IT’S HOLME FEN’S SECOND SIXTY!
Carp pack on weight here, as this 60lb 2oz fish shows
ADAY-ticket fishery has produced its second 60-pounder – just three years after it opened.
Meadows Lake on the Holme Fen complex in Cambridgeshire was already known for its huge head of forties and fifties before Jon Faupel scooped his net under this 60lb 2oz mirror.
The lake’s other sixty, a mirror known as Captain Jack, has already been caught at over 64lb, making it one of the biggest living carp in the country.
Holme Fen Fishery, which is made up of Meadows Lake and Poachers Pool, opened its doors to the public in July 2014, and can be fished by anyone on a booking system.
Jon, who was on his first visit to the lake and fished the Beach Double swim, caught the 60-pounder during a four-day session with friends.
He said: “I struck into it and I never would have thought it was a sixty from the way it was plodding around.
“My previous pb was 30lb 10oz, and as we got it into the net one of my mates said ‘you’ve definitely beaten that’. Then, as we took a further look, he said ‘it’s probably a forty’, and then one of the guys said it was more like a fifty!
“When we got it on the scales we were just flummoxed. I couldn’t believe it. I never thought that would happen, and I still can’t believe it now. It was an awesome moment, and it was really nice to share it with friends.”
The fish does not yet have a name, although Jon, who used PCF Relish boilies and pellets, suggested ‘Big Bad Barry’.
Venue boss Martin Dawson told Carpfeed: “The spot was a bar in about 6ft of water surrounded by approximately 12ft depth, about 30 yards off the mushroom island and 80 yards to the right-hand side of the Beach Double swim.
“I asked how the fish felt and the consensus was that it was flabby at the back end, hopefully indicating a successful spawning, although the picture does not necessarily show this.
“The fish spawned during the closed period during the first week of July, and the lake reopened on July 14.”
Jon used a hinged stiff rig made with a Korda N-Trap boom and a size 6 Krank Choddy hook.