Take Clay Farm Pond, for instance. It existed in Victorian days, according to OS maps. Did it have carp then? I don't know. I do know it was stocked with estate lake fish in the late Seventies and early Eighties, when it was a syndicate. Then it became a day ticket water, and an occasional match water. Then it was closed to the public, after some anglers mis-behaved; and then it was re-opened, albeit under the management of a farm manager and as part of a season ticket "club" arrangement. Day tickets can still be booked in advance, but this is likely to cease once the club list is full. So, it's on the way to becoming a well-established syndicate water again? Possibly - but a water that had been unstocked for a quarter of a century was stocked again last year: a shame really, I liked it how it was. But what is the lake now, exactly?
The Other Pool is a different matter: stocked 20 years ago and unfished until last year. This is close to being a Holy Grail for me, but not quite, as I'll explain a bit later. I'm pleased to say I've persuaded the farm manager not to stock it again, as we don't really know what's in there in any case. I hope he sticks to this. If he does, I'll be thrilled..
But all this made me draw up a scale for carp ponds, with full-blown commercials off the scale, at the very lowest end, and with - well, what exactly? - right at the top...
For fun and to direct thought, really, I've created a "star*" system, to grade carp ponds, and some results have surprised me.
Here's an example of three star carp water from the past (note, I'm not talking about the present set-up)...
Hunstrete in the 1950s - stocked by the Pophams in the Sixteenth Century - a breeding population of wildies/ old English commons..
Therefore, I decided that a three star water, the Holy Grail, is one stocked 50 years ago or more, and one lightly fished.
As Redmire is not lightly fished, I would make it a two star water..(!)
(Two stars - A water stocked 30 years or more, but fished fairly intensely..)
A one star - a water stocked twenty years ago or more - and lightly fished, such as The Other Pool..
A Half Star - the old Clay Farm Pond -stocked twenty years ago or more, but fished quite intensely...
Now, I am afraid, with the recent stocking, and much as I love it, Clay Farm is off my scale for Holy Grail waters.
It's fun, looking at one's own waters like this. Ashperton Moat, for instance, was certainly a two star, until the dam started to leak in 2007...
Size of the fish - and that's a good thing for me! - doesn't really come into it. This is about provenance..
As a say, a bit of fun: but a useful tool to assess what exactly we are fishing...
). These are closer to the wildie appearance in shape and colour than to modern carp.
