"I've gotten a bit carried away with this chaps and I'm pushed for time at the moment so here's part one of the report. Part two added shortly.
With the excitement level of a couple of 16 year olds who’d just gained entry into a lap dancing club using fake I.D. Rick and I set off on the 150 mile journey to a small pool nestled into the Herefordshire countryside. The conversation flew between us the whole way there; not about scantily clad women but about baiting tactics, cane and carbon, boilies and lobworms, weed level and spawning time...
I really do think we covered the lot.
A stop at the services found us amongst coach loads of people all wearing wellies and straw hats. No, it wasn’t the Young Farmers on Tour or a Worzel Gummidge convection, just a collection of regular people heading for Glastonbury.
I think some of them were already smoking Glastonbury fags.
This was to be the first time that Rick would see the pool with it’s green jacket on. He’d only been during the winter before so I knew that Rick would get the full impact of the pool’s splendid summer colours. I had been lucky enough to spend a July week there three years ago so I knew what to expect, the image still burned brightly in my mind’s eye but I still longed for a top up.
That week I had caught more than my fair share , and to a good size. I’d done the rounds with different angling methods and had them from the bottom, off the top and even using a float. All of the captures though came to my modern gear. That’s not meant to be a negative, I enjoyed every moment of the trip but this time I wanted to catch a Redmire carp using the same tackle and tactics that featured during the 50s; when Redmire came to the fore and literally blew the roof off carp angling in the UK. The time and place that saw, in my opinion, the birth of modern carp angling.
A simple rectangular sign attached to a wooden fence brought broad smiles to both our faces.
Glorious sunshine lit our way along the track, it wound downhill culminating at the gate where we met with our good friends Mike and Keith . Now, I don’t know if it’s a Redmire tradition or not but the practice of walking the lake as a party, checking out the swims, looking for fish and discussing the angling prospects seemed to be the natural thing to do. So, after handshakes and greetings that’s exactly what we did.
I can’t personally think of a better way to start things off and if you’ll indulge me I’ll take you on a stroll around a summer Redmire.
The first obvious swim as we wandered right from the cars was the well known and reputedly haunted “Evening Pitch” . Apparently named because back in the early days carp were often found feeding there in the evening. Despite its popularity with late arrivals to the lake over the years due to it’s location the swim hasn’t produced too much in the way of big carp.
A look between the trees out onto the water answered one of our questions, there was plenty of weed!
Turning on our heels we decided to walk clockwise past the old and now largely unused “Oak” and “Corner” pitches we arrived at “Cranstoun’s” . Named after Pete Cranstoun although I’m at a loss to understand why as the three 20s that he caught from Redmire were all from different swims. Maybe someone knows more about the naming of the swim?
With really shallow water at short range and even shallower water to the left by the outflow the swim doesn’t appear to have produced many carp over the years. One important capture, however, was Jack Hilton’s 40.03 (Yates’ “Bishop”) which was taken from a small gap left of this swim in the "even shallower water"!
As we rounded the outflow corner you see in front of you the old Redmire hut, the home of the catch log and, judging by appearances, cobwebs that date back to Walker’s era.
Swivelling round to look back over the outflow you get the first glimpse of the open water of the lake.
With it being summer the vegetation hid the sight of water for a little while as we walked slowly along the dam wall but we soon arrived at the first of the, now, two benches situated on the Dam Wall. This is the spot where photographs looking down the lake have been taken for decades now. The iconic Redmire photo.
Here’s the one I took on Thursday 23rd June 2010.
Over the years the dam wall has produced quite a number of the big carp from Redmire including Roger Bowskill’s 38.08 (Yates’ “Bishop” again).
There’s a shot of Joe Taylor playing a 26lber off the dam wall which is probably my favourite ever action shot. If you have a copy of Kevin Clifford’s History of Carp Fishing look it up.
Rounding the next corner we come onto the Western Bank and immediately find the modern boat house complete with punt. Anglers aren’t allowed to use the punt but the corners a good spot for gudgeon apparently.
Perhaps the most famous swim of all at Redmire and possibly in carp fishing is the first swim we come to on the West Bank, the “Willow Pitch”.
Here, in this swim , was where history was to be made; more than once.
