Page 6 - The Carp gallery part three:

Carp number 31: Hotlips.

The name Hotlips was given to this fish once again by Ian Brown. My only capture of her came from the Corner swim in June of 1984 when it weighed 19 lb and 13 oz.

Hotlips was just a nice chunk of mirror Carp. Apart from the hoover type lips the fish had few really obvious field-marks but was always instantly recognisable. 

Carp number 32: The Kinky Leather.

15 lb 14 oz, the Ritchies, August 84.

19 Lb 0 oz, Richies, September 1984.

17 lb 12 oz, the Baldwin, October 1986.

This Leather Carp was almost S shaped when viewed across the back, a rather odd deformation anyway. It also developed a few nasty sores later in life, one of which can be seen on the lower photo. I caught this fish twice myself and saw it banked a few other times. Kinky Leather was my name I think, though I'm not 100% certain?  The camouflage arms (if you can see them - hee hee?) and army surplice stores knee, were supplied by my old mate Martin 'Arfur' Daley who I was fishing with on that occasion. 

Carp number 33: 

14 lbs, the Killick Point, August 1984.

A rather obvious looking mirror that again I saw banked by other anglers. This was my one and only capture of this fish.

Carp number 34:

13 lb 14 oz, the Killick Point, August 1984.

A nice clean mirror with few distinguishing marks.

Carp number 35:

9 lb 9 oz, the Killick Point, August 1984. The bottom of the two fish. The top fish is number 23 again.

Another easy to recognise Carp.

Carp number 36:

9 lb 4 oz, the Ritchies, September 1984.

I've not much to say about this little fat Italian.

Carp number 37: The Big Brown Fish.

23 lb 13 oz, the Ritchies, September 1984.

The second time at 21 lb 4 oz, the Mungs, July 1986.

And the third capture, at 21 lb 14 oz, the Mungs, September 1986. I've attached two photos to show the opposite less scaled flank. 

A fish Id been after for some time as in the old days this was one of the larger of the Fordwich carp being over twenty pounds in the early 1980's. It's quite low in weight here (especially the 1986 captures) as I never seem to catch it at the right time of the year when it was at its heaviest.

Carp number 38:

19 lb 13 oz, the Ritchies, September 1984.

20 lb 4 oz, the Ritchies, October 1984. I recall nicking Paul Lehane's woolly hat off his head for the picture.

20 lb 3 oz, the Baldwin, October 1986. I would have expected this fish to be heavier in October? 

Another obvious Carp with a number 7 shaped  scale on one flank. Nowadays it might acquire the name of Cristiano perhaps? Back then the old monstrous Ego with legs wasn't even born, well not when we first started seeing this fish anyhow.

Carp number 39:

14 lb 13 oz, the Ritchies, September 1984.

15 lb 14 oz, the Ritchies, October 1984. He/She obviously enjoyed my bait? 

13 lb 3 oz, the Ritchies, July 1986.

15 lb 6 oz, the Mungs, September 1986.

The head on this fish looked out of proportion with the body in the early days, look at it on the top photo. We ought to have called it Eddie? Geoff used to tell a (RUBBISH) joke about a lad called Eddie. Apparently he was born with no body and had an awful life but always looked forward to his birthday. The big day came and on opening the first present all tied up in some well presented deluxe box which he asked someone to open for him, forcing him to yet again utter the immortal words "Oh no, not another hat!! Anyway, back to the Carp in question, sorry about that  ...of course latterly, the body did grow into the head a bit giving the fish far better proportions.

Carp number 40:

Carp number 40 is the lower of the two. It weighed in at 17 lb 2 oz and was caught off the Ritchies in September 1984. The top fish is Scale out of Place, fish number 41.

A very dark, fairly nondescript Mirror Carp and one that we didn't recognise back then.

Carp number 41: Scale Out Of Place.

20 lb 5 oz, the Ritchies, September 1984.

21 lb 6 oz, the Ritchies, July 1986.

23 lb 2 oz, the Ritchies, July 1987.

So called 'scale out of place' as if you look along the usually regimented scales along the back beneath the dorsal fin that one of the middle scales was the wrong way round and stood out like a sore thumb. It was the same on both sides too. This was my descriptive name for this fish, just a name tag for identification if you like.

Carp number 42: Two-tone.

14 lb 5 oz, the Ritchies, September 1984. Here not showing the bi-coloured nature of this particular Carp due to some rather idiotic photography that the automated spot light meter on my AE1 program just couldn't deal with. 

Rather fortunately I found this amongst my vast array of old photos and here you can see the two-tone features rather better. Gonzo, or Dave Stewart caught it (in 1985/86?) and on the back of the photo I can just about make out from a pencil scribble that its weight was 17 lbs at the time and it's noticeable even by this photo that the fish is far heavier than when I caught it. Dave, Tony and Alex all wore those silly flat caps when fishing. They used to call them Joves for some reason. 

Not a Carp that I saw all that often.

Carp number 43:

18 lb 3 oz, the Ritchies, September 1984.

The identification marks on this fish would be the deformed dorsal fin and the tiny, extremely notched pectoral and pelvic fins.

Carp number 44:

13 lb 14 oz, the Ritchies, September 1984.

Another nondescript Fordwich mirror.

Carp number 45:

19 lbs, the Ritchies, September 1984.

Probably the Carp that gave me the most exciting fight I ever had on Fordwich. It went like an Exocet missile, the take was one of those blistering belting things, the Optonic a single tone blur and from the moment I pulled the rod into it the fish just kept on taking line. Rather oddly the fish fought on the surface for the most part as I remember it, and even though I originally hooked it at a vast distance we could see the fish churning and bow waving the water all the way almost to the opposite bank. especially so as the lake was flat calm at the time. I was actually a bit worried about running out of line as I'm sure I was down near to the backing line at one point. I'd never seen this fish before and never saw it afterwards either, it looked at the time as if it had never seen a hook? I think that it was just one of those fish that never got caught very often.