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The Thinkentechanical Podcasts.

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Welcome to Thinkentechanical Podcasts. Now if you haven't already,

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Please hit subscribe button so you don't miss an

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episode. Now, today, I have a very

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great privilege of being joined in studio by

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a man who is equally at home fishing for Bobble

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on his local river as he is fishing

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for Golden Mars here in India. And

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indeed, carp in the combat. Gary Newman,

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thank you very much for coming. Great to be here.

0:24

In fact, thank you very much for crossing the corridor and

0:26

going because it's not a long way. Yeah.

0:29

Because you do actually work for corridor. Right? I do. Yes.

0:31

And you have and we're gonna come onto this in

0:33

a bit. You have one of the the the craziest jobs

0:35

in carp pushing. Can you just explain to us quickly

0:38

what it is you do for

0:38

living? Well, official

0:40

titles, TV production manager. So it's

0:42

basically organizing all the monster carpets,

0:46

so it's sort of choosing venues,

0:47

obviously, along with Tom Dove and Neil spooner

0:50

between us and then arranging everything.

0:52

Sometimes going for

0:53

a wrecky trip just to see if they're suitable

0:55

for filming on. And yeah. Going

0:57

from there, really. I think we've we've got Dovian

0:59

spoon of banging on the scene and I

1:01

think to try and remind you not to give too much

1:03

away, but we we've there's a little bit

1:05

work going on. So if you do hear the odd the hot

1:07

bang, we can't know anything about

1:09

it.

1:09

No. Crazy time of year. I think what what

1:11

what really fascinates me about the job

1:14

that you've got now is that,

1:17

yes, you organize the locations, but this means

1:19

going and test fishing

1:21

I mean, it sounds like the dream job. Oh, there's a

1:23

fear. So, yeah, not always, but in

1:25

terms of the fish inside, but yeah.

1:27

Sometimes it gets gun test venues. Just

1:30

to see I mean, for filming, obviously, we

1:32

need to be catching fish. And

1:35

it's not just about the fish in.

1:37

You've it's gotta be suitable for filming as well,

1:39

which well, just talking about the noise there.

1:41

Things like that come into it. Obviously,

1:45

obviously, rules, whether you can film within the rules

1:47

of the venue you go into. But

1:49

it's logistically a massive project, the

1:51

amount of just the amount of equipment we

1:53

have with us. And if it's if you got a day only

1:56

venue, you can't be packing

1:58

up at the end of every day. So up again the

2:00

following day. It's just not practical with amount of

2:02

that size of our team. So,

2:05

yeah, really just seeing how suitable places

2:07

are for for what we

2:08

need. Mhmm. Is this is this

2:11

to not to put too finer points on it? Is this because

2:13

these shoots cost so much money

2:15

that that there can be nothing left to chance once

2:17

their guys are out

2:18

there. Oh, very much, Sami. We've got a team

2:20

of normally around ten to twelve

2:22

people. Some of those being freelance

2:24

TV cameraman, which obviously, don't come

2:26

cheap. So director, sound

2:29

man. So, yeah,

2:31

you you really need to know that you're gonna something

2:33

out of it. I mean, you don't have to go

2:35

there and catch hundreds of fish. I

2:37

mean, for filming purposes, even four

2:39

or five fish, is enough. But,

2:41

I mean, if you go somewhere completely blank,

2:43

don't get a film out of it. It's obviously cost

2:46

a lot of money to do that.

2:48

I mean, do you ever sort of

2:50

have a, like, a moment of reflection to think,

2:53

how did I get to the point where, you

2:55

know, effectively, I'm getting paid

2:57

to go abroad and pioneer

2:59

venues and establish contact with local

3:01

anglers and and do all these things that on

3:03

the surface might seem quite glamorous.

3:05

Oh, very so. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's saying I'll never

3:08

really thought I'd be doing. Yeah. I mean, in fact,

3:10

saying my dad always, I mean, my dad's in anger. He

3:12

always told me I'd never make a living out of out

3:14

of fishing. So sort

3:16

of yeah. So proved him wrong on that

3:18

point. But, yeah, just incredibly lucky

3:21

though to have sort of got where I am

3:22

today. What kind of report

3:25

do have to file for these things? Like because obviously,

3:28

you're gone for weeks at a time and

3:30

and you often these encompass several venues

3:33

would you have been in on

3:35

initial meetings when the

3:37

concept freak show is

3:38

formulated? And then you try and fit venues to

3:40

that? Is that how it works? Or Yeah. We normally

3:42

have a plan. I mean, we sit down, obviously,

3:45

with Tom and Neil who are gonna be fishing

3:47

the bay. I mean, the venues very much come

3:49

down to where they want to fish as

3:50

well. You always get the best out of

3:52

them when they're on a lake that they actually want

3:55

to be on,

3:55

which is all fine, but they don't have your

3:57

knowledge of global venues? Did that be surely nobody

3:59

not many do? No. No. I mean, between

4:02

us, we sort of sort of of things out in terms of

4:04

the venue. I mean, sometimes they got venues that

4:06

they want to go to or

4:09

or Neil. I mean, Neil through a lot of the European

4:11

sales team and that he hears about places

4:13

as well. But

4:15

again, sometimes you hear

4:17

about the fishing side, but you don't know

4:19

much about the logistics again

4:22

or how soon will they offer filming. Yeah.

4:24

Even city things aren't like we said before

4:26

noise. You could turn up. There's a factory next

4:28

door, and it sounds complete

4:30

right off at a week. Yeah. So so are

4:32

the guys, when you're out there? Are they on the phone

4:34

to have it looking girl? Like, what what's, you

4:36

know, what have you

4:37

found? If there, it depends where I'm going.

4:39

Sometimes you just let me sort of get on with and then

4:41

we'll we'll have a sort of sit there when I get back,

4:44

sort of talk through the venues I've

4:46

been to. I mean, some

4:48

I mean, there was one. I was in Hungary.

4:51

Past autumn. Venue

4:53

was great, cool, loads of fish, but

4:55

it turns out it might even be too prolific

4:58

-- Right. -- we need -- Yeah. -- and too difficult to

5:00

get through the bigger

5:01

fish. I mean, there was there's a massive fish in this

5:03

lake and there's a big wild Is

5:05

this one,

5:05

like, did you include a picture in your is that the

5:08

photo? Yeah. A forty nine common there

5:10

when I I was hoping to see if you can find

5:11

that. Yeah. I'm on that, please.

5:15

So so that one in particular,

5:17

let's let's take that as an instance. So this was

5:19

a list of potentials. Was it and

5:21

you thought, right, I wanna go do do you have to sort of

5:23

plan around the venues? Or do you try and do what? Do

5:25

you do one

5:26

it? How does it work? Depending I mean,

5:28

that was actually tiny and I was doing

5:31

some filming for Guru

5:33

show. Mhmm. Out in Croatia. We

5:35

were filming out there. I was helping with that project,

5:38

and Hungary is pretty much

5:40

on the way. So it made sense to

5:42

stop off -- Yes. -- and have a look at this venue on

5:44

the way down to Croatia. Then

5:47

once I've finished filming areas driving all the way

5:49

back through France, So it gave a good opportunity

5:51

to sort of look at a couple of the French venues

5:53

that we're planning on or looking at potentially

5:56

filming on. So

5:58

it's it's trying to maximum make the most of

6:00

your time really. Well,

6:01

absolutely. But like I

6:03

say, it could seem like you

6:05

were left your own devices,

6:07

you you must feel a little bit like you're quite detached

6:09

from the team as such you're fishing on your own a

6:11

lot of the time abroad with no one saying

6:14

Gary, what's your what you're doing today? Like, you're you're

6:16

literally fishing trying to work out scope of

6:18

these venues for for future potential.

6:21

I mean, do you

6:23

find being on your own and instead of working

6:25

through stuff like that quite easy?

6:27

Yes. I mean, I've travel over the years. I've

6:29

traveled so much and quite often on my

6:31

own. It's and fishing as well. I

6:33

mean, a lot of the fishing I've done in the past

6:35

is is sort of on my own. So it's not

6:37

it's not something that really dawns

6:38

me. If you turn up in somewhere, I don't

6:40

know, sort of thousand acres. Forgive me

6:42

if that's the wrong one. Is that

6:43

right? That's the right one. Yes. Stuff.

6:46

Yeah. That's

6:46

definitely yeah. That's in the folder as well.

6:48

Oh,

6:48

is it?

6:49

Yes. Yes. I think it's in the overseas

6:51

folder. Yeah. Yeah.

6:53

Look at that. I mean, typical

6:55

of the Hungarian fish, Gary, that

6:57

one. That's quite different. I mean, a lot of

6:59

them out there are quite plain sort of mirrors,

7:01

great big humpy backs on them,

7:03

man. But this particular lake has actually got some really

7:05

nice fish nice variety in there.

7:07

Yep. There's a common in there that

7:09

goes around the sort of thirty eight to

7:11

forty kilo mark as well. Mhmm. So, actually, I

7:13

might be bigger than any common we've ever caught

7:15

on monster carp before, but

7:17

the problem there was of the

7:18

other. I a hundred carp in seven

7:21

or eight days fishing. Mhmm.

7:23

That's it. That's it. Lovely. Lovely. Yellowy.

7:25

Lux scales to it. And a huge

7:27

shoulder length. Yeah. It's really

7:29

clear water as well there. It's just

7:31

a big gravel bit.

7:33

So it's, yeah, really up and

7:36

down. How

7:36

much research do you have to do before you go out to

7:38

these places? I mean, this one,

7:40

we've got one of our local team anglers Hungarian

7:43

guy who fishes it. He lives

7:45

pretty much on the bank of it. He

7:47

mainly fishes one in from his back but

7:49

we, yeah, at least had some info.

7:52

And again, knew there was some good fish in there.

7:54

Mhmm. So it's just just seen

7:57

where because we've had it before. I mean, when I fish

7:59

ballatong, I think I've seen

8:01

series one of Monster Cup. They got lots

8:03

of fish. But a lot of

8:05

small fish. And

8:07

out in Hungary that I mean, the mouths on a lot of

8:09

it. You get a lot of twenty pound of the mouth on

8:11

it. You can put a cut of thirty mil bites

8:13

on your knot. And away from

8:15

him. Mhmm. It tends to just make your ricks less

8:17

effective. So do you agree

8:19

on the way that you're gonna try

8:21

tactically with the guys? Or do you do you tend

8:23

to report back afterwards in terms of what you've

8:25

what you've tried and what's what's

8:26

produced. Yeah. I mean, when I mean, the venues

8:29

I've I've fished. I mean, sometimes,

8:31

I don't even go of it. It's just sort of

8:33

speaking to some of the local anglers again like our

8:35

team anglers or or

8:37

France. I've got friends out there. Some of

8:39

the friends changers who fish a lot of these big

8:41

waters. But then,

8:43

yeah, then coming back to Tom Anil sort

8:45

of reporting back what I

8:47

found out. But at the end of the day, it comes

8:49

down to how they want to how they

8:51

want to fish it because we've been to venues before

8:53

where there's supposedly a go in method

8:55

and why I'm catching them. They've done

8:57

something different and caught

9:00

loads more. Mhmm. Or you

9:02

or you got you got the other extreme, not when we went to

9:04

Texas. They wanted to fish up spinner

9:06

eggs and more carp style

9:08

for those buffaloes didn't work.

9:11

And what did work in end was fishing method

9:14

feeders. The back baits. Back baits.

9:15

Yeah. Which is what the locals are at fish.

9:17

Finders of buffalo carp. Tops in

9:19

inarius because these are these are I

9:21

mean, remember being the kid seeing these

9:23

in carp talk

9:24

occasionally. They seem to sort of cross the divide because

9:26

they look a bit like a carp. Isn't they? Yeah. They're

9:28

not even a carp. I mean, they're a minnow, I

9:30

think. They really They should come under the

9:32

middle of that.

9:33

But, obviously, some derivative.

9:35

Talk to me about about what they like, what they

9:37

like to fish for, what what what they're sort

9:39

of behaviors like. Oh,

9:40

I think they just come in in

9:43

packs and feed you seem to get rid

9:45

of. A bit of a huge ride, but how big did they

9:47

go? They go. I think not

9:49

sure what I reckon. seventy odd pound, I

9:51

think, is yeah. Certainly that sort of

9:53

size. It looks so remarkably like

9:55

farfetch, but they look like a

9:57

carp. You would swear there a carp to look Yeah.

9:59

But again, yeah, the mouse slightly

10:01

different. I'm sort of putting the filter

10:03

feeds a lot more. And this is the

10:05

black bass working so well from

10:07

sort of little balanced bates and

10:09

No. This is, I I guess, the

10:12

the the question that springs to

10:14

mind, having looked through the fold of stuff you

10:16

sent, inside which is this picture view with

10:18

the buffalo cup. Presume me work and let the

10:20

opportunity pass you by to have a go for these

10:21

fish. No. That was right at the end of

10:24

the shoot, they were doing some closing interviews,

10:27

and there was an opportunity to have a

10:28

go. So I just quickly tied a rig

10:30

up, borrowed a rod off one of the

10:32

guys, chuck out there. It was on

10:34

top of their bait in area where they had been fishing

10:36

and it rattled off and

10:38

it turned out to be the second biggest one of the

10:40

shoe. Really? Yeah. It would have been yeah. I

10:42

mean, as an angler, are you sort of

10:45

you chomping at the bit the whole shoot

10:47

long thinking? I'd love to have go at

10:49

this. Some of the venues

10:51

definitely, but it's one of

10:53

those things you sort of get used to it is it's

10:55

a job and you're

10:57

there not to fish but to do I

10:58

mean, occasions. Oh, there you go. So Gary, for

11:00

those listening, can you

11:02

describe what that fish looks like? I'll

11:05

say it's very I mean, you think that's

11:07

a carp to look at, wouldn't you? Absolutely very much.

11:09

Up until you get to sort of It's a silvery.

11:11

I mean, they're quite a silvery

11:14

looky, and they got, like, dark

11:16

darker sort of tins.

