Mike Willmott - Essential Baits

A sure sign of how my Springwood
carp were growing. At 29.04 (this pic)
and 29.08 (below), it is now only a
matter of time before our fi rst 30!
a few Springwood � sh and monitor their
increasing weight gains.
It also gave me a good chance to
net and monitor the growth rates
of some of my smaller carp in our
stock ponds. I’ve got a small, but
very special group of carp that I
refer to as ‘Arnie’s Crew’. We’ve
grown-on these fish from eggs
which originated from some stunning
carp that reside in a very exclusive lake
on the French/Belgian border. They
are without doubt some of the
best-looking fish
I’ve ever
seen and I’m hoping that one day they might
act as the brood stock to create further
generations of Springwood carp.
One of the carp grew at an
unbelievable rate, and within
a very short period of time
it completely dwarfed all
the others. We named this
one Arnie, and I couldn’t
believe my eyes when at the
fingerling stage I witnessed
him swimming around
trying to gobble up all
the other carp!
Obviously they
were separated
at this stage
and graded
One of the carp grew
at an unbelievable
rate, and within a
very short period of
time it completely
dwarfed all the others
accordingly, but some of them are absolute
stunners, with a number of them being fullyscaled.
I recently caught Arnie at a little over
9lb, and to think that I actually witnessed
this carp break out from an egg and swim
to the surface to take its first gulp of air not
only fascinates me, but underlines exactly
why I get so much satisfaction from rearing
our own fish.
Back to the � shing and in November 2004
I managed to catch Springwood’s big common
at a weight of 29lb 4oz, followed a few
weeks later by a 29lb 8oz mirror called
Cluster. � ese were both fantastic
weight gains for the venue and
were further proof indeed
that all the hard work was
starting to pay o� . Surely it
was only a matter of time now
before our � rst 30.
See you next month…. MW
Life and Carp Life Mike Willmott 29