8 lb 6 oz taken off the Mound in October of 1983.
This was another one of the recently stocked small grey Italian type mirrors. I'd guess there were about ten of them introduced in recent years at the time? I remember a rumour going around that one of the older Carp anglers introduced them out of his pond on an unofficial basis let's say.
22 lb 3 oz, October 1983, the Corner Swim.
21 lb 2 oz, the Ritchies, July 1986.
22 lb 2 oz, the Mungs, July 1986.
Ian Brown named this fish. It was lovely old warrior and would often tow you round the lake for a while before being banked. The discrepancy in the weights were due to the time of year and that in the summer of 1986 the first were all low in weight for whatever reason? Carp are always at their heaviest around spawning time or in the late autumn/winter for obvious reasons but in the summer of '86 they were all far lighter than we'd have expected.
18 lb 3 oz, Corner Swim, November 1983.
Another fish I caught just the once. Is it me or does it look like a pig?
Fish number 20: She Lookalike;
23 lb 3 oz. the Mound, November 1983.
So named She lookalike due to the fact that like the famous big mid thirty in the School Pool at Faversham, this fish was heavily scaled at the tail end. This fish got caught very rarely back then and out of our mob I'm 99% certain that no one else caught it. In fact I never once saw this Carp on the bank ever apart from this one time. An odd strain of fish for Fordwich given its size as all of the other non Italian types in Fordwich were quite small at this period in time. I think in later years that I heard it got caught as an upper thirty?
Fish number 21:
21 lb 14 oz, the Baldwin, November 1983.
A fish I saw again though not often. The large cluster of scales below the dorsal fin being the most obvious identification mark.
Fish number 22:
17 lb 4 oz, the Baldwin, November 1983.
I've nothing to extra to add as a report on this fish.
Fish number 23:
12 lb 11 oz, the Baldwin, January 1984.
... and here it's the same fish again (the top one) at 10 lb 11 oz, off the Killick Point in July 1984.
A little fat thing in the winter dropping in weight by a couple of pounds by the following summer.
Fish number 24:
8 lb 13 oz, the Trees, June 1984.
An odd looking customer, very leathery with a deformed dorsal fin.
22 lb 4 oz, the Trees, June 1984.
Another rarely caught fish at the time. The most obvious identification marks would be both the elongated shape, unusually long for a Fordwich Italian, and the odd shaped bottom lip.
Fish number 26:
9 lb 11 oz, the Trees, June 1984.
9 lb 2 oz, the Ritchies, September 1984.
Presumably not one of the originally stocked fish?
Fish number 27: Spot:
23 lb 1 oz, the Trees, June 1984. Ignore the red rubber glove, I had broken my hand recently and had to wear this glove to to keep it dry. I would have a broken hand not only for the first week of the season as it was but also during a session when I caught lots of fish which caused me all sorts of gyp.
My second capture of Spot came when I caught her off the Ritchies at 21 lb 13 oz in August of 1984.
I then caught her again at 21 lb 4 oz off the Spit in September of 1984.
Here she is again at 20 lb 8 oz having been caught off the Ritchies in July of 1986.
... and again at 21 lb 3 oz, off the Ritchies in July 1986.
And here is the last time our paths crossed when she weighed in at 20 lb 10 oz, again coming off the Ritchies in July of 1987.
One of those Carp that used to get caught a few times every season was Spot. It's so called due to the large central scale on its right flank. The rather unimaginative name was my idea yet again I'm afraid.
Fish number 28:
6 lb 15 oz, the Trees, June 1984.
Another small newer stocked fish.
Fish number 29:
13 lb 8 oz, the Trees, June 1984.
This one looked as it it had been put through a mangler.
Fish number 30: Trio.
Trio at 16 lb 11 taken off the Killick point in June 1984.
Here again, taken from the Killick point at 17 lbs in August 1984.
The third time I took Trio was off the Ritchies in October of 1984 by which time it weighed in at 21 lb 4 oz.
And the last time, sadly battered and bruised by then. Here at 23 lb 6 oz in July of 1986.
It's quite sad to see the state of this fish by 1986/7, it had almost lost the entire tip off the bottom lobe of its tail and had started to develop bit of a parrot mouth too. It didn't have a mark on it up till then.
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