Kind of Carping CW226 by Angling Publications

Tim Paisley A Kind of Carping 22

1983 when happiness was a misty morning and an unknown Mangrove mirror going back.

022-029_KindOfCarping_CW226.indd1 1

22/6/09 15:19:10

A Kind of Carping Tim Paisley

“When you fish the Mangrove a madness creeps up on you. It is a wonderful place and a million miles removed from the bigfish circuit I have fished on for so long. You become addicted to the place, the lack of fishing pressure, the tranquillity and the hospitality (not to mention the good food and drink) on offer in the nearby village. There is no place like it.” Paul Selman

I Tim Paisley’s

A KIND OF CARPING THE SHROPSHIRE YEARS 022-029_KindOfCarping_CW226.indd2 2

first visited the Shropshire mere now known as the Mangrove in June 1983. The mere is owned by the Gwilt family of Baschurch, near Shrewsbury, who also own the pool known as Birch Grove half a mile up the road from the Mangrove. In 1989 the mere became a syndicate water, with me as syndicate leader. At the same time that the Mangrove went syndicate I made a bid for, and obtained control of Birch Grove, which means we have been controlling the waters for 20 years! Twenty years… someone suggested that it was time to reminisce about my years of running the pools, so here goes. I’ll keep it as brief as possible, but in all truth I could write a book about it all, and probably will, eventually! But it’s difficult to cover old ground in print. There will be readers who are newcomers to carp fishing who’ve never heard of me or the Mangrove, and long-term readers who have read everything that has ever been written about the waters. So the only way I can handle this is to write it in fragmented anecdotal form, Hutchy manner. (I almost said ‘style’ but I can’t pretend to aspire to the great man’s

22/6/09 15:19:42

Tim Paisley A Kind of Carping

unique panache with the written word!) I have numerous memories of both waters that may or may not have been covered in print before. So what follows in the next few features are fragments of the waters, starting with a twoparter on the 15-acre Mangrove. It’s worth repeating (for me anyway) that my association with these now famous waters started because one Dave Preston, then a student, of Newport, felt I had done him a big favour in helping get his material accepted by Colin Dyson of Coarse Angler in the early-’80s. On the strength of the perceived favour, this guy I’d never even spoken to wrote and invited me to start the 1983 season on a remote 15-acre mere with only two swims on it that was stuffed with common carp and which no one else was fishing. I was enthusiastic, but sceptical. I’d moved on from Snowberry and was doing the few circuit waters I knew about, namely Waveney D Lake and Darenth Tip Lake, plus a

Carp fishing was really kicking off then in the wake of Rod’s and Kevin Maddocks’ first books and the newfound catchability of carp through the advent of the Hair

Hey presto, Mangrove Magic! The young student Dave Preston during the evening of 15th June 1983, and with his firstnight catch of two doubles.

couple of very busy, under-stocked local waters. Carp fishing was really kicking off then in the wake of Rod’s and Kevin Maddocks’ first books and the new-found catchability of carp through the advent of the Hair. Lakes were getting very busy and I found it hard to believe that there could be a lake anywhere that was full of carp and that only Dave and I would be fishing at the over-peopled start of the carp season! But it was true. I paid the late Graham in the Gwilts’ office £10 for 10 days’ fishing and followed Dave down the trackless fields to a beautiful 15acre lily-pad and tree-fringed Shropshire mere. Two swims was an exaggeration; one and a half would have been more accurate! The weather was idyllic, we were serenaded day and night by the reed warblers, caught a few carp, went up to the local pub for lunch most days, and by the end of the ten days I was well and truly hooked on the place. It was, and still is, magical. And the impoverished student Dave Preston? He made good and went on to become the supremo of the now-huge Preston Innovations. I am forever in his debt, as are many more carp anglers who have come to love the Mangrove as much as I do. Incredibly, Dave and I had the mere virtually to ourselves for the first summer. Back then the close season was still in operation and the lakes closed at the end of August for duck-shooting, a close-down which more or less coincided with the start of Dave’s seasonal job in an agriculture-linked industry. In other words, the wonderful place was only accessible for 10 or 11 weeks of the year. When he invited me to the water Dave didn’t think there were

022-029_KindOfCarping_CW226.indd3 3

22/6/09 15:19:57

022-029_KindOfCarping_CW226.indd4 4

Tim Paisley

Scaley at 23lb+ on the second morning of the first season. It took me 11 years to catch the fish again, as my first 35lb+.

