Student bags target fish at 40lb 2oz top weight
After a frustrating summer, student TJ Elliot refocused his efforts in time for winter and bagged his target fish at its biggest-ever weight.
The 40lb 2oz mirror fell during an overnight session on a busy club lake that had frustrated the Sparsholt College student during the warmer months.
He said: “To be honest, the summer was pretty slow with the odd bite here and there, and I just started to lose interest. It seemed as If I was more interested in riding my BMX than being down the lake.
“But for the last couple of weeks something has been telling me to get down there and fish a particular swim. So I did.”
Arriving at 3pm on a Sunday, TJ put a kilo of boilies on to two spots and went to bed feeling confident.
The Gardner-backed rod continued: “All that was running through my head was ‘I’m going to catch it’. At 7am I was luckily woken up to the sound of my reel clicking, as my bobbin had jammed the roller on my alarm. I quickly jumped out of my brolly and hit into what felt like a huge bream.
“It didn’t show itself once until it finally came up to the net. My heart sank and all I kept thinking was ‘please don’t come off’.
“With the scales zeroed and the sling ready, we settled on a weight of 40lb 2oz. A new personal best for me and the biggest it’s known to have been out at!”
Milestone River Po catfish is one of the biggest ever landed in Europe at 235lb
This is the awesome picture of one of Europe’s biggest ever catfish that weighed in at just over 235lb.
The specimen was landed by Peter Neubacher, who was guided by catfishing expert Stefan Seus of the famous Black Cat Guiding Tours during a session on Italy’s mighty River Po.
The colossal eight-foot predator took a bream hookbait at midnight and took over 40 minutes, plus all of the strength and skill of the duo, to finally get the better of the fish that’s estimated to be over 30-years of age.
“This monster literally took my breath away as I’ve never seen a fish like this up close,” said Stefan.
“We were both totally speechless and had to release the tension by letting out a huge whoop of delight as we’d defeated a big, and very old, warrior.
“This is without doubt one of the biggest cats landed in Europe and fish like this have accumulated so much experience over time that it is almost impossible to even hook one of these giants.”
For more information about Black Cat Guiding Tours visit: www.team-black-cat.com
Big Loddon chub coaxed from undercut bank
Mark Erdwin had every reason to smile after banking this 6lb 10oz chub during a session on the River Loddon.
The Reading-based all-rounder visited a tricky stretch of the waterway that he knew held a small head of big fish and rigged up a simple low-resistance link-leger rig with two SSG shot.
Several spots were baited with a mixture of liquidised bread, maggots, casters and some freshly crushed garlic for added attraction.
After rotating the swims he started to receive a few light plucks from one which featured an undercut bank. He had to sit on his hands for an hour, though, until his tip finally thumped round as the chub fell for his lobworm and maggot cocktail.
“By keeping the rod low and by applying steady pressure I finally coaxed it out from the undercut bank. As it slipped into the net I could see the width of the fish - broad with a double chin – it looked huge,” said Mark.
Lakes in top form for perch with 4lb 1oz fish topping bumper week
The capability of commercial fisheries to produce huge perch was highlighted once again this week with a series of fish to over 4lb being landed at venues across the UK.
The pick of the bunch was a 4lb 1oz specimen which fell to the rods of Richard Holmes-Moorhouse while targeting a popular northern carp water.
The Yorkshire-based rod had endured numerous unsuccessful trips at several different venues across the region, but he finally struck gold when he hooked in to his new personal best after it fell for a legered prawn mounted on a size 8 hook.
“As soon as I struck in to the bite I could feel the substantial weight of the fish – at first I thought it was a carp because it was so powerful,” Richard told Angling Times. “It was determined to get in the snags but I stayed calm and managed to keep it away from danger before slipping the net under it.
“I’ve heard rumours of similar venues holding perch of record proportions and while it might sound far-fetched to some, I think a fish of such size could be landed from a commercial in the near future,” he added.
Further south, Angling Direct’s Nathan Green relied on livebaiting tactics at a Kent commercial and managed to take his best perch of the season at 3lb 8oz.
