Why ECHO was formed.
Many of the species of coarse fish we have within our shores today come originally from abroad… that’s of course a simple fact. The case with carp goes back as far as about 1400, though the pursuit of the fish as a sporting species, as apposed to a food item, is something that can be traced back only to several hundred years ago. For instance, the mighty River Thames earliest introductions of king carp was in 1895 when 400 were released at Henley.
Certainly one of the foremost suppliers of carp in the late 1800s/early 1900s was the flouring business of Thomas Ford’s Manor Fishery, based at Caistor, Lincolnshire. After his death in 1907, the Manor Fishery was purchased by a name many will know, The Surrey Trout Farm.
 From 1925 to 1955 The Surrey Trout Farm under the guidance of Donald Leney imported vast amounts of fingerling Galician carp (king carp with enhanced growth through selective breeding) from a fish farm near Vassen, Holland. Donald Leney and his special interest in carp resulted in good quality, disease free stocks being made available in this country – and remarkably some of those carp are still alive today.
So all this sounds very rosy and straightforward, but come the huge upsurge in the popularity of carp fishing in the early 1970s and the pursuit of the largest specimens resulted in someone coming up with the idea of importing big fish from the continent so creating an instant big carp water or supplementing an established one. Most notable was the legal introduction of a number of big carp to upper twenties in March 1973 into the famous Ashlea Pool. The naivety of all concerned at the time resulted in most of these big fish and a greater part of the original stock dying through disease. This instance resulted in a block on this kind of activity for a while.
 However, the pace of carp fishing in the 1980s and beyond meant it was easily the major earner for tackle companies, bait companies, lake and land owners as the huge thirst for big carp fishing had to be satisfied.
Enter the unscrupulous operator who has little regard for the fish itself. To these unsavoury characters carp are just a number, a commodity, a statistic that means just one thing – money!
This escalating situation was to be the catalyst for the formation of the ‘English Carp Liberation Army’. Increasingly desperate conversations between devote carp anglers, Ian Chillcott and Keith Jenkins brought the ECLA into existence. Around this time I happened to be fishing the same water as ‘Chilly’ and it was clear that he was getting more and more wound up about the illegal importation trade in carp and the terrible suffering that was taking place. The initial letters put out asking for support for the ECLA drew many eager to help.
I remember we gave the ECLA exposure in Carp-Talk and this drew a massive response, though not all of it favourable. It was when Tim Paisley, who sympathised, suggested that the name was a tad too radical that Chilly then rang and told me about the English Carp Heritage Organisation (ECHO) that went on from strength to strength.
However all this is water under the bridge. What’s more important is what has happened in the last few years – it’s nothing short of miraculous. The sheer hard work, and at times almost blind faith, in what Chilly and a host of others have done is remarkable, no less the mantle that Ruth Lockwood has taken in recent years. By christ…! the government of England is taking notice of ECHO now, plus the fact that pressure groups within angling have drawn breath at just what ECHO had achieved in such a short time.
 The fact is that little old me, Chris Ball, these days a carp fishing dinosaur, but once the kid who tried (in vain) in the late 1950s to catch a carp, any carp, still feels over 50 years later it is the most wonderful fish to catch and by christ worth preserving. So don’t mess about, just join ECHO and like me make a difference to what happens now and in the future to carp fishing. Blimey, after that little lot I need a drink… cheers!
Chris Ball |