Redmire Pool

[Peter Jacobs]

A weekend, or longer, on Redmire is someting to be remembered forever.

I so enjoyed my time on there, and not just the fishing, and yes, I caught Carp there too.

Just to wander around some of the famous named swims (granted that they are no longer exactly the same as in Walker's days) is a magical way of spending the afternoon. There is a very different sort of silence there at night time too and the pool takes on an ethereal atmosphere.

Personally, I hope that whoever purchases the estate will continue to allow fishing on the pool as it really is a special place.

 

[Hugh Bailey]

Never fished there but would love to. Have read so much about it and even if the mystery is gone, I think it would still be pretty magical.

 

[Mark Wintle]

I tend to think of Redmire a bit like Witley Park. I fished at Witley in the late 70s/early to mid 80s and it was a magical place with tremendous trees and landscape plus the underwater billiards room. The fishing was special, too. Then came the great storm of 1987 and the trees were devastated. i returned a decade later and although the lakes were still there the devastation was still apparent despite a great deal of cleaning up and it will take 100 years at least for the trees to recover. The fishing was but a shadow of what it had been with carp taking over and I prefer to remember it how it was. Now, of course the famous crucians have gone to Marsh farm and Witley is strictly private.

Redmire had got its silt, weed and natural food over the course of many, many years. The carp thrived and the anglers who caught them made carping history. Dredging out the bottom makes no more mysterious that a commercial carp fishery that I can get a day ticket for with little trouble.

 

[Philip]

The problem as I see it is that its always going to be a trade off between making it an open or a closed shop. Close it off and make it a private syndicate and people will complain about elitism & how Carp fishing history should be available to all. On the other hand open it to everyone and it will like a public commercial with all the inherent problems of that.

Maybe one compromise solution would be to stock it with a good strain then leave it to rest for a few years. Then open it to a limited number of anglers each season who have done something for the sport as a reward.

As the Artist suggested allot will depend on whether the new owners have commercial interests at heart or not.

 

[mikench]

It's a pool , It's got carp so what! It's not the Sphinx, the Serengeti, the Amazon nor the Christian Barnard Museum. I just do not understand the fuss! J'en ai marre!

 

[Philip]

J'en ai marre!

Whats a Guitarist from the Smiths got to do with this ?

 

[flightliner]

I would love to walk the Hampshire Avon, the Stour, the Kennet , indeed many venues that host angling history , mystique , and folklore but tho I was in awe of Walkers capture of his record carp all those years ago I have never wanted to go there, fish there even if I was offered a free weeks fishing there.
The angling romantic in me simply needs a place that conjures up some far off , unattainable angling paradise that tho tangible will always remain that little bit out of reach.
A place that I can only ever dream about .
It's a dream I never want to be shattered if that makes sense ?.

 

[steve2]

Can it be just me that finds this emotional attachment to a hole in the ground a bit weird.
Redmire Pool history and mystery died many years ago.

 

[flightliner]

Can it be just me that finds this emotional attachment to a hole in the ground a bit weird.
Redmire Pool history and mystery died many years ago.

Steve, so long as I never go to the place it will stay as is in my minds eye.
If ever I were to go then yes, the scales would drop from my eyes and all I would see would be the reality that I might find disappointing .

 

[108831]

The awe and wonder of Redmire went for me went when anglers began,for a fee, to be able to book the lake,when Walker and co,then Yates,fished for days at a time,it was super exclusive,then you wanted jealously to just see the place.

 

[theartist]

It's a pool , It's got carp so what! It's not the Sphinx, the Serengeti, the Amazon nor the Christian Barnard Museum. I just do not understand the fuss! J'en ai marre!

Ahh Mike cmon mate think about from a carping perspective, for them it's heritage and I kind of like the fact that a thinking carper would want to eulogise Redmire instead of a runs water that does stocked 50's. It's part of History. Plus If any thinking carper wants to look for Redmire on Ebay they may even find a nice drawing or two

 

[sam vimes]

I'm another that can't see the fuss. I can understand nostalgia and am often swayed by it myself. However, I can't get nostalgic about a water I've never fished. I can understand why plenty of folks would have loved to fish the place in its heydey. However, I don't understand why anyone would be particularly interested now. From all I've read, it's little more than a poorly run, stupidly expenive, big carp commercial. Unfortunately, the carp aren't actually particularly big, nor are they decent quality.

Give me a time machine to take me back to 1980 (or before) and I'd be well up for a visit to Redmire. Otherwise, I'm not remotely interested. Like an awful lot of nostalgia, it's best left well alone lest the modern reality destroys the illusion.

