It was on Marlborough Pool that I met a lot of friends , some that I still have to this day . I was sitting in a swim one day when a bloke called Randell came in and explained that his young son had bought Carp Fever to help to try and catch a carp !. He actually had the book in his hand , showing me the bait he was making up , which was an expensive one compared to the one I gave him my advice on . His son Paul , and dad became very good friends , and it was through his dad that we got access to more waters in the area . You have to understand this was before Linear fisheries , and it becoming the world epicenter for carp fishing !. You see the Linchill complex had another lake , it now no longer excists , but boy am I glad I got to fish it before it was netterd , and disappeared , called Browns . It can be seen on google earth as a white area as you come down the drive , it had a thin arm to a washing area , and a fantastic main lake , far better than the lakes on site now . Paul had permission to fish for the unknown fish ( nobody even knew if there were carp in there ) through his dad job , and caught a big fish nicknamed " the football " at 25lb+ which was possibly the biggest on the complex at that time . I will be fore ever gratefull that they got me a ticket along with a friend , Dave , and we had a look around before I had a day session midweek on it . A fantastic looking lake with true bulrushes , and a thin arm where we found half a dozen carp . Including a couple of mid double commons , not so common in that area , I was itching to have a go at them .
The awesome " Football" the first time .
I turned up , and chose to fish near the entrance to the arm , over to the far reeds . I fished half the day without seeing any fish when Randell came for a cuppa in his dinner hour . As we sat chatting a rod ripped off , and after a awesome fight around the reeds the bigun rolled in the net !, first fish was " the Football " ! Bloody jammy ! . Photos were taken , handshakes all round , and my mate was gagging to join me for the next trip a couple of weeks later . When we arrived I told Dave to go in my swim , but he wanted to try somewhere different . A few hours later he was to regret it when the big one slipped up again ! as the " Football " rolled in my net ! . I was really happy , and forced him to move in as I fancied the tree line up the other end .
The " Football " loved my bait , only its third ever capture , twice to me , and it's last ?
Again fate stepped in as Dave caught the other big fish we had seen , a good 20lb+ fish , a beautiful scaled leeney looking fish , totally different to the Football ! . Although both big mirrors had been out we fished on for other unknown carp , and I was to get lucky again . I caught both the commons we had been watching up the thin arm , I was really chuffed as they were almost a Redmire strain , quiet uncommon in the oxford area at that time !.
I loved catching these commons , and when moved may well have ended up big old kippers
Where does this story go ? , well it's a bit of a mystery in some ways . The person running the fishing at the time , and putting fish in Christchurch , Willow etc caught my mate and Paul on the complex after dark , and withdrew the ticket / permission !. The fish were moved to stop people fishing Browns , Dave's mirror eventually came out of Willow pool at a high weight , the commons I caught were put into Christchurch we hear , and as this was 30 years ago must have ended up big old fish . BUT where did the "football " go ?, who knows , but I'm glad it ended up in my net twice , it's a fish and little lake I will never forget ! , all due to making friends whilst fishing , how it should be !.
Hatter
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