In the London Times of August 17th, there is a big article about a fish, a carp, that has been caught "about 59 times". And people are still coming to have the honour of joining the ranks of the victorious. There is a picture of a man holding this famous fish called Basil, after Basil of Fawlty Towers, horizontally - sagging, for the carp is almost as deep as it is long. Rather porcine. Basil has been 25 years in the same pond or lake at Yateley in Surrey. One fisherman tells the Times correspondent that he caught the fish "last Thursday" 45 pounds, 4 ozs. Three feet long. "Heavy? I don't know. It was like a dream when I was carrying him. I was buzzing too much with the thrill. I still am."
He had been fishing for Basil for three years. And the writer, Julian Champkin, who has come to try his hand, asked how he would know he had got Basil if he hooked a carp. "Oh, everyone knows Basil" was the answer. "He's such a beautiful fish and so quiet and good-natured. I think that he must enjoy it".
He, the fish, is sometimes referred to as she (it is said to be difficult to sex a carp). Can you believe all this? It is confirmed by the man at the angling centre who looks after everything. "The wonder", he says, "is that she has only been caught 59 times," Back to our writer. We learn that the preferred bait is known as boilies - a bit like boiled sweets for fish. Basil is said to favour fishmeal-flavoured ones.
Anyway, our man Julian Champkin is all geared up with his two rods, his tent, his provisions and an electronic device to sound off when the bait is taken. No luck. And he can console himself: one man, Terry Hearn, said to be the best angler in the country, spent a whole year, full time. March to March, every day and didn't catch him. Our man decides that he is perhaps not cut out to be a carp fisherman and tells Basil to suck on his boily in peace.
Question: what is the inside of Basil's mouth like after being hooked 59 times? Is this angling? A touch of The Wind in the Willows there. The English were always good at fantasy.