The venue regular enjoyed success by constantly feeding maggots over the top of his paternostered roach offering.
Worcestershire’s Woodside Fishery has built up a reputation for its shoals of big perch, and Tenbury rod Nick Goode took advantage, landing a fish of 3lb 6oz during a lure fishing session on Island Pool. The all-important take came on his third cast of the day, with a small Onex spinner doing the trick.
Venue boss Ben Hughes has been inundated with similar reports this winter and said: “We are fast getting a reputation for being a reliable and consistent perch water. There are countless fish to 4lb and it wouldn’t surprise me if there were even big specimens waiting to be caught.”
Various theories as to why the species have thrived in commercials have arisen and highly regarded fishery management expert Bruno Broughton believes he may have the answer. He said: “The key factor is certainly the availability of lots of food. In many commercials, conditions favour the successful spawning of stocked fish, especially silverfish. Any perch present have an almost unlimited supply of small fish.”
**Five big perch commercials to try**
1. Tricklebrook Fishery, Five Oak Green, Kent – Perch over 5lb can be caught on the Main Lake with worms or small livebaits. Contact: 07743 955812.
2. Whitmore Fisheries, Kirkham, Lancs – A number of the lakes are home to fish to 4lb although Island Pond and The Basin are the most prolific. Contact: 07891 397086.
3. Viaduct Fishery, Somerton, Somerset – Match water Campbell Lake is opened to perch anglers in winter and is home to fish over 4lb. Contact: 01458 274022.
4. Lake John, Waltham Abbey, Essex – The Top Lake has produced fish nudging 4lb, with worms and dead maggots in the margins producing the goods. Contact: 07958 938153.
5. Rycroft Fisheries, Hemmington, Derbs – Use worm and caster on the pole or in a small feeder on the Main Lake for specimens over 3lb. Contact: 07816 052235.
Two pike for 55lb from River Wye
The River Wye proved yet again why it’s regarded as one of the UK’s best rivers when it produced two stunning pike - this 30lb specimen the highlight.
Ben Humber hooked in to the impressive predator, which he at first thought was a ‘good double’, after casting out a legered herring hookbait.
The fish, which is one of the biggest reported Wye specimens in 2013, left the Somerset rod with his heart in his mouth when it tail-walked across the width of the river and following a spirited scrap he beat his third 30lb-plus pike of the year with the help of a rig made with 45lb braid, a size 1 single hook and a size 4 treble.
“I really thought it was a good double, but then there was a mighty explosion beneath my feet and it tail walked across the river,” Ben told Angling Times. “It was a sight and the feeling that I will take to the grave with me.”
Incredibly, he came close to making it four thirties just an hour later but unfortunately he his hooks pulled out of the jaws of a predator that he estimated to be even bigger than his first fish.
“I’d moved to another spot and cast my bait right under an overhanging tree and it wasn’t long before an even bigger pike was thrashing and shaking it’s head on the surface, but unfortunately the hooks came out. It obviously wasn’t meant to be.”
Also getting in on the action was predator fishing expert Dilip Sarkar who banked a mint-conditioned 25lb pike from the Herefordshire waterway.
Lowering half a legered sardine in to five feet of water just off his rod tip he beat his prize with a rig comprising 66lb braid, 30lb wire trace and size 4 Owner trebles.
It marks a productive spell for Worcester-based angler as the specimen came just a week after he banked another 20lb-plus pike from the River Severn.
First Hollybush 40 for Ian Chillcott
On his return to the venue where he first cast out a hair-rig back in the eighties, Ian ‘Chilly’ Chillcott has caught the complex’s first ever 40lb-plus carp in the form of this 40lb 10oz mirror.
The historic Hollybush Lakes complex situated in Hampshire has been fished by some of the biggest names in the sport over the years, and was a venue which the Fox International-backed rod had been baiting up with the intention of fishing over the winter.
After catching fish of 30lb and 27lb the week before, he setup in a swim which allowed him to cast to a silt patch close to a band of weed running between two islands at 40yds range. Both rods were baited with 15mm Mainline Hybrid pop-ups tipped with a piece of yellow corn over three kilo of mixed 10mm and 15mm boilies.
