**** Walker Story

I?ve just had a friend visiting who told me about when he met **** Walker and Fred Taylor at a fishing exhibition in London about 1960.
My friend was after a couple of rods of Walkers, and he told **** that he could not buy them in Warrington. One was an Avon rod , and the other was a Mark 1V.
**** had both rods promptly sent to a tackle shop called Domevilles at Bridge foot Warrington. The cost was 8 guineas each.
It was a week before my friend was able to collect the rods, and when he finally went into the shop to pick them up, the owner told him he had them hung in the window for five days and took a further twenty orders.
Anyhow **** got talking to my mate about carp seeing as how he was buying a rod specifically for them, and the subject got onto Clarrissa.
At the time, **** said there was only one other water where he was sure there was an even bigger fish than Clarrissa. And this was near Warrington its self.
Walker had tried to get permission to bait this water up and fish it but was turned down for reasons I will not go into.
But **** did give my mate some tips on how to fish this water himself. One tip was to dye his line black and what with to match the colour of the lake bed.
Also he told him what bait to use and how to get it out there a fair distance from the bank freelining. Not bad considering this was over 40 years ago was it? when carp fishing was still in its early stages. The advice was followed and the best my mate caught was a 30 lber, although he had been snapped by a much larger fish. They kept in touch by letter writing, and my mate told **** of how he was doing on this water. Eventually he was invited to fish Dalmans pond I think it was called then (Redmire) with Fred Taylor. The thinking that **** Walker and Fred Taylor put into their fishing even in them early days was incredible. They passed many tips onto my friend, and in turn, he has passed them on to me tonight. One thing my mate said, was that **** Walker was a very clever man, and he had the time to think about what he was doing.

That Water was Lymm Dam I am pretty sure.

Eric Hodson spent a lot of time fishing Lymm Dam and did catch a few, although they were not huge.

Where **** was wrong was the concept of fishing at distance with no weight on the line. I pointed this out ca 1970 in the BCSG mag - Carp. The bolt rig followed after this. The Monk has more regarding this history than myself.

Who remembers the old BCSG mags. They are worth a fortune today I believe.

Spot on Ron, the water was Lymm dam.
Although I had heard that somebody had wanted to bait and fish the dam, I didn't think it was **** Walker. But my friend was adament that it was, you have just confirmed this fact.
He knew there was something decent in there and he was right.

During the early 50s, Walker investigated every carp holding water in Engand to a degree that would stagger you.

He knew all about the little private lake near Pateley Bridge in Yorkshire, long before Tag Barnes ever fished it. In fact I believe it was Walker who put Tag onto it. That water was stocked with Leney strain carp and this is where Walker got most of his info from. He made a very good friend of DF Leney of the Surrey Trout Farm - Haslemere and got lists of all carp sold by him and where they were stocked.

Anglers today perhaps do not appreciate how few carp waters existed in the UK then.

To my knowledge the only carp waters in Yorkshire were a lake near Hull and the small dam near Pateley Bridge. In Lincolnshire there was Croxby Pond and Benniworth Haven. In Derbyshire - Chapel Wheel Dam, Foxon Dam and Mapperley Reservoir. That's about the lot North of the Trent that I can think of, together with Lymm Dam of course. However the Pocklngton Canal might have had a few.

I got to thinking about **** Walker and what ?could? and in all probability would have happened if his plan to fish the Dam had worked out.
It goes without saying that he is one of anglings biggest legends, just remember what the likes of Walker and Yates did to Redmire.
There can hardly be an angler who has ever fished Redmire that doesn?t get to thinking of these two men while they are waiting for a run, and try to picture either Walker or Yates sat in the same spot as they are at that very moment.
These are the kind of people that give legends to a water.

At the time of **** Walker wanting to fish the Dam, I think that the correct decision was made as not to let him go ahead with his plan of action (at that time).
But with great hindsight, we can now honestly say, that ? that decision was wrong.
Just think, if his plan had come to fruition, then the Dam would surely have as big a name as Redmire. And in this respect the controlling club would have easily doubled if not trebled their revenue. Plus it would have certainly put the Dam on the map in a very big way for many years to come.

