About Jim Davidson
We all know about Jim’s high-profile entertainment stage and TV career, but his carp-fishing exploits are probably less well known. In a recent Carpworld (issue 252) Jim had this to say about his love of carp fishing:
“What a great interview with Rod Hutchinson in the August edition of Carpworld. I’ve still got three of his rods. I started carping shortly after him and had my first 20 from Horton Kirby in 1968. Your magazine is great – keep it up!
"I’ve done a few years on the bank. It was Horton Kirby, where my dad had taken me when I was a kid, which started it all. I saw a guy catch a carp off the surface and that did it. I got my mum to get me a Provident cheque and I bought two 10ft Carpmaster rods and two Mitchell 300s. Of course I sprayed them black and customised my Heron alarms! Before that, indication was by means of a penny on the open spool of my one Mitchell 324 on my Abu Carpmaster rod of 1¾lb test curve. Baits were sausage meat and bread flake mix, moving on to Pomenteg, a type of groundbait, instead of the bread. Those were the days.
"I was 15 and playing drums in a pub in Woolwich. I’d catch the 11.10 p.m. train to Dartford and walk the 3½ miles to Horton Kirby. I’ve kept fishing on and off till today. I’ve always had to catch up with technology because my non-carp-fishing periods leave me behind. Not a bad thing really, as I’ve had to concentrate on fishcraft, or the lack of it, to make up. I fish quite a bit now and have joined Dartford Angling club so I can fish some of their waters again.
"It’s nostalgia I’m after rather than a 40. Sometimes I used to fish with Jim Gibbinson and the late Gerry Savage – my carp-fishing claim to fame! For the record, my biggest carp is a 34lb 10oz common. I’ve caught only three 30s, but a million 20s! The first was the fish of 21lb 8oz I mentioned earlier. What an old bugger, eh? Recently I caught a pair of fish of 31lb 8oz and 34lb 10oz in one morning.”
Jim Davidson OBE.
