Carpworld 352 January 2020

OLD HABITS DIE HARD

THROUGH THE LENS - PART III

IAN CHILLCOTT

YOUR STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO CAPTURING THE PERFECT TROPHY SHOT

THE ORIGINAL AND STILL THE BEST

inside A SUMMER ON

SAVAY

TH OR 0 W IRIT S 0 5 B £ SP ER ARP R GRA OV C O F F O UP AR GE

AARON COPP LOOKS BACK AT HIS FIRST SEASON TACKLING THE DAUNTING VENUE ON A D AY S - O N LY T I C K E T

N I W

JA N – 2020 Issue

352 £4.99

ST IVE S SH A L LOW L AGOON

W H EN I T AL L CO M ES G O O D

CHRI S YAT ES I N T ERVIE W PART III

D AV E ’ S T R I P D O W N M E M O R Y L A N E S E E S H I M

SCOTT PHILLIPS TELLS US ABOUT HIS INCREDIBLE

C H R I S A N D T I M PA I S L E Y D I S C U S S T H E M O N S T E R S

RELIVE HIS QUEST FOR COLIN

S E S S I O N O N L I N C H H I L L’ S S T O N E AC R E S

O F R E D M I R E I N T H I S F I N A L PA R T

ALSO: DARRELL PECK TIM PAISLEY PAUL FORWARD LOZ EAST JIM WILSON PERRY ALABASTER STUART HIGGS CHRIS BALL

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C H R I S YAT E S I N T E RV I E W – PA RT I I I As Tim’s Big Interview with Chris Yates draws to its conclusion, this third and final piece touches on the capture of his record fish, that rod, his writings and a particularly unusual mode of transport for a carp fisher...

Tim Paisley

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A taste of summer on Savay Aaron was going to shoehorn this tale on to the final few pages of his forthcoming book as a late addition. Thankfully he chose not to and therefore we’re blessed with a bit of a rarity, an inside account of life on one of the most exclusive venues in carp fishing

Aaron Copp

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A

s I begin this story I would like to stress that it is not an account of conquering a widely celebrated lake, which would be brash, and dare I say it, very arrogant, but instead it is a tale that if you challenge yourself, every now and then all the planets may align and it pays off way more than you could ever have imagined.

Carp were first introduced into Savay, a 70-acre Colne Valley venue, as early as 1950, and those first few stockings were a strain of carp that would become revered in the decades to come, and known as Leneys. They thrived in the rich environment, and by the early 1980s, after the formation of the syndicate, catches became more widely publicised, and so the carp scene learnt just how special the stock of carp now was in the former gravel pit. In terms of publicity, The Carp Society’s first ever Carp Fisher magazine front cover, from November 1981, was adorned by a photograph of Mike Wilson holding a 30lb mirror caught from Savay in the late 1970s. That was followed by books where Savay featured heavily, such as The Carp Strikes Back, by Rod Hutchinson, Tiger Bay, by Rob Maylin, and Savay, by John Harry (the first angling book I ever read).

For the 2019 season I had joined a gravel pit in Kent’s Medway Valley. My good friend, Dave Levy, also had a ticket.

We had a good crack on there during the spring and early summer, and caught some lovely carp. I had also got chatting to Damian Clarke, of Snake Pit Common and Korda fame, earlier in the same year about lakes elsewhere, but specifically in the Colne Valley, and I enquired if it was still possible to fish Savay on the days only permit (6am to 9pm). He confirmed it was and said he would send me the address to apply to. It’s still quite an old-school process, where you write to the owner (a distinguished angler himself), and ask to be considered for a ticket. My application was accepted, and in early June the permit arrived. I was genuinely super-excited to just walk the banks of Savay, let alone dream of actually catching one of its special inhabitants!

I have done a great deal of days-only carp angling over the years, and whilst it can have perks, Savay would be quite a different scenario. There is no question, that as a day-member you are at a real disadvantage. For the full syndicate members can fish the nights and use three rods, versus two for the day guys, and they also have access to the swims on the bank that borders the River Colne, which the day-only members do not.

