Leaderboard

This morning will stay with me forever, watching the fight from afar and wishing whatever it was into the net, go on son! The shout of all shouts went out, electrifying I got goose bumps! and I just had to reel in, grab some bits and run over there to see this incredible beast in the flesh and congratulate the big man! What an achievement, what a year, what a stunning UK BANGER, and what a lovely fella to catch it - truly deserved, very well done mate - inspiring!

Right, so this weekend signals the end of October and the start of November and signals the end of my season on this lake before I head for the winter water. It was a very tough and frustrating session but as you will see, it all came good in the end with something very, very special. I hope you enjoy it: So here I sit writing the catch report I have been hoping to write for a long time. If my page-long catch reports bore you then you're in trouble today boys. So...... as many of you know I've had a great year on my water, I started with the big common (albeit down in weight) and followed that up with a string of other decent fish. What has eluded me however is one of the real monsters. The pick of the bunch is this UTTERLY RIDICULOUS fully scaled mirror carp that I set my sights on some time ago. I showed up on Thursday with 3 nights ahead of me, ready for one last big push for something truly special. As soon as I arrived it was crystal clear where the carp were, they were showing like dolphins, and unusually the lake was quiet so I slotted in right on top of them. Result. I did not hold back on the bait, I picked an area and basically filled it in with the full intention of sitting on it for 3 days (unusual for me, I usually take the mobile approach). Would you believe it, as soon as I put the spod down after maybe 30 minutes of spodding, two carp smashed out directly on the spot. I was surprised at this as I normally find spodding pushes them out for 24 hrs. If I'm honest the baiting hadn't gone as well as I'd hoped.... have you ever been in that frame of mind where none of the spods go exactly where you want them too? When they all land just a few ft off the target? Well... that's what was happening. The hook baits went out great so I was hoping while not being perfect that I'd done enough. I vowed that the next day I'd get my game face on and do it better. Anyway..... those carp were out there on or near my spot all day, and as the sun went down they continued to show into the night, and I went to bed a very confident angler. You can imagine my disappointment when I woke up to my alarm clock at 06:00 without having had a beep. This was made worse when I popped my head out and saw they were still there... showing just off my baited area..... head scratching time...... The carp continued to show until about 11 am and then it slowed down. I figured that they must have been on the bait, they were everywhere.... so I decided to fill in it again. This time it went miles better, on a six-pence every time, perfect! I knew that the wind was due to pick up big time the following morning so planned to leave the rods where they were from today until home-time if I had no bites..... so I positioned them very carefully and sat back knowing there was little more I could do. Come the afternoon it became clear the carp had pushed off over to shallower water in the bright sunshine, chasing the temperatures, but I was hoping they'd be back that night, and they were.... 2nd night and I'm seeing them top near my baited spot, not quite on it, but close enough for me to go to bed a confident man. I get up at midnight and at 03:30 and continue to see the odd fish but guess what.... the alarms clock goes off at 06:00, not a beep. More head scratching. I watch the carp topping in the area knowing full well they're mugging me off. I contemplate all kinds of changes in this time until 08:30 when I get a twitchy take. It's a tench, and I curse it for springing my carefully laid trap. I unhook it in the water and let it go (I now regret this as it was massive, clearly a pb tench, but I was just too focused on these carp to appreciate it at the time, unforgivable really). I get the rod out perfectly before the big winds arrive and once more I'm happy to sit it out. The winds finally arrive and they're every bit as big as forecast. This makes it incredibly difficult to spot the fish. I do see a couple on the end of the wind you'd expect but once more I fully expected them to come back overnight. On my third evening the blanking is starting to get to me, I see hardly anything, I've not caught anything, it's too windy to set up in a new swim effectively and I'd not seen enough to move anyway. I won't lie, it was starting to do my head in and this time I went to bed with confidence lacking. It was a rough old night, 30 mph wind smashing down the pit, I had to get a storm pole out to give the brolly a helping hand, but eventually I drifted off. This time it wasn't the alarm clock that woke me up though, it was an almighty BOSH as an absolute brute smashed out near my baited area. Two more massive boshes had me out of the bivvy and looking. I was back in carp mode and confidence was back. It was just getting light and I was confused about the alarm clock not going off until I remembered about the clocks going back. I sat up for the rest of the morning. These carp were showing just to the right of my spot which was great but sometimes 20 yards can feel like 10 miles in this situation. Worryingly all I saw directly on my spot were 3 tench pop their heads out. I was wandering up and down the bank and found myself in the next swim staring at these carp. I called my mate across the way and we were discussing a possible move foe the last couple fo hours when my receiver lets out a single bleep.... then