The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

All sorted Mark. Rob can use what he likes

Mike

Mike Wilson wrote:All sorted Mark. Rob can use what he likes

Mike

Nice one Mike.

Robert,
Almost certain that Maurice Ingham took the picture on Thursday 31st August 1952 of Dick’s landmark first twenty-pounder from the Beacontree & District AS ‘Daganham Lake’. One of brace of fish that day for Dick - the other was 17½lb mirror.

Chris.
At the back of my mind I have a feeling one of those Dagenham fish was foulhooked. I think Harry G told me. Do you know anything about this?
Take care

Mike

Chris Ball wrote:Robert,
Almost certain that Maurice Ingham took the picture on Thursday 31st August 1952 of Dick’s landmark first twenty-pounder from the Beacontree & District AS ‘Daganham Lake’. One of brace of fish that day for Dick - the other was 17½lb mirror.

Many thanks Chris, noted!
Interesting question from Mike there too.

For those of you who have not seen them there are some lovely photos of Dick in this thread.

The picture of Dick Walker playing a carp at Redmire, the pitch is the Style Pitch and the fish a twenty three pound common foul hooked in the dorsel fin.

In October 2011, Wayfarer wrote on this thread:
SK, Those photographs are phenomenal, I guess we've all seen photos of odd bits of RW's study but never in so much detail and breadth. I'll always recall reading in AT (when? - late sixties possibly) when Dick moved into his new house and he wrote that the back door to the bank of the river was "....exactly twenty nine feet". So precise, so Walker.

Well I'm just sorting out 20 pages of letters from Dick to me for Mark to look after. On 9th July 1980, Dick sent me a drawing of his back garden, complete with house, lawn, walls, shrubs, herbs and wild flowers. Sure enough, it is marked as 29 feet from house to river, and then 40 feet across the river. There are lots of other details about botany, hospital radio, how Dick's wife allowed so many weekend trips fishing, Dicks delight at Chris Yates record fish and so on. Dick said (playfully?) that if the BRFC didn't ratify Chris's fish "I shall be tempted to withdraw mine".

He went on to talk about fish tanks, his favourite ways of cooking eels and finally his view that the best eels come from the Test.

I am sure that Mark will make these letters available to the forum should members so wish.

Just spotted the reference to DW perhaps being the first to catch two twenty carp. This had been accomplished way before Dick landed his fish in 1952 by Les Brown with two Mapperley carp, the first a 23lb 12oz in 1937 and later in 1941 with a 20lb 8oz. Another angler who surpassed the twenty-pound barrier early on was Dagenham maestro George Draper, who recorded fish of 25lb 9oz in 1947 and a 20lb 2oz in 1948. Yet another was Robert Atkinson with Stoneham fish of 22lb 8oz and 20lb 7½oz in July 1952 (he went on to catch another 20lb+ in 1954.)

Chris Ball wrote: ↑Sat Jan 05, 2019 6:08 pm Just spotted the reference to DW perhaps being the first to catch two twenty carp. This had been accomplished way before Dick landed his fish in 1952 by Les Brown with two Mapperley carp, the first a 23lb 12oz in 1937 and later in 1941 with a 20lb 8oz. Another angler who surpassed the twenty-pound barrier early on was Dagenham maestro George Draper, who recorded fish of 25lb 9oz in 1947 and a 20lb 2oz in 1948. Yet another was Robert Atkinson with Stoneham fish of 22lb 8oz and 20lb 7½oz in July 1952 (he went on to catch another 20lb+ in 1954.)

Chris, I never said Walker was the first to catch two twenty pound carp, only that he was to first to catch two twenties when each twenty came from a different water - in his case, Dagenham and Redmire...

I wrote: "I'm being a bit of an anorak here...but am I right in thinking that Dick was the first angler known to have caught two twenty plus carp, when each carp came from a different water from the other? I'm thinking of his Dagenham common and Ravioli/Clarissa, of course."