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Passion for Angling episode on the search for "Harry the Monster Carp".

Snap (but not the line) 😉😬

So after a couple of people saying they would like to see/hear about my time on dinton I've managed to find my pic's and even my old diary/ fish lists. So here goes, I'll start with my best session I had on there. I'll give a little insight into the season first and to what then followed. So its 2006 and just before the start of the season a mate i worked with , who also fished dinton, asked me if I'd like to go on his bait. It was a homemade bait so something I'd not really done in my fishing and especially as I was more than happy with premier baits and also the fact that I'd given a recipe to tony at premier for him to roll for me and some mates on dinton that year but I wasn't sure. This mate and a few of his mates always caught loads of fish from dinton. 20 plus fish a year each which isn't or wasn't heard of on there, especially being they were all weekend anglers and along with the numbers of fish they also caught the big lumps. Over and over they would catch them between them all so I decided to go with him purely on the fact his bait had a knack of catching big fish. So my mates were left with the new premier bait and I went with my mate I worked with. He decided upon a milk protein bait to use that year, a very high protein one at that. So opening night (june 15th midnight)and my mate bags a 49lb mirror, the other bloke on the bait had a 44lb mirror and I sadly had nothing. I blame the draw Haha, but straight away he was saying, "told you, this bait will have'em this year". Fast forward to the middle of October and we were struggling like mad. I'd had 4 or 5 fish til that point and my other 2 mates not much more. My other mates on the prem though (4 of them) all into double figures with a couple of the bigguns amongst them. I was well gutted, what a waste of a season I thought. Though my mate whose bait I was on said, " don't worry, this bait comes into it's own in the winter. The colder the better". The following weekend and he had bailed out and gone to an easier water, now I was doomed. Now a lot of hard work, a nice slice of luck and if I do say so myself a pretty good bit of angling changed my season around. Now fast forward again to 19/01/07 and my best session. So I get down usual time of about 3pm on the friday. Only a handful of us fishing the lake now as most packed it in at the end of October , so knew I'd get "my "swim. I was baiting 3 spots in this swim and had been since mid August when that area became unfishable so I hatched a plan to bait down there knowing it was free food for the fish and no one could fish off my back. So all sorted by 4-30pm. At 5-00pm I'm off to my mates swim, so I place my Neville sounder box on a bank stick as I had the box with wires back then and faced it towards my mates swim which was about 250 metres away (yes not good angling but it's what we did). So I get round there and its pitch black, tea in hand my mate says "that a red light on your sounder box?". I looked up and said yeah but it will go out in a second, did it hell. So I'm sprinting as fast as I could along the path, the nearer I get the louder the Neville is screaming. I hald expected to find swans as it was pitch black and couldn't really see from my mates swim. No swans, middle rod is ripping. I lift the rod and thump, thump, thump. Christ I thought, this is a lump. Not a spectacular fight, just a heavy weight. My mate arrives as the fish is nearing the net and one scoop it's in. Head torch on and there's a lump of a mirror "the dustbin ". Onto the mat , in the sling and needle stops at 44lb 06oz. Well made up. Lift the fish for the pictures and right rod bursts into life. I hit the rod, one mate sorts the fish and another is there and he reasembles the net. Play the fish In and again no real fight but a heavy weight. In the net and torch on and a big common is staring at me. So sort the common out and a new PB common of 38lb 06oz . So a bit of composure and we do the pics, mirror first and then the common (the blind eye common its called). Blown away and a call to a good mate to say what happened etc. Now later that night one of my mates had the biggun at 53lb and ounces and another mate had a 32lb mirror. So first light and camera in hand off I go to take pics for my mates. The mate I called the previous night said he'd be down as he wanted to see the 50lber. Now once again not good practice but I left my rods out and bearing in mind one mate is the opposite end of the lake to me and being 23 odd acres I'm a little off my rods. First mate done, the 32lb mirror. Then to my next mate with the 50, he's only 200/300 metres from my swim. We do his pics and hand shakes etc and I head back to my swim with my mate who drove down to see the 50. My mate asked if my rods were out and i said jokingly "yeah of course, I've probably got one on". Walk into the swim and left bobbin is jammed into the Neville's wheel. Pick up the rod and once again just a heavy weight and not being big headed but after catching a few chunks you kind of know when you've got a kipper on. So in it comes and it rolls into the net, yup it's a kipper. On the scales and the needle stops at 42lb. This is a fish known as "Astra" . Absolutely gobsmacked, I recall feeling 10ft tall, on cloud 9 literally. The rest of the morning and day past and it was soon dark again. It was just past 6pm and right rod goes, this time a 32lb 12oz common Grace's the net and my last fish of that session. I recall walking back to the van grinning from ear to ear. And not just for me but my mates 50 etc. Dinton doesn't give up its residents that readily, maybe half a dozen on a good weekend in summer or autumn but that weekend there were 8 fish banked. It was and still is my best session and one that I know I'll struggle to beat and it became the centre point of what turned into one hell of a winter for me. This last pic is of my fish list that season. The last 10 were from November til the end of the season which was the end of March.