11:17

Yeah. So I'm missing it. The the bit like our

11:19

glass cup can look a bit like that. The

11:21

pigments different, isn't it? Yeah. They definitely got

11:23

different pigmentation. I mean, the males

11:25

are different. On them again. They yeah. You can see they got

11:27

there. They are. No barbials, but I look Korda No

11:30

barbials. I think out there, they call them a

11:32

suckerfish that species --

11:34

Yeah. -- as well. How are they regarded out

11:36

there? You've actually

11:38

got a few of them

11:39

now. We've fish for carp. There is a Yeah.

11:41

Yeah. But these guys

11:42

What about these three? What about the both of those? Well,

11:44

they they've target those as well.

11:47

I mean, you have got this

11:49

normal carp in there, our king car, but

11:51

only small. In fact, I

11:53

think Neil had a seventeen

11:55

pound one. When we were filming, we

11:57

might turn that to be a -- Lake record. -- because the lake was

11:59

it. Yeah. Yeah. If I remember

12:01

Tom caught a lake

12:02

record, they said it was over the lake record Neil

12:04

about an hour later, whichever way around it was.

12:06

I don't suppose he let him know about that. Oh, no. No.

12:08

No. They definitely didn't mention that at all when that's

12:11

when he beat it. Yeah. I mean,

12:13

it whatever it's an impressive vision. This

12:15

is something that we're gonna talk about albeit later on in

12:17

the podcast going. That is the your

12:20

globetrotting antich fishing for pretty much

12:22

anything that's impressive in swims. You know,

12:24

he's got an awful lot. You'll

12:26

probably I'm

12:28

gonna guess they're coming

12:30

more than ten people in the UK who's done the fishing

12:32

that you've

12:32

done. There is quite it's very

12:34

small number that go and do, yeah, so

12:36

much variety. Because mainly

12:38

fresh water stuff as well. I mean, I'll do the odd bit of

12:40

sea fishing abroad. Mhmm. Whereas

12:43

a lot of the people I know travel travel

12:45

for the sea fishing

12:46

night. My in fishing or whatever. But -- Yeah. -- I'm

12:48

terrible on boats. I'll get badly

12:50

seasick, so I'll try and avoid

12:52

those. Well, I've done doing the odd trip, but

12:54

-- Yeah. They're not. Not ideal. I'm

12:56

just

12:56

gonna apologize in advance reach, and I

12:58

I won't do this too much. I did it a little bit in the guru

13:00

one, but I can't help it because Gary's just

13:03

got a a mad selection of things that you call, and

13:05

I'm just gonna throw this up because I've stumbled

13:07

across. Mhmm. But that sums

13:09

up, I think, Gary's fishing quite

13:11

well

13:11

actually, where he literally will catch anything that's

13:13

impressive. No. That

13:14

was in Texas as well. Yeah. It was. I was tying

13:16

quite well. Yeah. And a guy's car.

13:18

Wow. It's

13:18

a

13:19

mad thing

13:19

to have.

13:20

Like Look at it. I mean, it's a lot

13:21

bigger than you, isn't it that?

13:22

Yeah. No. No prospectus or anything, but Six

13:25

six ten

13:25

ten. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

13:28

Probably around the two hundred pound mark.

13:30

Sorry to have jumped in, but No. What

13:32

what is it like to because

13:34

most people listening, I can't imagine

13:36

of caught. Something like that. What is

13:38

it like playing, landing,

13:40

and and just dealing

13:41

with, you know, something like that? I

13:43

mean, to me, it just looks like pretty

13:46

historic. Yeah. I mean, they're quite daunting

13:48

because you're not used to I mean, they've

13:50

got you can't see in that picture, but

13:52

the teeth on them, you definitely don't get bitten by

13:54

something like that. I mean,

13:56

I was fishing where a local friend is used

13:58

to catch in

13:59

them. But, yeah, if I wasn't, then the first time

14:01

you get one, you'd be thinking what

14:03

on Earth's side is. Was it

14:04

was it quite docile in that in environment

14:07

now on the bank? They are when you

14:08

get them on the bank. Yeah. If you don't

14:09

want that snapping around here. Sure. That

14:11

is the one Then they're on you. If they start

14:14

flipping, you've got it

14:15

literally

14:15

on top of you. Like, I can just swipe it. Well,

14:17

you can see almost got my head to what Try

14:20

yeah. Try to avoid the But, Joel, there's

14:22

a teeth on them. Yeah. If you got caught by one of

14:24

those teeth, it'd do a lot of that. And even the

14:26

scales, they've got, like, edges to them.

14:28

Really? Yeah. You get them rough,

14:29

rough, against you. They cut you. I I think

14:31

for those people listening, this is I

14:33

think the mostly, we'll have seen an

14:35

an arapaimo. We're talking

14:37

similar scale, aren't we? But different different

14:40

different technology up front there. That's

14:42

got head like a like an

14:43

alligator. I mean, they are. They just the the

14:46

hades are not like an alligator. I mean, they're

14:48

prehistoric. Mhmm. I think they've been around they've

14:50

been around for tens of millions of

14:51

years. I haven't changed. They're one of

14:53

those fish species that has been. Do

14:55

you do you find that this stuff hasn't spoiled you?

14:57

Because obviously, you're you this winter,

14:59

you've been fishing for for barble on your

15:01

local river cone for instance. Yeah.

15:03

Yeah. How do you motivate

15:05

yourself to go back to what is quite mundane

15:07

in comparison to some of the fish we're gonna look at in

15:09

due

15:09

Korda. It's all all relative.

15:12

I mean, I'll just love diving fishing in action

15:14

fish. I mean, quite often, I'll come

15:16

back from a I mean, a few days ago,

15:18

I I flew back in from Suriname,

15:20

he's got thirty thirty five degrees.

15:23

And last weekend, I was out of pipe fishing just a

15:25

couple of days later just because, again,

15:27

we'll need to get out and make the most of

15:29

it. Before the season in. So

15:31

-- Yeah. -- yeah. No. We I can always

15:33

get moats. There's always something to go and

15:35

fish

15:35

for. Yeah. Yeah. It's all relative

15:38

to where you are.

15:38

Mhmm. But, I mean, for you,

15:41

you grew up in Buckinghamshire.

15:43

Yep. What kind of

15:45

fishing was important to you as you

15:47

sort of made your first

15:48

steps. I mean, I started off just

15:51

fishing on on the local canal, fishing for

15:53

it, sort of anything that came along.

15:56

Joined the little club water. Must've been when

15:58

I was about eleven years old. Again,

16:00

fish just general catching little birds

16:02

roach, whoever would take a float a

16:04

fish maggot, but also carp

16:06

in this lake. I used to watch

16:08

some crews in about some sort of hot

16:10

sunny days. Tried to catch

16:12

them unsuccessfully. And

16:15

that's sort of what got me interested in

16:17

carp, started sort of reading books on

16:18

it. And, hey, how you act she

16:21

happens to be, you know, a short

16:23

journey

16:23

away from the hotbed of carp pushing at that time.

16:25

Yeah. Yeah. It's sort of right in the middle of it. I mean,

16:27

of the Cone Valley in one direction.

16:29

I mean, I started drinking drinking reservoirs,

16:31

which was seven eight miles from my house.

16:33

It was easy to get a lift there. Very,

16:35

very famous. It's time for again,

16:37

yeah, really famous for that. We have

16:39

people like Adam Wilson fish in there at the

16:41

time. So,

16:43

yeah, But there was carp in there as well. I

16:45

mean, catching carp, sort of

16:48

started night fishing, that sort of side

16:50

of

16:50

it. Again, sort of like twelve thirteen.

16:52

You to get oh, there you go. So

16:53

that's a that's a that's a string shot.

16:56

Yeah. That's of miles worth yeah. I

16:58

think they're probably around sort of double figures.

17:00

Those two fish, which

17:00

were, for me, at the time, we're quite big for that.

17:03

I mean, when I was all I was at ninety two,

17:05

so sixteen years old. Yeah. I

17:06

mean, a

17:07

a couple of comments When you say

17:10

mid double did you say? I think

17:11

they were low double. Low

17:12

degree scrape a double with that. Yeah. Yeah. Bit of

17:14

an unhooking map going on, which is good for the

17:16

day. Yeah. Yeah. They have one of

17:17

the old original ones.

17:19

Yeah. What was the scene like a bitching? Because it

17:21

obviously is a venue that had attracted

17:23

special managers from all over the country and and

17:25

still attracts car managers'

17:26

day, isn't it? They're they're magnificent

17:28

water

17:28

essentially on I mean, there were quite a few

17:31

carpankers, especially on Marsworth at the time. There

17:33

was a few. So always been

17:33

the highest stock of there. Yeah. It's always

17:36

had a good stock. Never did any big

17:38

fish. I mean, I don't when I was fishing, I don't

17:40

even think it. I've heard of a twenty coming

17:42

out. But then you had start ups

17:44

next door, which was at some

17:46

bigger ones. I remember the

17:48

guy when again, when I was a kid, catching a

17:50

twenty nine pound common, which at the time

17:52

was huge. Yeah. Yeah. And seeing

17:54

that on the

17:54

bank, having I've walked that myself. I used

17:56

to live not too far away in

17:59

Bedfordshire and cool lakes -- Mhmm. -- those

18:01

lakes, you know, the the clear water of start

18:03

ups and and you got the vast area the

18:05

top end as

18:05

well. Haven't you? Yeah. I

18:06

think a lot of those those sort of British waterways fish

18:08

that ended up in there probably from the canal over

18:10

the years have done quite well, I think, haven't

18:12

they? Yeah. Let me start dilum to, I think,

18:14

sort of mid forties. Certainly. That's a big one.

18:17

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

18:19

Yeah. And there were some good ones in there.

18:21

Yeah. It was a great water to learn on as well. I

18:23

mean, sort of boatfish it. Mhmm. I mean, we're

18:25

going out. Alright. You know, I'm pretty pleased to see

18:27

the sign dings. Yeah. When I was a

18:29

kid, like paddling out, dropping lates

18:31

finding clear areas, fishing start ups.

18:33

Have you caught a start ups card? I

18:35

haven't. No. No. I had to go on there. It's a

18:37

shame because yeah. I mean, I don't even know what I looked

18:39

like back then, but I remember being

18:41

told it's like an egg box, Gary. Is that he

18:43

was. He was up and down all over the foot of

18:45

weed. Yeah. Yeah. So bars

18:48

that hung and

18:48

yeah. Yeah. It was interesting, bloody. Did you find that that because,

18:51

obviously, you went for those that don't

18:53

know or haven't followed you or fishing, you that you went

18:55

on and have done and still

18:57

do fish for specimen fish of all of

18:59

all species in this country -- Yep. -- to

19:02

say nothing of what you've done abroad.

19:04

But did that the

19:06

Allen Wilsons of this world, did

19:08

that lifestyle look seductive to you? The,

19:10

you know, the the the the

19:12

hardcore specimen hunting that was going on start

19:14

ups. Yeah. It's certainly interesting. I mean, I was mainly

19:16

into carp fishing then. Plus obviously, well,

19:18

sun out winter is always pike fished. I mean, you

19:20

got to sort of end of October. I'm

19:23

back then, it was always fought carp, didn't really

19:26

feed in the winter. Mhmm. We certainly

19:28

never used to catch many, so you get the pipe rods

19:30

out. But the other species as well,

19:32

I mean, there was big perch in there at time,

19:34

big brie, intense, roach. I mean,

19:36

I did have a go for some of the other

19:37

species, but that's all. Probably yeah.

19:40

Probably the earliest sort of specimen fishing. I

19:42

mean, I would have done. When you put it like that,

19:44

it is remarkable what those reservoirs did

19:46

in terms of

19:47

specimens. Isn't it remarkable?

19:48

Oh, they didn't

19:49

really repeat

19:50

everything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy much in there that they didn't do.

19:53

Yeah. So you you your

19:55

Marsworth was your sort of training.

19:58

Yeah. Between there and

20:00

Stambra Lake, which is to get a

20:01

lot of Very famous famous famous water if you like

20:03

or stables.

20:03

Yeah. There's a wess or a bit of a winter water for

20:06

people, but I'll

20:06

lift it in the summer as kids. Yeah. Did good fish

20:08

as well. I think your twenties went there back then. Yeah.

20:10

It was a chart. I'll never add a twenty out there, but there was

20:12

a chart here I think I had him to eighteen pounder, but there was

20:15

a chance of a twenty there

20:17

was enough fish in there that you could go and

20:19

have a chance of

20:20

catching. Was it all about the bay zones? It was

20:22

all about the cafe and back then, it's even then.

20:24

I love it was. I mean, we used to catch

20:26

my floaters and -- Yeah. -- they

20:29

had they had lots of silly rules on

20:31

there as well that you yeah. I mean, float

20:33

fishing. You weren't allowed to lose feed floaters. Right?

20:35

Because it was glass of cereal, brown bait,

20:37

or a

20:37

member, which is a very weird one.

20:40

Most people won't you know, most relative come to

20:42

it in more recent times. We'll never have had

20:44

to put up with the match style rules that we

20:46

had to put up with that, you

20:48

know, clubs inverably enforced down

20:50

the ears. Oh, that's some really strange

20:52

ones.

20:52

Yeah. Hated boilers, and they like hated boilers. You

20:54

went there to lose feed, but stringers only.

20:56

I think even stringers technically were banned, but let's let you get away

20:58

with them. Yeah. No sporting or

21:01

anything like

21:01

that. I feel like you took

21:02

just a picture of this of a stand by fishing there.

21:04

I think there's one in

21:05

there. Yeah. I think there was

21:07

one from the early days. From memory, were they always those sort

21:10

of round, scaleless

21:12

looking, fairly pale ideas?

21:14

Oh, they got a scary one there. Daily one.

21:17

Now now a lot of them weren't like that, though. Yeah.

21:19

Yeah. That's just a yeah. Fine

21:21

picture of a print. But yeah. Yeah.

21:24

I mean, barely looks like you make

21:26

that. So we'll go.

21:27

Hard a bit about the in fault they love

21:30

it. You know, love

21:30

this coming. Where do you know where they came from those

21:33

fish? I'm not actually sure because there's There

21:35

was a lot because it was so hot. Like, there

21:37

was a boat in Lake Next Door, which was absolutely there's

21:39

no fishy on me, but that was actually stuff full

21:41

of

21:41

them. So I assume they always moved a

21:43

few across. Yeah. But even the river there adds, you know, a little bit

21:45

of the lake still does

21:46

a thing. Yeah. It's a good

21:47

carpool. Yeah.

