Four-pounder smashes crucian target

Jack Pells smashed his target for this season of catching a 3lb crucian carp with the capture of this 4lb specimen from a local clubwater.

The Surry-based all-rounder came agonisingly close a few weeks ago with a fish of 2lb 15oz but his efforts were finally rewarded on his latest trip when he offered a caster hookbait over a bed of hemp and caster on a size 16 hook.

“I’d had a couple of tench and a few crucians to 2lb 2oz, when towards the end of the session my float dipped by just a couple of millimetres and the strike was met with a solid resistance,” he told Angling Times.

“At first I thought it was probably another tench. It plodded around before I was able to get it back towards the margin. When I got it in it made a few powerful lunges under the rod tip before and I saw that it was a crucian. At first, I didn’t realise just how big it was but when I got it in the net and I saw the width of it my jaw dropped. I was shaking as we weighed and when the scales settled on 4lb I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.”