Davy Claus relays a tale of when unrelenting persistence and flexibility in his angling paid off.
Tom’s Spring Hots Up
6th June 2019
Tom has had such a prolific run of captures over the winter into spring, it has been hard to keep up at times! But everything was building up to the inevitable, and riding high on his recent success it was of no surprise when we received the latest news!
As one chapter ends ….
I arrived at the lake as always after work on Sunday. Usually there’s a few lads left from the weekend, but the weather had been hot and I could see the lake looked lifeless and covered in a thick film of scum due to the lack of wind and rain.
I decided to leave my gear at the gate and have good look around in search of the final piece of the puzzle and the one I dearly wanted, the awesome C Scale.
It was clear to me the carp were well and truly sunning themselves so after a few hours of locating different groups of them in various areas of the lake I decided to settle on one of the two areas I’d been catching from consistently over the past few months. Rods were deployed and an hour or so later something was telling me to search the area I’d done well from the previous week. As I slowly crept up the bank and climbed the tree overlooking this area I could barely believe my luck. There she was, cruising from one area to another without a care in the world. I was unsure whether to move as the area I was in currently covered a good part of the lake and a route they always went over once the sun was setting. I carried on watching and could see that this was too much of a good chance to pass up! The gear was thrown onto the barrow and away I went, moving to a swim I’d done very well from recently.
Rods wrapped up and my Tungskin hinges mounted with Krill White Ones slammed down on the spots, the same spots I’d been fishing since January and I was angling. In went the bait, 2kg of Krill 16mm glugged in pure Krill liquid and finished off with Krill powder. The night passed quietly and I was awoken with a stunning little upper double fully at first light taken on on my homemade Krill corkballs.
Sitting on my hands for a few hours trying desperately not to climb the tree for a look but I could wait no longer. I shot up the tree and was disappointed to see just a handful of randy males. I sent one spomb of oily hemp out to the spot and sat back plotting for the day ahead. I needn’t have bothered as 10 minutes later it was away. It took off on an 80 yard powerful surge with me trying to direct it away from my other line. After a great battle I could see the top of my TA leadcore leader just breaking the surface a few yards out and behind that a crusty old back and as it kited left I could see that all important scale, it was her, the mighty C Scale.
With her safely in the net I stood there in relief whilst pumping full of adrenaline. Finally after 10 months 126 carp and some absolute stunning fish, she was mine. The wife got the first call as always followed by a couple of mates, we weighed and photo’d her, she looked awesome and at 44lb she was the biggest she’d ever been.
I’ve enjoyed my time on the intimate little club lake and as frustrating as it can be at times, the hard graft always pays off. As always it’s a funny old feeling walking away and closing those gates one final time, but as one chapter ends another one begins and now its back to where I was before – I had been side tracked by this very special carp.