Wraysbury no1

[ouchthathurt]

I used to hold a ticket and did a season on this fabulous water in 2006-2008 . i know the older bigger carp died out but im hearing that it has been fully restocked and is more of a runs water? Anyone know anything about it? Wouldnt mind getting back to wraysbury and getting a run would be novel!

 

[johnplumb]

The final of the BCAC is being held there this year , there is a web site , 45 swims on a 45 acre lake from what I can see you are taken to your swim with your gear . Fish up to high 40's .

In comparison to what it was I guess now it would be considered a runs water but I'm willing to bet it ain't going to be easy .

We can also get into the debate on what makes a ' history ' water and is it now just another day ticket water trading on its former glory .

[ouchthathurt]

I heard that 500 carp had been stocked into wraysbury, for my part, wraysbury of old was what lit my carp fishing fire, if i ever losse some enthusiasm, i will read "an obsession with carp" by dave lane, the chapters on wraysbury are what inspired me to fish there.

 

However, time marches on, mary and co are all dead, they need to keep the lake going and yes, bearing in mind its over 110 acres in size, 500 carp is not exactly heavily stocked!!

 

[newmarket]

Ok then john that sounds like a good one , what iyo makes a "history" water ?

I've never been fortunate enough to fish one of these well known carp lakes that are always being mentioned in the carp mags but i have my own ideas on the subject .

I think we can safely include redmire pool in the bracket but what do you think ?

[johnplumb]

I kind of feel that most most have all but gone , but in name , they got the reputations in the 50's 60's and 70's and most are now very different waters .

I have fished Pads, North and Copse over at Yateley but they all have been stocked and I would never claim I was fishing the same waters that made them famous .

Even Redmire is now basically a day ticket water if you have the money you can fish it and that is true of most waters .

The history comes from the people and the fish they were fishing for at that time ,

[newmarket]

Dont know if you recall but i mentioned in another thread the other day about a club i enquired about joining near to me .

One of their lakes is called boyers pit .

It was fished in the 40's & 50's by richard walker and his cronies .

 

In fact walker caught a 38lber from there the week before he caught the 44lb record from redmire .

Rumour has it that the fish there now are all direct descendents of those fish .

 

Trouble is there is a waiting list as long as your arm to get a carp ticket. In fact you have to be seen to be actively reguarly fishing a general coarse ticket for 2 years before they'll consider you for the waiting list.

 

There are syndicates in essex with shorter waiting lists and a day ticket 2 lake complex 5 minutes drive away that WILL throw up a forty this year .

Now if thats all true about the stock etc then that would make it a "history" water of current interest would it not ?

[johnplumb]

This is what I said , waters will trade on their history and if people want to buy into it then fine but they are not the same places they once were .

It's a bit like seeing the best Beatles tribute band in the world it may be nice to se them but they ain't the Beatles , they were then and this is now .

The North lake at Yateley was drained , refilled and stocked with fish from the Blue Pool at Burfield are those fish now Yateley fish or are they Blue Pool fish ? In twenty years time how many people will remember or care , the one thing I will bet on is the lake will still be remembered for Bazil

[newmarket]

Well yeh , see i cant relate to that individual fish thing at all .

I couldnt tell you the names of individual carp from whatever lakes

 

I suppose that is what makes people remember certain waters . A lot of experienced carp anglers , maybe yourself included , will have fished these waters and of that i am totally jealous .

 

There is a book by a well known angler ( cant remember HIS name either ) called the history of carp fishing .

 

I fully intend to read it one day .

[salokcinnodrog]

I have been very interested in the history of fishing, and how waters change over time. Redmire, Yateley; Car Park, North, Pads etc, will be to me waters that were once the best, but time has moved on and other lakes have come to the fore, and then they have been replaced in time.

 

I have fished Redmire, back in the 1990's, and saw fish, a fish crashed out in the middle of February.

Yateley lakes I aspired or wanted to be fishing, but couldn't justify travelling down to fish from East Anglia to find a busy lake, not when I had a lake that had some Redmire progeny in it as my local.

 

wraysbury became famous because of Mary, Mary's Mate, Mallins etc, but as they passed on, then others have come to the fore, King Fungus, one of the stockies(!), yet it now doesn't seem to inspire me as it did, maybe the numbers of fish has increased, or maybe it lost its charm with the death of those old warriors.

[ouchthathurt]

I loved fishing wraysbury at the time, fired up by stories of old, but the target fish was king fungus, one of the old fungus mirrors that were considered stockies during "marys gang's"reign.

 

The truth of the matter is that the old historic lakes with bazil have gone, the lake is there but the fish have gone, for now at least, we never know what the future will bring, the carp in wraysbury may grow to epic proportions and inspire the next generation, same as bazil and mary did for me. After all, mary started off as spawn didnt she?? The new wraysbury fish could grow on as well as she did.

 

Look at conningbrook, it was "the" carp water, then two tone died and for some, the dream died with it. Yet now elphicks seems to be doing a big lump yet its sern by some as a wrong un...

 

The wheel keeps turning and big carp come and go, the historic waters as we knew them have gone in terms of big famous carp but the waters themselves are still there and the carp may well grow on in years to come. If you keep looking back you cant see where your going!!

 

[grangemilky]

I think rose tinted glasses play a big part. Everything can sound amazing now that its gone.

 

By all accounts in its hayday, wrasbury was an absolute hole, filled with fly tipped rubbish, and surrounded by scallywags. Given the chance at the time, I'm not sure that many would be rushing out to fish it! It's looking back on it makes it wetter than it ever was.

