Autumn campaign off to flying start with 43lb mirror carp

Matt Jackson battled a windswept southern pit to get his autumn campaign off to the best possible start with this 43lb 8oz mirror.

The 25-year-old Wiltshire rod had a frustrating day in the teeth of a big wind before eventually finding a spot he wanted to fish.

The Greys and Chub-backed angler explained: “The wind was so strong that I couldn’t even feel the lead down at anything over about 50 yards. It was literally impossible to find an area I would have been happy fishing, so the marker rod was chucked back in the motor and it was time to think of a plan B.”

After visiting a smaller lake nearby, and finding it very busy, Matt returned to big pit an hour before darkness.

“Quite often the wind will ease just before dark so I stopped back in at the big pit for a last-gasp look in hope I could salvage the day,” said Matt.

Having found an area on the back of a bar at 140 yards, Matt managed to get some bait and three hinged stiff rigs on to the spot.

He said: “The wind really picked up again in the night and I had a good feeling that there would be at least a few fish on such a warm strong wind. First light produced nothing and no signs of fish at all, but out of the blue at 10am one of the rods went into absolute meltdown. After coaxing it from weedbed to weedbed I finally slipped the net under what looked to be quite a decent fish. At 43lb 8oz she was a very nice welcome-back offering, made even sweeter after the previous day’s events.”