Top carp angler lands special grayling

After spending the last two winters targeting a Yorkshire river for grayling, Mark Pitchers headed further north in search of an elusive 3lb specimen – and was rewarded with this stunning 3lb 2oz fish. But this trip almost didn’t happen, as Mark angler explained: 

“Thirty six hours before my planned trip my uncle sadly passed away very unexpectedly, and I very nearly cancelled the trip because my heart just wasn’t in it. But I decided that staying at home would probably only make me feel worse, so the trip went ahead as planned.”

On the second day of the trip Mark targeted fast, shallow water and was rewarded in fine fashion:

“On my third run down my float buried, and after striking my rod hooped over. I was in no doubt whatsoever that I was connected to something special, he said.

“After a 15 minute battle the fish was finally netted, and I could breathe a sigh of relief.”

Mark used floatfished maggots to tempt the big grayling, that fell to two red maggots on a size 16 hook.