Amazing angling Emm there's some serious looking fish in that collection

I am a big fan of the KD rig but I fish it with a snowman setup so the hook is flat on the bottom, A long hair and with half of a inch striped back of the coated braid with a B.B. pinched on the break. The rig looks... well weird but works for me.

Dial-a-bites that made me smile. Lovely fish and pics again...but to see a fish that you know could be a 50 it’s defo a heart stopper. 👍

Squeaky bum time lol. I'm primarily a weekend angler so understand the struggles that come with other anglers. You just have to deal with it mate. Take your chances when they come, which you clearly do 🐋 Fantastic tale as usual mate.

So after catching paw print on my last session and word spreading like wild fire as it does, all the armchair anglers or as we called them "dial-a-bites" started to appear down the lake. From no one fishing midweek and the 6 of us at a weekend, it was now 5 or 6 every night during the week and 10 to 15 anglers at a weekend. I knew I'd struggle to bait up now as it was fully known now what I'd caught and where from. So to continue my baiting up on a Wednesday I decided I had to fish and hope no one would jump in the swim. Arrived down after work on the Wednesday to a busy car park, my heart sunk. Still I pushed the Barrow, passing 4 or 5 anglers in the middle area, I might be lucky I thought. Get to peg 8, this is about 200yds up the lake and find the bloke who took the pictures of paw print for me chatting with another angler. They both turned and said " sorry mate but we did tell him you'd be down". I was gutted, but as I looked through the trees the angler in question had actually set up in the swim next door. So I push my barrow round, getting more and more wound up. I get to mateys swim, " alright, scott you've done alright so i hear. Where you heading?" I said next door, " oh I didnt realise that's where you'd been fishing ". I told him the 2 lads up the bank had said to him I'd be down and where I'd been fishing, he looked sheepish and ducked back under his brolly. Now not that the swim was mine but on dinton there was an unwritten rule that you'd leave someone alone if they were baiting regularly and catching and this angler was always left alone so for him to do it I lost a fair bit of respect for him. Now with my back up I was a bit naughty and I literally spodded every half hour, all through the night. Suffice to say neither of us caught. Not my proudest moment and no excuse but I'd always left him alone and everyone else for that matter so just thought I'd get the same back. I return once again at my usual time on friday, rods out and settled in by dark. Now I recall struggling to hit my right hand spot, it was going down softer and I was pulling weed in. My only conclusion was the fish had been in and smashed it up. About 10PM and the liners started. Middle rod first, then left. Same as my midweek session. By midnight and all was quiet again. Doubt started setting in, had I been done? Was I tangled? With my bites being mainly during darkness or a couple of hours into first light I decided to leave them. I don't know why but I decided to put some more bait in, hopefully spook any fish that were present and go for a rechuck as I was convinced by now something was amiss. Left rod a pouch of boilies followed by another. Middle rod a pouch load, followed by another. Left rod, liners start again. What the ####? 15-20 mins and the liners transfer to the middle rod. Odd indeed. This went on for a couple of hours, liners would stop so I'd top up the spots and they would start again. I crashed out at god knows what time but in the morning I was going to recast. By 7-30 all rods were recast and topped up and all were fine on there retrieval. 10am and bite time had gone and no liners either. I scratched my head wondering what had gone on, fingers crossed they'd be back tonight. Midday and liners started again. I was trying to think what was going on and came to the conclusion that with the influx of anglers the fish were more active and visiting my spots more regularly, that's what I thought anyway. Looking at the spots and a fish known as "Sid" sticks its head out right on me, a 50lber, come on let's have it. 12-20 and the rod gives a slow take and I hit it expecting a heavy weight but not not be. A spirited fight, it felt decent and at times heavy, this is it I thought until a dark mirror rolled in front of me, gutted. I can honestly say that's the first and last time I've been gutted to see a 30lb mirror in my net. 32lb 08oz in fact and a nice one too. Once again this seemed to kill off the fishing for me for the remainder of the weekend. I continue baiting as and when I could but this was getting harder and harder and the following weekend there was someone left and right of the swim so I left it be. The following weekend was the last weekend of the season so I took half day on the Friday and it payed off as I got my swim. By the time evening arrived the lake was very busy, I didnt hold out much hope especially with someone to my right which meant my right hand rod would have to be moved. So 2 rods on the middle spot and left rod as it was. Due to the amount of liners I'd been having in the last few weeks I put 2kg in on the middle rod spot. I recall nothing happened until about 2am when the liners started. 4am and one of the rods on the same spot was away. I don't know how but I was lucky that it stayed clear of my other rod on that spot and netted the fish. Head torch on and nice chunky common lays in my net and at 36lb 02oz it certainly was chunky. By 10am and someone goes In the swim the other side of me, not even asking where I'm casting. After telling him that not only was he messing my chances up but more to the point his own. I walked away shaking my head but to hell with it, I'd had a stonker of a winter so spent the rest of the weekend socialising and suffice to say the 3 of us on my bank caught nothing. Now to upload some more pics ready for a few more dinton tales.

