Davy Claus relays a tale of when unrelenting persistence and flexibility in his angling paid off.
Sam Verstreken – Dream Session
3rd June 2020
Sam Verstreken catches a quartet of big carp from a big Belgian pit…
“After a couple of successful overnighters in the past few weeks, I was more than keen to return to the new lake that I’m targeting this year. This time, I had a bit more time on my hands and I was hoping that I could catch a few more before they start spawning. The spot that I’d chosen to fish was a patrol route to an out of bounds area, with the right conditions they really liked to gather around in this area. The plan was to start with a 24hr session and depending on the result I was going to decide that I would stay on this lake or maybe move to another lake to check it out. To make a long story short, except for a smaller common nothing much happened that first 24 hours. It seemed that with the real hot weather that day, the fish moved out of the area and all went quiet.
Seeing this event, I decided to move to another lake to check out what was going on over there. This particular lake is a really busy circuit water and upon arrival it became rapidly clear that it wasn’t going to be easy to get myself on the fish there. I stayed a few hours searching the forgotten corners for some fish hoping to find something but without result. After checking the weather forecast I saw that there was a big change in winds the next day and also the air pressure was bound to drop quite a bit. Perfect conditions for the spot I fished the night before so I decided to give it another go on there, this turned out to be the right decision!
The next morning I arrived really early at the spot, and the first thing I’ve noticed was the warm wind hitting my face. Looking at the weather forecast it seemed that the next few hours the air pressure was going to drop rapidly so I was feeling really confident. After putting my rods out, it only took a few hours before I received my first take and after a short battle a 38lb 5oz mirror was in the net. This was the start of a crazy few hours. It was only a short time later that I received another take, this time the fight was going more slowly – after a few scary moments I managed to net a really nice 44lb15oz two-tone mirror. With this capture the session was already made for myself and I was absolutely over the moon with this one! But that wasn’t the end… The next take was maybe an hour later and once again it felt like a better fish. After a strong fight close in I was able to put my net under a nice grey looking 44lb 8oz mirror.
What a session!! Some time passed by and a few friends came over to visit when I had yet another take, unfortunately I lost this one. After this, I could notice that the activity started to dry up a bit and the air pressure was climbing again. It felt like the real moment was passing by a bit, but that didn’t matter at all seeing the results of the previous day. It stayed quiet all night, but just before first light I had another take. This fish was coming in easily, but once in the margins it took a lot of effort to get it in the net. The result was yet another 40lb+ mirror, this time it was a scaly one of 43lb 3oz. What a session, I couldn’t of dreamt it any better!! Needless to say that I was over the moon with my results!
Sam used adjusted hinged-stiff rigs with boom sections made from our forthcoming Camsoft hooklink in Weed Green, and with a Chod section made of TA Out-Turned Eye size 6 and TA Recoil hooklink.