Rig advice
At 68lb 1oz, it’s Britain’s most-wanted carp
for giant bream, plus Scott Lloyd’s Burghfield common set-up
There’s no denying that 2017 has been a fantastic year for specimen carp. Yet one stood out
THE UK carp record came agonisingly close to being beaten with the captures of Big Rig, Wingham’s Big Plated mirror and Captain Jack – but all were denied as official records.
Now the dust has settled, Dean Fletcher’s capture of the now deceased Parrot at 68lb 1oz still holds the title.
Scott Lloyd’s capture of the Burghfield Common must rate as one of the best of 2017. The 27-year-old landed it at a mindblowing 62lb 8oz and became just
the 11th angler to catch it.
It came on his first session of the spring to a balanced tiger nut hookbait. He said: “I went all out to single her out as best I could. I’d get up a tree and see thirties and forties feeding on my spots, but if she wasn’t there I’d leave them.”
On that fateful day, in the Compound swim, Scott fished a spot where the water drops off to 16ft, but suffered two fish losses early on before respooling all three of his rods with 20lb braid and 8ft of leadcore.
He landed the next two bites – mirrors of 24lb 10oz and 42lb 10oz – and then, at about 1pm, it came.
“I got it into open water where I wanted it, then it just kited right round the island. I was pumping, trying to gain line, but I couldn’t.
“It should have been gone – if I’d been on mono I 100 per cent wouldn’t have landed it.”
Scott somehow managed to tease the fish back, before it shot towards a scaffold jetty, then around the back of another tiny island. Eventually it was subdued.
“It only just fitted in the net. I just went mental,” he said.