Without question, catching was a daunting prospect, but the rewards were there. The Black Mirror was approaching 60lb and the Wimbledon Common (a female) was an upper-40 at the right time of the year, and that’s not to mention the handful of Leneys still left, who are all a minimum of 50-plus years old, and potentially much older, as there were several stockings from Donald Leney into Savay between 1950 and 1968.

I recall chatting to Dave in the gym about the challenge of catching from the sizeable and low-stocked venue, what with all the aforementioned handicaps. However, I said I had to believe that if I kept my eyes open, then hopefully an opportunity would present itself in the margins over the course of a long summer. Being the good mate that he is, Dave said he wouldn’t bet against me catching one.

Savay still has a traditional close season, so I decided to stay away for the first couple of weeks of the new season, and hopefully time my first visit for when the angling pressure on the lake had begun to quieten down a little, and hopefully the summer weed growth would have also taken a hold by then.

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Whilst I had not even set foot on the venue, I figured if my days-only ticket gave access to where the bulk of the weed was, then hopefully the carp would not be too far off either.

Savay is located around 60 miles from my house, but I am also a member of a club water that is only a relatively short drive from the lake, and where I would be able to fish the nights. That way I could at least string a couple of days together on Savay, and sling the rods out for the night on the club ticket, or at least that was my plan!

My first visit was purely as a recce trip in late June. I had planned to stay away until at least July, but I was just too excited and couldn’t hold off any longer! Having pulled into the day members’ car park, I found just one other vehicle present.

I took a stroll along the road bank, and before you come to the first swim, a stretch of bankside foliage had been cleared after a tree had fallen, and it afforded a view of the Cottage Bay, and beyond, right down to the southern end of the lake on the Colne bank, which was well over half a mile away. It was quite an expanse of water, and most certainly a tad intimidating. I found a fellow day member fishing in the Pads swim, and after having a chat, I learnt that Savay had fished very hard the previous season, with just 20 different carp caught, although there had been a few recaptures too. He added quite a few of the syndicate members had blanked for the whole season (a relatively easy thing to do when you can only fish every other week on a challenging ABOVE venue), and that some lads on the Playing a fish as an rota called the day ticket, the ‘£100 admittedly dayswalk’ (the cost of the ticket). The only member on day membership, I guess to a degree Savay – The stuff at least, is a vetting process, and of dreams seemingly the majority of members

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When it all comes good...

Scott recently enjoyed an incredible session on Linch Hill’s Stoneacres, catching a number of fish and breaking his PB in the process

Scott Phillips

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RIGHT TOP

I enjoyed my time on Christchurch, but was now itching to have a go at Stoneacres

RIGHT BOTTOM

Finally my ticket came up and I was now looking forward to pitting my wits against the 50acre venue and its residents

S

toneacres is somewhere that I had always wanted to fish for a number of years. I had known about the place for a while, on the barrow-jaunt to Christchurch I would often gaze over at the large expanse of water, hoping that one day I would get my chance to fish there. I spent a bit of time fishing on ‘church and really enjoyed it, but with it being such a busy lake, I was keen to experience something a little quieter.

After a few years of waiting, I got my ticket and at first, I was a bit like a rabbit caught in the headlights. This was going to require a totally different style of fishing, with the access to boats, long-range fishing and a harsher size-to-stock ratio. I had used a boat before, but when you don’t do something regularly, it can be tricky at first.

We don’t know the exact stock levels of it, but people say there are around 70 fish in 50-odd acres. So, it isn’t extremely low-stock per se, but it was still going to be a serious hike in terms of the challenge present after fishing on Christchurch.

Over the first couple of seasons I never really gave it a huge amount of time and attention for a number of reasons. Still, I loved the fishing on there and the lads too, they were a great bunch.

