Dagenham Lake

[Santiago]

Apparently this still water produced several 20lb plus carp in the 50's and was said to be nearly as good as Redmire! One of the carp anglers that fished that Walker mentions is a R. Devonish who caught a 21lb 14oz carp in 1950 from there.


viewtopic.php?f=17&t=5014

I'm not familiar with the name, do any of you older chaps that fished there know of him?

Also, any of you Essex boys familiar with a chap called R. Sinclair that fished Clacton in 1951 and caught a 25lb8 king carp.

I'm just doing a little research on Walkers contemporaries that were not so well known, but may have mixed in the same circles!

[Ljm183]

Santiago, This may be of interest



Lee.

[Santiago]

Thanks Lee. That's the same table in the link that Walker wrote out! As an initial start I'm trying to determine their full names!

[Tengisgol]

Still trying to to find the chap who owned your rod? Good luck with that quest Santiago.

There is a huge amount of information about the Dagenham Lake (Boyers Pit, Becontree and District) in 'A History of Carp Fishing', an excellent book by Kevin Clifford. There are quite a group of small gravel pits in and around this area of Dagenham; The Chase, Tom Thumb, Bretons Farm as well as the Becontree water. I have fished all of them over the years and I assume they were dug post-war as part of the effort to rebuild London.

Interestingly, the grandfather of a very dear friend of my family played a pivotal part in Dagenham carp fishing. His name was J. Grourk and it was his proposal to take the lake on lease as a fishing lake when the extraction finished.

I won't copy the whole chapter but here is an extract:

[Mark]

I think it is about time Dagenham Lake had it's own forum.

There is a dedicated chapter to Dagenham Lake in Kevin Clifford's book 'A History of Carp Fishing'.

EDIT: Dagenham Lake forum now set up.

[Aitch]

Is this the lake that is now known as Aquatels....? If it is I think it's still fishable today on a day ticket

[Tengisgol]

No you're way out there Bluelabel, Aquatels was in Basildon, here is a map of Dagenham:

1 - is Boyer's Pit (i.e. the 'Dagenham Lake')
2 - Bretons
3 - Tom Thumb
4 - The Chase
5 - The lake with no name (we used to catch nice tench there!)

[Aitch]

Ahhh fairy muff.... I knew it was down sarf somewhere but not sure exactly where...

[Ljm183]

Day Ticket 1914

[KenSowerbutts]

Fished The Chase many many times in the late fiftys and in the sixtys brings back memories . The R Devonish you mention could be Reg Devonish who owned the builders merchants at the Merry Fiddlers who was a friend of my father .