I am almost certain that there was another famous angler who wanted to do much the same as **** Walker wanted to do on the dam, he was also turned down. I think Brother Monk might be able to verify this point.
A golden oppertunity was missed, but then again, only with hindsight.

not sure about the other anglers, but yes it was walker who visited Lymm Dam, I think I have a full set of the original Carp mags in the attic.

Yes Lymm Dam was home to much speculation in those days, particulalr the church Flats as the area usd to be known. I fished the [place in the 70s, the water was like pea soup, some of the Manchester Group members have fished it in the 90s and had some good results, but I beleive the water has or had a litter problem

It must be remembered that waters like Lymm Dam were generally controlled by match orientated clubs. One thing these clubs do not want is for outsiders to come on the waters and catch lots and lots of big fish.

Picture it; the chairman of theses sorts of clubs has fished all his life for umpteen years and has never caught a fish of any species over 8 oz.

Then along comes Walker, who at that time was receiving enormous publicity, and thumps out a 20 lb carp say.

Such things would never be acceptable to the club running the water. Take to me about this. The NSG in some circumstances was being banned all over the place for catching too many big fish.

And Walker himself was banned on the Royalty Fishery.

terrible thing is jealousy, that coupled with the kind of attitude which still exists in some match oriented yorkshire clubs

Ron,
I think the reason that Walker wasn't allowed to bait and fish the Dam how he wanted to, was because first and foremost it was a members water. And it would have meant that the fishing rights would have been denied to the members for X amount of weeks, and had nothing to do with it being a match orientated club.
Also at that time, carp fishing was only just begining to take off, in this area anyway, and for the good or bad of things, nobody realised just how big carp fishing was to become. As I said earlier, with hindsight, it would have done the contrilling club a lot of good. But at the time, the members rights came first.
The Dam has allways been more of a pleasure water.

One more point to consider is that wether people like it or not, carpers were quite troublesome at the time.
This could well have had some bearing on why the controlling club said no in the first place. Personally I think it was because it is a members water, and the rights of the members must come first.

Interestingly, the Dam was full of gudgeon and some big carp, just the same as Redmire.
I can imagine why the church flats would have been a popular area to fish from, and it has nothing to do with ease of access.
Today you could not fish to the same spot from the church flats, because things have changed.

There is another reason which I have overlooked as to why **** Walker could have been refused permission to fish the Dam as he wanted to.

The Dam has allways been Council owned, and the controlling club only lease this water from them. It was most likely that it was in the agreement that the Dam was made accessible to local people on a day ticket basis. This seems the most likely reason to me, as my own club has waters that must be accessible to non members also.
Still a shame though.

Sorry, four postings in a row.

I have just been given the official reason as to why **** Walker never fished the Dam.
My friend has just paid me a flying visit again, this time with some freebie rigs.

I asked him if he knew why Walker didn?t go ahead with his plan. The answer is straight forward and simple.
The mate said that **** Walker told him the reason that he never fished the Dam was because at that time, night fishing was not allowed, and he could not come to any arrangement with the club concerned. Wether anything else was involved I have no idea, but the no night fishing rule was the only thing that **** Walker mentioned as to why he did not fish the Dam.

I'll bet it never stopped the Monk though, hahaaaaaa.

Does anyone remember when **** Walker and the Carp Catchers club made various assaults on waters stocked with Leney Carp?

One of the first was Dagenham Lake in Essex. It was run by the Beacontree AC and ****, together with Pete Thomas and Maurice Ingham were given permission to fish. This was before the CCC was actually formed but Maurice **** and Pete had actually started the bone of what would later be termed a specimen group. I don't think night fishing was allowed here at the time but this did not stop Walker. I the middle of the day he caught two carp - a 22 pounder and a 17 pounder.

Such a result was astounding in those days and the angling world was rocked to the core.

They then went on to Mapperley and caught several double figure carp there. By this time the CCC had been formed. They were regarded by many young anglers as superheros, but were destested by the general angling establishment because they were too successful.

The young anglers took to ****s 5 guidelines to catching specimen fish as a duck takes to water. Unlike the establishment, they were unfettered by tradition and prejidice. These young angers read ****'s book "Stillwater Angling" from cover to cover a thousand times.