21:48

So how soon did you

21:51

Let's get on to the the, you know, the

21:53

the juicy stuff. How soon did you move down

21:55

into the kombali? And and

21:58

for

21:58

context, what year would it have been when you started

22:00

looking around that? I

22:01

reckon it was probably around ninety

22:04

one, maybe ninety two. I'd have been about fifteen,

22:06

sixteen. Literally in the like, you know, your

22:08

maidens were there and fishing. Yeah. That'd have been up the other yeah.

22:10

I mean, I was fishing, sort of Rickman's worth

22:12

aquadrome, you know, sort of backsworth lake and berry

22:14

lake next door to it, and then that that'd have

22:17

been fishing. You

22:18

know, obviously, your lights are sort of hair filled and savory --

22:20

Yep. -- were sort of really well honed on in those

22:22

days. Yeah. Well, you you must have been you

22:25

you well red guy, you must have been aware

22:27

that this was going on in that

22:28

area. Oh, very

22:29

much. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, all the you used to get all

22:31

the books and that like, the

22:34

masculine ones or red

22:36

avidly or Did did they have an influence

22:38

on on you actually turning up in that part of the

22:39

world? Or Was it inevitable that you

22:42

have to go there? It was more because of

22:44

where I lived and the fact that it

22:46

was fishing clubs there as well,

22:48

so I joined the it'd been what for

22:50

piscatoles at the time, which was sort

22:52

of one I could to join and had

22:54

quite a few different waters, including

22:56

the

22:56

aquadrome. So it sort of made yeah, it sense join

22:59

club. Mhmm. Crazy

23:01

venue. I've I've walked around the the Aquadrome

23:03

with with Nick Kelly and

23:05

Is that that's one of the sheets of asbestos in this? That's it.

23:07

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I think they drained it during the

23:09

war to stop them using it as sort of

23:12

a sighting carrier in

23:14

London. Because it's obviously a lot of those pits

23:16

weren't there back, you know. It's like they were dumping. Is that one

23:18

of the older ones? That's one of the old ones. Yeah.

23:20

And apparently, got dumped. Don't know how

23:22

true. It is a white bean tub, but it got dumped in there

23:24

during the war when it was drained

23:25

down. And then they just they just

23:27

feel Sounds terrible, but the carp did

23:29

quite well. Yeah. I think we're a specialist. It's only dangerous when

23:32

it gets into powder form in the air. I think when

23:34

it's in sheets like that, you could

23:35

Yeah. I mean, you're visually into the stuff on

23:37

you. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You can fit. Yeah.

23:39

Because she's imagining leads punching through these sheets

23:42

of

23:42

asbestos. Yeah. That's a

23:44

combination led in asbestos. Yeah.

23:47

Wonderful.

23:48

But it was a lake, the aquadrome

23:51

that that kicked a lot of anglers off. Look,

23:53

the likes of Nick, you know, was there as a youngster

23:55

wasn't his way. are met Nick. Yeah.

23:57

Yeah. Him and Danny Smith and a few

23:59

of the others sort of

24:00

Yeah. So all

24:00

the similar, you know, all young same sort

24:03

of age Yeah. years older.

24:04

Yeah. Nick's a damn yeah. Yeah. So

24:07

similar. Yeah. We also I

24:08

mean, yeah. I can imagine. I

24:10

feel like Nick down were

24:13

probably more streetwise at that point, Gary, if you're

24:15

coming down from leafy, Chesham down into

24:17

Probably yeah. Probably would have been that then.

24:19

Yes. Was there a was there a gap

24:21

in

24:21

experience? Or were those were you all doing a similar sort of you

24:24

learning together? Or would that had they been doing it?

24:26

They had been doing it for longer. Yeah. I

24:28

mean, they were driving as what they have

24:30

definitely been two or three years old because I was sort

24:32

of driving at the time. But,

24:34

yeah, used I mean, Nick used to

24:36

come and sort of pick me up and and you never quite knew

24:38

where you were gonna end up when you

24:40

went off fishing

24:40

somewhere. Yeah. And how easy access to the

24:43

venue would be. Yeah.

24:45

At least less of a better argument. How

24:47

many fences is it there? Yeah. You know, I think

24:49

it's fine. Yeah. Where where there's a kid?

24:50

You just fishing.

24:54

Absolutely.

24:54

Fun

24:54

memories of those times. Oh, very much, though.

24:57

Yeah. Yeah. Now we had some great times. And is it fair to

24:58

say at that point you're a carpanger? Yeah.

25:02

That's it. Yeah. I mean, that's mainly what I

25:04

fished for at the time. Mhmm.

25:06

That's

25:06

yeah. And that was buying sort of interest.

25:09

To sort of bulks and on the magazines and everything would

25:11

have been carpooling dayed. And and what was

25:13

the fishing like on the on the

25:15

Aquadrome at that time and the berry

25:16

even? Yeah. I mean, it was

25:19

again going from fishing train where

25:21

it was just sort of mainly boating

25:23

rigs out. I mean, on on the aquadrome, a

25:25

lot although it's open water, quite a

25:27

lot of it was fishing on the island. So it was sort learning sort

25:29

of casting under trees. I mean, that was back in

25:31

the day before wraps and -- Yes. --

25:33

clipping up and -- Oh, really? -- if you did clap

25:35

up your cast, clap up and,

25:38

like, it's a bit closer, but it was

25:40

certainly before you had wraps and all

25:41

that. And so, yeah, it's definitely a

25:43

learning curve and probably expensive one as

25:45

well with this

25:46

and rigs. Was it one of those legs where you the

25:49

tire you got the quicker the bike?

25:51

Yes. Very much. So, yeah, there were certain

25:53

certain spots. If you get it in under the

25:55

under the

25:55

island, you'd get a bike very quickly. You were sort of a bit off, you could

25:58

And was that singles, by

26:00

nature, or by necessity, or you were able to get

26:02

a bit of bait around

26:03

you? Get a few round it stick or even catapult

26:06

on some of the sort of short range stuff.

26:08

Yeah. But it didn't

26:08

seem to

26:09

matter if you could get a bait in writing under. Under

26:11

It feels like that lake is

26:13

from memory is sort of almost broken

26:15

in half by an island or a chain of

26:17

islands. You got two islands. Yeah. It's

26:20

almost to buy each end -- Mhmm. -- a

26:22

middle bit, and there's wildlands go all the

26:24

most most --

26:24

Right. -- like, famous water, it's fair to

26:27

say. Yeah. He's,

26:27

I found his Dunkirk, to over forty

26:29

pound. Mhmm. I think they grow on too. So

26:31

it's yeah. Yeah. It's one a lot of people started

26:33

on as well that I know who fish around that

26:35

area. So

26:36

it's quite public as well. It's

26:38

not a dick. By Palm Valley standards, it's not a dick.

26:40

Is it? No. Definitely not. Yeah. Dogwalkers around

26:42

there. Dogs jumping in the alley. There's water

26:44

ski boat as well on there. There.

26:47

Yeah. Nice. It always

26:49

had a I never had any trouble down there, but

26:51

it was a reputation for being a little bit

26:53

dodgy at

26:53

night, or it could be sort of people

26:55

taking around. But if Yes. It's it's basically a

26:57

part like -- Yeah. -- and you're

26:59

getting dropped off down there effectively

27:01

in the middle of a part

27:03

like and thriving, but I sound a bit.

27:05

Yeah. I mean, back in the days before mobile phones,

27:07

you get dropped off a little on a

27:09

Friday night after school, whatever picked

27:12

up again on Sundays. Yeah. Yeah. And how often were you

27:14

catching? I've probably

27:16

caught I

27:17

mean, got to the stage where you're catching most

27:19

most sessions. You'd sort of yeah. Once you'd

27:21

sort out

27:22

sort of what

27:23

you're doing a bit. Yeah. And it used to the

27:25

fishing. And this was nearly always pinging tight.

27:27

I presume those swims used to go

27:30

quite early. On the

27:31

weekend. Yeah. Didn't I mean, didn't used to get

27:34

that busy. Mhmm. But then, I mean,

27:36

caught some fishing open water as

27:38

well. You had sort

27:40

of a lot sort of boys on there,

27:42

which from the water ski

27:43

ropes. You could see them pop it up and down where they could

27:45

You're really leading around the ropes. Yes.

27:47

Yes. Amazing. So you'd try

27:49

and target those when that was happening? Or would you would you sort of

27:51

lay a trap for them knowing that they were gonna likely to

27:53

use those

27:54

areas? Yeah. I mean, there were certain spots

27:56

around the boys where they used to

27:58

get I mean, although I started off fishing

28:00

the islands, that sort of grew

28:02

into sort of fishing open water as

28:04

well and eventually had some

28:06

good catches in

28:07

water. You lost a lot less fish as well. And yeah.

28:10

Were these twenty pounders?

28:12

No. I I did eventually get a cup

28:14

of twenties out there, but a

28:16

few years after I of started fishing fishing fishing for sort

28:18

of that doubles, they were bigger than what I was catching

28:20

at Tring. But

28:23

Yeah. I mean, the first twenty I had was at a

28:25

Berry Lake actually. Really? I think

28:27

we've got

28:27

a picture topes of certainly a one from

28:30

the Aker. Haven't we? You

28:31

didn't I think it was a yeah. There

28:34

would have been a scrape of twenty. I think I'll put a

28:36

picture enough. Yeah. And what what sort

28:38

of, like, rigs

28:40

and baits you know and were you

28:42

influenced by what Nick and Danny were doing on that

28:43

front? Or would you submit you were doing you're plowing

28:45

your own for us to speak with that because you didn't tackle

28:48

probably more through sort of

28:50

magazines and some of that. Yeah. I mean,

28:52

quite basic sort of just not this knot

28:54

style hair rig or wouldn't even been

28:56

not this back

28:56

then. I think I was using

28:57

She's wearing a pair of shoes. Sinking

29:00

sinking. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Whippy knot. Yeah. And then

29:02

not a dom off Whippy knot. I mean, tying a hair

29:04

in the in the tag

29:05

end.

29:06

Sorry. We're looking at the first twenty from Barrie. Is it Well, if

29:08

you do,

29:08

I'd actually because you just, you know, now we've mentioned

29:11

the Barrie. You could say Yeah. But

29:12

I've got Aquadrome as well,

29:15

which is both quite famous waters

29:17

despite never having really

29:19

so that's the berry. Right? That's the

29:21

berry. That was twenty

29:22

What absolute chunk. Yeah. Really fat on that one

29:25

at least. Twenty

29:25

six pound two ounces. Gosh. It it's

29:28

as deep as it is long. Yeah. It's fair to

29:30

say that. Yeah. I mean, it's carrying

29:32

a

29:32

bit of spool on that one. Is that Well, it's saying that

29:34

was later on in the year, so maybe not. Is that

29:36

typical of the of the fish

29:38

in those two lakes? At the

29:40

time. Yeah. I think that would have been probably

29:42

sort of an older fish

29:44

at the time. I mean, Barry

29:47

did get I

29:47

mean, it did go on to do forty pounders, but I think

29:49

some of the fish from the aquadrome were moved across

29:52

over the years. Yeah. There were sort

29:53

of you had sort of fish killed. You'd get

29:55

a fish on berry, which happened sort of

29:58

a few years after that, and I lost most of the

30:00

stark and then I've only got stopped

30:02

from the

30:02

aquadrome. And I

30:03

see the same story. Not many names,

30:05

but it was written. Wasn't it about copying wrapped

30:08

up in whole doors and taken down the

30:10

road and put the

30:11

arms Literally next door. So,

30:13

yeah, they wouldn't surprised me if -- Yeah. -- yeah, if they were stopped

30:15

in that fashion. Would that have been sort

30:18

of an Italian mirror? That because obviously, the Valley

30:20

was famous for

30:20

those. I

30:20

think that it I mean, look, certainly, you

30:23

got that looked to it, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. From what I've yeah. I

30:25

think the other side of that was two tone as

30:26

well. So -- Okay. -- pretty sure it was as or

30:29

Italian as I as I get.

30:31

Absolutely. And and the the berry taught

30:33

me through that

30:33

because I can't imagine it was high stock. So what

30:35

what made you decide to have it go in

30:38

there? Again, just frankly something a

30:40

bit different to been sort of catching quite

30:42

a few out of the Ecuador drone. That

30:44

just looked a bit more of a challenge. It was

30:46

quieter on there as well. I mean, it

30:48

was very weedy like very

30:51

few clear spots. Quite shallow as well. A

30:53

lot of the sort of clear areas you did have

30:55

on there. You had problems with swans.

30:57

Okay. So it was a bit of

30:59

a challenge to fish. Yeah.

31:01

And, I mean, there weren't loads of big

31:03

carp in there either. A lot of what you were sort of catching

31:05

and seeing was sort of low doubles,

31:07

mid doubles, but there was the old better

31:09

one obviously like that and saw saw a few

31:12

other good

31:12

fish. And was it during that spell

31:14

that you caught your huge tension?

31:16

Was actually the same session as that. I wasn't

31:18

up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Taught

31:21

me through that because this this

31:23

is a colossal fish by

31:25

anyone stand and and still remains to be

31:27

this this day a colossal

31:28

fish, doesn't it? Yeah. Me, I've still never beaten that

31:30

one. I probably never will do. How old do you then?

31:32

Do you think was eighteen at the time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It

31:34

was

31:34

eighteen. And we talked

31:37

we talked about

31:38

this before, Gary, that whilst

31:40

all the other species have gone stratospheric

31:43

you know, with the record compared to as they were, and the tension's

31:45

hardly

31:45

moved. No. It's I think the fifteen

31:48

free, the record now. So it's it's

31:50

hardly moved I mean, it's fourteen seven at the

31:52

time. I caught that one. And yours was

31:54

fourteen four. Fourteen four. It was actually the same

31:56

fish. I didn't I didn't even realize at the

31:58

time. Oh, there it is. Yeah. Yeah. younger.