another. "I'll call you back mate" I said as I casually walked towards my swim to land what was obviously another tench. However, I didn't have time to hang up, in fact all I had time to do was launch my phone in the bushes as the left hand rod went into complete meltdown. It's a 10 seconds sprint back to the swim but it seemed to go on forever with that alarm absolutely screaming all the way...... After what seemed like an age I'm into the waders and I hit it. WHALLOP..... it's no tench. I know that it's a good'n straight away, a plodder, using its weight, kiting slowly over my other two rods and away from the spot, so far so good. It kites maybe 60 yards to the right heading towards shallower water, it's because that's where the weed is. I try to turn it but my efforts are fruitless and it just carries on taking line until the inevitable happens. Everything draws to a stand-still, the rod goes solid, it's weeded me up. Sigh...... I try for 5 minutes to free it but nothing is really happening. I lost a fish in very similar circumstances over the other side of the lake earlier this year and at the time I thought I'd lost a very special carp (in fact I suspected it was the big fully scaled mirror). I was now contemplating the same thing happening again and after 3 nights of blanking I just couldn't believe it. In one last effort I walked to my left along the margin in an attempt to bring it out the same way it went in and...... BANG, the rod tip slams down, I manage to pull it back, gain a yards of line, and boom, we're back in business. I give it the beans now, it's not getting in the weed again, and I walk out as far as I can to meet it. About 30 yards out the fish rolls and I see it for the first time. It's a big scaly one, so scaly that it can be one of only 3 fish. It's the wrong colour to be one of them so that narrows it down to 2... neither of which I've caught, so the legs start to go a little even though I'm assuming it's the smaller of the 2 carp I think it could be (which is still 37 odd). I gain some line and it rolls again about 20 yards out. This time there is no doubting which fish it is. It's absolutely MASSIVE, covered in scales the size of saucers, and my legs go to jelly. The rod tip is knocking as I'm shaking so much and I begin to wonder if it's possible to shake a carp off the hook? The fish dives deep and huge plumes of bubbles erupt across the surface as it plows through the silt looking for weed beds. I just do the only thing I can do... pump it slowly, trying to keep its head up, gaining line inch by inch. The fish eventually tires and before you know it it's on the top taking a gulp of air. The sight of this will stay with me for the rest of my life..... I don't know how big it is but it has to be the most impressive carp I've seen in my life.... it gets closer.... closer.... out goes the net.... over the cord.... jiggle it a bit as it doesn't fit...... and it's in! Out goes the shout and every angler on the pit knows exactly what the score is now! I get a cheer from the lads and I stand for a few seconds just staring down at this fish. It's big, real big, and stunningly beautiful to go with it. I secure the net, detach the hook-link and turn round to see the ABSOLUTE LEGEND that is Mr. @kevtaylor who'd wound in and came round to help. I was in bits at this point, a gibbering wreck, shaking, spouting rubbish, just all over the place, so I was glad I had someone with their head screwed on to help out. Only problem was Kev was just as bad as me lol.... he knows how special this fish is and he too was gibbering away.... he even had the shakes lol.... so now we have 2 gibbering wrecks to try and sort this carp out.... The next 5 minutes is spent giggling like kids, checking out this absolutely amazing carp, having a Fag to settle the nerves. We set the mat up in a little spot down the bank where the light is good, sling/scales zeroed, cameras at the ready... and fetched the star of the show; Mr carp. We lift it out together and give each other a bit of a look as we feel the weight. Looking down at it we're saying that it has to be a foot wide...... we cart it over to the mat and grab the scales. We hoist it up with the scales facing Kev and straight away I can tell from his face that it's every bit as big as we thought it might be. He doesn't want to call it as the needle is bouncing.... around the 50 lb mark! We swap sides and I check it out, he's right, it's bouncing between 49.10 and 50 lb. Now I might be greedy when it comes to catching fish but I'm not greedy when it comes to weighing them so I go with the lower option 49 lb 10 oz and the biggest smile I've ever smiled graces my boat race. We do some pics, which I have to say Kev does an absolutely FANTASTIC job of (THANK YOU MATE!!!). We take her back to the water, a couple of returner shots, and then we stand there watching a true British near-50 fully scaled mirror swim silently back out into the depths, absolutely blown away. An hour later I'm packed up and on my way home, mission accomplished. So basically, on the last morning of what will be my last session before winter hits, my dreams came true. I really cannot thank Kev enough for his help and I couldn't have asked for anyone more fitting to join me on that special morning, someone who really does know what that fish means..... cheers mate! Booya. That takes us to the end of 2017 so I'll bring an end to these catch reports. I did actually fish the water again in 2018, trying to catch the last remaining biggun I'd not had. I never caught it (in fact it was never caught again) but I did have a string of other good fish to 43 odd, and a crazy month is September where I had 9 x 30+ fish! Maybe at some point in the future I'll come back to those reports and show you the pics. Until then, have fun lads.