Nearly all my reels are spooled up with Sensor or Hyper-Sensor... in various poundages.... can't knock it... does what they say on the tin...

So yesterday I managed to scan some more pictures from the list in my opening thread. So I'll do write ups on these captures. So I'll go back to the end of October. My mate who's bait I was on had bailed out and also the other fella on the bait. Now One thing my mate had told me earlier in the season was that fish loved robin red and especially in the winter ( I know everyone knows that fish love robin red but in a milk protein, I'd not even considered that). So as I was now on my own on the bait I decided to tweak it a bit. We had been on a strawberry flavour that my mate had sourced, it was used to flavour ice cream so was a very thin liquid and it leaked out exceptionally well. But to this and as winter was approaching I added Robin red, bergamot essential oil and addit digest. Now I already had 10kg knocked up in plain milk and then rolled another 10kg in the robin red. Now I had actually been baiting 2 swims for a while, one where I had my good session and another that was a marginal spot further back up the lake that would be a fall back swim incase I couldn't get into my prime spot. Now the last weekend in October I managed a 30lb 06oz mirror from my main baited swim. Sadly the following weekend I couldn't get in there so fished my back up swim. So I'd set up on the friday by 4-30/5pm. My bivvy was set right back due to the main spot being a marginal spot. I'd deposited a few handfuls of chops over the spot and a dumbell wafter hookbait. I recall it being bang on 7pm as one rolled right over my margin spot. Now I should add this spot although only a a couple of rod lengths out next to a Reed bed is 9ft deep. A mate popped round to see me and I'd said I seen one. As we chatted quietly another rolled, followed by another and another. By 10pm we had witnessed over 20 fish roll, I was pulling my hair out. Was it tangled, was the additional bits to the bait too much. Loads going through my head. Now to cut a long story short, that weekend I had a total of 37 shows over that one spot. I recast 3 times, each time the rig came back spot on. I packed up scratching my head. Back down on the following Wednesday for my usual baiting session. 2kg of red milk in my main baited swim plus some particle as the tufties had started to appear and I wanted something there if or when the fish visited. My back up swim though I gave it a gallon of red maggots thinking the fish were hitting the last of the naturals and I intended on getting back in there on the friday. The friday comes and I manage to get the fall back swim. I set up and deposit half a gallon of red maggots on the marginal spot. Whilst I let that settle i head to my main swim and deposit 3kg of red milk in there (1kg per spot). Back to my swim and 4 fake maggots on a blow back rig are lowered on to the spot. Once again 7pm and the first show. I'm really confident. By 10-30 and a few lines the doubts are coming in. But I know the rig is lowered spot on. I hit the sack about 11 but i can't sleep, the odd fish rolling keeping me awake thinking it will go any minute. It was about 2am I think and I crash out, proper deep sleep after a hard week at work etc. And you know what's coming, im woke by a faint alarm sound. Thinking it can't be mine as not loud enough I then hear the bobbin smack the butt with incredible force. That has me out the bag and the margin rod is ripping. I get to the rod and notice my jack plug has fallen from my taped up alarm so no sounder box but luckily the fish had gone to open water. This fish beats me up for about 5mins before I get it to the surface and notice a nice linear roll over, I know which fish it is as I had it in my first season on there. . I net the fish and sure enough it's a fish known as Sandy. On the scales and 40lb 06oz I'm not complaining, its down a 1lb from my previous capture. The rest of the session went by without so much as a beep but I'd take what I had very happily. I don't really like repeat captures but they are part and parcel I'm afraid, especially as I'm not a stalker so can't pick and choose the fish. The 30lb 06oz mirror from the end of October. "Single scale" Sandy at 40lb 06oz.