Fishing the likes of wrasbury now just isn't the same, but there are plenty of other big pits around, if you are willing to travel/search,filled with a hand full of very big fish.

That are no different to the way wrasbury was 15 years ago. Make history, don't re-live it! If you want the excitement, guest on wrasbury Divers lake!

 

There still are 'history' waters about, that are well worth fishing, Ashmead for instance. I wouldn't mind betting there are several long forgotten waters too!

[ouchthathurt]

Your right! Wraysbury was a tip! Scooters fridges etc adorned the margins, you only had a 50/50 chance of getting back to find your car in one peice, the pikeys boats and general locals were a nightmare so yeah, it was no picnic!! Lol!!

What kept me going back was knowing you were on a slice of history, i loved the sound of the place too, it appealed to my nature. Yet if it was not as famous as it had been, would i have fished it?? I walked around kingsmead but didnt like it, too busy and quite over pressured, although the lads were sound, however one look at wraysbury and i was in love, warts (fridge!!!) and all... I moved onto it straight away without even knowing the stock at the time, i just loved being in wraysbury!! Would fish there tomorrow if i could.

[liamclose]

Wraysbury been destroyed purely to make it anouther commercial hole. Real shame anouther history lake has been destroyed and been churned up by the comercial macheine that is modern day carp fishing. Wraysbury was still a special lake up until the new owners decided desroy the place for cash.

As for the Elphics fish its not the biggun thats a wrongun every fish in the complex is a wrongun. Each to there own and and that but a lott the people who catch these fat horrible lumps really beleive there special fish worthy of the same credit as fish from old school meres and pits but no matter what the scales say,mags and wrongun hunters say an old scaley double from an old lake is much more special than a commercial 50lb wrongun.

[ouchthathurt]

I would like to have another session on wraysbury, to watch the sun set over dredger bay and the birds coming home to roost in their 100s while a boeing 777 comes into land... Just to see if the magic is still there.

 

[salokcinnodrog]

I can think of another water that was a part of history of carp fishing, Fingringhoe, better known as Snake Pit. Another water that was history, because of a certain 40lb common, yet that is also a snag filled hole, next to a 'loonatic' house, actually a psychiatric care home. Washing machines, cars, bikes, trees and the like were all part of the lakes margins.

 

Strictly speaking, if we want to quote 'wrong'uns', then Redmire was stocked with foreign fish, albeit fish that were stocked at 2 or  3 years old, and grew to record weights, so where do we split the level? Was Two Tone a UK bred fish, or Elphicks? Or were the fish grown on from imported stock.

 

I totally agree though that stocking fish at large weights is not any way to remember a record.

 

Frensham, Burton on Sea as it was nicknamed, many lakes had imported fish put into their hallowed waters, yet because we are talking Leney/Galicians, scaly beasts with massive mirror scales, perfect zip linears or commons we are going to allow them. 

 

Carp fishing has changed, with fish farms in the UK we have no real need to import fish from abroad, yet some do so legally or illegally, forgetting the risks that this may put on home bred fish, even by accident. (Parasite, diseases can be spread by a wet net or unhooking mat).

[liamclose]

It seems to me that the majority anglers these days are happy to fish for what I consider to be wronguns.carp fishing only going one way. Im local to the monument and Avenue and people round here think its great but id rather poke my own eyes out than fish them type of waters.

[ouchthathurt]

I suppose its the way its going these days, everyone wants an instant result and are not willing or prepared to wait or put in the effort. I waited 8yrs for my 1st 20lber, and i can still remember the sense of achievement when i hooked it on freelined bread flake and landed it after stalking it from a pokey unfancied swim. He weighed a humungously massive 21lb and made my entire season. I caught my 1st 30 about 5-6yrs later, a 35lb common which was caught using the acclumative experiences of the preceding years. To think that i could replicate this in a far shorter period of time? Would i prefer it?? Definiatley not. Ive served my apprentiship and have the experience, success failures and scars to prove it. I watch an increasingly high number of anglers, "direct access carpers" who expect instant results and dont have any idea what to do when its time to ring the changes. I once watched a young lad who fished the exact same swim every weekend, using the exact same method (pellet/boilie in biggest pva bag he could find) he would fill a carrier bag (you get the idea, lol!) sized pva bag with pellet and boilie, bait it with a fishmeal bottom bait and turf the whole lot in the lake as far as his rods would cast. Then he would blank for the weekend then go home. He only knew this one method and it had once caught him a carp out of this swim so he returned time and again trying to replicate the situation convinced he'd replicate the result but he never did.

 

I was standing in his swim teaching him some basic knots/rigs etc when he asked why i thought he hadnt caught anything (i had at least one fish a session during the same time period - which was real good going.) i pointed out that the carp in this lake were very cadgey, and fed a lot in the edge - also that they often spooked off the big pva bag approach in the 1st place. I got him to reel in and took him to each swim and pointed out what he should look for, following the wind, choosing a swim on the day rather than just heading to the same swim each time. carp rolling/bubbling/topping etc. He found a few carp grubbing in the margins of his swim when he returned, feeding on his old baits he threw in when rebaiting. So i told him to gently lower a baited rig (with an old bait on it)'into the water at his feet and wait. About 20mins later, he's smiling away with a nice upper double mirror. After that, he used to fish the near margins all over, as well as set up near me so he could get more "on the bank" lessons!

 

I have started take a look at canals, around the frimley/aldershot area, seen some lovely fish but only done a few short sessions for a hookpull so far. Now its the close season... A lovely venue though with that all important magic to it.