White Springs
   Fishery

Fishing on the Island on the Specimen Lake today are some of the regulars which are affectionately known as The Crew.

I met them when I visted them on the island to hear about their day at White Springs, present for the session was Alfy (29) from Llanelli, Johnathen Davies aka SparkyJon (31) from Cimla, and Jesse Collins (26) from Tumble whom I believe though dont quote me were down for a 48hr session celebrating Alfys Birthday on the Island. These fun loving, hard working, partying hard, crazy bunch of lads enjoy nothing better than to come to White springs to relax and to chill out and enjoy themselves as lads do.

 They say that it gives them a chance to unwind and to forget about the stresses of the working week and a chance to relax, have fun and wind each other up as was seen in the short time I was there with the boys constantly laughing and playing tricks on one another, Alfys favourite was triggering off the carp alarms when the others wern't looking to see them jump and you had to chuckle at his antics. Unfortunately Jesse was away when I first got there, so I met Alfy and SparkyJon first and they told me that within 15 minutes of Jesse leaving his alarms had gone off and they had bagged a nice 30lb for him, whilst we waited for him to return it seemed that they couldnt be serious for a moment and the atmosphere was full of laughter and jesting whilst they discussed White Springs, the fishing on the lake and told me a little about the specimen lake and the rigs that they use to fish it. I already knew how much of a difficult lake it was to fish for the beginner, yet the boys assured me that with some patients and the correct rig and bait I would be landing one on the lake and beating my personal best before I know it, they have promised to share some of their wealth of knowledge with us shortly via the site.

Upon Jesses return I watched the fish being banked what impressed me was as soon as it had been landed the boys had the first aid kit out on the fish and checked it over for any signs of damage whilst Alfy started automatically applying some first aid to the mouth where the hook had been.

 When it came down to it though you could see how passionate they were about the fishing and the one thing that shone through was how serious they were on the subject of carp care, handling the fish correctly and having the right equipment there to deal with the larger fish that they specialise in was a very important subject for the boys and no more so for SparkyJon who is one of the staff at www.carpand.co.uk a free and easy going carp forum where no question is beneath being answered and where people have the freedom of speech to ask beginners questions as they please without moderation. They also from the forums organise Competitions on the Specimen Lake and there is one due in November (contact SparkyJon on forum for more details). He impressed upon me the need for the correct equipment and how some equipment being sold today wasnt correct or sutible for being used on lakes such as the specimen lake and frankly after seeing the size of the common carp they had landed it was easy to understand why they were so serious about it. At 30lb they were only 1lb short of the lake record for Common Carp.

We were joined by Martin one of the old school anglers of White Springs and some say that he is to White Springs what the Stig is to Top Gear and that he has caught every fish in the lake except one elusive Golden Orfe which still to this day remains uncaught by any angler on the lake. He had come around to see one of his old friends known simply as The Big Common to some and Lumpy to others, a beautiful 30lb common carp. Martin had caught the fish a few months ago, but didnt manage to get a picture of it last time, so we reaquainted him with his old friend and got a snap of it for his momentos. Just look at that smile I am told by (cough no names mentioned cough ...Vince Cough) that this picture is a rare catch

The fish was caught on Jess's rod and line using Destiny Baits Malarky but unfortunately for Jesse within 15 minutes of him leaving, his alarm started screaming with this 30lb beast and the fish was brought in by SparkyJon on Jesse's behalf. Jesse on his return remarked that it was just his luck to have the big one come in when he wasnt there. In fairness to the boys, even though I was in a rush that day, they very modestly declined to have the photo taken of the fish until Jesse returned as it was on his rod and when Jesse did return he modestly refused to have the photo taken as he hadnt landed it, so no-one wanted to take full credit for the catch so we opted to take a team photo and therefore we have included everyone in the picture.

At the time of writing the boys had caught apart from the 30lb Common

Jesse 15lb Mirror + 17 1/2 lb Mirror

SparkyJon 21lb Mirror + approx 5 high doubles (unweighed).

Alfy 20lb Common + 14lb Common

I have heard that since I left them they have caught approx 13 fish between them all in the high figures and I will try and get that confirmed and more details about them.

All in all I was impressed by these boys knowledge of the lake and fish, their equipment and the rigs, for all their larking about they care passionately about the Fish and their wellbeing, White Springs and its future, and the people who visit there, and most impressively for me they were deadly serious about carp care which reminds me of the saying that "The carp are not ours but our childrens and our children's children", and it was their fun loving friendly, but highly respectful nature to the fish which made me respect these guys and I say credit where credit is due. Well done boys on your catch and well done on your acomplishments and attitude to the sport. You are a credit to fishing and I for one will look forward to hearing more of your adventures. Tight Lines.