A Kind of Carping

any 20s in there, but I had a brace of 20+ mirrors on the second morning, and in the sessions that followed we both had further 20s. They included the big common known as Trio to Dave, and Scaley, the Cream Fish and the Linear (twice) for me. All went on to become good 30s but I never caught the fairly catchable Linear again after that first season. I felt it had got my smell and avoided my baits from thereon! It also took me a long time to catch Scaley again. By the end of that summer Dave’s interest in carp fishing was waning. He was in love with ‘bright lights and Mars bars’ (his description of night-clubbing and what he considered to be the more exciting things in life) although he did join Homersfield for the following season and enjoyed some success there. He then moved on to creating his Preston Innovations and Korum empire and I didn’t see him again until our paths crossed at the NEC Angling shows in the ’90s. More recently we shared a session at Ashmead in 2006. He hasn’t lost his carp-fishing touch and is totally unspoilt by his success, which is as inexplicable to me as ever! He seems to be too nice to have achieved as much success in big business as he has enjoyed. Incidentally, although I was the first to refer to the mere as the Mangrove because of its ancient feel and its Florida swamp-like look in one corner, I think it was Dave who first used the expression in print, in a Carp Fisher article. There was a minor invasion of the Mangrove during the second summer. I did a slide show in the northwest featuring the Mangrove during the winter of 1983/4 – without naming the venue – but Paul Roberts and Geoff Cartwright of the picturesquely named Connah’s Quay picked up on a couple of clues and managed to locate it, identifying it by the boat we used

Our annual dinner date with the Gwilt family during Mary’s last winter with us, 2002. From left: Rob’s Angie, Rob, Giles, Harrison, Oliver, the remarkable Bill Gwilt, his wife Elsa and Mary, with apologies to family members Honor and Elliott, who weren’t present.

there. By this time Birch Grove had become something of a local circuit water, being prolific and day ticket. The not-too-distant Hawkstone Park had always been a northwest circuit water and was fished by emerging big-fish men John Lilley, Geoff Stallard, Steve Allcott, Bob Tapken and Brian Garner – among others. Someone pointed them in the direction of Birch Grove and the pool became one of their regular venues. While they were fishing Birch in the summer of 1984 a local asked them why they weren’t fishing the mere down the road where Tim Paisley was fishing! They investigated further, and liked what they found. Everyone had known about the water but no one knew there were carp in it! The second summer was the basis for the early Matthew Black-style chapters in my book Carp Season. The place, the atmosphere and the characters magnified events on the mere beyond reality, and to me the largerthan-life feel of what happened simply couldn’t be conveyed in normal narrative style. I guess all carp fishing was a tad like that to me back then. In Carp Season my mate Greg Fletcher became Deeppocket (a not inaccurate description, as it happens!), Paul Roberts became Dai-wa (because of his ever-present sing-song Welsh border voice and his ever-present Daiwa cap), and his mate Geoff was referred to as RHM, meaning right-hand man – which Geoff was for the unpredictable and largely

