News – Page 2 – The Masterblanker

The Black Mirror – Dead

Reports are coming in that “the Black Mirror” from Colnemere near Heathrow is dead, not only is one of the prettiest carp ever to grace the bank dead but also the hardest to catch given that she now lives in an SSSI with no fishing rights. The carp has not been a frequent visitor to the bank and after Jason Hayward caught it in 1992 the lake has been more heavily protected as it has now been further protected and made an SPA, ie fishing the mere for the last few years has been illegal ( adding to the cachet to some to capturing the fish) In the words of Jason Heyward the 1st person to catch the fish ( and legally please note)

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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.
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Education not condemnation

Education not condemnation – the motto of ECHO, the English Carp Heritage Organization. Recently I have found myself fishing several semi public waters and have had a plethora of anglers of differing abilities and nationalities, from English to Polish and even Chinese. It would be easy to ignore them or to just mutter darkly under my breath when you see them fishing without an unhooking mat, or for pike when it is banned will the 1st of October ( not that I personally agree with this but rules are rules). However the approach that I have taken is one of friendly advice. Confrontation will get you nowhere however a friendly chat and then a discussions about the merits of unhooking mats and rod licenses in my cases at least seemed to have worked. In many cases some of these anglers do not know what they are doing is wrong and when it is pointed out to them ( well the 3 I have spoken to this week) it seems that they do take it on board.
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New World Record Carp – 99lbs

Well hot on the heels of Solar Head Honcho, Martin Locke’s, 94lb carp from Rainbow comes this one from Les Graviers. It is the well known fish called “Scar” due to the massive scar that you can see around the fish. The scar was caused by the fish getting tangled in a rope when it was small and was released unknown if it would live… well now it is the largest carp in the world. My congratulations to the captor, Ambrose Smith for this new record which is tantalizingly close to the 100lb mark. As I reported earlier in the year ” When will the 100lb barrier be broken ? Will if be from France or from elsewhere ? Will the 91 from Luke Moffats Les Graviers take the title again ?” well it turned out that my prediction was true, the fish from Les Graviers has taken the record.

Ok, prediction time again.

1, There will not be another record this year

2, It will go to an unknown German fishearly next year

Lets see if I am correct

What do you think ? Am I right ? do you have another opinion ? Have you seen a larger fish and want to share ? Post a comment and let me know

Guest Blogger !

Some of you may have noticed the odd comment on my blog from Jon Perkins who runs the site http://www.carp-fishing-holidays-france.com/ as Jon always has an interesting opinion I have asked him if he has any thoughts that he wanted to post here as a discussion article and to my delight Jon has agreed. So in the future look out for posts from Jon as he always has an interesting point to make and will make a valuable contribution to the site.

Welcome aboard Jon !

Echo finally an organisation I can believe in

Some of you may have heard of ECHO, the English Carp Heritage Organisation, and the work that they do in representing the views of us – the ordinary carp anglers. Their stated aim is to support programs that maintain the health and welfare of the the carp in t he UK. Now for those of you thinking that carp are not native to the UK. You are right, the group is not trying to stop any carp being imported, even the famous “Leaney” carp were imported from Holland back in the 1930’s, they want to ensure that the carp that do come over ( if they do) are free from disease and do not cause disease outbreaks when they get over here. As well as representing the voice of the carp angler in the wider issues that surround the sport. Too many fisheries have bee destroyed by uncontrolled importation of carp from different world wide locations were KHV is endemic. Think of foot and mouth disease, in some countries it is a fact of life and the whole nation heard has it. Well in most EU countries this is not the case and I think that we all agree that it is a good idea ™. Echo want to ensure that the same protection is in place for our carp stocks.

If you are a carp angler you really should join, for your membership you not only get a fancy ECHO badge as above but also the quarterly magazine with articles form many famous carp anglers and even the odd article from me 🙂

SO what are you waiting for ? if you care about your fishing get on over to their website and join now, it is only 20 pounds and so for less then a couple of KG’s of bait you can make a difference for the future of carp fishing. By the way you don’t have to be based in the UK, I was a member when I was based in the Netherlands, if you are carp angler you need to be a member. If you are still not convinced pop over to Carp-Forums.com to the ECHO section and have a read around, the people there are super friendly and will always answer your questions.

Pastures New ! – Looking for new fishing lakes in west London

well now that I am settled in London the 55th thing I need to do ( after just buying a car) is find a water or 2 to fish. I think I have at last one sorted by the lovely chaps at Carp-Forums but I am always on the look out for more options. If you know of a carp syndicate that has places that would let in a refugee of the Dutch fishing circuit into their numbers can you drop me a mail via the contact me button at the top of the page or by leaving a comment to this post ? I am primarily interested in waters around the west of London / Heathrow way. I am not looking for waters that contain 40+ ( though it would be nice 🙂 ) but for a water I can relax on and just enjoy catching carp.

Quentyn

Moving on,

Well as they say all things come to an end. The great Amsterdam adventure draws to a close and a new chapter will be opening in our lives back in London. The blog will remain the same and will stay up during the move as I recently transferred it to IDAQ where it has been running happily for several months. Rest assured that I have found a few lakes in the UK already and the fishing articles will start to flow once more !

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Picture from CBIdesign via http://www.sxc.hu/profile/CBIdesign

New World Record carp video now online

Image from http://www.telegraph.co.uk click image to go to their article

After the rather sad posting about Amsterdamse bos, it is nice to get a bit of positive news. Recently Martin Locke head honcho for Solar Tackle caught a word record mirror carp at Rainbow lakes in France. The beastie weighed in at 94lbs ( 42.6kg’s) and recently the video of the capture has been put up on Solar Tackle’s website here. This carp beat the previous fish from les Graviers The size of the fish has to be seen to be believed and he struggles to lift it due to the sheer size and weight. Even if you are not into carp fishing check it out and marvel that fish that size swim in European waters. The fish was caught in the winter at 94lb, will it top the 100lb mark if it is full of spawn ? When will the 100lb barrier be broken ? Will if be from France or from elsewhere ? Will the 91 from Luke Moffats Les Graviers take the title again ?

Anyway click here to see the video in all its glory

Amsterdamse Bos Carp kill

It is with a heavy heart that I make this post. Today I was told by a colleague that when she was horse riding through Amsterdamse Bos that she had seen a lot of dead carp, so as I couldn’t get over to the water during the daylight I asked a friend of mine Marcel if he could pop by and see what was up. We knew that there were issues in the water in Amsterdamse bos but not to the extent that greeted Marcel.

Hundreds and hundreds of dead carp. When Marcel popped round to the other part of Bos to check the main pool he was greeted by an even more grizzly sight. What he thought were white birds popping up on the water were carp, bream and other fish dead as far as the eye can see.
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