I agree with many of the comments posted on here and the only records that concern me are my own. However in defense of some fisheries and in particular Mid Kent Fisheries where Two-tone resided, this carp was not artificially grown large and then stocked it was a pure English carp (well as English as any card can be) and was stocked from the Mill Pool in Faversham into Conningbrook at 12lb in 1982 and then grew to its phenomenal size naturally. I agree that its continuous recapture at ever increasing weights did start to get boring but I guess it is whatever floats your boat. Although a member and a bailiff at the time I never bothered to cast a line for the fish as the lake was renowned to be very difficult and not conducive to my style of fishing as well as life being to short. Indeed all of MKF’s lakes stock are renowned as pure English and in fact they refuse to re-stock lakes with dwindling yet famous stock such as Johnson’s Railway lake.
However, those hidden away gems are still out there and I was privileged to have access to a small estate lake of about 1.5 acres. The lake held only carp and no one had any idea of how they got into the lake including the owners who have been in possession of the estate for well over 100 years. A club did have the water about 15 years ago and was stocked with a few small carp this was never in any great numbers. The largest carp ever caught in the lake is 14lbs and the majority of the fish caught were very lean commons although you would occasionally catch a mirror.
The best thing about this lake was that it was very rarely fished and very shallow (max 3-4ft) so fish spotting was easy as well as catching them, including on floaters (as long as the ducks didn’t get there first). When hooked these fish would literally somersault out of the water before heading off on a 30 yard run!
My avatar is in fact fish caught from this lake on a quick two hour session. The lake was a syndicate recently but I think the members were hoping to find monster lurking within. I think they gave up fairly quickly on it and did not renew the following year. I certainly didn’t see them fishing it after the initial flurry when they took on the syndicate (I actually lived on the estate). Just before this syndicate I actually was in the middle of setting up a syndicate for some bankers but then the market crashed and they quickly lost interest so if anyone is interested in this lake I am happy to enquire with the estate if it is still available, I know they will want £1,000+ per year and strictly no night fishing. PM me if interested.
Here is a pic of the lake
