2 April, 2024 | Carp | Angler Blogs | News

CompleX-T Banks Two Norfolk Chunks For Nearly 83lb!

2022/23 SAS winner Matt Heath’s final session of the season on his beloved Norfolk Pit has just delivered in the most epic way possible with the capture of two carp on CompleX-T for nearly 83lb – one of which turned out to be an old acquaintance…

Matt says… 

It’s been a bit of a lost cause of late attempting to do my usual 5pm-6am overnighters on the Norfolk Pit using the trusty CompleX-T.

March has always my most productive month of the season as my water closes for April and May before reopening in June – so March is your ideal chance to catch the stock in peak condition.

At this time of year, the fish are generally dark and fat – just the way we all like them! However, this year has been an odd one and it seems the majority of the fish have been held up in maybe just 10 acres of the 35-acre pit and consequently, are only being caught from two or occasionally 3 swims.

This has made catching these fish on an overnighter nearly impossible as being the last month of the season every member and his dog are down for a mega session. The lake has gone from being empty to having 10-15 anglers around it 7 nights a week!

I realised a stint off work was needed to have a proper crack at catching them so I got the annual leave booked in for the third week of the month. Now all I had to do was somehow get myself in one of the 2-3 swims that would enable me to access to the carp!

I had some family commitments for the Saturday so I planned to arrive early Sunday and wait it out for the swim I wanted. As luck would have it, a friend of mine called Mark was occupying my most desired swim and he told me he’d be leaving Sunday lunch time and I could follow him in.

I was so unsettled sitting at home Saturday night worrying that someone might be waiting for the swim before me so I headed over Saturday night and kipped in the back of the van behind the swim just to ensure it was mine for the week. Unfortunately for Mark he hadn’t managed a bite in there over the weekend but there were still many fish showing in the area. So, as he packed down and I moved in with the thought of seven nights ahead of me – the confidence was sky high.

The said swim gives access to a vast area of the lake that has plateauxs, snags, deep areas, shallow areas – the lot. I knew exactly where I wanted to be fishing as by chance, I had dropped in there for one night the Sunday before and had caught a lovely dark 30lb common alongside a smaller one, too.

I didn’t hang about in getting a good bed of bait out there and Spombed out 5kg of 15mm shelf life CompleX-T onto a 5ft area at 110 yards before positioning 3 hinge rigs all popped up with 15mm CompleX-T foodbait match the hatch pop-ups.

Mornings are usually bite time here so I sat in wait… Strangely I had my first bite at 8pm! The fish came in relatively easy then went ballistic once about 20 yards out before finding a weed bed.

I kept the pressure on the barbless hook but I could feel the fish kicking followed by that horrible “grating” feeling. It continued towards me for about a foot and then cut me off – gutted!

Morning came round and I had nothing else apart from a few shows about 100 yards to the right of where I was fishing. Despite this, I sat on the rods for another night and drew another blank.

I noticed a couple of fish show again in the deeper area to my right that morning and once bite time had passed, decided to investigate the area with braid and a bare lead. Although a nice thud was found on the drop, the area was not really clean and had a lot of small patches of young fresh Canadian weed.

After some thought, I eventually baited the area at 100 yards with 3kg of Complex-T and after about 15 casts, I was happy to have 2 rods presented on it with one left on the old spot.

This worked a treat and I bagged a little common at 1:30am off the new spot that I let go without a picture but was happy I’d found something to work on.

At 8am the same morning, the single rod on my first spot pulled up and I landed a beautiful mid-20 dark mirror.

The lone rod produces the goods!

That day I deployed another 5kg of CompleX-T boilie on the new spot and another two on the old one the following morning.

Whilst I wasn’t disturbed during the night, at 8am I woke delighted to hear the receiver let out a beep – this time on the new spot and a slow and heavy battle ensued.  I knew this carp was different gravy and I’d be in for something special! I wasn’t wrong either when I set my eyes on this beautiful 36lb 8oz half linear laying in my net.

The following morning around 8am (again), I was rewarded with another take from the deeper spot. This was another powerful, heavy fish and I was certain this was the same stamp as the half lin – quite possibly bigger! However, after a short battle I pulled the hook and the carp won the fight…

Although words can’t describe the loss (that I still haven’t gotten over), I pulled my shit together and repeated the process, only this time I placed all 3 rods on the deeper spot and followed it up with a good 4-5kg of CompleX-T boilie.

The following morning I was awake at 5:00am and it was an altogether different morning with a strong 35mph south westerly blowing right into me that had struck up in the night.

I called my mate Todd who was in the next swim and we sat chatting both waiting for a bite. Fixated on the water at 6am, my right hand rod slowly pulled from the clip and began to pull the tip around.

“I’m away” I shouted to Todd, dropped the phone and hit the rod.

Moments later, Todd was in my swim with the net in his hand. This fish felt heavy and kited slowly before finding sanctuary in a weed bed – locking me up solid.

I could feel another loss on the cards and was getting worried when the middle rod ripped off!

I handed the weeded fish to Todd and lifted into the middle rod while Todd held the pressure on the weeded fish.

“This fish feels much smaller” I said to Todd as I hauled it in. When the fish finally broke the surface in front of the net, we could both see it wasn’t a small fish but a huge scaley mirror!

I bundled it into the net just as Todd shouted – “This one’s come free!.” He took the netted fish and handed me back the rod.

I slowly managed to retrieve the fish and as it eventually slid over the net I knew exactly what it was – a recapture of a fish that won me first prize in the Jan/Feb SAS competition the year before!

Although recaptures aren’t great, it was amazing to bank two monsters from a double take.

I got the rods fired back out and we began with the photos at which point we were interrupted by a low-20 common that made an appearance on the middle rod.

A welcome low 20 in amongst the mayhem!

The recaptured fish known as “P-scale” weighed in at 43lb exactly and the big scaley mirror came in at 39lb 14oz – not quite a brace of 40s but maybe as close as I’ll ever get.

-Matt

Carp Fishing Lakes in Norfolk – Here.