Where the bomb was made , historic carp water lost !.

HAREFIELD LAKE.

I'm sure I paid one of the highest day ticket prices in carp fishing history !. How ? , where ?, was it that good ?. Let me explain , after a dabble on Savay with the hard work that it entailed , a few of us in our little band of friends decided to join the Harefield syndicate on the other side of the road . There was a good head of big fish in it , including some big fish from the soon to be shut down Rodney Meadow . I loved the area , being a member of Gerrards Cross for Sues river fishing we also had pit3 up the road as well , add the Horse and Barge pub right on the bank to meet in it seemed a good move . All my mates we very enthusiastic , and to be honest with its reputation I joined it without a walk round , an error on my part . A large amount of money was paid out with plans to fish it after a start on a local water , and with my mate Stu already set up in the famous "someone's coming " swim I arrived early one morning with two other friends Si, and Desperate Dan . We walked up the causeway to chat with Stu , he had blanked for a couple of days but was confident , and we moved on to the also famous point swim . With spaces tight we all set up on this big swim , as I looked across the water I knew it strait away , I did not like it at all . I could not put my finger on it , obviously had a lot of good carp , some historic mirrors , and commons , but I just could not settle , I knew it was not the lake for me !. I always liked moving if I needed to but the lake filled up with almost every swim gone . As I was on the verge of having a look on the bottom bank Kevin Nash walked past with his dog setting up in the only place I was tempted with , and it looked a nice swim . I walked around looking for fish and came across a camera bag obviously belonging to Nashy , and after managing to stop his dog from going for me we sat and had a cuppa chatting for ages . We exchanged ideas , me giving him my popup lead idea ( which I'm using 35 years later ) swapped for some of his braid he had on test . The next day I left the lake knowing it was £300 for a day , now that's a proper day ticket , I never went back .

The fantastic Pit3 , I should have spent more time here .

PIT3

Where to fish then ?. I was a member of a club that we joined for Sues chub fishing that controled the fishing on Pit3 in the colne valley , had a mystery regarding the carp stocks , although we had herd of a few fish . We had a couple of trips in poor very hot conditions in a couple of areas , but on the third visit with Dan as company we ended up at the sailing club end . It was an eventfull session . We had a heavy shower of rain followed by a windy morning , good conditions , and I was on fish as I had seen a fish over my baits that I had blasted out across the lake . Good conditions for sailing as well , and when one of the boats picked up desperate Dans lines they knew he was upset , but unlike Stanborough lakes the boaters came round to apologise and even offered to pay !, we were gobsmacked . At the height of another torrential down pore my rod screamed off , I hung on for what seemed ages to a mental fish getting a good soaking in the process , and was shattered as we slipped a nice 20lb + mirror into the net . I can't find the pics of that amazing fish , but the reason my arms were hanging off became obvious when we weighted it , and found it had another lobe to its tail , like a fantail , turbo propeller !.

The " Beast " , what a fish !.

ARLESEY LAKE 

I had fished Arlesey lake, made famous by Dick Walker's design of weights still used buy us all , when it was a club water , and jumped at the chance of joining the new syndicate . Known for it floater fish due to the very deep water , and the dark Leaney mirrors shown in Rob Maylins book Tiger Bay . One mirror was always the best in my eyes " The Beast " , shown in the early pages of Robs book , it was the one I really wanted to catch , but to be honest there were lots of really nice good lookers, including a nice common and a couple of nice fully scaled twentys. For long periods floaters were the only way of catching the fish as the spent long periods in the upper layers over 30ft of water . This lead to anglers specialising on surface fishing , with methods developed there ahead of the times . It was on a hot morning that I found myself stareing at a small group of fish at the  " hole in the hedge swim" taking the odd mixer I was catapulting into a breeze into my face . After taking a mid double mirror another syndicate member sat with me pointing out there were fish taking my mixers that had drifted into the next swim . But the fish in front looked a goodun , and so it proved as it sipped the hook bait , and the float shot across the surface !. The fight in those gin clear waters was extended due to the lighter hooklength / small hook , with the fish spinning , turning somersaults , before a big cheer went up from a little crowd that had gathered . It was the " Beast " , what a fish , I was really chuffed , proper old fish .

The mid twenty " big fully scaled ", three in a day !

Bottom fishing on Arlesey lake was always difficult due to the depths , so close in stuff was the way they made mistakes , which suited me . The swim I liked most was called "the Spinney ", which was a small spit of land about 15 yds out in the lake that ment you could fish parallel on the shelf with good line lay . Just a few feet more out in the lake would see your bait dropping into 15 -20ft of water so keeping it close to the margin reeds was the key . One other thing was for sure , they loved tiger nuts , and I never looked at any other bait . One stunning autumn morning I got into the swim as early as possible as there was no night fishing , flicked the tigers along the edge , a handful over both rods , then spent some time useing the landing net scaring the ducks from diving on my rigs . A short time later a 20lb mirror disturbed my tea making , stuff everywhere !, with my kettle rolling in the lake !. The fish scrapped hard as they all do in there, and the lad next door popped up to net it and take a few pics . Rods out again , tea finally made the lad was still in my swim drinking a cup I had made for him when I was away again . On the mat it was the smaller of the fully scaled fish at low twenty , really happy now , a fish I really wanted . Pics done I was left alone to tidy the swim as it looked like a bomb had gone off !. A short time time later the rods blasted off , and I really hung on , matey next door pushed the net through the reeds shouting back " it's the big fully scaled !" . Bloody hell , 3 twentys , and both fully scaled in a day , it don't get any better !.

Developed by Dick Walker at this lost lake .

All this was around 30 years ago , as are many of my carping stories . Carp fishing has more history than any other branch of our pastime , and this historic water that breed great floater fishermen ( not me though ) , awesome looking fish , and lent it's name to a fishing lead that every angler in Britain has used at some time was filled in !. The owners decided to make it a shallow puddly puddle that hippos would have enjoyed . Bloody criminal - fact , and there should have been a way of stopping it . When a massive dumper truck pulled up one afternoon dumping absolute crap into the fantastic middle snag swims I gave up , never went back .