I was one of them.

hi all,i get so much enjoyment every time i see that magic name come up on the threads{**** walker}im a sentimental old sod.dont know to much about the names of those lakes up north,but have heard of lyme dam.when i lived in hitchin there was a pond at the bottom of bearton avenue where **** lived reputed to hold some big carp,remember coming home from school and jumping up and clinging on to the top of the fence to try and have a look over,not sure if **** got permission to fish there or not,but i bet he tried.after i met him in the sixties i got more interested in barbel than carp,and particually his canpaign on the middle reaches of the hampshire avon,and i knew exactly which stretch he was on,told in full by another legend joe day,who breifly held the barbel record at that time,and was with **** and fred j talor trying to catch them,they did find a small shoal of them,and joe said to **** that the biggest one looked to be about 25lbs,but **** said no its not as big as that nearer 20lbs,but still a monster,mind bogling stuff really.after i wrote the article on ****,his son tim got in contact with me to have a chat about his dad,and i remember that tim said he was normally right with his estimation of fish sizes in the water,and i can well believe that.sorry feel the tears swelling up in my eyes now,and cant see the keys.kind regards derek.

Derek,

**** fished Bearton Pond a great deal. It was here that he developed the technique of margin fishing.

One more point to consider is that wether people like it or not, carpers were quite troublesome at the time.


Baz I dont think this would have been true because there was not really many of us fishing for carp when walker viewed Lymm Dam, I`m pretty sure this was before the mid seventies when carp fishing really began to take off and yes I was a night guest ay Lymm on a few occassions, in fact we guested a lot of the Cheshire Meres in those days, arriving just after dark and fading away as the sun came up, thinking back it may have been a little devious, but we left no litter, made no noise and no one was any the wiser plus a lot of these water were exclusive or on private property, which in those days, I considered undemocractic and restrictive, particulalry since my grandad fought in 2 World wars fighting for freedom, in fact I used to have his old pistol which he shot a German with (not in the War though, but over a sunlounger in Benidorm, amazing days. I can remember one of the lad telling me about a water just after the war he used to guest, it was in the ICI contageous disease gounds, another mere he fished was the one that was later renamed by the Carp Society under the AKA as Farmwood

That's quite true.

The early carp anglers where very few and were also a stange breed. You certainly would not be aware of their presence on any water as they even had special shades for their fag ends to prevent them glowing in the dark.

One of the carp bretheren of the 50s I knew use to wear dark glasses in the daytime to protect his night vision. Bite indication was often by the rustle of a coil of silver paper on the line at night.

A few of them put mud on their faces and stuck bits of grass into the bands of their floppy trilby hats.

Theirs was the time of "Tenters", "Smoke Sceeners", "Cloopers", "Bubblers" and the margin patrol. Carping was often done at close quarters and great watercraft and skill was required.

This changed of course with the advent of the bolt rig, the boilie and the bite alarm, leading to fishing at distance

This took most of the skill out of carp fishing and in time let the sport open to the thick, the stupid, the simple of mind, the time bandit and the tatooed skin-headed yobbo.

A great shame in a way. I would love to find a nice quiet private lake with a few big fish up to 30 lbs or so.

And do a bit of classic carping again.

I agree Monk, that most probably wouldn't have been the reason as carpers were few and far between. It was much later when those problems arose. and as I found out last night it was a simple matter of no night fishing at that time. But at least D.Walker went about it in the right way and asked first.
I have done the same myself in the past and always asked, only to be met with a resounding no.
At times I wished I hadn't bothered asking and just got on with it. As you say, no harm was done at that time.

And now I am going to have to say it Ron:

You say it is a great shame that carping has advanced the way it has. And that you would love to find a nice quite spot and fish it how it used to be fished.
Don't you think this is the way rive rfishing is going, especially with the barbel? but you now use bite alarms and bivvy up on the rivers.
I'm not trying to catch you out, but can you see the point I am making?

yes I can see what you are saying Baz and I have to agree with you, this is a sad fact when something becomes popular, but something we have to live with I suppose. I`d love to go back to the earlier days though, although sadly they have gone forever now mate