fun than freezing me plums off bankside) I fish for Carp now as an offshoot of an angling career that has lasted for over 54 years, the cute bubbly blonde lass is still with me.... has been for the last 30 years
Just one more cast love, and I'll be on me way home

Leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but pictures and memories

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Bobby Marlene
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Re: Pre 80s Carp fishing

Post by Bobby Marlene »

Shaun Harrison wrote:
Bobby Marlene wrote:I just read the chapter on winter fishing (while sitting in the sun in the garden, this autumn is really nice) and it is so inspiring, I cannot wait until I can try it and sit at the frozen water. Really good book. Bobby
Funnily enough the fish Rod Walker is holding on page 106 in the winter chapter is a fish I put a post up elsewhere of this last week and titled it something like 'One of my hairy moments from my past'.
It was a great time to be carp angling. So different to what I see to-day. There were still no hair or bolt rigs when I caught that fish (yet it seemed we all had the hair to be able to tie one). That fish actually ended up being a bit of a pet of mine over the years being the first one I knowingly re-caught and then a few times more whilst trying to catch its mates, but a fabulous fish all the same.

Rod's capture was a couple of years before mine and the fish was still growing. It never got a lot bigger though despite being caught for a further 20 years or so.

Image
Shaun, I only just saw your post. Thanks for this, it makes this book even more interesting. Nice hairstyle. I am too young :Hahaha: to show off with pictures like that. My youth was in the 80s and I can tell you, I will not show any of the pictures. I was looking like..., well, I was a victim of fashion.

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Shaun Harrison
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Re: Pre 80s Carp fishing

Post by Shaun Harrison »

The hair makes a few smile, it was great camouflage. I stalked that fish watching it take the hook bait. 'Shining Times', as Chris Binyon would say.

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Ian.R.McDonald
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Re: Pre 80s Carp fishing

Post by Ian.R.McDonald »

Harry wrote:I spent a fair chunk of the late 70's and early 80's carping.... Hainault Forest Lake, Fairlop Waters, South Weald Park Lake, The Eagle at Snaresbrook and the Hollow Ponds seemed to be my favourite haunts.... I was quite identifiable on the bank with my Gerry Savage S/U rods and my Mitchells.... my budget went on the important gear, leaving nowt for alarms, I had fairy liquid bottle tops, (with the isotopes glued in) or silver paper with pennies on the reels on my mums Zephyr 4 hubcaps underneath the reels... By the 80's I was all Optonic'd up (after a horrid pair of Bitech Vipers... hateful things) then I just lost interest, and sold my carp gear when discovered a certain bubbly, cute, blonde lass.. (a cuddly blonde is more fun than freezing me plums off bankside) I fish for Carp now as an offshoot of an angling career that has lasted for over 54 years, the cute bubbly blonde lass is still with me.... has been for the last 30 years

I remember cutting a block of foam to sit my Heron buzzer box on to stop vibrations scaring the fish, ignoring the fact that 3 ft behind us when fishing at the Eagle pavement was a constant stream of traffic!. And wading the margins aftet Derek Stritton had fished to try and discover his magic bait.

Stuart Whiting

Re: Pre 80s Carp fishing

Post by Stuart Whiting »

Ian.R.McDonald wrote:
Harry wrote:I spent a fair chunk of the late 70's and early 80's carping.... Hainault Forest Lake, Fairlop Waters, South Weald Park Lake, The Eagle at Snaresbrook and the Hollow Ponds seemed to be my favourite haunts.... I was quite identifiable on the bank with my Gerry Savage S/U rods and my Mitchells.... my budget went on the important gear, leaving nowt for alarms, I had fairy liquid bottle tops, (with the isotopes glued in) or silver paper with pennies on the reels on my mums Zephyr 4 hubcaps underneath the reels... By the 80's I was all Optonic'd up (after a horrid pair of Bitech Vipers... hateful things) then I just lost interest, and sold my carp gear when discovered a certain bubbly, cute, blonde lass.. (a cuddly blonde is more fun than freezing me plums off bankside) I fish for Carp now as an offshoot of an angling career that has lasted for over 54 years, the cute bubbly blonde lass is still with me.... has been for the last 30 years

I remember cutting a block of foam to sit my Heron buzzer box on to stop vibrations scaring the fish, ignoring the fact that 3 ft behind us when fishing at the Eagle pavement was a constant stream of traffic!. And wading the margins aftet Derek Stritton had fished to try and discover his magic bait.
Blimey, the Eagle hey, that brings back some funny and happy memories, I can remember playing a double figure carp there one time when I was in me late teens using me trusty cardinal 55 when all of a sudden the plastic spool actually exploded, it literally was broken in half leaving a nasty mess of line on me reel, luckily the water wasn't wasn't that deep and I managed to wade out and hand line the carp and into the net, a nice 14lb common was the result :Hat:

Whilst at me freinds tackle shop some years later I was talking to Mark and his father Martin owner of the the Tackle exchange at Walton on Thames and we were talking about Abu cardinals and apparently Martin stated that the Abu cardinal spools suffered badly from going brittle and literally disintegrating,

I've still got a few Abu cardinals but now only ever use em with the aluminium spools :Thumb:

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JPC
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Re: Pre 80s Carp fishing

Post by JPC »

I would agree that back in the sixties and seventies the main two lines were Maxima and Sylcast, with Maxima in 8lb used for distance fishing and Sylcast in 11lb for general work. Another line that was also quite popular was Brent which was very similar in colour, feel and strength to Sylcast.
Several of the well known anglers of the day were great fans of the prestretched Platil Strong/Stark, very strong and thin for it's diameter but it did need a special knot at the hook, a reel with a bail arm roller that worked (Len Arbery used to convert Mitchell 300 and 350's to a roller pick up) and a rod without a Tungston Carbide tip ring.
With regards to rigs, well by the early seventies light link ledgers were common place as was the Braddock rig, a paternostered anchored crust surface fished. By the end of the seventies two and three ounce ledger rigs were the norm on the bigger gravel pits that were receiving attention from more and more carp anglers. Bolt rigs along with side hooked baits were fairly common on most of the popular/circuit waters by the mid seventies.
By the late sixties glass rods were the choice of most carp anglers and it was rare to see cane rods, the quality had really deteriorated, perhaps the only wooden rods you might see were those made by J S Sharpe which were impregnated and had to be really abused to take a set ! With glass rods we began to see longer tools with faster tapers and compound tapers, rings too started to improve with incredibley hard liners. Towards the end of the seventies we also started to see the first of the carbon rods appear, some of the early ones being quite fragile, however the advantages were there to see.

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Carp Artist
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Re: Pre 80s Carp fishing

Post by Carp Artist »

Not a fish was visible that first time I visited Beechmere; an utter
stillness brooded over the place and I felt the strange and sinister atmosphere which, so the story goes,
has been the cause of several suicides.’
BB – Confessions of a Carp Fisher

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MightyMaggot
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Re: Pre 80s Carp fishing

Post by MightyMaggot »

Carp by James A Gibbinson is worth a look, covers early rods, tackle, bait, methods such as 'night fishing' and day fishing, 1st edition 1968

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Carp Artist
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Re: Pre 80s Carp fishing

Post by Carp Artist »

Not a fish was visible that first time I visited Beechmere; an utter
stillness brooded over the place and I felt the strange and sinister atmosphere which, so the story goes,
has been the cause of several suicides.’
BB – Confessions of a Carp Fisher

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