32:00

Yeah. I

32:01

mean, is that what a big

32:04

tension has to look like by because of the

32:06

nature of them? That one was I

32:08

mean, it was September time that

32:11

late August, early September. So I

32:13

think it would just retain spawn or

32:15

it's one of those ones that just carry I

32:17

think I'll be right. Perhaps what

32:18

I mean, before before we leave that shot, it's

32:20

a it's a lovely shot. It's ridiculous

32:22

fish, isn't it? It's

32:23

incredibly -- Yeah. -- what you

32:24

would you probably say a spawn

32:27

bound guy wouldn't you? You would. Oh, yeah. To look at I

32:29

mean, that that is faster than they nothing. That's

32:31

what I'm saying. Does it in order to get to

32:33

fourteen pounds, does this attention need to be retained in

32:35

a certain amount of

32:35

spawn? think so. I mean, that record fish

32:38

that did fifteen free, the one

32:40

out of sheep wall -- Mhmm. -- years ago, Tethr's

32:42

one. I mean, that came that got caught quite a

32:44

few times after that -- Okay. -- and

32:46

before as well around the twelve pound --

32:48

Right. -- twelve, twelve, eight. So I

32:50

think if you get a year where they

32:52

sort of They carried spawn over from the previous year,

32:54

not got rid of it -- Mhmm. -- then they go

32:56

massive. But all the pitch I mean, you remember Phil

32:58

Grier's one possibly from

33:00

Raysbury. I've

33:01

seen the picture marked on the day four.

33:04

Twenty three, I think, that one. Was that as

33:05

before? That was what was he

33:06

guys made now? That

33:08

was the previous record, but that again was

33:11

so it was Harry and a lot of When you caught

33:13

this fish, did you know how much of a

33:15

big deal that was? Not

33:18

to the extent I would do these. I knew it

33:20

was huge. I mean, I'd fish

33:22

in tring. I mean, tents were quite a big thing

33:24

out there. I'd I've always been happy

33:26

catching them. I mean, back then, there was like six,

33:28

seven pound you were catching. But then

33:30

you always used to hear about Will Stone

33:33

and the fish that was

33:33

doing, Alan Wilson. Because you

33:35

moved, that's bigger than any of those fish though. It

33:37

was yeah. I mean, you actually had to cut the guys from

33:39

Williston turn up to fish it after I

33:41

caught that one. Because I went on to catch

33:43

it again. These guys turned up.

33:46

So I'll ask it about it.

33:48

And then I'll call it again that night and

33:49

said, do you want to take record guys? Did you

33:50

send this to the press? Yeah. Angela's mauer, she came and

33:53

photographed it for me. Okay. I've

33:55

been I've been I've been Roy West with that time.

33:57

Greg Minan. Going down. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I

33:59

remember walking. Well, I

34:01

mean, before the days of mobile phones. So --

34:03

Yeah. -- so I walked up to the phone

34:04

box, phone with dad. And, yeah,

34:06

he must've got ahold of Anglo's mow who then came down

34:08

a

34:09

few Amazing. Dad rang me in mouth.

34:10

Yeah. Love that. Yeah. But

34:12

that's he I mean, I know

34:14

I'm going on about it, but but

34:17

for you to have not an your standing experience have not got close

34:19

to that since and you've fished for ten years away.

34:21

I've fished for him a

34:24

lot. I mean, thirteen six is the biggest I've had since since

34:26

then, which is still

34:27

a huge fish.

34:27

Yeah. But, yeah, I

34:28

mean, that there's

34:30

so few fish around that

34:33

size. And like you said, that was the

34:35

record fish, but you didn't know at the

34:37

time. Now I actually met Gordon who called it. I

34:39

met him about two or three excited, and it, unfortunately,

34:41

might sense that he's seen your pictures at

34:41

that time? He had yes. Yeah. I'd seen

34:44

these pictures a year before, but he had really

34:46

clocked at the time

34:48

where it for Almirall because he hadn't named the venue.

34:50

No. I mean, what a proper

34:52

gravel pit bench. And was that a one off?

34:54

Were there were there other big ones in there?

34:56

It was so few

34:58

tension there. I mean, that I

35:00

mean, I remember catching

35:00

that. I saw two or three tenths roll that

35:03

morning, but it's quite possibly the same

35:05

one. Set rolls several and he's what

35:07

he was fighting bound busy. Yeah. He couldn't get his leg over. No. He's

35:09

got no males here. That's it. There was

35:11

very few others in there. I mean, what I don't know

35:13

what happens when you've got

35:15

no male tins I mean As far as they just die out of it.

35:17

Yeah. I suppose. Yeah. I mean, has

35:18

that happened on the barrier, you know? Or is

35:21

it I don't know

35:23

in there because it's no fishing allowed on there. Yeah. I'm sure

35:25

it must still get fish. Yeah. Because it's I mean, it

35:27

always had a few decent

35:29

carp. It was doing carp to over

35:31

forty pound on that long ago, but I've never heard

35:33

of Tench coming out of there again. No.

35:35

No. I mean, so that that

35:37

berry mirror

35:39

is very reminiscent a venue we're gonna

35:41

talk a little bit about now, which is top it's right

35:43

at the top of us for almost as far as

35:45

the Commvary extends north.

35:48

Yes. It with it.

35:49

Yeah. So Watford Way, really? Troy. Yeah. Just

35:51

before you get in there for start. Oh, do

35:53

we drive in by then? I wasn't now. I was

35:55

over getting a lift.

35:58

Sometimes getting the train. Oh, the train. Yeah.

36:00

Yeah. I could

36:00

I could get

36:01

the train to Rickman's workstation. It was about, I

36:03

don't know, cut the miles. Yeah.

36:05

So I

36:06

walk. Walk. Yeah. Carry any kids. There's no burrows out there there. No. No

36:08

burrows back there. No. It's what everyone's take

36:10

sometimes take a bit share like my

36:13

old fox one. Or even just

36:15

take it on a looking man just sleep on the floor. So I did a

36:17

lot of that then.

36:20

Right. Yeah. Get

36:22

used to start sleeping in a bush or what? Yeah. When

36:24

you look back on

36:25

that, are they

36:29

housing days, like, sleeping on the floor when you met? Or were they like, I

36:31

can't believe I did that? No. That really was good good days,

36:34

Valerie. I mean, never well, I signed up with back

36:36

snacking these

36:38

days. I probably did do me some harm, but yeah.

36:40

Yeah. It was just to get make the

36:42

most of it. It meant you could go fishing.

36:44

I mean, if there's times when my parents

36:47

went around to me a lift, I could still get out

36:49

and go fishing. Or even if I wasn't

36:51

doing

36:51

nights, I'd give grab the floater gear.

36:53

I mean, always always as love floater

36:55

fishing. Mhmm. But which obviously makes more sense you get on

36:57

the train with the the small bag and stuff, but

36:59

not the night kit.

36:59

No. I

37:00

mean, you could get down to toll pit

37:03

I mean, you'll see at the leisure sport venues on-site there

37:05

as well, leisure sport one and two --

37:07

Okay. --

37:07

what Piscatours has only just sort of got hold

37:10

on. Right. And they had a couple of

37:12

other lakes as well all in the same

37:13

complex. You just wander around, we're floater

37:15

riding. So good value to take it back then. You've got

37:17

you've already had to fish it out of that already, and then

37:20

you go to tollpits. Which has got a

37:22

burgeoning carp scene. You're

37:24

right at the start of what you'd have to say is like

37:26

the when when top it

37:28

started to to get a bit of

37:29

traction. Oh, definitely. Yeah. I mean, the first time I think I'd seen topics

37:32

was is one of the early

37:34

carpets, number

37:36

four something like that. Yeah. Paul Klinkenburg. Uh-huh. There's a

37:38

shot of him on the front, not a ready

37:40

color holding. It was

37:42

an old fish called

37:43

smiley. I it it already died by the time I sort

37:46

of got a ticket. But, yeah, with a

37:48

bungalow in the background. So I sort of What

37:49

was this with that bungalow. No

37:52

one ever lived there.

37:52

I don't know

37:53

why it was there. Must have been for, like,

37:55

club meetings, or summit going back.

37:57

Yeah. Far

37:58

enough. Stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's quite an old club piscuit I think.

38:00

Okay. Going a long time. And the

38:01

barn as well on-site. Where

38:04

it was out of

38:06

bungalow comes open

38:08

sided bit. So it was all one thing -- Yeah. -- that

38:10

they turned it into a bit of a

38:11

barn. They used to put straw in there for getting rid of

38:13

the algae at me. But Right.

38:15

Yeah. Famous pictures are tell bivid up in there or or like,

38:18

you know I

38:18

see. Making a

38:19

brew on the hasty -- Yeah. -- haystack's

38:21

around. Yes. Toby's put up

38:24

I mean, you have to take us

38:25

in. Are they the smaller lakes, Gary? No. They're not none

38:27

of those are topics. Are they? No. No. They're not

38:29

at the right lot. Yeah. You

38:32

closed basins. You're

38:34

close. I feel like you need to go further

38:36

south. That that down there, look bottom

38:37

right, that triangle lake. Is that

38:39

a lake that looks it? There

38:41

we go. I wasn't far off. III

38:43

think if you go up now, Topical towards the road, is

38:46

that top one? Is that really triangular shaped one that surely

38:48

is the top one? That's the top Yes. And then you got

38:50

leisure sport one and, yeah, furloughs. Yeah. It's

38:52

Mark, which is leisure sport two.

38:53

Uh-huh. So we should

38:55

say tiny lake. To look the

38:58

lady that sort of stays famous as Topics

39:00

was small.

39:00

Was that the right ones? Yes.

39:01

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's like that.

39:03

It's more than how many acres it was actually officially two

39:05

and a half

39:05

acres maybe. What's that little lake above it,

39:08

Gary? Is that a tiny little something at all?

39:10

Oh, you've got sector

39:12

angling. Not that one. On the

39:14

top left top left.

39:15

Yeah. Yeah.

39:16

Oh. Yeah. That's sector angling.

39:18

Okay. One of the famous fish

39:20

in culprits, sputnik actually came

39:21

out. Did it? Lumi cup sort of different, you know, it was as

39:23

longer -- Yeah. -- almost like lineary type.

39:25

It wasn't a fall

39:27

in here, but it was yeah. Yeah. Because I remember one of the

39:30

guys he he called out of

39:32

Tekturnon. I won't name me off. So he called

39:34

out Tekturnon floaters, chucked it in tollpits, and then he

39:36

called it getting that night out of

39:37

tollpits. I was the first

39:40

party he'd had for quite

39:42

a long I

39:43

mean, that fish went on to be, like, thirty seven

39:45

pound or not. Yeah. But

39:46

but they all did. What was it

39:49

a sport special about that lake? I think it

39:51

must have been the strainer fish must definitely have come into it because there

39:53

was nothing I mean, the lake

39:55

itself was nothing that made you

39:57

think it's got more food or I mean, there's

40:00

blood worm in there and some

40:02

food. But the early days, it never used

40:04

to get weedy, and there's

40:06

lily pads. I mean, in latties,

40:08

it did get very weedy and had some

40:10

good good seasons on it. But I think it was that

40:12

Australian aficionados

40:14

in there. They were same sort of trying to fish that you had a lot in a

40:16

lot of those carbon bally lakes that all went on to

40:18

be

40:18

massive. And somehow,

40:19

we've utterly failed

40:22

to retain as a as a sport, haven't we? They're they're nearly all gone

40:24

gone. Yeah. I

40:25

mean, those Italian fish. You don't

40:27

I mean, don't anyone sells

40:30

those anymore, certainly not not

40:32

I'm aware. I've heard of them being sold, but

40:34

whether they're the

40:34

same, they never quite look like those ones. No.

40:36

I mean, a

40:37

a unique little sort of family of carp

40:39

really. What what kind of number of fish are we

40:41

talking at that stage, would you

40:43

say? I reckon there's probably about

40:45

seventy maybe seventy five -- Mhmm. -- carp in

40:47

there back back in those days

40:49

before they had a bit of a fish kill and they

40:51

lost a few to old

40:53

age. Or was that a

40:54

natural thinning that then allowed it to to produce,

40:56

you know, sixty -- Yeah. -- sixties, wasn't

40:58

it? Or Yeah. I mean, nixties. They topped

41:00

out at sort of third when I went on there, they topped out at of the

41:02

upper twenty, maybe, scraper thirty. Mhmm.

41:04

Big fish for the day, though.

41:06

They're also doing fish fish for

41:10

presumably? What? Before I went on to

41:12

Tolpits, I actually fished let's just bought

41:14

two furloughs next door, which is

41:16

where I'd my first thirty

41:18

from. Okay. I've got a picture

41:20

with that

41:20

one. Yeah. I think there isn't there. Yeah. Pleasure

41:22

spot too. Yeah. I mean, not a lake that

41:24

you hear a lot about. I certainly don't know anything about that.

41:26

We just got a much overshadowed by sort

41:28

of more famous

41:29

neighbor. Yeah. That was always one of those. I mean, I went on there. I remember

41:31

going on there for a couple sessions

41:33

in the winter.

41:35

I actually caught some fish just under twenty

41:38

pound. The first time I went down.

41:40

Okay. And

41:40

then Wow. That's that's quite an

41:42

interesting looking carp in itself.

41:44

It was quite a nice looking fish as well. That one. Yeah. Yeah. mean, shape.

41:46

Mhmm. I mean, so this is a very, very

41:48

sparsy

41:49

scale mirror. Quite quite

41:52

sort of

41:52

thick set as well, I don't know. Yeah.

41:53

There was I mean, there was quite a lot in tollpicks that was

41:55

similar looking as well. You had the Italian

41:58

ones and you had some I mean, I mean, let let's

42:01

be active about this. That doesn't look like an

42:03

Italian. You that could pass for Simo as we know it

42:05

today, but it obviously wouldn't be back then. Not back

42:07

then. No. I imagine it is possibly one of those

42:10

Anglo aquatic Garden center.

42:12

Okay. A lot of the lakes around

42:14

Belgium. Belgium, probably. Belgium

42:16

blue, as you as you might say. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,

42:18

some of the other sort of club lakes around, they had

42:20

some sort of similar of the big fish

42:22

quite similar looking again.

