Carp fishing......the early days

Carp fishing......the early days

The attitude to carp fishing has dramatically changed over the years. Between the two world wars the carp scene was very different.although the carp was not as wide spread across the Uk as it is today a few small to medium fish were being banked. The real giants seen basking in the upper layers of the water (pictured below left) were not. This was mainly because they were not being targeted as it was firmly believed that these fish were totally uncatchable. As night fishing was not popular in those days, this may have been true. it was also said that these big fish were extremely intelligent. Some even believed that this was equal to a mans and that these fish could see and hear an angler approaching from two fields away. Anyone thinking of fishing for these fish would have been called insane, to even think that these fish could be caught was totally obsurd. this sounds unreal to me as a carp angler today as I watch lakes, seek out the larger fish, find were they feed and target them. Back then though this was believed right across the angling world. However in 1930 this belief was about to be shattered and the carp world would never ever be the same again. Mapperly reservoir (pictured below right) is a beautiful 29 acre lake just inside the border of derbyshire. This lake was already well know for the stamp of pike it had already produced. A small group of anglers had been fortunate enough to have been granted permission to fish this wonderful venue. Among this small group was Albert buckley and his father, these two anglers had caught many pike (left pic) from mapplery, the largest at 22lbs. While they were on a pike session on mapplery in early 1930 they witnessed a fellow angler, who was roach fishing, hook and loose a succession of large fish of unknown species. For over an hour fish were played then lost, new tackle was set up time and time again but was continuously smashed up by these unknown fish. Albert conscious of the local legend that big carp did inhabit mapperly decided to go on a fishing mission, targeting carp. Albert had never seen a carp banked before and did not even know of any local carp anglers. So he set out researching the basics of carp fishing. This would have been very hard at the time as most writings were extremely basic. Some weeks later albert buckley set out on his very first carp session. Astonishingly, he was successful beyond his wildest dreams, during this first session he banked a brace of carp weighing 14 & 16lbs. this was just the beginning as what was about to happen a short time later would rock the carp world and change carp fishing forever!!!!