A lucky personal-best of 51lb (!)
In the past I’ve written about my annual trips to Les Quis in
France which are fun I know, but I can’t keep on writing about
the same place, food, coach, beer etc. But this year I was lucky enough
to bank five fish which included a cracking mirror carp of 51lb 2oz.
Here’s how it came about...
Lucky is a term I use, read on and see how I worked for it!
It had just gone Midday when I cast the middle rod to an over-hanging
tree, as the lead flew through the air I could see it would land on
target, (or near enough), so I let it go as it wanted. Aaaghh! It
went through the branches of the tree, but luckily I heard the lead
land in the water. The gap between the bank and the tree was about
7 foot, so I thought I could easily recover the lead and rig and put
it in the correct place, easy huh?
Getting to the far bank I found the lead etc and it was 3 foot from
the bank, I easily grabbed the rig but the problem was the line. It
had gone right through the branches and these were 7-9 foot tall.
By using a branch from a dead tree I managed to lift the line over
the snagged tree a branch at a time, remembering I wanted to place
the baited rig in the margins by my feet!
Eventually I’d freed the line and looking back at my rod which
I’d left in the bullrushes, I remembered my bait-runner wasn’t
on, best get back to my swim pretty quick - so after placing my bait
in-situ, (I thought) the last few free offerings were placed next
to the bait and I made my return journey through the undergrowth,
brambles, mint, lavender, old trees etc., to put the bait-runner on.
Back in my swim, I turned my back and for some reason looked back
at my line - which was rapidly moving across the water. I turned and
struck into a heavy weight. Bearing in mind I fishing very tight to
the tree branches etc., I walked backwards to stop the fish kitting
into the snags, tightening my clutch - so it was ‘game on’.
The fish fought hard trying, as expected, to get into the snags. It
then kitted left towards my right-hand rod. The fish still went further
and further towards where Chris was fishing, but luckily for me, his
rods were out of the swim as it was his turn to bait up! (We took
it in turns as our pegs were very close to each other). After a few
minutes Chris returned from baiting up and for some reason he re-cast
his left hand rod and missed my fish by only a few feet! He then asked
whose line was being towed around his swim, then as his mouth shut
he realised and quickly removed his line! A few words were exchanged
and finished with a roar of laughter as he came round to net the beast.
In the net we guessed its weight at 30/35lb ish. Then Chris tried
to lift the fish, he upped his guess to 40lb and upon putting the
carp on the unhooking mate changed his guess again to upper 40!
The scales zoomed round past the 50lb mark and eventually settled
on 51lb 2oz - so much for the 30lb-er!
Good fishing to you all
Dave Williams
Dave really does work very hard for his fishing, here's a photo of
all the bait for the trip, impressive to say the least! - Ed.