uncontrollable Dai-wa. (Paul’s ongoing love affair with alcohol tended to make him a tad unpredictable at times.) By the end of the second summer the wondrous atmosphere of the Mangrove had been diluted by the twin invasion. There was a proprietorial air of hostility from the bigfish men, in addition to which Paul was less secretive than he claimed to be and couldn’t help telling everyone he knew just where the mere was. My love of the place never waned, but my need to be there was diluted. There were still so few swims that the place felt crowded with half a dozen anglers on it! The Mangrove is a Severn Trent water and in the ’80s and ’90s was bailiffed by a hyperactive local man, Roberts, who was built like a brick shithouse, and acted like one at times. The Severn Trent rod limit was two rods, and for many years Mr Roberts’ raison d’être appeared to be catching Mangrove anglers fishing more than two rods, which we all did all the time as it happens. After the first few weeks of it being fished in 1983 the Mangrove was far from easy and to our minds fishing more than two rods was a necessity – but not for Mr Roberts. So great did his obsession become that he even instigated a night raid on both waters. I drew the line at this and wrote to his employers complaining about his activities, which appeared to double his resolve to nail us, but it did put an end to further night raids. I have three main memories of the Roberts’ era and his unwanted visits. I was slowly packing up one Sunday dinner time when a guy I didn’t know arrived and set up in the Field Swim. He’d heard about the secret water from the non-secretive Paul Roberts! Bailiff Roberts (Robbo) arrived as I was finishing my packing up (he still wanted to see my licence for the third or fourth time that season!) and moved on to the guy in the Field Swim, who had just put his (three!) rods out. He can’t have been fishing for more than quarter of an hour, but it turned out to be very expensive. He had no licence, was caught bang to rights, left the water before I did, and as far as I know never came back! Paul told me it cost him hundreds of pounds.

22/6/09 15:20:15

Tim Paisley A Kind of Carping

1984 – Keenie Greg Fletcher casting out from the awkward In-Between Swim, which is now simply there for stalking or emergencies.

Robbo caught Brian Garner asleep with three rods out mid-morning in Reed Warblers. We were long past any possible action and Brian kicked himself for getting caught unnecessarily. From memory, Brian was fined £115 for ‘Miscellaneous Poaching’. What a load of poppycock. We are actually licensed under the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act so the crack-down on three rods was aimed at salmon anglers, not carp anglers beating their brains out on uncooperative carp in private waters where three rods are doing no one any harm whatsoever – and anything that gets caught is going to be returned anyway. After he’d been done, Brian was a nervous wreck on the Mangrove, his wish to catch carp meaning he needed to have his three rods out, but his need not to get caught meaning that come morning he had to get himself in a position where he could watch out for Public Enemy Number One. His vantage point used to be the metal gate between the fields leading down to the water, but one Sunday morning he was taken unawares when Robbo approached from a new direction! Brian had to keep out of sight, scurry down the side of the masking trees, enter the mere, wade round the waist-deep margins to his swim and wind in the third rod before Roberts could accost him and have him locked in the Tower of London for his heinous offence against humanity! Robbo never caught me on the Mangrove, but he did on Birch Grove, which I will come back to at a later date. John Lilley was Robbo’s main target, and he never did nail his man, although Lil did have some miraculous escapes. John always fished multiple rods, and he was always in one of the front swims – almost always Reed Warblers in later years – meaning he was a sitting duck, so to speak. I don’t think even John finds it possible to explain why he was never caught. He claims he refused to let Robbo and his oppo

022-029_KindOfCarping_CW226.indd5 5

enter his swim when they made the night raid and that he had to be restrained by others from taking the argument further than just verbals! Needless to say we all were – and are – eternally grateful for the efforts of the SACG in getting the national rod limit upped to four in the ’90s. Fishing the Mangrove now is a far more relaxing proposition than it was during the first 10 years or so of its existence as a carp water. I mentioned that in the ’80s the big-fish men on the Mangrove could create an air of

