Windy, wet & worth it!
It felt almost odd being on the bank after so long
Work has massively impacted my ability to get on the bank this year so this was only my second session on the syndicate lakes of 2024.
The weather has been horrendous with alot of flooding in the area. Getting to the swims was no mean feat and many had been made un-fishable by the water level. The wind was blowing strongly so set up on the swim closest to where it was blowing into so I could fish on the end it.
It felt almost odd being on the bank after so long and there was nothing showing so set up with my usual tactic of a couple of pults of loose boilies scattered over the area, a high leakage ‘Venom’ wafter from Baylys Baits and a mesh bag of chopped boilies. I normally have several of these pre-glugged in a zip-lock bag but had to make some of these up as I got into the session.
The bream net saw some action 😩
The rods went out late afternoon and the first night was quiet, although the bream net did see some action 😩 I only had a couple and having a net to use specifically for them definitely makes catching them in the middle of the night less stressful!
The morning saw some drizzle but was really not bad. I put out a couple of pults of loose and freshened the baits. I tend to use ‘match the hatch’ over night to save my venom baits for daytime as they have an additional visual attraction to them.
There didn’t seem to be much movement on the lake and there were no fish boshing but I was confident I was in the right spot.
1st carp in the net
It was early afternoon before the alarm sounded and I had a run on the right hand rod. It felt ok and I was pretty excited to see it over the net tbh.
1st Carp in the net, a common weighing in at 22lb and a very welcome fish!
It wasn't long before the alarm went off again
I reset the rod and went back to my coffee but It wasn’t long before the alarm went off again.
This time a smaller mirror but a gnarly fish that gave a good account of itself!
As I’d had both of these on the right hand rod and not so much as a knock on the left I decided to make a change to that. I put it back out but just slightly further from the bank.
It went off like a train !
A few hours passed when the left hand alarm screamed, almost hiding the glorious sound of the spool spinning as it was being striped of line.
I tightened the clutch and lifted into whatever was on the other end, I was not expecting the reaction I got from it and it went off like a train!
Quickly loosening the clutch again I allowed it to run a little while I got myself positioned to fight the catfish I surely had on. It felt solid as it kited right and headed for an overhanging tree in the margins.
I had to get tip down under the water to make sure it didn’t snag and managed to get it out as it then kited left again. It felt different to the cats I’d had from there in the past but the power this thing had still had me convinced I had a cat on, and a fairly decent one at that!
Then I saw the tail!
My heart thud and my knees didn’t just go wobbly, they near damn fell off when I realised this was a carp – without doubt one of the biggest I’ve ever had and and probably THE biggest.
It kept up it’s fight for what seemed like an eternity, every time I got it close to the bank to net it, it would lunge again and dont mind admitting my arm was getting pretty knackered!
"there was a lot of huffing and puffing"
I had to coax it from under the tree a couple more times as it definitely seemed to know it was a possible safe place.
Eventually though, it decided it had had enough as I managed to slip the net under this unit of a fish and could finally take a breath!
I was quite glad I wasn’t on a live at the time as there was a lot of huffing and puffing as I took the fish in the sling to the scales and my screeching like an excited child when I saw the weight could have been embarrassing !
I was ecstatic when the scales settled at 37:4lb
Having already zeroed the scales on the tripod, I lifted the sling handles over the hook and slowly released them. The needle went round, and past the ‘0’ mark as it started its second tour of the scales before settling
I was ecstatic when the scales settled at 37:4lb! A new PB and what turns out is the biggest mirror in the lake
I was buzzing and only feel sorry for my viewers on TikTok who will be hearing about this for a long time to come!! 🤣
