4x4 falls at a huge 51lb 4oz

Chloe Houghton was left “shaking from head to toe” after banking one of the finest carp in the country.

The 26-year-old banked the mirror known as 4x4 at 51lb 4oz as well as two 20s in an unforgettable overnight session with Alan Blair at Kevin Nash’s Church Lake.

Chloe, who works in sales at Nash Tackle, had a 22lb mirror and a 26lb common ahead of the huge mirror’s arrival just after dawn only three hours before she was due to leave.
She said: “It ripped off and I automatically rolled out of my sleeping bag and hit it, all blurry eyed, and battle commenced.

“Alan said ‘you are playing it so gracefully I don’t think the fish wants to fight back’. After a long initial run and a steady battle back towards the bank, the fish was almost mine when it began to wallow from left to right. Coaxing the carp’s head the opposite way to its wallow I soon had it nearing the net and just simply couldn’t believe how big it was!
“It was in the net within five minutes but it’s all still a bit of a blur – it was so exciting – I was literally shaking from head to toe.

“My initial thought when it was in the net was ‘how am I going to hold it?’. I felt so lucky to be fishing such an awesome place and to catch such a special fish.”

Chloe targeted a clear spot 15 yards out on the edge of a weedbed and fished solid PVA bags. Her rigs featured a size 8 Nash Fang X hook and a maggot clip critically balanced with foam and two maggots. She baited with half a kilo of crumbed Amber Strawberry boilies, maggots, 3mm halibut pellets and a milky maize and barley mix flavoured with Strawberry Oil Palatant.