With permission to fish the reservoir, Dave’s attention now turned to hunting down the fabled uncaught carp in the reservoir.

The Last of the Kings Continued

Where do you start on 485 acres of long featureless concrete banks? I thought the best place to start would be the prevailing wind ward bank; this would be the south west bank. I baited a corner and a few spots along that 2 and a half mile stretch, I used mixed baited thinking if there are any carp left in here they may never have seen a boilie let alone a hook and if they had then it wouldn't have been for years, although I have no doubt before the security was increased the reservoir could have been pouched.

I used a lot of tiger nuts as they don’t rot like boilies and I could spend weeks checked the baited spots, and that’s just how long they sat there in six feet of gin clear water not even the bird life knew what they were. The days were starting to get warm and I still hadn’t seen a single carp and doubts started to creep in that I was wasting my time. One day while walking round I bumped in to a guy who worked on the res, he was bird watching and he started chatting away and to be honest I wasn’t overly interested I had already covered four miles of walking and wanted to get another lap in. He asked why I was up on the reservoir and I said I was looking for carp, he laughed saying “you won’t see them up here”, I didn’t see them till June last year. What! Suddenly I was interested. I questioned him about what he’d seen. Oh yes he says, last June I saw four big carp in the far corner, big old dark shapes they were but not enough to fish for in here these days.

One of the right size was enough!

Well I was buzzing there was at least four carp and likely more, ok not a lot in so much water but they were here. I kept walking until I reached my baited corner. I looked in and it was all gone leaving a long line cleared out on the bottom. It could have been bird life, or it could have gone off and floated away, but It may have been carp, massive uncaught carp!

My mind was buzzing and I could hardly sleep that night so when the morning came and the sun was shining I jumped in the car and drove back to the five mile pit. I had my little girl Lottie with me who loves nature so we walked the banks bird/carp watching but after a few miles Lottie had enough and I had to bribe her with the promise of MacDonald’s! I reach the baited corner and deposited half a kilo of Tiger nuts and about 500 Mainline Hybrid boilies, everything again was put fairly close in about 6ft of water, the wind was blowing in and there was a build up of floating rubbished, this was made up of all sorts strange stuff from dolls heads, plastic bottle tops, sticks and old crisp packs. I didn’t see any carp but I’d got the bait in, I then had to give Lottie a piggy back most of the way back if anything the Five mile pit was getting me fit.

I’d now been changed on to shift work and this meant I could get back to fishing week days so on the Monday instead of fighting my way through Traffic on the M25 I drove the hour long trip to the Five mile pit. The sun was shining and while I drove along I was thinking what it would mean to catch a huge uncaught carp, worth ten of any other other carp to me. After parking up I started walking the banks in search of the unknown, by lunch time it had turn out to be a warm day and as I approached the baited corner I don’t know why, I got a feeling come over me, maybe a sixth sense. I said to myself, keep down low there is going something in the corner. I dropped to my knees and crawled up to the bank side and looked down the slope in to the clear water, I could hardly believe my eyes they were here! Three carp all feeding, two big mirrors and a common. I watched the biggest a mirror with a large cream belly, it was very close in. It was hard to put a weight on them but they were all looked big. I slowly backed off before standing up. I had two rods with me but the only problem was they were about a mile and a half away in my car. I took off my top and began to jog, the jog turned in to a run and before long I was looking like Mo Farah running in the Olympics. Ok, Ok, stop right there. I’m getting carried away, I looked nothing like Mo Farah, in fact by the time I reach the car I resembled someone who needed medical assistance! I pulled the gear out the car and downed some water before starting the run back. When I got within 100 yards of where I’d seen the carp I slowed down taking a moment to get my breath back Just as a Van came driving along the track and stopped. It was a mate I used to work with and he said what the hell is wrong with you?

I replied “carp….seen a carp”…. He then says, so. “why you running about this place I told you you could drive round”! He’d never bloody mentioned that!

He then said let me see these carp I told him to get down and we both crawled to the edge and looked over. They were gone! He laughed and said the sun is getting to you, with this he jumped in his Van and drove off. Would they be back? I wasted no more time thinking about it and lowered a snowman rig a few feet from the bank right where I’d seen the big mirror feed, I then laid the rod on the floor undoing the clutch and walked the other rod 20 yards to the left lowering it in then chucking a hand full of baits over the top. I laid down on the grass listening to the waves hit the banks, it had been about 25 minutes when I spotted a bow wave on the surface about 60 yards away, I grabbed the left hand rod and quickly moved to where the carp was heading, it came in I could see it was the common from the three earlier carp. Then the other mirror was just behind it, I could clearly see the mirror had no pelvic fins! they weren't feeding but were just picking at the green slime weed growing up the slope. I needed to get the other rod so looked over to where it was laying on the floor, I couldn’t believe what I saw. The rod was dragging along the margin and the spool was a blur, a carp had been hooked! I sprinted over to the rod and lifted in to it, the carp was heading out in to the obsess and stripping line from the spool at a ridiculous rate, I put my finger on the spool and slowed it down, gradually the line began to lift in the water until at about 60 yards out a big mirror rolled over. I can tell you now my heart was pounding big time! I hadn’t hooked a carp in three months so I wanted it in the net. I kept it coming slowly not putting too much of a rend in the rod, It looked a good 20 another few rod lengths closer and I’m thinking this could be a bit bigger than I first thought and imagined an uncaught 30! When it cursed under the rod tip it bolted down deep but I could see in to the tap clear water watching, and praying he’d stay on. Coming back up the slope it twisted and turned in a last bid for freedom before breaking the surface ten feet out, I pushed the net out and in he went. I looked in the net trying to gage its size as it was a lot wider then I first noticed it had to be an easy 30. I couldn’t believe it. I lifted the carp out and laid it on the mat. It was a male fish with rough skin but dark across the back with small pin scales nestled among the plated scales along the flanks. I had sorted the scaled while waiting for my mate Paul and we lifted the scales I was thinking it must be over 35lb but when the needle kept going passed 40 I could hardly believe my eyes, settling on 41lb 4oz. not just any forty the uncaught 40 we all dream of!

After the photos I lowered my mat to the waters edge and slowly let him slide off, he righted himself in the margin before slowly swimming away, It was an awesome site and I wondered if he would ever be caught again.

We’ll be bringing you the full chapter on Dave’s hunt for the elusive carp in the coming weeks. If you want to hear more about his angling adventures check out his book Fallen Kings which is available now https://www.gifts4anglers.co.uk/Fallen-Kings-Dave-Levy.html