THE WORD FROM THE TOP Kevin Nash
T
he carp world is in a strange place at the moment. The recent tragedies of the death of Two Tone and the wipe-out at Colnemere are the latest in a growing list of the deaths of England’s greatest carp. I find myself asking the question, how many are left? It is as if we are on the way to going back to the mid 80’s, where a low 40lb fish was a monster. What is going on? I have my theories, and when I get a moment I will probably write about it in depth. I do think many of the causalities could of been avoided. So where does that put us now, big fish wise? Like I said, it is bitter sweet. I am mortified that so many of our greatest fish are dead, and I take no comfort from the fact that I may well now have the largest carp in the UK in my lakes. And
even that is bitter sweet. When I got the phone call to say that Bernard Anderson has just caught the 61lb+ from Church Pool, I was elated, then I saw the fish - frankly speaking it wasn’t pretty. Eyes bulging, and in no way did it have the healthy frame of a 60. It was also a difficult fish to call the weight, so I went to lift it off the unhooking mat and gasped “bloody hell, I cant lift it, its definitely 60lb+”. My mind went back to my 59lb+ from the Copse Lake, that was much easier to lift, Bernard’s fish was just a solid mass, - a bit like trying to lift a cannon ball - spawn bound for sure. So, in mind of so many big fish dying recently, I walk around my lake every morning expecting to see this fish floating dead. Fortunately, it hasn’t yet, so maybe it will reabsorb the spawn and recover. But enough of being morbid, I am a glass half full person, not
half empty. Life has taught me that clouds generally have a silver lining. I have a feeling that this shake out of the big old girls will bring a new era of younger fish coming through, and reaching new weight peaks, that the UK carp world has previously not seen. After all, it is only in a matter of years that we have started seeing 70lb’ers in France. I am sure the UK will see its first 70, maybe in as little as 5 years, but if not, certainly in the next decade. And lets not forget, we have some of the most beautiful carp in Europe. In a way, the carp world has become obsessed with weight; wouldn’t it be great if it went back to the true values of what Carp fishing is about, the beauty of a heavily scaled double figure carp reflecting the early morning sun, as you gently slip her back.