Right this one is a bit long, but is a beast and is my pb carp!
It had been a barmy hot weekend in early June and the fishing was hard, no fish had been out all weekend and i arrived Saturday lunchtime to start my session.
I had been putting some bait into a swim that allows you to fish to the mouth of a shallow weedy bay, that the fish like to get into during the day and generally laze about in the sun. There's a sand bar just short of heavy weed in the bay, that eventually produced a lot of fish for me, but not on this occasion.
The sun was crazy hot this weekend and not exactly great fishing conditions, so come Sunday i afternoon i was thinking of a move. I was planning on fishing till Monday morning before packing up early to head to work.
The Sunday sun drew the fish up to the surface, after hours of fruitless efforts trying to get a carp to take a surface bait, i reeled in and went for a wonder. A guy that i had got friendly with on the lake had managed to tempt his 1st carp of the season out that morning and he was well chuffed, and i don't blame him, these carp are tricky customers and have seen it all before.
His brother was fishing the next swim along and i got chatting to him, we chatted about how he had managed to catch more big commons than mirrors, with me having not caught many big commons. I hoped this would change soon, as the biggest 3 fish in this lake where commons...
I had some luck by fishing Sunday nights that season and waiting till the temperature cooled in the afternoon. Often the fish would start to show in numbers, and i had lost one of the big girls 2 weeks previously casting a single at the showing fish.
I remember chatting to one of the members that day about how i didn't think with how hot it was, that they wouldn't start to show until 10pm!
The swim i moved to was a swim that i had some success in already that season, had a good view of most of the lake, and most importantly, i could park my van behind for a quick exit in the morning
Exactly as i predicted just after 10pm the fish started to show in numbers straight out in front of my swim at about 100 yards range. I reeled in my left hand rod and cast a single pop-up bait at the fish. When you cast at showing fish there is always a worry that you will spook them, but after 10 minutes or so my fears where gone as the fish started to show again, phew!
I stayed up and watched the water till about 11, when i finally turned in with action to my rods.
At around 4.45am i was awoken by a screaming alarm on my left hand rod, i picked the rod and the rod hooped over, i was into a fish
My 1st estimation of the fish was to be one of the smaller stockies as it was coming straight into me, around 30 yards out the fish started to head towards a snag to my right, forcing me to put some pressure on the fish, it rolled on the surface soon after and i saw the golden scales of a nice size common, and my estimates had been revised to one of the many low 30lb commons in the lake, happy days
I got the fish under my rod tip, which was choked weed in 8 feet of water,which the fish used to good effect and got buried deep. To lift the fish meant putting more strain on my tackle than i was happy with, but it had to be done! With putting this extra strain on, it was a slow painstaking effort to slowly inch the fish of the bottom until eventually it rolled on the surface, my 1st proper glimpse and this was definitely the big girl!!
The fish soon found the depths of the weed again and it was a further more 4 or 5 games of tug of war with the big girl before she was at the surface spitting out water ready for the net.
Now the hard work was done, time for the easy job of netting her, NOT!
During the fight the fish had gone around my other line, that coupled with the thick weed meant that the with the net at full stretch, it was only just touching the fishes nose!!
With all my hopes and dreams held in desperate limbo, i made a quick "pumped up full of adrenaline in the moment" decision...
I dropped the rod and grabbed the net with both hands, and with the extra distance created leaning forward with both hand, i scooped up my prize!
Looking into the net, and there was doubt that i had the big girl, and she was looking plump!
A quick call to the bailiff and he was soon round for the weighing and pics. Once the pics where done, i packed up, had a shower and was my way to work a very happy man!!!!
For the record she was 43lb120z and was a new lake record!!