Certainly is mate. It's only been caught once more since that day which is mad given the pressure this water sees. A tricky, tricky fish. It's still there, I was sent a vid of it last year from a boat, grubbing about on top of the weed looking massive. Estimated 55+ now😮

I have a distinct preference for Shimano reels, but I would definitely agree more modern Shimanos are not as good as older models, with a few exceptions. I used to work in a tackle shop, so played with plenty, my view is do not waste your money on the DL range, stick with the ST.

😎👏👍👌

Wow! what a beautiful fish, and thank you for taking the time to do these great write ups for us all to read Yonny.

Likewise mate. I still owe you one bro👍

Wow that is an amazing beast, and a great write up, 👌 Great end to the year what a a fish 👍

Fish of a life time mate and a couple of cracking pics. Top angling.

There are all one and the same apart from the material used. you can make a longer D by just whipping down towards the bend with more turns

So now we're into October and after horrible, windy, wet, blank overnighter (to make up for the brilliant overnighter last time) I got a weekend back on the proper lake. I have a trip planned to the States this month so fishing time is running out as we head slowly towards winter. Sitting here waiting for a taxi to the airport so thought I'd pop this up quickly. Good sesh this week. Turned up Friday and spent eons looking for them. About 4 hours it took but it turned out they were stacked up in a little swim I had a bite or 2 from earlier in the year. I knew that spodding would push them out so I did so from left to right, Hoping it would push them into shallower water rather than out into the main body of water to my left. It worked, and they drifted off to the right. I knew they'd be back. 04:30 I had a brutal take, a real violent one. It took my 5 seconds to get to the rod, too late, solid in weed. I tried everything to extract it, everything, but nothing worked. It was solid. Five hours later (!) we took to the boat. Lost it, GUTTED! So I'm sulking, dreaming of what could have been, when the other rod rips off. Hit it, feels like a good'n. Play it out for 5 mins and it surfaces some way out, i recognise it straight away, one on my list, a very special one, a torpedo shaped male with a pointy head, the colour of coal, and I'm buzzing when it goes in the net. 31 lb 6 oz and I forget about the lost fish. I get some kip after my busy morning and redo the rods early afternoon. Looks good and by darkness I'm seeing loads of carp. They're all over my right hand rod and I'm thinking I'll not have to wait for the normal early morning bite time. I'm right and at 9pm I get a screamer and land an awesome chunky common of 29 lb 6 oz. Very nice. Next morning I swear I'm at a loss to explain why I didn't have another. They were smashing out over the right hand rod and then later there was fizzing over my left hand spot for 4 hours. No more bites, weird. Packed up and home, happy with the sesh. Sorted. Now as you guys have seen I've had pretty good year by this point, blanks have been rare, I've caught the big common, and a bunch of the low to mid 30's including many of the real lookers and rare ones. The one I really want is especially unfriendly, a massive fully scaled mirror (one of the biggest fully's in the country), and it's still not been out. My confidence is sky high, everything is working, and I'm starting to think the fully has my name on it. At this point I'm off to the States with work for a week or 2 leaving me just one more session at the end of the month to make the impossible happen. Couldn't possibly happen though, could it?

Not been near a lake/pond yet with him, hopefully will be with me on a few nights, keeping my old Trakker Thermal Cover for him as his bed 😁

So having had 3 weeks off I was gagging too get back down to the lake. I managed to find time for an overnighter but was gutted to find the lake was rammed. So, a quick change of plan....... enjoy. So I managed to get an overnighter in last Thursday. The lake I've been targeting was absolutely rammed, had a wander round but found nothing of interest so decided to take a quick look at the other waters on the complex. It was quiet over there and I managed to find a bunch of carp in a shallow bay. The swim that controls the water there is probably my fave on the lake so I plotted up there for the night. The weed in there is savage and I could only find enough room for 2 rods on the deck. The other was chucked out on a zig. Baited up with a couple of kilos, job done. Plenty of fish kicking about as it got dark and I saw lots of activity over my areas before I went to bed. I get a take on the zig rod at 3 am but it's straight into the weed and tbh I didn't actually realise I'd lost it until I netted a massive ball of weed with no fish in it. The rod is left out of the water and back to bed. As it was getting light the middle rod buzzed off and I had great fight with a very pretty common. As I'm resting it in the net the last rod rips off and I land a veiny, leathery mirror. I didn't weigh either of them but they're both around the high double/low 20 mark. I take some snaps, send them back, and since I can stay until 8 or 9 am I decide to chuck the rods back out while the mat and nets dry out a bit. Just before it's time to bring the rods in the middle one screams off as I'm chatting to another member who's popped in for a cuppa. Another great fight and I have a running commentary from my mate who can see the fish from an elevated position. Great fun! When it rolls over the cord I recognise it straight away, it's an absolutely mint half linear that normally goes scraper 30's. So it proves when we hoist her up at 30.04. We take some pics with the sun, get her back, and I pack up. What an absolutely class overnighter! Four takes, three fish, and a thirty! If only they all went so well eh.......

Havnt had my bivvy buddy since jan. I miss him everyday. 100%, my best freind