6ft rod banks 43lb common carp

This pristine 43lb 8oz common was tricked on a margin spot and tamed on just a 6ft rod.

Nash employee Oli Davies used one of his firm’s new Scope Sawn Off rods to land The Upfront Common from Kingsmead One on the RK Leisure Horton complex in Berkshire.

It was the culmination of a fruitful week of short sessions on the venue for Oli, who bagged a 30lb 2oz leather from Horton Church Lake and a mid-twenty mirror from Horton Boat Pool in his two previous sessions.

He explained: “I had actually intended to drop on the Church Lake again, but as I walked past Kingsmead One at gone midnight and flashed my head torch into the margin in a swim that rarely gets fished I spotted the ghostly shape of a carp.

“I decided to lower a couple of baits in the edge here, flicking just eight 6mm pellets over the top of my multi-rigged pop-up and within an hour I had hooked a lively male tench which managed to slip the hook and save me netting it.

“The hook point was still sharp so the rig was lowered in again and at first light I was woken by a savage take that was threatening to rip the 6ft rod from the rests. It was a powerful fight at close quarters, the fish surging into the weed beds that surrounded my margin swim. It did weed me solid down to the right for a couple of minutes but the advantage of a short rod is you can apply plenty of pressure and by pulling quite hard I managed to break the weed strands and extract it.”

Oli added: “In the net it looked like an upper twenty but it was only as I lifted the net from the water that the true size of the fish became apparent, and on the mat I immediately recognised it as The Upfront, a rare visitor to the bank.

“The fish weighed in at a massive 43lb 8oz, a new pb common by over 5lb and my first forty from the venue. Holding that incredible carp really topped off a successful week.”

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