I found it was tricky, a) getting on the fish and b) making the right decisions when you did was also tough. There seemed to be such small windows of opportunity and getting your timing correct really was everything. I was lucky enough to do so on a few occasions, catching some incredible fish. Nothing was going to prepare me for what happened this autumn though. Knowing what I did, I knew that I had to book some time off at a good time of year and try and put myself into a position where I felt like I could angle in a swim that the carp were using.

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Through the Lens Rupert Whiteman PART III Trophy Shots In Part III of our how-to guide to angling photography, editor Rupert looks at how to create the best possible memories when capturing the moment with that fish of a lifetime

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Dave Lane

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Dave’s recollections of his travels see him staying close to his home in East Anglia with a short hop over the border to Cambridgeshire in search of one or two enormous mirrors on the famous St Ives Complex

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t Ives Shallow Lagoon sits right on the fringe of the large complex of lakes, famous for its amazinglooking, old Cambridgeshire strain of carp. I had fished the other lakes on the complex about 20 years earlier: The Meadows, Fjords, and the main Lagoon over the road. At first it seemed a bit strange returning to the venue, a bit like going back in time really, but I had never actually fished the Shallow Lagoon before. Back in the day it was known for its huge tench and the carp were only small and few and far between. Bizarrely, I actually helped to stock the lake back then, having caught a few high-doubles and low-twenties whilst stalking one of the smaller lakes on the complex. I was then asked by the club if I could transfer any further ones I caught into the Shallow, as they wanted them to grow on in there.

As it transpired, I only fished the little, triangular, pond twice more after the request but I did bag two carp. The first of these was a deep, slate-grey mirror and the second was a longer mirror with an orange hue to its flanks. Over the following years they had grown considerably and had been named the Slate Grey and Laney’s respectively.

These two fish were just part of a stock of 60 or so carp, that ranged from the smaller stock fish, most of which were around low-twenties, right up through the ranks to the star of the lake which was a fish called Colin who was in excess of 50lb. His second-in-command seemed to be a long

and powerful mirror called Big Head – and there were various high-30s of all shapes and sizes, all swimming about in a 20-acre pit.

As with most of the pits in this part of the world, the Shallow was an old gravel extraction and, as such, had the typical shallow bars and long island that drag-lined pits tend to have – my favourite type of lake as it happens. The Shallow was also renowned for its weed growth which could cover large areas of the lake for months on end. The beauty of weedy lakes, of course, is not everyone likes them and there is usually a turning point around June time when half of a syndicate can pretty much disappear overnight as soon as the carpet starts to form across the surface; The Shallow Lagoon was to be no exception. In April, however, when my ticket started I found the lake quite busy and it was a bit of a game of cat and mouse to get the areas that I fancied, particularly the shallower end where the bigger fish had, historically, made their first appearances each year.

My first trip started incredibly well and this, in part, was actually down to the pressure at the shallow end which, I believe, had pushed the carp out to the middle of the lake for a while. Quite often, on busy lakes, the middle becomes a bit of a sanctuary for the fish and it was from there that I caught not just one, but two of the lake’s mirrors on my first trip.

It’s always a great feeling to catch straight away as it takes away a lot of the ‘self-imposed’ stress about the coming season. It makes you realise

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Next Month

In the Februar y issue Anthony Jones Anthony recounts the time he spent on Linch Hill’s mighty Stoneacres over the past couple of seasons, culminating in the capture of a handful of its most sought after residents in 2019 Rafael Bringmann With a noted increase in popularity for UK anglers to tackle the larger waters of the continent, Rafael kindly shares his knowledge on what to look for when choosing your intended venue Steve Briggs Steve and Joan undertake a 14-hour road trip to wet a line at another new venue (for them) in the Czech Republic. During their stay, Steve records another milestone, becoming the first man to catch a 50lb+ fish from 14 different countries

Also... Chris Ball, Darrell Peck, Paul Forward, Ian Chillcott, Tim Paisley, The Big Interview with Les Webber plus much more...

On sale: Friday 24th January 2020 | Subscribe now to have next month’s issue delivered to your door! www.gifts4anglers.co.uk *Contents subject to change

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