The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

This is where I cut my teeth looking for larger specimen carp. I fished Brooklands between 1973-1983. I would be very interested in hearing other members stories about this wonderful place. A number of very famous carp fishermen fished brooklands and other nearby waters. Fred Wilton, Jack Hilton and Len Arbery amongst others. Does anyone have any stories they would like to share with us?

I have never been a hunter of specimens just a pleasure angler so have no real stories of big fish captures as such. I cut my teeth at Dartford lakes along with Danson, Horton Kirby and the Darent and when my parents drove there for a sunday outing, Yalding as well. We used to get the 96 to Dartford library walk through the park climb the fence onto the old A2 and into that magical group of lakes, full of expectations. Our favourite spot was round the back of the Anson over the little rickety bridge to the island and fish between the lily pads real Mr Crabtree like. I joined DDAPS when I moved to Dartford in later life and fished Brooklands along with Sutton and Horton Kirby. But the place I always loved fishing was the river Darent either at the back of the lakes or at Horton Kirby. When I read on here of Gonks on the wally my mind always trips back to cold days spent on the daren't where a Gudgeon was a welcome catch and kept my fire burning inside.

I'm also not a specimen hunter but had an arms-length brush with that scene when young. I fished Horton Kirby a few times as a keen teenager but caught nothing, so tried Brooklands and did quite a bit better. In about 8 visits in the summer of 1970 I had 3 carp, on the then standard method of anchored floating crust cast to the middle, also a tench and a few small bream. The carp ranged from just under 10 lb to nearly 19 lb. Getting there involved a bus ride and so fishing was confined to daylight. Sadly this came to an end the same year when my family moved to Sussex. Before then I did also try Brooklands for pike, but had nothing at all.

I'll try and add a couple of pictures - a general shot, and one - the smallest - of my carp. Sadly, cheap cameras in those days were no good except in bright sun and the pics of the two bigger carp were unusable. However the picture below does show my no.1 outfit of the time - a cane S/U Mk IV (a kit rod from J B Walker) and a Mitchell 300. The rod was over-stiff for this fishing (having really been bought for pike). Wish now I'd got the standard Mk IV instead!