“At 5am one of my rods ripped off and I leant in to what I, at first, thought was a stockie,” he told Angling Times. “It then started to do the usual big fish thing of slowly plodding around and any doubts of it being a small fish quickly disappeared.”
A further 20 minutes passed before Chilly netted his prize, beating the long-standing fishery record of 37lb 8oz - a fish caught by Denis Langley in 1974 – in the process.
“As it went over the net cord I thought to myself, ‘that’s a good thirty’, but when the fish rolled over and I saw how deep it was I realised it was a little bit special. To catch the first ever forty from such a historic venue really means a lot to me,” he added.
Chilly mounted his hookbaits on hinged-stiff rigs tied with 25lb Fox Illusion and size 5 Arma Point SR hooks.
Original mirror from Farriers Lake from silt patch
Jordan Dicks landed one of the very rare Farriers Lake original mirrors in the shape of this stunning 31lb 4oz specimen.
The Bristol Angling Centre manager targeted a silt depression at 80yds range which he had been baiting with 10kg of Nash Monster Squid boilies every week.
He said: “There are around 200 carp in the 32-acre lake and only 10 of these are mirrors so they don’t get caught very often. They are known to fight a lot harder than the commons so I had a good idea I was attached to one when it tore off and did its best to avoid the net.”
Jordan fished 15mm Monster Squid bottom baits and 10mm pop-ups snowman style on a size 4 Nash Fang X hook and Missing Link hooklinks.
Banana boilies net four carp to 23lb in 24 hours
A water that hadn’t produced a fish in more than a week provided Carl Sharp with four fish to 23lb during a 24-hour session.
The West Midlands rod travelled to Merrington Fishery in Shropshire and caught two doubles and two commons over 20lb to 23lb 2oz. The biggest fish of the session came just as the 29-year-old was packing away on Saturday morning.
No fish had been caught from the venue for eight days so Carl chose to fish single 11m Solar Top Banana boilies cast to a known winter holding area and used hinged stiff rigs.
Maggots take 77lb brace from Linch Hill
Maggots are one of most effective winter baits – and Marcus Howarth used the little wrigglers to help him land a brace of specimens for a combined weight of over 77lb.
The Portsmouth-based rod made the long journey to the Oxfordshire Linch Hill complex and set up in an area of Christchurch Lake where he’d lost two fish in a night a couple of weeks earlier.
Before getting his hookbaits out he Spombed out four pints of maggots coated in Sticky Bloodworm liquid and Krill Powder over a clean silty area at 70 yards. He then cast out critically-balanced 12mm Buchu-Berry pop-ups.
Marcus said: “The first night was uneventful and nothing was caught anywhere on the lake. Everyone else started baiting up and causing loads of disturbance the next day so I decided to leave my rods alone for the second night.
“It turned out to be a good decision as early the next morning my left-hand-rod was away and after a typical big fish fight, which included getting weeded up 20yds out, I managed to net one of the lake’s bigg’uns at 40lb 10oz.”
He re-baited the spot with a couple more Spombs of maggots for the final night and once again he received a take the following morning.
“The fish put up one hell of a fight but I eventually got the better of a lovely, dark 36lb 12oz mirror,” he said.
Huge 8lb 2oz eel from Grand Union Canal
Further proof of the surprises which are swimming around in our canals came this week when a netting operation on the Grand Union produced this massive 8lb 2oz eel.
The Canal & River Trust was in the process of relocating fish into the water below a section of canal at Watford Flight so that it could be drained for engineering works when the specimen was discovered.
James Kirk of MEM Fisheries, which was carrying out work for the Trust, said it was the biggest he had seen in 20 years in the job.
“What a monster! It’s rare to find an eel of this size on the canal network, it must be around 50-years-old and goes to show that you never know what you’ll find. We are helping the Canal & River Trust to carry out its annual winter programme of repair and restoration on its waterways,” he said.