 

[barbelboi]

I would have liked to have had the chance to visit Redmire pre-1970 – as it was I made do with the trip up to Billing for many weekends during the 60’s that was stocked during the same year with the same strain of carp. Unfortunately you also had all the fun of the fair,complete with a scaled down railway around the lake, Buddy Holly deafening you through the speakers, swimmers, dogs and boats etc., to contend with.

For anyone that might be unfamiliar with the Redmire Pool history – it was a water supply catchment pond for Bernthian Court House, (the big house on the estate) and was made by damming the small River Garron that at the time of the introduction of carp, (10thMarch 1934) was full with food with virtually nothing to eat it. The 50 small Galician carp (either one or two year olds) thrived virtually untouched andunknown to anyone, least of all anglers. The place was a forgotten neglected wilderness and it was sixteen years before the first carp from Redmire was banked - a 6-pounder to John Munro in the summer of 1950 (what happened over the next couple of years obviously put it on the map).

The fact that the surviving carp from the bach of fifty were not fished for until after their growing cycle had ceased was another major factor in making Redmire pretty unique. Simply put, Redmire carp had no capture pressure on them, the only problems likely to occur were illness, being wounded or snapped at by the odd cannibal trout that survived throughout the war years.

These combined influences, plus the sheer quality of the carp themselves, supplied by The Surrey Trout Farm & United Fisheries (Donald Leney at the helm) produced one of the most famous carp fisheries ever.

 

[Jim Crosskey 2]

I'm happily swayed by the idea of nostalgia too, however I think the reality is that every single fishery in this country probably looks completely different now to how it looked in (let's say) the mid-70s. How about this, a river wye with no barbel in it? That's right, they were introduced later on.

I can think of many venues from my childhood in the 80s which are utterly different today. Some are sad shadows of what they were... however, some are dramatically improved.

The lesson here - if there is one - is truly, make the most of what you can get right now because in 5, 10 or 15 years it might be completely different. Luckily, I have come across a couple of truly magical fisheries over the years, some are what might be looked at as neglected commercials or club waters, driven past on a daily basis by busy anglers wanting that 100lb net or 25lb specimen. The fact that they might contain roach that average 0.75lb and go much bigger might be of no interest to them. Or that a carefully presented worm or prawn might yield a days net of 20lbs of perch. - still not bothered. So I will gladly make hay while the sun shines and enjoy those treasures. The fact that these pools are lined with ancient trees (which might hamper the wielding of a pole or significant overhead casting) is something i'd see as a desirable feature - but I know it will put many others off.

In the scenario I've described above, what will almost certainly happen in time is one of two things (and I've learnt this through bitter experience!) - either the lake will eventually fall in to such a state of disrepair that the owner will just call time on fishing altogether; or maybe, the lake will change hands and the next owner will make all of the improvements that the angling population is crying out for - rip out the trees and bankside shrubs to make access easier for trollies or barrows (and to end the possibility of one peg being "hot")…. and dramatically change the stocking levels to give all the anglers what they really want, bigger fish, bigger bags of fish, fish fish!!

(I'm sure you can probably tell what I think about these changes being made!)

So get out there, make the most of it, and best of all - enjoy it while you can. Change is inevitable.

 

[theartist]

It's never the same when you go back somewhere special, that's why it pays to visit the odd dump every now and then as gong back can lead to a pleasant surprise. It also makes those special days more special and the memories are yours forever

 

[Pete Shears]

The only constant in life is change.

 

[mikench]

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be and I have never seen the attraction in catching a fat distended fish!

I just don't get the awe in which a pool is held particularly when it probably never was a magical place. Each to their own however.

 

[Molehill]

A look at a photo of Redmire drained and a digger wallowing in the mud takes away any remaining mystique for me. A muddy, silted pond surrounded by trees. There are hundreds similar all over the country.

Back in the 60/70s when even the location was a secret, it deserved it's place at the pinnacle of carp waters that everyone would love to fish. But now, just another silted estate pond that is being dug out and restocked.

 

[liphook]

I despair at the miserable attitude of some on here! A dedicated team have spent hundreds of hours restoring this water and carefully holding, sorting and ultimately replacing the original stock. I've never been to Redmire and have never felt compelled to but for some its their angling mecca. Show a bit of respect for your brother anglers and give credit where credit is due

 

[steve2]

I despair at the miserable attitude of some on here! A dedicated team have spent hundreds of hours restoring this water and carefully holding, sorting and ultimately replacing the original stock. I've never been to Redmire and have never felt compelled to but for some its their angling mecca. Show a bit of respect for your brother anglers and give credit where credit is due

All very well but why did they bother knowing full well that it was going to end up for sale.
Bit of a waste of time if you ask me.