Teenager banks 31lb mirror after piercing finger with hook

Teenager Kai Richards overcame piercing his finger with a hook to land this 31lb 6oz mirror.

Disaster struck the 13-year-old Hampshire angler as he set up his first rod on a local venue.

The Gardner-backed youngster explained: “The rod slipped off my bivvy and the hook went into my finger! Fortunately my mate just managed to pull it out, so I could actually fish the night and not wait in the hospital for hours.”

Having regained his composure, Kai was spodding over one of his spots when he received a screaming take. After a weed-hindered fight, he eventually netted a seldom-caught 25lb 6oz mirror known as the Bream.

After an uneventful night and following day, Kai introduced another 5kg of particles and 3kg of Mainline Cell and Hybrid boilies. At 11am the next morning, he got the bite he wanted.

He said: “It weeded me up soon after the take but after steady pressure I managed to get it all moving again. As it neared the edge I could see a big ball of weed and somewhere in the middle I could just make out the head of a carp. It was slowly coming towards the net but as soon as the weed uncovered its head it shot down in the margins. After steadily leading it back, my mate quickly slipped the net under it. We instantly recognised it as Pablo and it weighed in at 31lb 6oz!”

Kai used blowback rigs made 25lb Sly Skin, a size 6 Covert Incizor hook and a 3oz lead.