It’s part of a five month, £45m programme of work to repair and restore hundreds of historic waterway structures and will see the Trust work with MEM Fisheries and local angling clubs to perform more fish rescues on venues. These include sections of the Kennet and Avon, Leeds and Liverpool, Staffordshire and Worcester, Shropshire Union, Rochdale, Monmouth and Brecon, Huddersfield Narrow and Grand Union Canals.
Squid lures 13lb 7oz bass from shore
A switch of bait proved decisive for Hampshire sea angler Dave Jones when he landed this 13lb 7oz bass from the shore.
The 27-year-old fished off Lepe beach in Southampton and started off using livebaits. But after a quiet couple of hours he switched to a squid bait and promptly hit into ‘the fish of a lifetime’.
“We were using live whiting but to no avail so I pinched some of my friends old bait which had already been defrosted twice and within two minutes my rod was rattling like crazy,” he said. “I had to be careful as I was only using 12lb mainline but after 10 minutes I managed to beach it.”
37lb mirror from Essex hotspot
This 37lb mirror was the highlight of Sam O’Brien’s 24 hour session on Fryerning Fisheries’ Main Lake in Essex.
The 27-year-old Basildon-based engineer baited a gravel bar 50 yards from the bank with a scattering of 100 Mainline Hybrid boilies per rod.
Following a spirited scrap he beat the impressive specimen known as XL Pecks with a 20lb Korda N-Trap hooklink knotless-knotted to a size 8 Gardner Covert Mugga hook.
77lb mirror new Spanish carp record
This colossal 77lb mirror is believed to be a new Spanish carp record and was landed from the River Ebro by Mike Cuff.
Fishing with his friend, Alan Thomas, under the expert guidance of Gary Allen’s Regency Angling, the pair landed a total of 35 carp and four catfish,
Mike told Angling Times: “Eight of the carp were over 30lb and four over 40lb. The largest mirror tipped the scales at 77lb and the biggest common weighed 51lb. We also landed a huge catfish which bottomed out the scales at 230lb.”
For more info about the guiding service visit: www.garyallensregencyangling.com
Brace of carp in two hours from Northey Park
Lee Griffin bagged a brace of corking Cambrideshire carp during a two-hour morning feeding spell.
Targeting a gravel patch among dying weed, the 25-year-old grabbed a mirror of 37lb 4oz and a 29lb 9oz common.
The lorry driver fed just 10 to 15 boilies per take and managed to extract the fish from the weedy swim at Patsons Lake on the Northey Park syndicate in Peterborough.
He said: “I found fish in the area the previous day and fished close to the dying weed, which is still pretty thick. Both of the fish ripped off on the take and buried themselves in the weed. We’ve got access to a boat there and I had to use it to get the common.”
The big mirror, which is known as Boysie’s, is a new personal best for Lee. He said: “At 37lb 4oz it’s the largest that fish has been and is a new PB for me. At Northey if you hook a good one it just plods and shakes its head, and I knew I was attached to something pretty decent as soon as I bent into it.”
Lee loosefed Mainline Cell boilies and fished a snowman rig featuring a Cell bottom bait and half a Milky Toffee pop-up attached blowback style to a size 6 Fox SSC Arma Point hook. He fished a 3oz lead on a very lightly attached clip and used six inches of Fox Camotex hooklength material.
33lb milestone Rutland pike
Rutland Water has produced its biggest pike in many years following the capture of this impressive 33lb 4oz predator.
The specimen, which measure 114cm in length, was boated by Artur Brzozowski who was fishing for zander at the time with a 15cm shad lure in an area of deep water on the 1,000-acre Anglian Water controlled venue.
The 35-year-old owner of online shop, www.lure-world.com, had already caught several zander with his boat partner when he hooked in to the surprise specimen.
“My friend had caught pike from the spot in the past so I knew there was a few there, but I didn’t expect anything of this size,” Artur told Angling Times. “Because the water was so deep I didn’t see just how big it was until I got it alongside the boat.”
New personal-best after six years with 7lb 3oz chub
A six year wait for a new chub personal best came to a welcome end for Darran Goulder when he banked this 7lb 3oz chub from the River Lea.
