It was dug in the 1700s as part of a country park

Geoff is off on a jolly so he has asked for a Carp Diary or two up front so I知 afraid there is a break in the Carp fishing for a week or two but in early September I値l catch up with what痴 been happening on the estate lake I致e been fishing all summer. I thought it may be interesting to talk a little bit about the lake in question and next week club waters in general, and how carp angling is approached and reacted to by most small clubs. The estate lake I知 fishing is a 12 acre one that was dug out of the flood plain of the adjacent river Mole in Surrey (that should give it away to those who know the area). It was dug in the 1700s as part of a country park. The lake was only a small part of the park but the rest of the land is of no interest to us so I値l concentrate on the lake. There was no fishing on the lake until after the Second World War when a local club obtained the permission from the then owner, a Major Moore. He was quite happy with the ｣100 per year the club were prepared to part with, especially as he had put in no effort at all into the lake for years. It was in a generally derelict state, the banks overgrown and a lot of the lake silted up to a depth of a couple of feet. There were no carp in the lake as it had been drained just after the war and the silt used as fertiliser. Only when the lake filled did roach, bream etc slowly get in from the adjacent river. In the late 1950s the club stocked a small amount of carp from Donald Leney at fingerling size. Few of these survived the severe cold of the 1962 winter or the severe floods of 1968 but by the 1970s there were a few in there of mid double size. During the 1970s and 1980s carp of various sizes were stocked from various sources and these thrived well, growing to 20lb in size quite readily. In the early 1990s the lake was a superb carp fishery with many 20lbers in there, up to just short of 30lb. However, before this in 1981, a trust had been formed to put the park and lake back to what it had been 300 years before so the majority of the trees were felled and generally the lovely overgrown peaceful atmostsphere of an old English carp lake, with abundant snags lilies and reeds was destroyed for ever. Eventually, in the mid 1990s, the park was opened to the general public and the superb weedy lake harbouring lots of uncaught big carp was deemed to be an eyesore, so weed killer was introduced indiscriminately and a lot of the carp perished in the now de-oxygenised water. The weed of course died, the water turned crystal clear and the lilies were destroyed, never to return. The lake looked nice for Joe public but as a carp water it was ruined. Eventually of course, a few years later, Mother Nature reaped her own and the weed returned worse than ever. The carp of course loved this and grew once more. Unfortunately, in the meantime, the fishing club wanted the fishing to improve quickly, so hundreds of stock carp, commons and mirrors were stocked at around 4lb. So to the present day. The lake has a fair head of carp in it with several 20lbers and a few 30s, however it also has many many stock carp of between 7 and 11lb. This makes it difficult to get through to the bigger original fish. The lake is of course still very weedy and the lack of money that these park ventures create mean that the badly managed Trust run around like headless chickens not knowing what to spend their Lottery money on next. The whole lake just looks like an untidy, unkept mess. Long may it remain so, because the cover is superb for the fishing. So that is what I fancied about the lake, I left it when the fish kill occurred and have returned now as the original carp have grown well. It also does not cost me a penny to fish there so it seems like a good bet. I have so far found the carp fishing to be fairly easy but was not prepared for the large head of bream and tench that have also thrived in the weed. The original carp are hard to get to but three 20lbers have so far found their way to the net and hopefully a bigger one (one of the mid 20lb commons would be nice) will find its way into my net during September. The future of the lake is uncertain. Fishing and public parks are not good bedfellows. As the Trust find difficulty in making money they will be forced into seeking help from the National Trust, and we all know how much they love fishing and anglers! In the meantime though, I値l just enjoy my time. Next week I値l look at how small clubs manage their waters when large carp are involved and the committee does not have a carp angler amongst them!

Have fun!