I arrived at the lake early doors and after several laps the only fish I could find showing were in front of an angler in the bay at the bottom end! There were also two anglers in the middle area so I decided to take a chance and give myself some room and went right up to the top end of the lake. Even though I hadn’t seen anything I was hoping that there may be a few up there and perhaps as more anglers arrived maybe with pressure they would move up there!
After two nights this was not the case and I had not seen anything at all in my area and as darkness approached going into the second night I was stood with a friend chatting when we saw a large carp show twice in quick succession towards the middle area of the lake. The anglers in the middle pegs had now left for home. With this in mind, I set my alarm early and thought I would move in the morning for my last night!
I awoke in the morning to what I can only describe as what felt like a November/December morning feeling – very cold and misty so I was not convinced about moving at all and was considering packing up. However just before lunchtime the sun had pushed through and it was beginning to feel like spring again, so I quickly walked down the bank to the middle area and decided I would move.
After moving and getting everything re-organised, I had several visitors in to my swim so didn’t actually manage to get the rods out till roughly about 4:30pm. The area straight out in front of my new chosen swim was very barren with no weed, just very hard and flat – almost what I imagined to be like a runway – so I decided to put a fair bit of bait on that area as I know from experience that it can be a void area at times for holding the fish. The other two rods spread either side were both on the edge of weedier areas, so I decided to bait these lightly with a few whole CompleX-T boilies and some crumbed up boilies. The middle rod I used the same boilie approach but opted to put a fair bit more out than the other two rods and also added two cans of Dynamite hemp to which I had included a good glug of CompleX-T re-hydration bait soak to it for extra smell and attraction to try and pull them down into that bare runway area!
After only an hour and half at exactly 6pm the middle rod to my disbelief was away. In fact it was that much of a surprise that I hadn’t even thought about putting my waders at the edge of the swim. As I first lifted into it I knew it was a good fish as it felt really slow and heavy, after about 5 minutes and gaining not too much on the fish it stopped moving briefly! My first thoughts were that it had weeded me up but I realised afterwards that it was simply using its sheer weight against me. Ten minutes have now passed and the fish was now plodding around in the margins. Up to my waist in water with no waders on and the net floating around next to me, I still hadn’t seen it!
A further 5 minutes passed and then finally her mighty shoulders broke the surface, seconds later her head was over the cord. However I wish the same could be said for the rest of it as I really struggled to get the rest of her in and continued for what seemed to be an age to get the rest of the fish in the net.
A moment I will never forget!
Finally she was in the net and secured safely in the net station. I peered down and removed the hinge stiff rig from her mouth and was simply in awe at what was lay before me. My chosen hookbait was an orange CompleX-T Fluro pop-up again in the re-hydration liquid. With the help of another angler we put her on the scales and much to my delight a new PB of 48lb 6oz! Quickly photographed and she powered off – a moment I will never forget!
The rod was quickly put back out on the runway with another generous helping of CompleX-T and the supercharged hemp and the following morning at 10:15am the middle rod was away again. A similar battle but this time in waders I’m pleased to say a cracking 40lb 12oz fish slipped over the cord.
A brace of amazing 40’s on a new bait in March has left me walking on sunshine for the rest of this week!
Chris Johnson
A cracking 40lb 12oz mirror caught on a CompleX-T Fluro pop-up
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