42:24

But that I've got opening day of the

42:26

season. And that was the thirty pound thirty

42:28

pound eight. Was that the biggest? It was

42:30

the biggest. Yeah. Yeah. There was there was one swim

42:32

left when I got down there, which was

42:35

the one I wanted to get

42:37

in. I was fishing down. One rod

42:39

down the margins to a little snag just wading it then. No one no one bothered because you had

42:41

to get in the wall.

42:42

Okay. But you're young and

42:44

keen and Yeah. I didn't why you

42:46

just got in. You

42:47

didn't know the changes shortly. And it's

42:49

trying to stripped off your pads. Oh, jumped

42:51

in. Yeah. Weighted the bait down and they banned

42:53

weighed in soon after I caught

42:55

that. I mean, I'm gonna say you are resplending

42:57

to you resplending in your blue jeans there,

42:59

and they

43:00

do not dry out very quickly today. No. You

43:02

wanna go over that. It's nice. But the top my

43:04

yeah. My plan had been to spend the season on

43:07

there, but then catch in that one. You've got

43:09

the big enough so quickly. Yeah. I then

43:11

moved on to Tulp. And

43:13

talk talk me through the the session quickly

43:15

to that one. No. No. No. No. My site sort

43:17

of turned up would have been

43:20

the afternoon. Everywhere was taken apart from the

43:22

swim or what did, which was called It

43:24

didn't it really have a name. It wasn't one that used

43:26

to get fish much, but is that why you

43:30

chose it? Yeah. I'd caught in the

43:32

winter fishing down to the same sort of snag. There was a little sandy

43:34

spot. There was cold riding boats down there in the

43:36

winter. I was doing it in the middle

43:38

of winter. But,

43:40

yeah, I had a fair idea. The fish should be in

43:42

that area that time. Had it been able to

43:44

bait it. Had it been bait

43:47

in it. I've been through a wall, got the train down here and

43:49

walked around a couple of times. I had seen fish

43:51

in that part of the lake. So

43:53

it was literally you had a really

43:55

bad a little sort of sandy area and then a sort of

43:57

snag tree. So perfect. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. So

44:00

you've got the take

44:02

early morning. Actually came

44:04

away from the snag and went off down the

44:06

lake. So remember having to get having to

44:08

jump in the water and get round into

44:10

another swim to play

44:12

it from. And they'd like waking up to me stood. I stood at the

44:14

front of me swimming with what? Oh, we have a

44:16

hard life. He didn't. Thursday, the

44:18

season

44:19

where he wake suffer and there's you with the beacon on

44:21

the end in the square. Yeah. So landed it. And

44:23

yeah. Instantly, so I knew which yeah. There

44:25

wasn't anything else that big

44:28

in

44:28

there. Were there guys

44:30

on the lake, like, okay

44:32

with this? Like, because you're you're you're you're you're

44:34

glad to come up and knock the bigger note. Yeah. Most of

44:36

that you've yeah. You know, it's some most

44:39

people are alright, and they'll help you out. And, yeah, you obviously always get

44:41

a few that normally the ones

44:43

that moan

44:43

about, again, with the way you didn't think and and

44:46

get it got it because I can't be

44:48

bothered by that. Stage

44:48

your job done and out of that. Anyway, yeah.

44:51

No, anyway. It's

44:52

not so bad if I didn't. And

44:54

moved on to tall fits. Yeah. No

44:56

rules of bro. In the process. Oh, no.

44:58

No. Exactly. No. No. So

45:00

so on

45:01

toll, in what ways

45:02

was was the fishing similar, in what ways was it

45:05

was it different from furloughs? The fish

45:07

on there were they were a lot more pressured, I think. It had us

45:09

seen a lot of attention over the years. It was hard.

45:11

I mean, that first year, I think, I caught

45:13

I've caught for four I

45:15

think four carp that first year art season I went on

45:18

there. No. And it took quite a while to get the

45:20

first one. It was just

45:22

different fishy, and they were quite riggy.

45:24

You could get them on your They just come in and

45:26

clean you out. Mhmm. And will it

45:28

be left with

45:28

fish? Seeing these

45:29

on you. Are you able to watch these fish do that?

45:31

Yeah. It was

45:31

brilliant for that. I mean,

45:34

it's almost like having your own underwater

45:36

film. You can just spend hours just watching them

45:38

feeding on your spots, see how they reacted

45:40

to your rigs, your bay, and sort of

45:42

tweaking things. So learn an

45:44

awful lot. Yeah. And I I guess,

45:46

like, how many years on we

45:48

are now,

45:49

looking back at the way

45:49

those fish behaved on your spots.

45:52

What do you think you should have

45:54

done differently? Probably

45:57

I mean, shorter shorter hook links, probably a great big

45:59

heavy in line. In line They're

46:02

dropping

46:02

off. Existed,

46:03

I suppose, at the time. Didn't

46:05

really insist about it. No. Not

46:07

like that. I think that would probably

46:09

have sorted them out.

46:11

We've given them Like pot particles. Quite a lot of

46:13

particle which again sort of

46:16

figured out in the end if you put too

46:18

much particle in and nothing else, you get them feed

46:20

in for

46:22

five or six hours on your spot

46:24

and not catch anything. So I started fishing more

46:26

boily with the particle and

46:28

sort of start catching them.

46:32

And just how important it was to get an early bite as

46:34

well. If you didn't get a bite early

46:36

morning when they first got on the spot

46:38

-- Yep. They seem to they seem to suck your rig out and

46:40

just leave it. They just feel free to around it.

46:42

You'd watch some flowers floating around

46:43

it. They just wouldn't pick

46:46

it up.

46:46

So talk to you about how you were setting the trap with that

46:48

knowledge,

46:49

how were you setting the trap the night before to make sure you were

46:51

in the best place, how much bait,

46:53

and how did position it within the

46:55

spot. Well, quite often, you'd sort of see him feeding

46:56

on one one part of the spot. He'd

46:58

put your rig there in the next morning.

47:02

That'd be that'd of success -- Yeah. -- very early, and they'd

47:04

be feeding in in another part of the spot.

47:06

So I mean, it was it was

47:10

tweaking things I say the biggest thing

47:12

that made a difference was probably tweaking the amount of particles to body ratio. Mhmm. Because

47:14

you're using body hook baits. Yeah. You're using

47:16

body hook baits back then as well.

47:20

I mean, trying other things. I mean, Tiger Arts and stuff were around

47:22

and fishing. Yeah. Yeah. I'd always

47:24

sort of fish particles. But

47:28

even then, I was using a

47:30

lot of hemp and night pitching conditioner and stuff. So it's all small particles.

47:32

But as soon as you got them

47:34

feeding on the bigger stuff,

47:37

they were catchable then. And you wouldn't get by

47:39

every time I come in obviously, but they

47:41

were not more catchable. So were

47:43

you prepping these spots? Or were

47:45

they spots that were opened up

47:48

already? Some of them were spots that opened

47:50

up. I mean, I used to do quite a lot of stalking on there

47:52

as well, especially when when it was quieter

47:54

back in those days, you could sort of wind in and go off air

47:56

rod, sort of find some fish

47:58

feeding in the edge or on the surface,

48:00

ran in the

48:00

pads. I mean, actually caught a lot of fish out

48:04

there freeline worms. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Just like cut the

48:06

freeline total

48:07

opportunities. Storking has come to mean something a little

48:10

bit different

48:12

in

48:12

today's Karl now,

48:12

it's very much drop a rig down here and wait a few hours.

48:14

It's all of stalking if anything

48:16

in the Korda most, isn't it with one rod

48:18

considered? But back, I mean,

48:21

back in those days used to fish one rod. Any Not

48:23

a big time anyway.

48:26

Yeah. Especially if you had a rock spot in the

48:28

margins, there was no point There's a lot of Bream

48:30

intention that day. So if putting a rod

48:32

out on another spot, all it did was

48:34

compliment York to Bream

48:36

at peak time when they were feeding in

48:38

the

48:38

edge. Land in it spookable, and that's your chance gone by

48:40

fishing two rods. Given

48:41

that this is, you know, you're someone who

48:43

fishes for giant bream

48:46

as well.

48:47

I think there's a lot of us as carpangs would welcome your

48:49

advice on how to avoid the things because

48:51

is it is it as simple as they they

48:53

just don't like the

48:55

margins? Or or tell tell me a little bit about the way you think they

48:57

feed and how we can best use that. I've

48:59

I mean, margins. I have caught bream out

49:01

Korda the margins, but not

49:04

very often. I think they tend to

49:06

go around in they like being in

49:08

shows, so bigger

49:09

numbers. They just seem to like a bit

49:12

of open space to feed on. we got that

49:14

about the shape of these fish

49:15

or, you know, the way that they set up before

49:17

speed? Yeah. And I think that's soul feeding sort

49:19

of thing as well. I mean, even

49:21

worried they don't seem to like

49:23

much. Mhmm. If you've got a nice

49:26

big plateau somewhere,

49:28

sort of away from the way you give far more light

49:30

to catch them

49:31

there, then in amongst weed. I mean, there's there's a picture on

49:33

screen now of you with a a giant

49:35

bream. Us from South Troy, actually. Yeah.

49:37

Okay. So still in the valley.

49:39

Yeah. Yeah. Still in earlier. Fourteen fifteen. I think

49:41

that one. I mean, I think you've got to hear

49:43

fifteen too. Oh, oh, sorry. Now it's hair field

49:45

one. Sorry. This is a

49:47

Yeah. Sorry. That's that that airfield. That airfield. Yes. That's

49:49

what actually had to go for the bream on there.

49:52

Yes. I

49:52

mean, we don't like them generally

49:55

as as a as a as

49:57

a car as, you know, as a as a

49:59

disciplined carpane that's found it difficult with

50:01

breathing, and they, I think less so with tension, but they

50:03

are a magnificent fish. Oh, when

50:05

they get big, Yeah. I mean, I'm not

50:07

so keen on them even when I'm Even when I'm brainfishing. Okay. When

50:10

they're when they're like seven eight pound, they're

50:12

not that

50:14

they don't do a lot fight wise. They're not that impressed to look at and things to get slime

50:16

over everything. So if I do fish Does it

50:19

does it bring that size? Does it

50:21

have some fire to eggs. I've only played

50:23

bream like you said a few pound and coming fairly effortlessly. Is does does

50:26

that does a bream that size have have

50:28

a real fight to

50:28

it? They don't. They still don't

50:31

do a lot. they know. No. No. They're

50:34

heavier to bring in, but they they still come

50:36

in. They're not gonna go sane. Tearing

50:38

off taking those line

50:39

off. Right. They're just just

50:41

that shy puppy. They just don't I

50:43

mean, presumably still there's plenty of scope at I

50:46

don't know what your biggest dream is, but there's plenty of

50:48

scope out

50:48

there, isn't there to catch bigger ones

50:49

in there? I think that's Yeah. That is that would

50:52

be my biggest. It's fifteen to you. Yeah.

50:53

But by your standards, you in terms of

50:56

percentage of the record, you've got quite a

50:57

way to go. Oh, definitely is one of

51:00

those species that, yeah, can definitely improve. Yeah. I mean, those those sort of

51:01

black cubicle gnarly

51:04

brim are quite something, aren't they?

51:07

When they get old. Yeah. I mean, those hair filled ones, I think, were still

51:09

quite young. They just grew on. I

51:11

caught some of those. I I was like, I've never

51:13

fished like ones there

51:14

was so

51:15

many big bream in there seemingly at the time. I was full of them at one time. I've got

51:17

a lot of carp as well. Yeah. But

51:19

I've got more carp fishing

51:21

for the brain than I did when I used to carpets

51:23

machines. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. And in the winter as well.

51:25

You know, it's fun to meet or January. Oh, yeah.

51:27

Isn't they gonna talk about? I mean,

51:29

the hair fill we'd we'd only leave topics because there's a

51:32

there's a story we told

51:32

there, but the hair fillfish you caught. It seemed like you caught

51:35

them big as well, the the carp. Yeah. The cut the

51:37

good

51:37

one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's there was

51:39

sort of a race in the

51:41

peak almost. But but in terms of Toll, you

51:43

actually caught some famous faces, didn't you? What

51:45

what were to go on to be famous

51:47

carp, really? Very much I mean, that first

51:49

season, I saw struggle a bit, started catching towards the end

51:51

of the summer, but the

51:53

following, I saw of knew what I

51:55

was doing a bit more, then that sort of sucked a few

51:58

bits out and -- Yeah. -- sort of start

52:00

the following season.

52:02

Why why two of the big fish, the fish called

52:04

Fati, which was one of the

52:06

original big ones. I mean, that was one that

52:08

used to go

52:10

scraper

52:10

thirty. Upper twenty. Are that it's thirty three thirty?

52:12

Big you had a big wave. Yeah.

52:14

It was a sort of PB at the time.

52:18

And then a few days later, I had to is that fatty there? Yes.

52:20

That's fatty. Yep. I mean, again, a

52:22

very different looking

52:23

carp to what you'd perhaps associate with

52:25

carpets. Yeah. I mean,

52:28

yeah, that I said that. I think they come from all over there. Oh, that's so

52:30

amazing. Yeah. But yeah. Now I think it

52:32

depend being a club like they just sort of

52:34

bought they probably just bought a few

52:36

fish in and air and

52:38

wherever they bought them

52:38

from.

52:39

I mean, he looks ancient already blacked him. That

52:41

was that

52:41

was one of the real world ones even even

52:43

then when I started on there. And do

52:45

you remember the circumstances surrounding that capture? It looks like even if one of those tiny little

52:47

dug outs there, like, the small swims weren't there?

52:49

Oh, that's on the

52:52

path side. That's got the footpath behind.

52:54

I think it's just where they've been doing some work, wielding them half. But

52:56

again, that was fishing one rod, down

52:59

in the margins, this is

53:01

after you discovered that

53:01

you needed

53:01

to significantly back the particle off and and up

53:04

the size. Yeah. And that had been sort of more

53:05

boilie fishing up. Uh-huh. What boilies are

53:08

you on at

53:10

the time? We we Premier Banks were you sort of like in that So back

53:13

Thursday.

