We have 10 excellent winter catches for you this week. They come from all over the country, from excellent carp for experienced anglers to youngsters landing their first carp. If you would like to submit a catch report for either Carp-Talk or Carp-Talk Xtra simply click the following link and follow the simple step-by-step procedure. www.carptalk-online.co.uk

Mistral Crab Crème Boilies

Made to a tried and trusted isotonic recipe Mistral Baits have introduced Robin Red, PTX and various fishmeals to make a truly highly nutritional value (HNV) offering that oozes quality from day one. Crab Creme is available in 15 & 20mm boilie sizes and in either 500g & 1kg bags. The 500g bags actually feature 25% extra, plus a free gift inside.

If you’d like to get your hands on a bag of Crab Creme boilies and a bag of Peach & Black Pepper boilies, simply send an email to competitions@carptalk-online.co.uk marking the subject line “Mistral Boilies Giveaway”. One lucky winner will be chosen at random from entries received and the closing date for entries is Tuesday 23rd February. The winner will be announced in the next issue of Carp-Talk Xtra. Please don’t forget to add your contact details, name, address, etc.

Dateline:__June 1962

Anglers:>   Joe Taylor

Weight:>>>26lb

Venue:@@Redmire pool

One of carp fishing’s iconic pictures is this beauty from the camera of Richard Walker. It shows the larger-than-life figure of Fred J Taylor  emerging from the depths of Redmire Pool. In the net was the culprit that caused Fred J’s soaking - a fine 26lb leather carp.

The Taylor ‘brothers’ (though Ken was in fact a cousin) arrived at the famed pool at the start of the

1962 season. The pool, as it often was, was  heavily weeded and almost unfishable, all except an area in front of the dam where the water is deep.

The warm weather had encouraged most of the fish to roll about in the shallows at the opposite end. However Joe noticed a fish cruising along the edge of the weeds at the dam end - soon a piece of floating crust was cast in its direction. After a couple of close misses with the fish turning away at the last moment suddenly there was a swirl and the crust was gone.

Straightaway the hooked fish shot through the weed, got stuck, then shot out again into a narrow open strip to Joe’s right and that’s where things ground to a halt, Joe on one side of the weedbed and the fish stuck on the other side swirling heavily from time to time. No amount of pressure could shift it.

Fred to the rescue... with a long handled landing net Fred entered the water from the east bank, after a couple of steps he was waist deep and shouted over to the dam amid much laughter, “That’s funny, the water only came two inches up them ducks!”

After routing about near to the fish Fred got it on the move and when it surfaced in a flash he had it in the net. The leather turned out to be a personal best for Joe and the second largest recorded that year.