Capturing Joe, The 80lb Mirror - Nermin Caro

Posted SPECIAL FEATURES at Apr 27, 2011

At precisely 4am in the morning, Good Friday, Dynamite’s Nermin Caro achieved something many anglers can only dream of – he landed an 80lb 2oz mirror carp!

What makes this capture even more special, is that Nermin is also the previous carp World Record holder with a common carp known as Mary, which weighed 87lb 3oz and lives in the same venue, making this latest capture his second 80lb plus carp.

Nermin was quick to call the Dynamite Baits office and let us know of this fantastic news, and also to give thanks, as the magnificent fish just couldn’t resist the new Dynamite Baits Robin Red Boilies.

Here, Nermin explains what led to the mighty mirror’s downfall:

“My season started with me trying to decide what fish to target. After catching the world record common at the time, a fish known as ‘Mary’ at an awesome 39.6kg (87lb 3oz), there really was only one other fish that I could pick – the equally awesome ‘Joe’ from the same venue; a mirror of monstrous proportions.

I had seen Mary and Joe swimming alongside one another on a number of occasions and it was clear that Joe was going to be approaching 35kg (77lb)! Seeing these two great fish together in the water was a mind blowing sight with their sheer size making them look almost unreal.

A few sessions were made, right up until the one where I achieved my goal, but it only took 14 nights in total – not bad for targeting a possible 35kg (77lb) fish in a low stock water!

I really started fishing the water hard at the start of April and, from this point, I had been keeping the bait trickling in to try and gain the big guys confidence. My prebait was made up of a right mixture of baits - Dynamite Baits Frenzied Mixed Particles, Chopped Tiger Nuts, various sized Marine Halibut Pellets, 8mm Swim Stim Betaine Green Pellets and also the brilliant new Robin Red Carp Pellets in 8mm and 12mm sizes. As well as these, I also introduced a number of 15mm and 20mm Robin Red Boilies, just to get them used to picking up my intended hookbaits.

This mixture soon started to bring the fish in and there were soon signs that the fish were feeding over my baited area. The session before I landed Joe, I was lucky enough to witness the big mirror roll right over my spot; from that point I just knew it was going to happen!

The night before the capture, everything had seemed quiet, yet I remained confident as always. After all, on waters like this it only takes one run! I had been using the new Robin Red products for some time and knew that they would work. My hookbait consisted of a Dynamite 20mm Robin Red Boilie tipped with a 15mm Robin Red Fluro Pop-Up, all of which were dipped in the Robin Red Hookbait Dip.

At 4.00am the following morning, I received a couple of beeps, just enough to half wake me. Lying there, I opened my eyes and was just thinking liner, when all of a sudden, one of my alarms went into melt down! I walked out and lifted into a very, very, heavy fish and from that instant I knew that it could only be either Joe or Mary.

The fight you get from these enormous carp is a hard thing to describe, at times you would be forgiven for thinking you’re snagged, but then the snag starts to move, and often at an alarming rate! For 30 minutes I played an unseen monster, just hoping it was going to be my target fish and not a recapture of Mary. After 40 minutes, I got my first glimpse of the fish and to my extreme excitement, it was Joe all right, looking like a hippo moving through the water!

No sooner had I got my first glimpse of the fish, it was making it’s way to the spreader block, with the 20mm Robin Red Boilie looking ridiculously small beside a mouth that could easily swallow an orange!

With lady luck obviously on my side, the big mirror went in the net at the first attempt. I couldn’t believe it, the fish looked even bigger than I had initially expected and I was now starting to wonder just how big this fish was going to go!

First thing I needed to do was call upon some much needed help; weighing a fish of this size was a near on impossible task by yourself - I had learnt that after capturing Mary!

With a few of the other anglers around the lake rallied up, we got the necessaries sorted out and went about getting the fish out of the water and onto the mat. The moment the fish lay resting on the mat, we all just stopped, starred and looked in awe at this magnificent creature; it’s size was truly something you can’t describe, no picture could ever do it justice!

With the fish hoisted onto the scales, we all looked to see exactly where the needle would end up. Straight away the needle passed 30kg (66lb), and then 35kg (77lb)… At this point I was shaking, what the hell had I just caught, and where was the needle going to stop! Well, 36.3kg (80lb 2oz) to be exact! What a fish, and what mess I was now in! I couldn’t believe it, this fish now meant that I had not only landed an 80lb plus common, but I had also landed a mirror over 80lb as well!

My Brother Emir was on hand to take the photo’s and, as usual, he did me proud with some absolutely stunning shots of the fish. After the photo shoot, I stood in the margins supporting the huge frame of Joe, and waited for him to muster enough energy to swim out. As he drifted out of my arms, I wondered if there could ever be a greater site in angling, he had made me one very happy angler indeed!

Now that the fish had been returned, there was only one thing left to do, and that was to crack open the champagne and try and take in what had just happened; I have a feeling that will take a long time!"

Keep an eye on www.dynamitebaits.com tomorrow when we will be giving you the chance to win the bait that 'Joe' was caught on.