The first carp over the weight of 30lb caught in the UK came from this swim in 1951 to Mr. Bob Richards in the shape of a 31 1/4lb Mirror Carp. A fish that took the British record that had stood for just over 20 years yet which was to beaten by a fish from the same swim within a year. That 44lb fish is the one most people associate with the Willow Pitch swim , Clarissa (or Ravioli) which was brought to shore in September 1952 by Richard Walker (with a bit of help from his angling partner , Pete Thomas) and blew the lid off the angling world again.
Since that fateful night many captures of large carp have taken place in the Willow Pitch to , amongst others, anglers the like of Jack Hilton, Bill Quinlan and Sir Pete Springate. On my last trip to Redmire I moved off fish to spend my last night in the “Willow” purely for nostalgic reasons. Knowing that I was definitely standing in the footsteps of the greats. (Sitting, to be more truthful, in a low chair enjoying the evening with a glass of red and a cigarette or two).
Such a shame that the great willow is no more and all subsequent efforts to replant and grow on a new tree seem to have come to nothing. You can see on the left hand side of the swim photo the newly dead branches of the latest Giant Weeping Willow,Salix babylonica, which was planted just a few years ago.
Prior to the demise of the original tree the Willow Pitch was situated just to the right hand side of the tree, the next swim was underneath it, hence the name “In Willow”. A photo in the Redmire Pool book by Kevin Clifford and Len Arbery shows Roger Smith in the process of casting a potato under the overhanging branches.
This is where we first spotted a few carp sitting in the weed, you can see where Rick’s attentions are focussed.
“Ingham’s” was just to the left of the old tree but is now another lost swim so the next swim along is now “Climo’s”. Here we found more carp sitting in the weed, sunbathing!
The near margin is shallow for some way out now and continues that way along this bank into the shallows. I don’t seem to be able to find any captures of note from Climo’s however right next door is the “Stile Pitch”. Scene of Eddie Price’s capture of his 40lb mirror and also where Rod Hutchinson got busy one morning in 1972 extracting 6 carp with 3 over 20lb!
Next along was the swim I fished 3 years ago, “Kefford’s” after Dick Kingsley-Kefford. I found this swim a great interception point as the fish moved both in and out of the shallows. The end of the deeper channel is in front, well, slightly right, and a lot of fish take this route as they move up and down the lake.A great surface swim as well as this is about the widest part of the lake. Notable historical captures from Keffords include Tom Mintram’s 38 (1970), Jack Hilton’s 32 and 36 (71/72) and John Macleod’s brace of a 40 and 28 (1972).
The group of small islands comes next at the entrance to the shallows. “Bramble Island” is linked to “Climbing Island” by means of a platform and is again located well to intercept moving fish.
I can’t remember the names of the last two islands, the third one isn’t connected to the bank but the last one has a platform running to it and goes by the name of the “No.1 Pitch”
As we made our way past the No.2 and No.3 pitches we noticed a few carp actually feeding in the shallows. I decided there and then that wherever I plotted up, Keffords was looking favourite so far, I’d be heading down to the shallows with one rod.
Negotiating the boggy ground where the inlet stream runs we ended up back on the East Bank. Walking past the old swims of the “Top Pitch” and “Quinlan’s”. The “Top Pitch” is right at the head of the shallows near the stream and is where Chris Yates hooked “The Bishop” at it’s record breaking weight of 51.08.
We then arrived at the, now opened up “’35’ Pitch” or “Hilton’s”.
After watching a few carp clouding up the water in front of Hilton’s we made our way south towards the deeper part of the pool again.
Past the “In Between”.
And the “Open Pitch”
We arrived at “Greenbanks” which is the first real ‘bivvy swim’ after the shallows and where I spent my first winter weekend at Redmire. This swim has accounted for its fair share of fish over the years although not to me on my first visit.
Coming past the old “Fence Pitch” , which fell out of favour after the “stumps” was opened up as a swim, we find a small platform which gives good access for surface fishing the wide area of the pool opposite Keffords before we arrive at the well known “Stumps”.
Giving good access to the deep channel the swim has enjoyed a good level of popularity and of course along with this comes a good record for captures.
“Pitchford’s Pit” next door is a swim that dates back to the early days. Named after “BB” himself and the deep hole that he found which was probably the deep channel which comes closer to the bank here.
Before we arrived full circle back at the Evening Pitch we passed what is now just a gap in the trees but was the old “Boathouse Pitch”. Again dating back to the early times and the name still marking the spot of the original boathouse present in the 1930s when Mr Donald Leney released 50 small carp into the pool.
So, now came the time to choose where we were going to 'pitch up' for the next two nights."
