Thomas Ford's place was where I caught my first carp on cane a few years ago.
Here's an account of the trip with a few photos
The Source of Kings
Over winter I had the opportunity to get stuck into a few books covering much of the history of carp angling and carp waters in England. It must have touched one or more of the nostalgic areas of my brain as I elected to start a sort of “history revisited” tour of a few waters that featured in carp angling history.
Although it would have been nice to start the tour off at some 14th century monk’s pool holding a stock of golden wildies those waters are either long gone or known secretly by only a few. There is a water that advertises pure bred wild carp as its stock and its situation may indeed have helped to keep the carp of the pool isolated from the modern , king strains of carp. I have a contact number but it’s a long way from home and fuel is just far too expensive.. maybe one day?
I decided to start my tour by going back to the early days of the “king” carp in the 19th century.
46 years before Donald Leney brought over the 50 small Galician carp for Redmire a trout farmer on the other side of the country added king carp to his list of available species. As one of the first and certainly the largest supplier of coarse fish within the UK at the time Mr Thomas Ford was responsible for supplying most of the king carp across the length and breadth of England at the end of the 1800s.
Thomas Ford stripping a brood fish of eggs
The ponds from the farm are still there but are now used as a private trout fishery. I visited them in January and was able to walk around the site of the old fish farm. The new owners were very helpful with information and when I mentioned I’d seen some carp feeding in one of the ponds I was offered a re-visit in summer with the chance to cast a line.
Fabulous news, I was to have the chance to catch a carp from one of the places where it all began....The Source of Kings!
Looking down at the lake it was easy to recognise as the same lake from the 1800s
At one time the pool was used by a local school for swimming lessons until sadly one of the children drowned there.
I used the invitation as an opportunity to use one of the MKIVs I bought earlier this year along with a cane landing net made to Dick Walker’s specifications. An old goose quill float fished lift method style was to be the line of attack with bread flake the bait.
After baiting up the edge of some pads with small pieces of bread I made my first cast with a MKIV and I’m pleased to say I didn’t foul things up and the set up landed perfectly just to the right of the pads.
It was a scene worthy of preserving but I had to drop the camera as the float slid away after momentarily lifting and leaning over on the surface. I was into a carp!!
Side strain pulled the fish away from the pads and soon had it into clear water. I figured it wasn’t of any size according to how easily I’d got it under control but still took it easy because I so didn’t want it dropping off whatever its size. Wrong Chris, the fish suddenly sped off to the right and I had the feeling of now being completely out of control, ”Whoah fish, whoa you bugger”.
It was like being a kid again. The fish stopped pulling but the jerking on the line didn’t feel right. I watched a branch rise up out of the water and dance about like the head of a snake before the line fell slack.
I’d lost it!
These were only small carp but this one certainly showed me who’s boss.
A cast to the same spot and a few more small pieces of bread thrown nearby soon resulted in a bend in the cane once again. The fish went ballistic. It showed me itself and even it was small the Mitchell spool was slipping because of my inability to back wind quickly enough..boy this was fun.
A couple of minutes later a bright little thing of about 3lb slid into the landing net and in doing so christened both the net and my split cane carping exploits.
The next two casts resulted in some flying fish.
A couple of aerobatic trout providing a lot of bouncing of the rod tip as they jumped and somersaulted above the water. Excellent sport in an afternoon and an extra bonus to an already marvellous fishing trip.