John Lilley was Robbo’s main target, and he never did nail his man, although Lil did have some miraculous escapes hostility, and tended to give the impression that the fishing on the mere was exclusive at a time when it was still day ticket. In 1988 there was an incident when an ‘unwanted’ visitor’s car was interfered with, an unpleasant matter which was made known to the owners of the mere. They decided that the only option was to agree to the formation of a syndicate which would hopefully cut out the hostility and any further aggro. A number of us tendered for the forming of the syndicate, and I was given the honour of taking charge of the fishing. I’d tendered on the basis of 12 anglers, and wrote to everyone who was fishing the water on a regular basis. Filling the syndicate wasn’t difficult! For the record, the members of the first syndicate were: Paul Britton, Tony Baskeyfield, Steve Allcott, Bill Cottam, Bob Tapken, John Lilley, Roy Stallard, Joe

Bertram, Clive Gibbins, Brian Garner, Eric Green and yours truly. Bearing in mind that the Mangrove is a mere of 15 acres a syndicate of 12 represented very exclusive fishing. Running the water was, and always has been, a compromise between achieving a realistic income for the owners from what is a very special venue, and limiting the amount of traffic from anglers coming and going. The result of the limited number of anglers was that the mere tended to be underfished, which isn’t a bad thing at all from a pressure angle, but unsatisfactory when the fish start to become at least partially dependent on baits. The regular introduction of good baits is a principal reason for growth and weight increases; to get more bait going into the water and to keep pace with a realistic increase for the annual rent the syndicate was eventually put on a rota basis, with two rotas of 13 anglers. That is how it stands at the moment. We have the mere netted every few years to keep a rein on the multiplication and growth of the silver fish, and each netting results in a marked weight increase in the carp in the following years. I think the carp have hit a ceiling of high-30s, although we could still be surprised by a growing fish pushing through to over 40lb. The strain is certainly capable of producing such a fish. The famous Pinky from nearby Erehwon, which at one time dominated the big lists as a mid-40, was from the same stock as the Mangrove fish, and lived in a very similar environment. But to turn the Mangrove into an out-and-out big-fish water would mean thinning the carp and removing many of the older double-figure fish. I blow hot and cold on that concept. There is a natural feel to the Mangrove which defies artificiality, although removing the bream and the other silver fish is already an artificial growth-encouraging device. But everyone who joins the Mangrove doesn’t necessarily do so

22/6/09 15:20:22

Tim Paisley A Kind of Carping

to catch big fish. They want the atmosphere, the exclusivity, and some action. There is a philosophy that says a weekend’s fishing with an 18-pounder in it is better than a blank weekend, and I can sympathise with that. On the other hand there is something in the Mangrove that defies capture. I’m not the only one to have hooked it and been left bemused by the aftermath, but I’ll come to that aspect in next month’s article. If I didn’t know better I would be inclined to think that there is a very large catfish in the mere, but one has never been landed, or seen. Wouldn’t a big fish have turned up in the nettings? Silty waters are notoriously difficult to net effectively and the highest number of carp we have ever had in the net is about 30. As realistic estimates of the carp population range from 150 to 250, nettings only skim the surface in terms of the capture of carp. Other than at the clubhouse and car parking area there is no realistic bank access to the water of the Mangrove, which means that all the fishing is from platforms. Building and maintaining the platforms on a mere which is ravaged by high water levels and high winds in the winter has always been the main focus of the close season work parties. It has to be said that while he was always a handful to deal with as a syndicate member, when it came to the building of swims John Lilley’s access to materials, his ability as a joiner and builder, and his incredible energy levels, were invaluable and, from my point of view, indispensable! Thus it was that although I had to suspend his membership on a number of occasions for his attitude towards other members, his membership was never in danger – because we needed him! The base for the swims has always been scaffold poles driven deep into the silt. In places the distance the poles go down into the silt has to be seen to be believed. And even when you think you have bottomed them and they can’t go any further they prove you wrong by settling in one corner some time after the swim has been completed! After many years the Mangrove swims have more or less levelled off, but we still get the odd bit of subsidence which has to be rectified during the close season. We used to top the swims with marine ply – which John was able to scrounge free of charge prior to his heart attack when he was still in the building game – but after seeing a day ticket water at Mid Northants topped with decking I decided that would be the ideal swim material for both the Mangrove and Birch Grove. So over the last three years we have changed to decking, which has a much longer life than

