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Cracking fish gents 😎 Couple more nice mirrors

Very difficult this coz there are a few that come close for various reasons. This is a fish later named Arnie by friends that came from a Notts day only club water, it turned out to be the biggest and one I had only seen once in 3-4 years. I love this capture soley due to the effort involved and the small amount of time available due to family commitments, but a 2am start until 11am one Saturday morning and several moves eventually put me onto the big fish group after spotting the most elusive ghosty, again only my second sighting. 30 mins fishing with 2 rods in the margin saw 2 takes - the first being a gut wrenching loss - then to my amazement a 2nd take, plodding battle and unknown to me Italian blood line whacker! Get in 😊

Nothing better mate, been taking my boy since before he could walk . Slowly progressed him to bigger fish the last two fish were caught on our first over nighter together, I had also took his older cousin with us . He had gone to bed a bit down as his cousin had caught a couple during the day & he hadn't had a bite lol .. his rod screams off at 1 am & there's no waking him no matter how hard we tried so his cousin landed that one too , anyway he stuck with it the next day & got his rewards . Very proud Dad x

One more from me. I started to fish billingford lakes just after it opened, it had been unfished for around 20 years according to the locals. I had a few sessions in the summer and autumn but not a single carp. It was a freezing cold new years eve and the 1st time I'd ever used maggots to target carp. About 1 hour in had this beauty. As far as I could tell it had never been caught before. Not a scratch on it. Felt quite guilty for putting a hole in its lip to be honest.

My first fish on cane and pin... a cute little Wildie.... The rod is my MkIV (pre-rebuild) and the reel is an Allcock's Arielite (circa 1937)

This was my first fish on my newly rebuilt Mk IV Carp and center pin... I love this pic... didn't weigh it, too chuffed, just popped out the hook, a quick pic and back she went....👍

My PB 28lb 12oz taken from Tall Trees Fishery in March 2011... the best of a 5 fish haul including 3x 0's and 2 doubles

A few more

I think this one is the smallest I have had out of my lake but it is definitely one of my favourite pictures

As above, quite a few fond memories stirred up, thinking of which one to choose? Close was my first ever carp, when I thought, what the blooming hell have I hooked here!!! Unforgettable! But this lump has stood as my pb for quite a few years now. One of the few 30'S on a hard weedy little syndicate. I fished it on & off for 2 years, blanked, before I found the spots, the bait, the rig. I put in the effort to catch almost all the target fish in the lake. Just the big common eluded me. Dammit! Those were the days I could go every week!!

Good stuff that mate, my little lads three can’t wait until he’s a bit bigger to get him out on the bank with me...

Tell me about it! 2 daughters, one son and a granddaughter for me. Another one for you, that also involves Bruce, my first fish from Ardleigh. I had seen a group of males getting ready in the margins on the other side of the stream, none of the females were there, so I took a chuck with a pineapple pop-up and had my first fish from the reservoir. I called Bruce on his mobile to come and do some pics, and as he was there and we were celebrating and chatting after the pics I had the battle scarred mirror in my original post give a proper take from out in the middle. The bottom pic is a favourite of mine, and comes with a story. I had set up in Antz on Brackens, but lost 2 fish as they came charging towards me and then into the snags to my left. As the angler in Bridge had packed up I moved in there and baited the same spot with a number of large stringers, and when I say large... Within 10 minutes of the last of those loads of those beasts going in I had one of the most sought after fish in the pool, the 2 tone Linear at 28. Over the next two days after topping up with bait by stringer I had another two 20's. Sadly the pic of the 28 is half in shadow, but the fish itself.

For pure exitment it has to be this mirror from the ebro. My mate already had a mid 40 common in the net so the guide just jumped straight in and grabbed it with hands . I was buzzing for days after this. Helps if I put a pic with it eh.

Some of the ones I have on my phone:

My Favourite...with my lad on his 1st propper 24hr nighter with me on fathers day.

Morning all. I’ve had a little look on the forum and can’t seem to find a thread containing people’s favourite captures. Might not be a PB, night be a real looker, could be a great story behind it. So what’s your favourite fish pic? ill kick off with this one. Caught this year from a margin spot just under my feet. I was on a bit of a dry spell and starting to question everything I was doing. Blown away by the beauty of it and genuinely made my knees tremble when I peered in the net..