Targeting the Fishers Green stretch of the Herts waterway, the Shimano backed all-rounder proved that the best things come to those who wait after banking the specimen from a swim he baited for three weeks before fishing it.
He said: “I was excited about fishing it, and was glad to see it was free when I arrived. I cast out a short bolt rig onto a gravel run and had the take soon after. I thought it would be a good ‘six’ but it beat my old pb – a fish I caught on the float six years ago - by an ounce.”
Darran beat his prize with a Dynamite Crave boilie on a size 9 Drennan Barbel hook and a 6ins ESP Two Tone hooklink.
Huge grayling for Adam Perna
Trotted maggots gave Adam Perna a haul of five grayling including three two-pounders to 2lb 9oz.
The Oxfordshire rod adopted a roving approach on a southern river and took fish throughout the day before connecting with his new personal best an hour before dusk.
He said: “In the 2lb 9oz fish's case I had caught a few brown trout that had disturbed the swim so I fed for 20 minutes, spraying maggots, and then ran my float through again and the grayling took the bait after the float being in the water for a couple of seconds.
“It looked huge being a male fish, and put up quite a scrap. The difficulty was drawing the fish close enough to net with only a 1lb 4oz bottom on.”
Adam used a five-AAA chubber float, a size 22 hook and 4lb mainline.
3lb 9oz personal best perch on worm
This 3lb 9oz personal best perch was the highlight of an early morning session on a Lincolnshire river for Philip Taylor.
The Skegness-based security guard offered dendrobaena worms mid-river and landed a total of 10 fish including four over 2lb to 2lb 4oz.
“I was planning on fishing two rods but I got one out and started catching straightaway, and then never had time to set up my second,” said the 39-year-old. “The 3lb 9oz fish came on the last cast and straight away I could tell it was going to be much bigger than anything else I’d caught.”
Philip used 5lb Drennan Double Strength straight through to a size 12 Wide Gape Specialist hook.
Preparation pays with Medway Valley Fisheries forty
Careful preparation and a short daytime session between nightshifts resulted in John Waller bagging this Medway Valley Fisheries forty.
The 39-year-old saw one of the lake’s biggest residents roll as he was packing up at the end of one session and made sure he was ready to target the spot on his return.
The Kent angler explained: “I did the Sunday night, as my only night session of the week, and as I was sitting on the bedchair about to pack up I saw a fish known as the Big Mirror show.
“I put a jar of hemp on the spot and cast a rod to the spot and clipped up the rods and my spod rod to that spot, ready for when I could get down there the following day after my nightshift.”
Arriving at the lake at 7.15am, John put out half a kilogram of Dynamite Baits’ Monster Tiger Nut Red Amo boilies and got a take at 9.20am.
“As I was playing it, the middle rod rattled off as well,” said John. “As I thought I was playing the Big Mirror I just had to leave it. Luckily I managed to get the first fish in and I picked up the middle rod and that fish was still on, but it had stripped 200 yards of line and I got cut off on a bar in the middle of the lake.”
The fish in the net went 44lb 2oz and was in fact not the Big Mirror but another of the lake’s biggest residents that had topped 40lb last spring.
John, who was fishing to a silty area 90 yards out, used Ace CXS Razor Point hooks, Rigmarole Skinfull hooklinks and 15lb ESP Crsytal mainline.
14lb barbel from the River Trent
Rik Johnson was on the verge of calling it a day and heading home – but was glad he didn’t when he hooked in to this cracking 14lb 12oz Tidal Trent barbel.
The manager of Chapmans Angling had arrived at the Nottinghamshire waterway to be greeted by a river carrying an extra 3ft of water.
Using 8oz of lead to hold bottom he cast around large open end feeders for five hours to no avail.
He said: “I’d just started to tidy my things away when I saw a slight pull on my downstream rod which quickly developed in to an aggressive take. I eventually landed the ‘14’ and decided to stay on for a few more hours.”
It proved to be a wise decision as Rik went on to land a further six barbel to 12lb.