Swim-building has always played a big part in the close season work parties. The frame has been built and the marine ply is about to be applied to the old Reed Warblers in the early-’90s. Below: The swims are now topped with decking, which is much harder-wearing and more anglerfriendly than ply. Reed Warblers as it looks now.

marine ply, and doesn’t retain surface water after rain or flooding. Switching to decking has been expensive in the short-term but will cut down on the amount of work needed on the swims in the long-term, and is safer underfoot than ply, which can become very slippery, and tends to break up and become splintery. Artificial swims detract somewhat from the scenic effect of a water, and to my mind they limit the photographic possibilities, but on the Mangrove we simply have no alternative other than to fish from the platforms. And while some of the platforms may look to be on the high side when water levels are normal, there are times in the winter when all the platforms are underwater! Two years ago we put the clubhouse on stilts to keep that above the high levels of winter. What’s in there? In terms of getting caught, the Mangrove fish tend to appear and disappear so it is difficult to talk about individual ones. Over the years the best known carp from the water have been the big common known as Trio, and the heavily-scaled mirror known as Scaley. Both have been lost to us now. As is the case with many waters, the Mangrove is a creature of moods and you can have no idea from one season to the next how the fish will react to the angling pressure. Fortunately, some years ago, statistically-minded then-member Craig Banks started keeping a record of captures from the logbook. Number-crunching accountant member Steve Guy has assumed Craig’s mantle and his statistics for the last few years are reproduced here. (Thanks to both of them for their efforts.) I’m not sure how

MANGROVE CAPTURES BY SEASON 2001/2 2002/3

2003/4

2004/5 2005/6

2006/7 2007/8

2008/9

0-10lb

10lb+

15lb+

20lb+

122

118

25lb+

30lb+

35lb+

TOTAL

339

360

206

267

212

265

191

165

% 30lb+ / TOTAL

6.8%

8.9%

12.6%

13.1%

12.7%

12.8%

8.4%

17%

022-029_KindOfCarping_CW226.indd7 7

many different 35lb+ fish this year’s figure of eight represents, but at least three of these are commons. I have pictures of over 90 different 20lb+ carp from my years of fishing the water, but it is remarkable how many of the fish disappear for long periods, and are then caught again long after they have been forgotten. The Mangrove is stuffed with food and the naturals are still the preferred diet of many of the fish in the mere. In the early years if you didn’t have your baits where the fish fed naturally you didn’t catch, but the gradual acceptance of baits has made the fishing easier. For instance, through the early-’80s it was almost impossible to get a pick-up near the pads – which is where many of the carp spend their days – but now margin fishing is just as productive as some areas of the open water. It was on the Mangrove that I first linked headand-shouldering with natural feeding. On silty waters at least I am now convinced that a carp head-and-shouldering is over a feeding spot, and my most productive spots on the Mangrove were found through watching the water and waiting for the giveaway head appearing. Some guests fished the water recently. They had been told by ex-member Shaun Harrison that if they stuck a bed of bait 60yds out they would catch. It wasn’t always like that, and still isn’t some years. The fish can be that cooperative, but there have been no significant fish losses between 2000 and 2008, and just look at the different success levels for the two years! I think the marked variation is down to natural food availability. Some years they are more bait-dependent than others. My guess is that there are of the order of at least 200 carp in the Mangrove, some of which get caught regularly, a few occasionally, and some never at all. Commons tend to be extremely unpredictable and disinterested in bait, and as roughly half

22/6/09 15:20:46

A Kind of Carping Tim Paisley

Lil casting out in the mid-’80s from what was then the Duck Swim and is now the site of the club hut.

