I didn't get out at the weekend as such, but had a good day last Thursday at Bury Hill .
I arrived at about 1PM looking to improve my PB of 13lb 10oz that's stood for about 5 years. After speaking to the guys in the shop, I headed down towards the far bay on the old lake. I set up in peg 47 and cast out my first rod. After about 15 minutes I had a bream of about 4lb. The guy in the shop came past whilst I was setting up my second rod. When he came back past, he mentioned that there were carp further up in the bay.
It was then I found out that my second bite alarm had failed. After a few minutes of trying to see what the problem was, I gave up, reeled in and bought one of the alarms they have in the shop. (expensive, but saved a days fishing)
When I got back, I had a walk down to the bay and saw about 4 fish on the surface feeding, so decided to move into peg 50. I cast one rod out half way across and had one off to the right in the margins. I had a couple of bream between then and 6PM.
Then the day changed.
A guy who turned up to surface fish the bay at 6PM wasn't having much luck and came over to say hello. At about 6.45, the rod half way across gave 2 quick bleeps and then screamed off. When I struck into it I felt very solid resistance. This was something different. With my line singing in the breeze, I spent about 5 minutes getting the fish in to the margin, but it wasn't ready for the net. After about 10 minutes of the fish running around on the bottom underneath my rod tip, we managed to get it netted. I could see that this was going to beat my PB, but didn't even hope for a 20. The guy who was helping me held the fish in the net whilst I got everything ready (unhooking equipment, wetted weigh sling, zeroed scales etc.) . As soon as I lifted the fish out I could tell this was something really special. I laid it down on the weigh sling on top of my unhooking mat. Once I had unhooked the fish, I weighed the fish.
I couldn't believe it when I lifted into it and saw the scales read 32lb 11oz! Je*** F'in Chr***!
I had a couple of photos taken with the fish and then returned it ASAP.
Suffice to say that this one fish has made my fishing year. As I have a young family, I rarely get out to fish (twice in 2011, once last year and twice so far this year). This was a real red letter day and feels like something really special. The day after I was still on cloud 9.
When they published the catch report on Sunday they said this is the largest fish out in 2 years. To say I'm still incredibly chuffed is an understatement. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to top this result.
My bait was 15mm Dynamite Baits Robin Red Carp Pellets. I've been using them for since they came out as I has a couple of blinding days out on them (a fish every 5 minutes for several hours on end )
Now, how do you follow this up? I'm planning to take my son fishing for the first time in a few weeks. I'm a member of Farnham, so which of those waters would you recommend?