Nelson , the obsession

If your going to have a fish get under your skin , it would be better if it was a really big fish . Mine was , but only for the lake , but in the bigger picture it was very average . It started in the late 70's , and my love for the lake , Marlborough Pool , and somewhere I fished on and off for many years . I had found the lake as I passed it on many occasions fishing around the Oxford area . It had a track record for fishing in the winter , even in the early days of carp fishing . I first joined the club late one season , doing the last 3 weekends of the winter . The first weekend I fished the beach swim ( very badly as it happened ) , the next I fished the shelter swim ( the lake froze over during my first night ) , and the third I caught a double from the Rock swim . During this time the lake was being fished by some well known carp anglers , and in fact featured in Kevin Maddox book Carp Fever !. I was gutted as it would increase the amount fishing it , but I rejoined . Also although the hair rig was being used on the lake , side hooking was also the going method , and I often fished one alongside each other before realising what I should be doing ! , it really was at the start of the modern era of carp fishing .  For a few seasons I had a fair few fish , really enjoying my fishing there , fishing through the winters also catching lots of fish , and making some good mates ( they will crop up again in my Lynch Hill story ) . One fish I see a couple of times was called Nelson , a fantastic looking fish , and one I was desperate to catch every time the rod blasted off !. I thought it was a matter of time , just catching a few fish it would crop up !.

Marlborough Pool , lovely.

It was during a winters session I was to bump into one of the anglers in the video that made me start these blog story's !, Alan Taylor . I was fishing with a mate , I was in my fav swim the Point , and had caught a couple of doubles . Late in the afternoon someone turned up at set up oppersite me in " Middletons" , he sat there for ages so I thought he must have been fishing the hot area alongside the reed bed . I re cast for the long night ahead , and after the second cast noticed what I thought was a fish show over my baits . The next morning I had a fish , but also noticed that every time I cast matey opposite also cast very close to where my bait landed . Although it was the middle ish of the lake I thought it was not really the right thing to do , and told him so across the lake . When it happens again later with more instructions shouted across the lake the bloke wound in , and started round for my swim . I was fuming , and started off round to meet him !. My mate stopped me , calming me down , saying lets hear his side of the facts . With that Alan walked into my swim smiling !, explaining that he had herd I was catching a few fish , and was casting next to me to see what I was doing !, we all ended up laughing . That's what makes him , and others anglers like him top anglers , looking at all the things that are going on , making the most with info , and Alan is at the top of the
tree , a quality angler .

I had been doing a few winter sessions on Marlborough , pulling off some very good carp waters with some big old carp in them  , it was Marlborough , just Nelson on my mind . Me and a mate Stu had been putting in some effort to catch . Due to Sue finishing work at Sainsburys late on a Saturday night we were arriving at the lake at midnight , in the middle of winter with frost everywhere , often the lake was empty , we were mad , and we're told so by those turning up at first light ! . Setting up the bivvi and getting the rods out in the pitch black , but experience had the baits in position . This was a pattern for quiet a few weeks . That fateful session see me catch a few doubles from my normal spot , stu caught next door , and as I lay on my bedchair looking at the rods I knew when the left hand rod lowered off the tip by the reeds blasted off  it was that fish . Stu laughed at me , but I said so as I played the fish to the net and punched the air !. Nelson , a history fish , see it all from the side hooking through the early development of the hair rig , weight does not matter , I'd caught it !.

Rob Maylin said to me in the pub one night that all the time i spent after that fish I could have caught a lot more and bigger at the other lakes I was on . True , no doubt , but it was an itch that I got to scratch . Marlborough is a historic water , I glad I got to fish it when I did , and some mates I met on there got me into another historic carp water making a name for itself  Linch Hill is for the next blog .