The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Tonight I will again read Albert Buckley's account of his British Record carp he landed at Mapperley Reservoir on this day 83 years ago and whilst doing so I will raise a glass in his memory.

There appear to be a few mistakes as to the date of this capture over the years with the Walkers of Trowell label added to the 'original' cased fish as per the photograph has it down as July 7th 1930 and 'A Century of Carp Fishing states it as July 25th but I prefer to run with the date that Albert himself wrote down in B.B.'s Fishermans Bedside Book where he wrote...

'Encouraged by this success, on the morning of my great good fortune, I reached the lake, unaccompanied, just after 9 a.m. on 24th July 1930".

Caught on a special bait of the day 5 miles from where I sit here in my office. In Albert's own words...

"The bait was a small pellet of of home/made paste of brown bread and honey, almost as big as a swelled pea".

And some think they are at the cutting edge with 10mm baits

A glass to Albert, what a grand idea.

Gaz

GazTheAngler wrote:A glass to Albert, what a grand idea.

Gaz

Hear hear.

I posted the above elsewhere as well and was questioned by a chap from the U.S.A. why this one was so special as our record had been broken so many times. I answered thus...

It is very much part of our carp fishing history the U.K.'s first 25lb plus carp and only four carp over 20lb were landed in the following 15 years! Alberts record remained the record all the way through until Bob Richards caught the U.K.'s first 30lb plus carp this time from what is now known as Redmire Pool - its weight was 31 1/4 lb and was landed in 1951. The following record was probably our most famous falling to Richard Walker his infamous Ravioli or Clarrissa depending which camp you follow weighing an astonishing 44 lb.
The U.K. had only seen one 25lb plus fish, one 30lb plus fish and one 40lb plus fish by 1952 when walker landed his record.
Our English history is very important to me so I thought I would share for those who possibly do not know. The Albert Buckley fish is particularly important to me personally as I used to see it every single day whilst at work and where I sit in my office now it was caught from just over the hill 5 miles away.

Quite remarkable when you look back and see that at the time of Richard Walker's capture of Ravioli at 44lb in 1952 the U.K. had only produced one 40 lb plus carp, one 30lb plus carp, and one 25 lb plus carp. Never again will we see such a massive gap between our three largest carp.

I will also raise a glass to a piece of angling history from Mr Buckley.

Those three and of course Chris Yates's 51 are surely the most inspirational fish to be caught in our country. Nowadays I couldn't even tell you the weight of the UK record carp.

It would almost (don't shout at me) be nice to introduce a new species in just a few select areas that would recreate some mystery and excitement into the angling world. Okay, maybe not.

MAGICAL TIMES . Kindest regards . Woolly bear .

G & T raised in tribute.

Dave Burr wrote:It would almost (don't shout at me) be nice to introduce a new species in just a few select areas that would recreate some mystery and excitement into the angling world. Okay, maybe not.

.. and the powan, houting, vendace, gwyniad and skelly? all mysteries to me