So, when you book out churn pool, you can have the use of the lodge on the site. The lake is set out in a way that you can cover the whole lake from 4 swims. Each of which is close enough to the lodge to fish from safely. The lodge itself has two sets of sliding full glass doors looking out to the lake. When sat in there of an evening, we generally keep the doors open unless it’s really cold, with our receivers by the doors waiting to alert us of any action. Micks screamed off one evening and as he ran out at full pace, he slid the door, thinking he was opening it when in reality, he closed it on himself and smashed straight into the glass, nose first!!!!! phil and I were literally rolling around on the floor in uncontrollable laughter. It was one of those had to be there moments but I still wet myself when ever I think about it!!

The fully scaled came on the night after the London Bombings. My mate Bruce was on the train when the bomb went off, about 2metres away from it. The poor lady in front of him RIP. I actually caught another fish that night a 23.8, and Bruce was my regular photographer. He would always come down to do my pictures, no matter where he was *. I had tried phoning him to get him to cone down and his phone just went straight to voicemail, which never happened. After phoning other mates to find out how he was my mate Al came down to take pics. *The river 28 I had had to work late Thursday setting up the bars at Ipswich Town Hall and Corn Exchange for a function Friday night, so when Bruce drove up to Taverham, I couldn't go. My alternative was to go down to the river for a few hours Friday. The take happened as I was getting ready to pack up, in fact I had dismantled the landing net. Bruce packed up at Taverham and made it back to Ipswich in a hour to do the photographs. When I first joined Earith I had done a blank not knowing the lake, but the second session Bruce and I walked round looking properly. We set up on the causeway between Pats and Virginia with the rods into Virginia. Before dark I managed to land my first fish from the lake, a beautiful double figure common, which was photographed at the same time as Bruce had a take. Later that evening just as it was getting dark, I managed to hook and land a 24lb mirror. Another Earith session, middle of February, around 1am a real screamer resulted in my first ever 25lb common, and at the time I guess it must have been my second biggest fish. The syndicate owner Ian Jones came down to do the pictures in the night about 10minutes after the phonecall. I had just expected it to switch to answerphone, but he promised to come down.

To be honest, I couldn't just pick one, there are too many with memories: 28lb, from a river, at the time a pb, caught in a 3 hour trip. My first 30, or the 3 biggest 20's from the reservoir, all weighing 24.12

Favourite mirror... which was really hard to choose as I've had some real crackers over the years, certainly not my biggest mirror, but defiantly one of my personal favourites, also marked a good zig session where everything fell into place for me . Favourite common also not my biggest, but it's a survivor after we thought it was lost to otters after doing the disappearing act for a couple of years

There was a similar post on a Facebook post the other night and 1 guy posted a pic of a lovely ghost carp at 37lb and I just sat there thinking I've seen that fish before. So I messaged him and asked where he had caught it and it turns out i had caught it 12 years previous at 23lb. At the time it was pb and my 1st ever ghostie. Any way , here it is.

This is my fave from my local park lake. As far as I know nobody else has ever caught it. I've had it twice.

Wow, that's a proper minter mate. I can't post any of my faves due to publicity restrictions and tbh even if I could I'd be hard pressed to choose one. One was a scraper twenty from a very big low stock pit that took me 6 months to catch (this was years ago when I was well out of my depth on this water, meant the world to me at the time). One was my target fish in 2016, the best looking carp I've ever caught, a mid 30 linear Nene Valley original. Mint. One was a 49 lb fully scaled mirror just last year, another Nene Valley original. Need I say more lol. In 2012 I had a mid 30 in the very depths of winter, mid Jan, -5 conditions, that was a bit of a buzz I can tell you. I've been very lucky in that I can think of several more that could qualify too. I'd say my fave capture is always the next one!

Absolutely no holds barred BANGING @kevtaylor.

Come on then!! I’ve only started this thread for the story’s to save me spending 40 quid on Pennings new book!

This fish was just the icing on the cake to the funniest thing I have ever seen whilst fishing.

It’s hard not to post on threads like this without the fear of coming across like a bragger! I have been fortunate enough to select venues that I spend time on, that contain lookers. You can only catch what’s in the lakes that you fish on!

Yes mate. Had Nige’s on our first social there.

Alright show off lol. I think I've said this before but I don't think I've ever seen you post a pic that was not an absolute stunner mate.

A stray match away from serious burns lol