53:13

Okay. Traffic would have

53:17

been on. Post possibly Look. I was on dairy cream for

53:19

a while. Yeah. And then sort of switched to the

53:22

sort of fish ones,

53:22

like, fish four's five when -- Okay. -- came out. Yep.

53:24

But I

53:25

think

53:25

that might have been laid

53:27

to the nest. That's probably a

53:29

okay. Probably a bird food one. Presumably,

53:31

you know, obviously, you're rolling these yourself out. You

53:33

would have been

53:34

making them at home. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

53:36

Yeah. And in terms of attractors.

53:38

Are you are you keeping it

53:40

minimal? But then I used to

53:42

if in the dairy cream,

53:45

I to use a natural royal pallet and -- Okay. -- quite a

53:47

lot, which I mean, it sounds like a beaut sounds like

53:49

you could eat it. Oh, it was it smell lovely.

53:51

I may still I still love that

53:53

flavor even today. It's one I've used to quite a lot for

53:55

tension, sort of tension stuff. Methode mixes,

53:58

floaters, I still use it a lot. It's really Yeah.

54:00

It's one of those sort of tractors and

54:03

just worked for years. So did anyone catch out in

54:05

the pond at all? Yeah.

54:08

You did sometimes. Yeah. I've caught a

54:09

few. There were certain

54:12

spots. That you could sort of catch, especially when it was wey

54:14

years it

54:15

was wey again.

54:15

Yeah. You catch because the frame

54:18

just

54:18

don't enjoy work. A lot of being

54:19

on spaces.

54:22

Now them little tiny spots that I managed

54:23

it. Now my people used to catch fish into

54:25

the pads as well to sort of cast into the

54:27

pads, but there wasn't

54:29

anything that

54:29

interested. It was just that silky bottom and it

54:32

just happened to be where the edge of the pads were.

54:34

So once again, you've kind of

54:35

had the big and straight away. Or or

54:37

with the Yeah.

54:39

Wanted I mean, I caught the smaller tally in a

54:41

couple of days after that. Mhmm. Two or

54:43

three days after that at thirty

54:45

four, so my PBU What's the late

54:47

record at that stage?

54:49

I think I think it was around thirty five ish.

54:51

I presume you're knocking on the door. Would have

54:53

been up that sort of y. Yeah. And

54:56

small Italian

54:58

suggests that the big one was bigger, but perhaps not. When

55:00

they when they

55:00

got names, it would have been. Yes. Yeah. I

55:02

mean, the small Italian, the

55:03

one that a lot of people all know

55:06

is plotter. Just

55:08

wasn't called that back

55:09

then. Okay. Got that name. Yeah. Good few years later. So if you called

55:11

it plotter in in our

55:12

shots that we've got here Don't

55:15

think so. So, no. There is.

55:17

Oh, okay. Is that the capture? Yes. Yeah. That

55:19

had been

55:19

it. Thirty four. And you had

55:21

named it Plumber, actually. I

55:23

can't put it

55:23

in there because I don't know with it.

55:26

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this was the

55:28

most famous carp that topics

55:30

went on to produce it.

55:31

Know. Yeah.

55:31

I mean, that went on to over fifty pound that

55:33

fish. Yeah. Yeah. Incredible carp. I

55:35

mean, to to just describe that fish for

55:37

us, Gary. I'll

55:39

again, that was it was literally one

55:40

rod down the margins. I've had that

55:43

other fish fatty -- Yep. -- a

55:45

few days before. So

55:46

Same trip.

55:47

Same trip. That was. Yeah. You had a brace of

55:48

mid thirties or Yeah.

55:49

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That yeah. Smash

55:52

PB sort of twice. Okay. Yeah. That

55:54

thirty pound eight from LaserSport two would

55:56

have been the best before

55:57

that. And, yeah, again,

56:00

sort of another bite early morning.

56:02

Mhmm.

56:02

Just safe.

56:03

Just fishing my rod down

56:05

there. And then -- Yeah. Good fight. --

56:07

sighting fishing? It

56:08

was. Yeah. I mean, being able to watch

56:11

them as well. Siding out for frustrating as

56:13

well. Were you tempted to lower the bait in first thing in the morning? Or

56:15

did

56:15

you did you have it out overnight to

56:18

Normally, put it in overnight and sort

56:21

of left it. On two. So you're on

56:23

it? Probably knew that at no stage in the night we likely to get a bike.

56:25

I can't it's very rare you ever got a

56:28

bike before

56:30

also around first

56:31

light. Would you like to have it all set

56:31

up? You'd have it all set up? Because, like, I mean,

56:33

sometimes they'd appear very early. You'd sort of

56:36

just two

56:38

o'clock. Yeah. By the time it was light enough to see in the

56:39

water, they're already they're already sort of there, all just

56:42

sort of ghosting in and out. You'd see like the old

56:44

apartment. And was this

56:45

a first light bike? That

56:47

would have been, yeah, soon after first flight. Yeah.

56:49

Because what was that?

56:50

Because, generally, if you were getting it right, it would happen

56:53

straight away. And if you get it wrong, it it

56:55

it would

56:55

Yeah. Very much either either either court one or

56:57

they knew it's not so frustrating as you felt them all

56:59

in Deborah Way, though. At that point -- Yeah. -- she like, well,

57:01

I'm definitely not getting one there. If

57:04

you try

57:05

to do it if you know. We've gone. They

57:06

didn't come back. Right. Spooked them off the margins.

57:08

Yeah. So that time in the

57:10

morning, they weren't coming back either. I mean, there's a

57:12

sort of

57:12

again, there's that famous picture Terry Honesett would be

57:15

on the Camo screen there. Isn't there a lot probably on

57:16

the same

57:16

footpath, I guess. That he would have been on

57:18

that side as I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah.

57:20

I mean, it's I

57:22

caught a few out there at night over the years sort of

57:24

fishing closer and when it was weedy. Mhmm. But once you got

57:27

a bite off of a spot, that

57:30

was it. You knew you weren't gonna get another bite. I mean, I'd

57:32

one year in particular, but I did really well

57:34

on there. But I was if chockaway

57:36

weed hardly anyone was fishing

57:39

it, and I was a lot younger than you sort of catch

57:41

catch a fish, move to another

57:44

swim. Sometimes you catch two, I

57:46

think, I've even had free in a night at

57:48

three different suites. You let you barble fishing from

57:50

basically you you do --

57:50

Yeah. -- catch one move on catch one move

57:53

on and and

57:53

what I wrote take the bait in? Or would

57:55

you bait as soon as you left or anything like that? Sometimes you're trickling a bit of bait in here and

57:57

there. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was making bait

58:00

on the bank -- Yeah. -- back then if

58:02

I was certainly doing

58:04

sort of school holidays or

58:06

holidays sort of from

58:08

university. So we had a ground sheet on our ground sheet

58:10

on the bed share and but not even bothering me with boil. It's just

58:12

making sausages and just broilin' a massage.

58:14

He's breaking them up. And once there are any fish in

58:16

close range

58:18

and both What kind of anglers were

58:20

we talking about on there at the time? There was some say there was some pretty no

58:22

one that will known when I was

58:24

fishing it initially, but

58:28

sort of people who went on to be good local anglers or

58:30

some of the other some of the other as

58:32

we

58:32

know, you know, those guys can be

58:36

very often, every bit as good as the guys who who do know. Oh,

58:38

very

58:38

much. So yeah. You look at what some of them

58:40

ran that wire, you never publicized. I

58:42

think, well, they caught over is their

58:44

catches to be up there pretty much with anybody. Mhmm.

58:47

But then it got popular. I suppose

58:49

it would have been I mean, Nick was

58:51

fishing. Nick earlier was pushing

58:53

it a little bit. And then

58:56

Terry sort of started on there as

58:58

well. Lowie

59:00

actually struggle to start with on there. It

59:02

was quite interesting with those little stiff

59:03

injuries. Yep. Just didn't seem to have. But he came what he

59:05

was confident in, and he's this

59:08

year. Perhaps the situations he's having to fish them. I don't know in the was it

59:10

all still margin fishing then? Or Yeah. I mean,

59:12

he's tried to sort of do it his way initially.

59:18

And didn't work. But then when he did come, he once he did suck it, it

59:20

didn't take it didn't take him long to. And he

59:22

was actually the first fishy caught was

59:24

the the common out there. By

59:28

which stage, that was forty pound oh,

59:30

thirty nine. Thirty nine. I

59:31

said, yeah. I'll wait it for him. Yeah. He can't wake me up

59:33

and yeah. He's he's the only one I wanted still.

59:35

Oh, really, mate. Because by this stage, you've

59:37

been on there a few years, I guess? Yeah. It'd been

59:39

a few years. Yeah. I mean, the

59:42

last the last year

59:44

are sort spent a lot of time on there. I I think I twenty

59:46

twenty nine fish that year.

59:48

Loans. Yeah. Not yet. Toprod.

59:52

It would have been that year, but quite a what year. I

59:54

mean, that was, like, half probably half a stock or

59:56

more at the time. And I had a

59:58

lot of the ones. I wanted I had the big Italian that

1:00:01

year. I leasters as

1:00:02

well. Got hot topics. Got a fire, a bit lessors,

1:00:04

another fish that did knock it on fifty. It

1:00:06

certainly did. But before Certainly did.

1:00:09

Yeah. Sort of Yeah. I

1:00:10

mean, looking very

1:00:11

young and clean there and the fish

1:00:13

too. Yes.

1:00:15

Yeah. Yes. There. It's another

1:00:18

gray Italian, but this one's got some sort of

1:00:20

like it's got more scales. Yeah. It's it's mattered

1:00:22

with

1:00:23

starbursts as well. Was that that fish

1:00:25

that was on your mind, like, when you were there, when you

1:00:27

knew of. And it was one I really

1:00:30

wanted. I mean, I actually thought I'd miss my chance

1:00:32

after that one when I when I

1:00:34

called it. It's from it's funny

1:00:36

enough. It's from the same spot where I caught

1:00:38

the nice first two thirties that I've

1:00:40

got out of there. But it's like one rod and

1:00:42

just as I was lowering in the evening, it came

1:00:44

swimming through -- Oh. -- with a rig. Yeah.

1:00:46

-- just sort of throws rig mid

1:00:48

water and just carried on swimming enough

1:00:50

for us not coming back but it

1:00:52

did and

1:00:53

yeah. I caught that one. It was just in in the dark as

1:00:55

well. Do you think that you were

1:00:57

catching fish that arrived

1:00:59

on your spot on their own or were they

1:01:01

always to with other How is that

1:01:02

working? They're off often you'd get more

1:01:04

than one feeding on the spot. I

1:01:07

mean, needed. That one used to

1:01:09

go about with two sort of low to mid

1:01:12

twenty mirrors, both of

1:01:14

which I've caught quite a few times.

1:01:16

The bodyguards -- Yeah. --

1:01:17

basically. Yeah. And then then eventually call it.

1:01:20

How big was that one that had was leicester?

1:01:22

Thirty five twelve. I mean, these are these

1:01:24

are big

1:01:25

carp, Gary. They were

1:01:25

big back then. Oh, then? Yeah. They were big back then.

1:01:28

Oh, then is it what is it? Late

1:01:30

nineties? But, I mean, yeah, probably

1:01:32

would have been. Or early two

1:01:34

thousands

1:01:34

even. Yeah. Probably ninety eight

1:01:35

ish.

1:01:35

Yeah. Somewhere around there. Yeah. Yeah. So

1:01:38

twenty eight ninety nine, I would get And mid thirty is

1:01:40

still big to

1:01:40

me today. So Yeah. Well, yes.

1:01:43

Saying. And we're and we're a long way further on there.

1:01:45

Aren't we so? But I love the

1:01:47

I think great Nick as

1:01:48

well. They were not there were some really nice

1:01:50

fish in there. I mean, even some of the ones that had sort of gone by the time, I mean, one

1:01:52

of my favorite ones out there was a fish

1:01:55

called two tone, which something possibly got

1:01:57

a picture of there. But

1:02:00

that had sort of got a lot of people won't have

1:02:02

seen that one because it already died --

1:02:03

Okay. -- before -- Yeah. -- sort of everyone sort of

1:02:05

turned up on there.

1:02:07

Mhmm. Is this That's that one. Yeah. I mean,

1:02:09

again, the similarities with with lesters aren't

1:02:12

there, coloration, the roughness of its

1:02:13

skin, the

1:02:16

golden scales, the grayness of its flanks. Yeah. I mean, it's a really old one as

1:02:18

well.

1:02:18

I mean, that's

1:02:19

yeah. I don't know how old they were those fish. They could

1:02:21

easily have been like forty years old. Some of those, I would

1:02:23

guess. So were you were you

1:02:25

aware of

1:02:26

a stocking record or anything like that. Okay. Oh, already spoken to people about where they might

1:02:28

have come from. It was a very much a match

1:02:30

club, so they weren't that interested

1:02:34

in it.

1:02:35

There was, yeah, there was no one really that was I mean,

1:02:38

even the committee meetings, the other sort of

1:02:40

ATMs and stuff, it was all about matchfish and

1:02:42

stuff. Okay. They just weren't

1:02:44

ban anything a car recycling

1:02:46

related. Like, it sort of gets

1:02:48

something new every

1:02:48

year. Why don't we ban buzzers? Why? Or

1:02:51

just because we want it? Are

1:02:54

you to find a way around it, Gary? I'm sure I'm sure, probably, wouldn't it? Yeah. Yeah.

1:02:57

Yeah. Are you still sleeping on the floor at this

1:02:59

stage? Or are you now

1:03:00

driving? I wouldn't now I probably

1:03:02

wouldn't have been driving in then.

1:03:04

Because I went to university up in Birmingham and No.

1:03:07

Twenty out of my point having a car.

1:03:09

I didn't learn to drive

1:03:11

till after that. So Yeah.

1:03:13

I'll probably still be getting a lift down there

1:03:15

at that

1:03:15

stage. But you are did a

1:03:17

lot of people's fish and takes a backseat when they

1:03:19

go to university? Was it we restricted summers only

1:03:21

or or or that holidays only at that point? I probably

1:03:22

should have been, but I used to do quite a

1:03:24

lot of time. I was gonna say, did

1:03:27

university

1:03:27

take a back see.

