Decade wait for a pb ends with 45lb 10oz mirror

A DECADE long wait to break his personal best came to a triumphant end for Martin Pick with the capture of this impressive 45lb 10oz mirror from Wellington Country Park.

The Leicestershire-based Korda and Trakker-backed rod has been targeting the Berkshire venue since last June and up until now the closest he’d come to breaking his old pb of 45lb – Linch Hill’s famous Petals - was a stunning linear of 43lb 8oz last November.

This all changed on his latest session, though, when he dropped into a popular swim called The Hole in the Bush which commands a wide channel between the bank and an island at 130 yards range.

“I started off fishing close in as this is where the lake’s biggest resident, The Turtle, had been caught from the previous week,” Martin said. “However, a fish showed later in the day further out so I repositioned a couple of hinged-stiff rigs there for the night, along with five spods of 10mm DT Cold Water Mix boilies.

A hesitant take on one of the recast rods saw Martin out of his sleeping back at 3am and despite initially thinking he’d hooked a coot went on to net what looked like a low thirty.

“I’d just secured it in the sling and taken my waders off when the other rod fished in the same area ripped off. I go to pieces when I hook one in here, because it could be anything!

“I was able to lead the fish in easily, while trying to get back into the waders and when I had it close in I could tell that it was a big one. I ran out into the lake and slipped the net under it at the first opportunity. I then secured this fish, which I estimated at upper thirties, in another sling next to the first one.”

Both rods were then cast back out to the spot and within an hour he was in again – this time a smaller upper twenty the culprit.

“By now it was light so I went to wake Shaun Young to help with the photos and weighing. The first fish, an orange mirror weighed in at 34lb 6oz and the second fish, which I had thought was an upper-thirty turned out to weigh a thumping 45lb 10oz – a new PB!”