A lucky night out!

This is the account o the capture of my PB Carp a few years back, whilst fishing one on the RMC Angling Venues Nr Chichester.

Over the previous year of my membership there, I had landed some very nice carp and was starting to get the hang of the place.

After Christmas of that year, I was a keen as mustard to get back there.  I was only doing nights during the week, which had its issues,  I could only fish one side of the lake, which happened to have a very busy road on top of it.  One the other, there was an amenity tip and you could only get in and out of that gate when the dump was open. I needed to be off to work before they opened the gates.

The area I knew the best, was the road side and the main car park end of the lake.  Which also gave me a great view of the lake!, therefore I could watch of any signs of carp.  This to me was the best place to start that year’s campaign.  This knowledge would make my life much easier.  At that time of year, there was no other angler pressure during the week days or even the weekends.  I was friendly  with the head Bailiff, who would came round most nights.  This was a good source of info.

Winter fishing is very hard going for me,  I have to set up in the dark and pack up in the dark. I need to be at work by 8am, with a forty five minute drive to work, this made it all the more fun!

However, I was still managing to do two nights a week.  I had only managed the odd smaller fish, around the twenty pound mark.  I was very happy with this, however, I had hoped to get into some of the 30+ fish mark by now.

I had my first 30+, it was a 36lb 4oz mirror on the 14th February.  This gave me a new lease of life, which made me carry on pushing through the winter months.  After 8 or so blanks in a row, I was getting tempted to have a play on any easier waters, it can help to boost your confidence level.  This in turn, helps you on the harder waters. However, after landing my first 30+ that year, I was managing to catch on a more regular basis and I landed 9 fish over the next month.  Unfortunately, none were over 20+, all being the new stock fish.

I arrived on a Tuesday afternoon in early April.  A strong cold easterly wind was pushing down to the car park end of the lake.  I drove up the other end of the lake, despite being on the back of the wind, it did not feel right.  I had been doing most of my fishing from the car park, and had most of the fish including the 36lb from there. I got back in the car and drive back to the car park end.

One of the beautiful sun rises you get there

For some reason I felt more confidant this end, despite the cold wind. With that in mind, I set up in my normal spot.  As this is a very open area, I had to set up with my brolly facing the other way round towards the toilet (which is nice!). I was all settled in,  kettle on.  To my surprise, the right hand rood scream off, this was a surprise, as all my takes had come between 2300 – 0300 hrs.  After a quick fight, there was a nice 21lb common in the net.

I woke to my alarm clock at 0630, surprised that I had not had any more fish in the night.  Slowly packing up, leaving the rods till last (with the landing net).  I picked up the last rod.  Only to find the line picked up in a different direction.  I pulled into a heavy lump on the end, moving off to the left.  The line kept going, until it found an old weed bed near the bar.  I put the rod down with the bail arm open, and settled down to watch what happened next.  This was about 5 minutes, the line started to move off again.  The fish was now free. I knew I was into a much bigger fish than normal.  It did feel I was reeling in half the weed bed as well.  When the fish broke the surface some 30 yards off, where was the was the weed?   O.M.G, my heart started thumping.  How big was this thing? a possible PB? After what felt like a life time the fish was in the margin.  This fish was still 10 ft down, it kept plodding up and down.  My heart still doing 90 to the dozen, it finally broken the surface and slipped in to the net.  We just sat there for about a minute before I looked in the net.  WOW this fish was huge. I secured the net, grabbed the mat and lifted the fish safely out.  It did cross my mind that I could have a 40+ fish.  The gate opened, one of the other syndicate member had arrived for a day session.  He kindly helped with the weighing and photos. It tipped the scales round to 39 lb 8 oz and I was over the moon.

My New PB 39lb 8oz

The following week a landed another 30+ fish from the same swim (a bit like buses!).

Another Nice Mirror

I hope you enjoyed this story.

You can follow my exploits on

Richard

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