1:03:29

Yeah. She's not gonna have a reading week, ma'am.

1:03:31

Yeah. Yeah. Any shots on the left hand the

1:03:34

light.

1:03:35

Oh, sure. I mean, the you

1:03:38

perished in choose to have a word with you

1:03:40

at this point, though,

1:03:40

about how much fishing you're doing. Oh, there always there was a lot of

1:03:41

sort of exam results and stuff were

1:03:44

okay. Yeah. What do you study? Money

1:03:46

banking

1:03:47

and finance. Wow. Okay. Permian. Yeah. Yeah. And you and I think you mentioned that

1:03:50

you did you did a year in finance. Did

1:03:52

you Yeah. You're talking about yeah. It'd been about a

1:03:54

year before

1:03:56

into fishing. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I wasn't really enjoying that. I was looking around

1:03:58

for something else. And -- Yeah. -- fact, it was

1:04:00

a gone. He was fishing airfield at the time. He

1:04:03

said, oh, so job going in anger's

1:04:05

mouth. I mean, your mom and dad have just supported you through I

1:04:07

mean, you probably supported yourself, Gary. We've been as it was

1:04:09

Oh, that's not

1:04:11

working as well, else working in

1:04:13

a public order. They've seen you go through university

1:04:15

and then you decided you're not gonna work in

1:04:18

finance. You're actually gonna go and probably work

1:04:20

for a pittance for

1:04:21

Yeah.

1:04:21

In the Anglin trade -- Yes. --

1:04:23

at the time. Yeah. It wasn't I mean, it wasn't

1:04:25

too bad, actually. Because Anglin's mayor were part

1:04:27

of IPC media. Anglin's based in London

1:04:29

as well. Basically, then it was actually not

1:04:31

bad, like, salary wise. And it wasn't too bad. It was the first job you

1:04:33

got then. What was the job that you took it?

1:04:36

It was It

1:04:38

was just on the news desk. So Okay. Yeah. So we had

1:04:40

to write writing on this. Yeah. I mean, that's

1:04:42

pretty much what I worked at throughout.

1:04:45

I was there was AAA

1:04:47

news

1:04:47

reporter. Look,

1:04:48

because that they were newsmakers. You know?

1:04:50

Yeah. Very news based. I enjoyed getting out as

1:04:52

well, going out sort of photograph and record

1:04:54

fish --

1:04:55

Yeah. --

1:04:55

doing features and stuff. So yeah.

1:04:57

I think one thing that had always

1:05:00

fascinated me about that era seen some

1:05:02

rasking Chris Ball about it on on interview

1:05:04

we did for SiP was about the

1:05:06

competitive side of of

1:05:08

of securing scoops between,

1:05:10

you know, likes of carp talk, the male,

1:05:12

the times, like, how did that actually

1:05:14

work? Quite often you get someone

1:05:16

phone up when like a record Korda almost got

1:05:18

into like a bidding sort of

1:05:19

process. Yes. That phone you you are. Then that phone

1:05:22

the times and then come

1:05:24

back. What the times were offered me this, can

1:05:26

you can you match

1:05:26

it? Yeah. Very much. So again, you beat that. And

1:05:29

I mean, I think in the end, we came

1:05:31

up with a policy. You'd offer him what

1:05:33

it

1:05:33

was, and that was it. They

1:05:35

they over wanted all I did. Obviously, you'd end up, start

1:05:37

signing a bidding war. Can you share what

1:05:39

what you would offer for a

1:05:41

story like that?

1:05:43

Then you've probably got a five out five hundred pounds.

1:05:45

I'm sorry

1:05:45

that. Absolutely. That's what I mean. That's a

1:05:47

long story. Yeah. So

1:05:49

yeah. You you can understand why people would play you off each other. Oh, very yes.

1:05:52

Yes.

1:05:52

Yeah. For the exclusive No. Would would

1:05:54

the guys who played

1:05:55

the game, would they have been the

1:05:57

hard and specialing or

1:05:59

would there have been just chances who caught a bigger than

1:06:02

More hardened specimen until they knew the

1:06:04

crack. Yeah. Oh, god. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

1:06:06

Yeah. I mean, some of them very much

1:06:08

So you'd get them that set a story to the Times -- Yeah. -- then you get their

1:06:11

mate fired up and say, who's got his

1:06:13

soldiers to the Times, but to a

1:06:15

few photos as well. Wow. You didn't. No.

1:06:17

No. It's I haven't encountered times.

1:06:20

Yeah. What

1:06:20

I mean, I saw

1:06:21

the times I bought, and it's closer to both

1:06:23

in on it.

1:06:24

I'm sure they must have been -- Right. Yeah. -- back. Yeah. But did that mean that

1:06:27

you got called out as well? But you must have seen

1:06:29

some incredible sites at that stage. Or

1:06:31

was it just photographers likely

1:06:34

the likes of Roy Westwood in there.

1:06:35

Greg and Roy probably did more of that

1:06:38

just because the experience side of

1:06:40

it. Because,

1:06:40

again, that's days before digital. So you've

1:06:43

been shitting yourself --

1:06:44

Yeah. -- frankly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. On slide

1:06:46

film, when you don't yeah. You get your

1:06:48

put your films in, getting back the mall in and see if you

1:06:50

got anything or not. Yeah. But that

1:06:52

one of the barbell records I've photographed twenty

1:06:54

one. So in fact, it's a current

1:06:56

record Korda. Grand Kings

1:06:59

one. Yeah. Was that the

1:06:59

traveler? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And the

1:07:02

famous one bidding to swim the

1:07:04

afternoon before, fishing

1:07:05

for it, and watching it.

1:07:07

Yeah. Watching Came out second in the draw because it's days only.

1:07:09

She had a draw in the morning. He's if there's more than one

1:07:12

person there. Graham got number

1:07:14

one in that square. How did he know the

1:07:16

fish were

1:07:18

there? There there was quite a few in that area at the time. So everyone

1:07:20

sort of everyone who was fishing it regularly

1:07:22

knew that's where, you

1:07:23

know, wanted to get and, yeah,

1:07:25

about an app cut the vials into the day. I've got a call.

1:07:27

Yeah. When he came down and got me, so you were coming to fight

1:07:29

a crime. And do

1:07:32

you feel pressured with that kind of

1:07:34

thing? Because you you strike me

1:07:36

as a guy who, you know, the

1:07:38

record the record

1:07:40

is

1:07:41

important, an important

1:07:42

thing. Yeah. I mean, you feel pressure

1:07:44

in terms of the pictures coming out

1:07:46

when you get I mean, in terms of actually taking

1:07:48

the shots, it's just like you would.

1:07:50

It's just any other fish, isn't it? It's just a bit more I don't know.

1:07:53

We never photo I mean, I he's

1:07:55

like a photograph and he's

1:07:58

terms of the process you go

1:07:59

through, but it also you feel pressure. If you do mess

1:08:01

it up, then -- Yeah. -- but you

1:08:03

had a process, which is something I

1:08:06

mean, that's stage, you're conscious of

1:08:08

capturing, fishing as as much as you can?

1:08:10

Or I mean, you you you you die

1:08:12

that you you know, you love your

1:08:14

photography now. Was that the case

1:08:15

then? Yeah. I was always into photography. I mean,

1:08:17

I learned back when I was in my

1:08:19

teens that were on old

1:08:21

man fully manual camera, sort of light meter, and all that. So so I did have some idea

1:08:23

when it came to settings. Some of it was still

1:08:26

a slide film then, but things had moved

1:08:28

on.

1:08:31

So all types of things. Did did Graeme pass you his camera?

1:08:33

Or

1:08:33

do you do someone yours and here's how did it

1:08:36

work? I think

1:08:38

I shot I shot them on my camera, someone else would have been

1:08:40

shooting on his, and there was there would

1:08:42

have been several cameras on me at that

1:08:43

time. Definitely. What kind of impact

1:08:45

did did a fish? I mean,

1:08:48

those fish were huge news at the time, weren't they

1:08:50

the numbers massive? Yeah. What did it look like? Can you take can you do you remember the moment?

1:08:54

I remember just I mean, the sheer size of it. I mean, having seen even

1:08:56

though I've seen them in the water, that was the first

1:08:58

time I've seen the twenty pound barbell on

1:09:01

the

1:09:01

bank, and it was

1:09:03

it was massive. I mean, I

1:09:05

caught I think that that same I

1:09:07

a that

1:09:11

was just massively different. I mean, a scraper fifteen

1:09:14

in back in then, what would've been twenty, like, twenty

1:09:16

years ago. Yeah. I

1:09:17

mean, still that was still a big fish.

1:09:19

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think I

1:09:22

fifteen four or something like that, fish. Yeah. I mean, those

1:09:24

Adam's real fish changed the game, didn't they?

1:09:26

In terms of what what what what

1:09:28

what Bob will could do in our

1:09:30

waters. Oh, very much. So it was only a few years

1:09:32

before that. The record was

1:09:34

still fourteen twelve or

1:09:35

something, not that many years before that, and

1:09:38

double figure fish were sort of making. I mean, you

1:09:40

and you, hoping we may well come onto this.

1:09:42

But, you know, you've you've recently caught a

1:09:44

twenty pound bar. We've taken you twenty

1:09:46

years, I guess, to to to get a fish of that. It just shows you how big they were, I think. Oh, yeah. I mean, there there was those

1:09:48

fish. Obviously, there went some fish -- Mhmm.

1:09:50

-- were going around the twenty pound mark

1:09:55

It was one, I think two, went some fish

1:09:57

at the time. Mhmm. From

1:10:00

memory, huge

1:10:02

framed fish to wen some fish and maybe the the worms will fish shorter and

1:10:04

flatter. Was that was that was that the fish? Yeah. They

1:10:06

probably

1:10:07

were. Yeah. I mean,

1:10:07

there was a bit of a mixture, you

1:10:09

know. Oh, it was

1:10:10

a little wen some fish called Beau. I can't remember. One was.

1:10:12

There. But one of

1:10:14

the

1:10:14

things the point I was making is

1:10:17

taking you a long time to catch a twenty

1:10:19

pounder. Oh, well, this is any

1:10:21

about. Oh, there's there's there's a picture of Oh, yeah. That's the temps. Yeah. And to be honest, yeah. I mean,

1:10:23

getting one out of the

1:10:27

temps probably meant more

1:10:29

time. Yeah. I mean, the television's been getting yeah.

1:10:31

I mean, used. I came very close to catching the traveler

1:10:35

at London

1:10:36

times. Never had it. But, yeah,

1:10:38

that probably meant

1:10:39

more I mean, that that was Was this this this winter or last winter? That was last

1:10:41

February. Last February?

1:10:44

Yeah. Okay. Enough talking

1:10:46

about enthusiasm for fishing coming back from foreign trips. I'd actually flown back from Uganda

1:10:48

the day before that. So

1:10:50

I was totally jet lagged The

1:10:56

weather had been warm. It was just going I

1:10:58

could see the temperature dropping off and knew there

1:11:00

wasn't gonna be a chance for marble

1:11:02

Korda sort of good few weeks after that. I mean, it was it was really cold when I turned up there.

1:11:04

Having come for thirty five

1:11:06

days. Very nice. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

1:11:11

And and in flood, but -- Yeah. -- would you say that fish

1:11:13

is in peak condition there? Yeah. I mean,

1:11:15

it always it's one of those

1:11:18

fish. It comes out I mean,

1:11:20

that get it's caught a few times that

1:11:22

fish. It is a known one. Mhmm. As long as both big fish are. But comes

1:11:25

out sort

1:11:27

of like eighteen's in the summer and autumn anyway

1:11:29

seems to pile the weight on back end. I mean, it looks enormous.

1:11:32

It doesn't it looks

1:11:34

like an Iberian bible to me

1:11:36

that the the depth of the flank, I

1:11:38

think, is what impresses me. It was ridiculous. I mean, to be to be

1:11:39

honest, the length of

1:11:40

it is it doesn't show

1:11:42

in the picture because it was

1:11:46

so long as well. I

1:11:47

mean, when that came up, did you know immediately

1:11:49

them? It must be feel like hooking the bloody

1:11:52

sandbags. Yeah. She acme, the line

1:11:54

was for a for a tree. Yeah. I I had a couple of fish in the same swim

1:11:57

a month

1:12:00

or so before that, that's got snagged in

1:12:02

the same tree where a bit of effort and patience had come out. And that did eventually.

1:12:05

But it

1:12:08

just felt so heavy. I thought it was I

1:12:10

thought it must still be a bit of a snag on it, and I was expecting a lump of tree to come up and

1:12:12

a barble. Mhmm. But then

1:12:14

when just a barble came up,

1:12:17

up. I mean, it's really muddy the water,

1:12:19

so you couldn't see clearly, but seeing where the hook was going, where the

1:12:22

tower came up, but first

1:12:25

hit the surface. I knew it was big. And then I mean, when

1:12:27

it went in the net, I knew. Yeah. Well, I couldn't know if I definitely had a

1:12:29

fair idea what which fish it

1:12:31

must

1:12:31

be. I have to

1:12:34

ask how you feel in that moment of capture versus, let's say, an alligator

1:12:36

guy or

1:12:37

some or a

1:12:39

buffalo cart. Korda, that

1:12:42

would have meant more than sort of the

1:12:45

gar or the buffalo carp, definitely because I've

1:12:47

sort of spent I've spent a lot

1:12:49

of time on the Timmins over the NOS.

1:12:51

Twenty odd years. I mean, I'll add them

1:12:53

to fifteen, ten before that

1:12:55

from from another stretch. And

1:12:58

other doubles, but nothing close to

1:13:00

that. So it was a lot of effort

1:13:02

that got into it. Mhmm. then some of

1:13:04

my foreign trips like say, Marsier fishing

1:13:06

or Knoll Perch where I've spent a lot of time on a venue or in a country fishing

1:13:10

for them. It's a

1:13:13

similar theme when you get a -- Is

1:13:15

it? -- get a big one. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that one I

1:13:17

was dancing about on the bank

1:13:18

and Yeah. Yeah. Who who'd you call? Like, you do they

1:13:20

said, self takes. Yeah. Yeah. There's

1:13:22

no one else down there. Because of the conditions. I'll say they were it was so cold. Yeah. The water temperature started

1:13:24

to drop off. But by often

1:13:27

found that's the best time

1:13:30

for Big Barble.

