Freelined breadflake fools 34lb mirror

Marc Eden proved that you don’t need an all singing and dancing rig or the latest wonder bait to catch big carp when he landed this personal best 34lb mirror on a freelined piece of slow sinking bread flake from a low-stock Nottinghamshire gravel pit.

The day prior to his session, the 38-year-old welder had found several carp cruising around on the surface, but when he arrived just after first light the following day his quarry were much harder to find.

“I spent ages walking around but couldn’t see anything until the sun started to really warm the water a bit and a few carp started moving in to a shallow area of the lake,” said Marc. “I could see several fish moving in and out of a bay and it was clear that they were taking the same route every time. As soon as I saw a couple of decent carp coming along the margin towards me I flicked my hookbait out towards them. It fell a few feet short of where I intended, but as I watched the big mirror turned towards it and sucked the bread flake in.”

Marc beat his prize with a 15lb Daiwa Sensor mainline tied directly to a size 4 ESP Big T hook.

“During the summer I hardly ever use boilies for carp and much prefer to try and catch them off the top or stalk them close in. By this time of year many venues have been hammered with floating baits and as a result the carp can become wary of them and hard to catch. In these situations I’ve found a slow sinking piece of bread flake to be much more effective because there’s a good chance they won’t have seen a bait like this,” he added.