the population is made up of commons that represents a great deal of unpredictability! Everyone who writes, or has aspirations to be a writer, and fishes the Mangrove simply has to write about it. Kevin Green wrote a two-parter for Angling Times when he was a member. More recently, Shaun Harrison’s Mangrove mini-series has appeared within these pages. Others, too, have tried to share their experiences and capture something of the place, almost always linking the name Mangrove with the word magic – an easy and meaningful alliteration. But for all that has been written and said about the Mangrove, Paul Selman is the one who has come closest to capturing something of the feel of the mere as a place and as a carp venue. I wouldn’t describe Paul as over-effusive or prone to flights of purple prose, but the paragraph near the end of his Mangrove chapter in his book Carp Reflections is surely as near as Paul comes to wearing his heart on his sleeve: “When you fish the Mangrove a madness creeps up on you. It is a wonderful place and a million miles removed from the big-fish circuit I have fished on for so long. You become addicted to the place, the lack of fishing pressure, the tranquillity and the hospitality (not to mention the good food and drink) on offer in the nearby village. There is no place like it.”

I guess that in the sense of my association with the Mangrove it is now far more than a carp water, it has become a way of life, as have the area and the people I’m friendly with there And so on. Paul dropped out of the Mangrove some years back, but missed it. He is one of three members who have dropped out and rejoined, Joe Bertram and Brian Garner being the others. As a rule, when we finish with a carp water we move on and settle for the memories. To have three members rejoining the syndicate is extraordinary testimony to its attraction, particularly in the case of Brian Garner, with whom I had what I thought was a terminal fall out many years ago! (I love Bri like a brother, but he can be a tad recalcitrant at times! And so can I…) But Paul touched on something that others seem to miss. It isn’t just the tranquillity and atmosphere of the water itself, it is the place Netting the Mangrove is very heavy going. The faces in this ’90s netting are, from left, Ben Seal, Paul Selman, Pete (in background), Richard Seal, Kev Green, Dave Chilton and Pete Hodkinson, with Lil up to his neck in muck and nettles in the background, just a few of those involved. Paul is currently a member, and John an honorary member.

022-029_KindOfCarping_CW226.indd8 8

and the people, too. I have known the family who own the water for 26 years! Rob and Giles were in their mid-teens when I first went there. Now Rob’s eldest son Harrison is the same age Rob was when I first got to know him. The owner, Bill Gwilt, is one of the most remarkable men I have met. He started his corn-merchant business in the ’30s – on a bike with a frame on the front for carrying goods – and he built his empire from nothing. He became friendly with the bank and started buying up land before the Second World War, when borrowing wasn’t the everyday occurrence we are familiar with today. He was ahead of his time and his far-sightedness has created a marvellous inheritance for his family, and those of us fortunate enough to be able to share in, or taste, some of what he was able to create. The meres are part of our history dating back to the Ice Age. I don’t actually know that the Mangrove is a true mere in the Ice Age sense, but it feels as though it is. I’m checking the history of the water for the book I’m working on and it appears that the quadrilateral of four premier carp waters – of which the Mangrove and Birch form half – were created as a wetland drainage system, although exactly when we have yet to ascertain. I guess that in the sense of my association with the Mangrove it is now far more than a carp water, it has become a way of life, as have the area and the people I’m friendly with there. I think Paul Selman’s writing hinted at that aspect of the Mangrove more than anyone else’s. It means far more than the fish and our own personal achievements there. TP More Mangrove memories next month. There is a lengthy waiting list for membership of the syndicate but if you wish to be considered for membership please write to Tim Paisley, c/o Angling Publications, Regent House, 101 Broadfield Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire S8 0XH, asking to be added to the waiting list, giving some details of your angling experience and, if possible, giving the name of someone who will be known to Tim or a Mangrove member as a reference. Bear in mind that once you go on the waiting list it can take five or six years before a place becomes available.

22/6/09 15:21:14