RIP Two Tone – A tribute

Well it is rest in peace Two Tone, the current British record carp. The carp that I had the ticket to catch in my youth but never really bothered with the lake. The carp that I was told about the week it popped up as a potential British record. The carp that lived in a small lake that was just at the bottom of my schools playing fields.  Not got the link to official news but I have it from too many sources that it turned up dead this weekend at Conningbrook lake.

A little story by way of memorial for this magnificent fish.

A long time ago when I was at school we had to do “work shadowing” which was like “work experience” but was meant to be in a job that you wanted to do.. I chose to ask Chris Logsdon ( the boss of MKF) if I could join him for “work shadowing”. To my amazement he said yes, and so for a week I joined Chris and his Bailiffs at MKF. I have to say I thought that the week would be, checking tickets… errr fishing… well let me tell you they work a little harder than that. After the week I felt like I needed to sleep for a week 🙂 any way there is a point to this story. The week I did my work shadowing there was obviously some news floating about in the MKF crew and with careful teasing I got it out. They had been electro fishing for eels in Conningbrook the week before as they needed them for another lake. Whilst they were electrofishing it was very common for other fish to pop up which would be netted and released. Anyway Two Tone, by this time an unknown fish) popped up at a British record weight ( from memory) of 57 ish lbs. As you can imagine there was a lot of excitement as MKF now had the British record in its waters and it remained there ( on and off as other big fish grew to claim the prize) till now some 16 years.

It has been a bad time recently for big carp deaths, we have had Plodder from the Tolpits complex, Benson, Heather, as well as many others pass along. Nothing lasts forever and several of these carp were older than me so it is no wonder that they are starting to pass away given the very harsh winter we have had. Here is a toast to carp that have passed on, those magnificent beasts that gave so many so much pleasure, and here’s to the new generation of big British carp who will take on their role.

Note that the BBC have coverage here and the Mirroor here, ITV here, even the Chicago Times

now for something different

As an amusing side note ( if I am able to sully this post with humor), here is a quick poll – is this carp alive or is it dead ?

It recently popped up in a forum ( and also here) that I look after, following a thread on the owners own forum where he claimed the fish was alive and caught in January… Now I am not going to say that what the owner has said is untrue however lets look at the evidence in the picture above. From the top ( look at the red circles)

1. Report claimed that fish was caught in  Jan 2010. Look at the trees and particularly the new buds.. There were NO new buds on the trees in Northern Europe in January 2010. Note also that the guy is wearing shorts and a light top. The average temperature in January was 1.2 deg C ( see the Met office here)
2. Line of green scales – probably been dead a while and this is algae /moss of some kind.
3. The eye, white and milky. Could be blind on one side but I doubt it.
4. The strange blurring at the bottom. Heavy use of the clone tool in photoshop
5. No unhooking mat ( might be out of shot..)
6. Boat that has been used to land the fish up side down… I have landed fish in boats before and you don’t normally turn them over till the fish has been released as you need to get this fish back in the water alive.

Oh well, I wish the owner of White Springs fishery well as he has apparently offered 100 UKP for the 1st person to catch this carp alive again. I suspect that the only way that you will get another photo is if you bring a spade and a strong constitution. However, if I am proved wrong and the fish was alive I will post a groveling apology here, give a donation of 100 UKP to ECHO and I will swap the carp at the top right ( the Masterblanker.com logo) to the new fish in its honor. As a side note the story also appeared in Carp Talk Extra ( look at page 3)  as well as the angling times with the same sentiments being expressed in both

What do you think ? post a comment below or use the contact me button at the top. I do read all emails, and will respond to all  posts.