1:13:30

What was it kind of spurs among do you think? I

1:13:33

think they have one last, especially if you had a

1:13:35

period where it's been warm for

1:13:37

quite a while, the fishing never that you

1:13:39

catch, but it's never that good. But

1:13:41

that last little bit, I think

1:13:43

they know it's gone this week, night. It

1:13:45

would have been I would probably been out of Sunday evening. Right. I was

1:13:47

gonna go barble fishing. Yeah. Because it's that was cold that night

1:13:49

and cold during the day,

1:13:52

but that turn

1:13:54

in temperature, I think, just just turns them on.

1:13:56

They just know that something that

1:13:58

that cold weather is coming in. Same

1:14:01

sometimes on lakes, isn't it? That if freeze ups come

1:14:03

in, the fishermen might know that something's happening and they're

1:14:05

over one mile sort of feed --

1:14:07

Mhmm. -- before they sort

1:14:09

of, yeah, go a bit more doorman. So you've seen

1:14:11

the traveler. What other opportunities did the job afford

1:14:13

you? And oh, were you just literally stuck

1:14:16

it to be on a desk lot on the

1:14:18

end of the phone to these guys? Like a shorthand or whatever writing down

1:14:20

your, you know, your new stories and

1:14:22

getting them to press. I mean, a

1:14:25

lot of it was by in the office sort of

1:14:27

on the phones back in

1:14:30

those days. Occasionally going

1:14:33

out for facial features like

1:14:35

covering the British carpangolin championship stuff like that, or

1:14:37

big matches, like nationals, and things

1:14:40

like that. Which

1:14:42

was always interesting getting out getting out of the

1:14:44

office, but it was mainly office based back in those

1:14:46

days. I was listening. Did it mean

1:14:47

though that you

1:14:49

were for the first time plugged into a national scene rather

1:14:51

than just a regional one. Yeah, very much. So certainly on

1:14:53

the specimen side of things

1:14:55

you're talking to.

1:14:58

Quite a few different people. I

1:15:00

mean, sometimes even if they weren't

1:15:02

publicizing where they were catching from,

1:15:05

they'd sort of tell you tell you

1:15:07

a bit of stuff to keep yourself. So it's quite good

1:15:09

from that sort of point of view. And

1:15:11

even just seeing what was

1:15:13

getting caught If you knew a load of

1:15:15

barbell were getting caught, it made sense to go. But

1:15:17

I'll get out and go barbell fishing. Yeah. The conditions are

1:15:19

obviously good. So So

1:15:22

yeah. And I did use to hear quite definitely helped a

1:15:24

lot being in that sort of grapevine. I mean,

1:15:26

these days I'm sort of totally out of the loop

1:15:28

on that sort of

1:15:29

stuff. I just go and do my own fishing. Okay.

1:15:31

Probably don't get to hear near what I used to. Okay.

1:15:33

Right. So you're

1:15:34

not like, you know, bespeaker

1:15:36

and anglers

1:15:37

generally have clubbed together. Over

1:15:39

the years,

1:15:40

they've formed groups, but you've been kind

1:15:42

of a loner apart from your time at the the male, would you say? Yeah. Pretty much.

1:15:45

I mean,

1:15:48

these days, I I

1:15:48

like places that quiet as well. I won't I won't go

1:15:50

and sit on somewhere if it was absolutely rammed and not

1:15:52

a particularly nice place to fish

1:15:54

just because they happen to have

1:15:56

something big in

1:15:57

it. It's gotta be something that I've gotta be something that I want -- Okay. --

1:15:59

want to be. Yeah. And you

1:16:02

went on to write a

1:16:04

column for the male, didn't you as well? Yes. How did how did

1:16:06

that start? How did that sort of when did they was there an angle that dropped

1:16:08

the column and you took it

1:16:10

over? Or how did it work? Yeah.

1:16:14

Would've been I mean, Andy literally had it originally

1:16:16

for years, and he and Welch did it for

1:16:18

a few years. Yeah. I mean, by that

1:16:20

stage, I already had, like, an occasional column

1:16:22

in there about my and fishing, not not like a weekly but they get me

1:16:25

to do bits every now and again. And

1:16:27

then winning in work sort of

1:16:30

left. Yet they, you know, offered the editor

1:16:32

to offer me the job of doing

1:16:34

that full time. Okay. But how

1:16:37

does that work

1:16:38

then? Because you're I've you're

1:16:39

still presumably that you have other duties, but you have to return

1:16:41

the car every week. I went freelance

1:16:43

completely free. It

1:16:46

was completely freelance at the time. Yeah. It on money what

1:16:47

earning. So you had to leave the company to carry on work

1:16:50

because I left, yeah, to go and do the column. So

1:16:52

instead of what being in the office five

1:16:54

days of week, I was out in the

1:16:56

bank.

1:16:57

So you're you're a full time fisherman at that point. Yeah. Basically,

1:16:59

I suppose

1:16:59

I was last year on this year. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, are they,

1:17:00

like, consultancy with Drainin

1:17:02

as well at the time?

1:17:06

Baked bits and pieces. But yeah, it would have been but

1:17:08

it's one of those things you had to treat as a

1:17:10

job. You needed to get a column every week.

1:17:13

Yeah. Needed to get a a head on a

1:17:16

few. You couldn't just sing ongoing

1:17:18

fishing. It's I

1:17:19

reckon, sort of, three or four days

1:17:21

the week was spent.

1:17:22

Getting the

1:17:23

column, like, getting the fish going out and catching saying,

1:17:25

getting the photos done for it and then writing

1:17:27

it. How much were you left to your own

1:17:29

devices with that? And how much did they say Gary,

1:17:31

we could really do with something on x, y, zed. It was

1:17:33

pretty much whatever I wanted to

1:17:35

do. So totally free complete

1:17:37

freedom to just go out and fish for whatever conditions

1:17:39

were right for at the time. It

1:17:42

had to be something specimen related.

1:17:44

Yep. I mean, some of that meant

1:17:46

going out with other people as well. So

1:17:48

that's that load a bit. Yeah. That's

1:17:50

quite good. Yeah. Even from the photography. I mean, trying to get action shots, suit yourself, and self takes. It's

1:17:52

never it's never easy. It's

1:17:55

bad enough fish shot.

1:17:58

That, you know, trying to settle the camera out and then

1:18:00

trigger it off whilst trying to play

1:18:02

fish. Mhmm. Yeah. I

1:18:03

mean, prestigious work

1:18:06

though, you know. There aren't many people who held those

1:18:08

sort of columns. You know, obviously Martin Butler

1:18:10

springs to mind. Yeah. You know, you're adding

1:18:12

a little, like you

1:18:14

say, you know, that the there's not

1:18:16

without pressure, is it?

1:18:18

Oh, definitely not an army. You had to go out and catch it. I mean, when it was freezing cold, the lakes were frozen, the rivers were

1:18:20

in flood. Mhmm. And it was

1:18:22

tipping it down with rain out

1:18:26

side as well. Yeah. So I think where do I go now to

1:18:28

go and catch something? Yeah. Which again comes back

1:18:30

to sort of planning ahead and trying

1:18:33

to get sort of a few columns in the ag

1:18:35

that you can use if you do get difficult conditions like that.

1:18:37

So Right. Okay. So, I mean, very

1:18:39

much a job. You you

1:18:41

took a professional approach.

1:18:42

You to trade. It's a joke. It wouldn't have lasted up in

1:18:44

a situation where you had a week and you

1:18:47

didn't have anything to write about.

1:18:49

So how long did you keep the column going?

1:18:51

That was about six years. Look on the end. Yeah. Fun memories of that time? Yeah. Very much.

1:18:53

So yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was good for yeah.

1:18:55

To have complete that complete

1:18:58

freedom just to go and fish.

1:19:00

When you wanted to. I mean, my own fishing,

1:19:02

I could sort of fit around it. Yeah. So if

1:19:04

conditions sort of

1:19:07

good for

1:19:08

that, you can do. You already had a

1:19:10

few columns in the bag. You could yeah. Did you feel that you're most comfortable when you

1:19:12

were a few columns to

1:19:14

the good and you could perhaps

1:19:17

take the foot off the gas or Yeah. It was always good to have a

1:19:19

bit of a -- Yeah. -- of yeah. A bit of a buffer there. Especially

1:19:24

as it was had to be sort of

1:19:27

specimen sized fish that you were going for. Because, I mean -- Yeah. -- you could

1:19:29

have runs where you're not catching it

1:19:31

off before you're willing

1:19:34

Yeah. Yeah.

1:19:35

Is that is that a genuine cover

1:19:37

that one? Oh, it is. Yeah. That'd

1:19:38

be oh, that's a farthest. That

1:19:41

one. Two thousand fourteen. Yeah. That be a

1:19:43

follow. So that would would that would would fourteen have been towards

1:19:45

the end of your time doing

1:19:46

that? Yeah. That'd be,

1:19:47

like, four years into

1:19:49

doing the column. Yeah.

1:19:52

Okay. Yeah. But, you know, it's handy type of things that because that

1:19:54

that, you know, that is a lovely common. And I do wanna

1:19:56

get back on to cart before

1:19:58

we before we talk a little more

1:20:01

about yourself elsewhere.

1:20:03

Herefield is an

1:20:07

extremely famous Yeah. Venue

1:20:09

in the valley. Talk to me a little bit about how

1:20:11

you ended up on there because from the

1:20:13

pictures that you've

1:20:15

sent, you actually caught some of the

1:20:17

very famous copper lived in there, and you caught them with

1:20:19

big weights as well. Yeah. I mean, it's one of those venues I'd always about as a

1:20:21

kid, going back to sort

1:20:23

of my limber books.

1:20:26

You had, obviously, cart world at the time. And so we have a cart magazines. People like Martin

1:20:32

Clark, Studio at Gingham, all

1:20:34

those sort of people fishing on there, catching big carp, and

1:20:36

it was local as well.

1:20:38

So it sort of made sense

1:20:41

that it would be a venue. And

1:20:43

could you just get an interest ticket through through Bollo? You just literally pay the

1:20:46

money and walk on.

1:20:48

Yeah. It was a syndicate, but they had

1:20:50

places about a mate of mine, James Eames, the office we've got a lot when we were

1:20:53

kids. He he got

1:20:55

a ticket on there

1:20:58

before me was catching some good fish. Toll pit, so I'd sort of I

1:21:03

still had fish wanted out there,

1:21:05

but I'd fished it quite a lot and sort of done a lot of what I wanted on there. So sort of looking for new challenges.

1:21:08

Yep.

1:21:11

So when the chance came to get

1:21:14

a ticket on here, Phil just sort of took that. Can you describe to those people

1:21:18

who don't have perhaps haven't seen pictures of hair fields because it is

1:21:20

a very unique venue, and it tells

1:21:23

what it was

1:21:23

like. It was I

1:21:25

mean, it

1:21:25

was a lot bigger than what I was used

1:21:27

to. I mean, the end where

1:21:29

you turn up, it still it was still a working gravel pit at the top. Well, they weren't

1:21:31

extracting gravel out That had finished the

1:21:34

barges going up and down

1:21:37

taken gravel would finish by the time

1:21:39

I started on there, but they've still washing gravel very much sort gravel workings. Yeah. The

1:21:41

lake started still. I mean,

1:21:43

back there, it's got

1:21:47

to suit up from one end. Cut the sort of famous

1:21:49

swims have gone. I mean, the play

1:21:51

you had quite a lot of

1:21:53

world renowned numbers on

1:21:54

there? Or sort of reasonably well There there

1:21:57

was still there's still good numbers there when you've got

1:21:59

the busy the sort of what

1:22:01

one might consider the heyday if it would

1:22:03

have been a few years

1:22:04

before, I guess. It definitely would have been. I mean,

1:22:06

the real famous anglers shall we say that

1:22:09

sort of moved on the time I was on

1:22:10

there. Yeah. There was still some pretty good handling the anglers on there. And in terms of this incredible I

1:22:13

I was at I

1:22:16

don't you're gonna mistake just how dramatic the

1:22:18

silting up process was. Oh, that was ridiculous. You mentioned like swims had

1:22:22

gone. Been buried, haven't they? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, where they I mean,

1:22:24

they weren't doing so much in those days.

1:22:26

I mean, now the lakes almost gone completely.

1:22:28

It's almost completely It's very much

1:22:30

-- Yeah. -- very little of it left.

1:22:33

Just at one end, a couple of the bays.

1:22:35

Mhmm. But back then, there was the mad swim and the hump with two of the famous -- Give me --

1:22:38

is it if that's not the right area of

1:22:40

one? Alright.

1:22:43

Try Gary, you're gonna have to take him in because

1:22:45

Survey lake on that

1:22:48

side. You're

1:22:50

We are

1:22:50

just we're just looking at no.

1:22:52

It's

1:22:53

it's gonna be a really colored one mate. It's gonna

1:22:55

have a field, so the opposite

1:22:57

server. Got keep going in. That's no.

1:22:59

That's the others. There you go. There's

1:23:03

broad Sure. Because

1:23:05

I don't know. Right. It's at

1:23:08

top

1:23:08

left. Keep

1:23:09

going. It's top

1:23:10

very top left. Keep going up. That's

1:23:12

it. There you go. Wow. Yeah.

1:23:13

Okay. I mean Yeah. Yeah. So so this is not presumably not no. No. Not

1:23:16

that one's opened. The the t colored

1:23:18

one. The t

1:23:18

colored last time. So I didn't Yeah.

1:23:22

So so just zoom in tote. So this is

1:23:24

all that green

1:23:25

area, Gary, in the middle of that was lake, wasn't

1:23:27

it? That was

1:23:27

lake. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That

1:23:29

was literally lake. Forgive me.

1:23:31

Sorry. I wouldn't spotted that. You know, it's tough to

1:23:33

see. There's there's not a lot left is there. So I mean, the edge

1:23:35

in the green area is the famous point swim. Yeah.

1:23:38

Where you got those the trees going around in a bit of an art. I

1:23:39

mean, there's no there's no water

1:23:42

in there. Yeah. And this

1:23:44

is