A story from 1988 at Clifton Marina.

Clifton Marina in the 1980s.

When myself and my fishing buddy of the time first fished Clifton, we knew of its reputation as being vast with a small population of Carp. Then when we fished Clifton in 87 we realised how true it was. We never even saw a fish, never mind caught one.

Then in the closed season of 1988 (which was the last closed season ever before the rules changed) I decided to make it my mission to study the lake and find those fish. So I used to cycle there almost everyday between April and June, sometimes twice a day, having gone home for my tea, then back again.

Then one warm and sunny day down at the narrow end of the lake I found a number of Carp basking in the shallower water. I had some bread with me and a catapult, so I fired some out over the Carp. I couldn't believe how fast they scooped all the bread up of the surface. I was gobsmacked! It's like I was in a dream, this couldn't be Clifton where the Carp were hard to catch? These fish were asking to be caught!

The next day was the same, warm and sunny, and the Carp were there again in the same spot, but this time I took Broad Beans as well as Bread. I climbed a tree so I could see them better. I could see Mirrors, some commons, and most were hanging about in groups of two or three. I threw the bread over them again, and sure enough they took all again within minutes. I was almost ripping my hair out, all these big fat carp eating everything i threw at them, but I couldn't fish as it was still closed season!! Anyway, I then took some of the broad beans out and dropped them in the margins so I could see them on the bottom. After a few minutes three carp moved over them, and then they began eating them! I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Within a few minutes the whole tin of beans were gone.

Next I took my mate with me to witness this for himself, and that was it, our opening season day was planned and baits were going to be Broad Beans and Bread.

We pre-baited the swims we planned to fish for two nights prior to the 16th. We got to Clifton on the evening of June 15th with plans to tackle up, bait up, and then wait for 12oclock midnight and then cast our rods on the glorious 16th. But the bailiff came around collecting day ticket money, and we said we were waiting for 12 oclock, but he said, "Don't worry about that, start fishing if you want". We looked at each other and sad "Should we? Yeah why not," and that was it, our rods were cast.

I planned to set up two rods in the margins, one free lined on the edge of the reeds and the other with a small running lead a rods length out. So I flicked the free lined one out first and let it rest no more than 10 feet to my side and hard up against the reeds, I put the rod on the rests, set the optonics and pulled the indicator down, but it seemed snagged, so I pulled it a little harder, but it began pulling back, then I just instinctively jumped up, picked my rod up and struck, and I was hooked into a big carp!! I couldn't believe that had happened.

At first sight of this fish it soon became apparent that I had seen this fish when I was feeding them in the closed season, it was a big fat mirror that swam around with two other small mirrors. It put up a good hard fight being so close in the margins, i had to let it run a couple of times by back winding but soon it was tiring and Paul was netting it for me. When I weighed it, the scales went to 15lbs, It was my biggest fish to date, and still is my biggest. (not fished for 25 years remember)

The 15lb Carp caught in the margins on free lined Broad Bean. Sadly Paul was not good with an SLR Camera, and this being before Auto-focus days, he never got the focus correct, hense the blurred image.

After that we had nothing all night, then at around 7am three other anglers arrived and set up either side of us, We suspected we might be in a peg they had been pre-baiting, because of what happened. First they were throwing cricket ball sized balls of ground bait, and lots of it. Me and Paul thought they must be mad, throwing in all that bait on this water which was so hard. But when they began catching, it was unbelievable. They were catching bin lid sized Bream, they seriously could not get some of them in their keepnets because they were so big. They must have known these fish were here, and planned they day just like we had.

A photo from the day of our brolly camp and one of the Bream anglers set up on our left side.

Later in the afternoon I decided to go round to the spot where I had been feeding the fish in the closed season, and cast out a floating bread. It was slow going, a few fish were moving about, but not as many as we saw in the closed season. But then a long thin fish started eating a few lose baits, and then I saw it move to my hooked bate, and in a flash its lips came up and down my bait went, I struck and hit it. I soon realised this was no mirror carp, it was powerful with a fast turn of speed. Then I saw it, and it was a Grass carp, my first ever. It put up an exiting fight, it had lots of power and was pulling line of the reel a few times with good runs of a few seconds. Then it just gave up, and soon came to the net. Its weight was 5lb.

The 5lb Grass Carp. Incidentally the reel in this photo was i bought back then, but had got one that was to big, it was more like a beach casting reel!!

And that was the first day of the 1988 season. A year I remember for many great fishing sessions, plus the year I saw Pink Floyd in August at Maine Road. A fantastic year in my life.