PREBAITING BRINGS A SUPERB 36lb 7oz CANAL COMMON
...and captor adds four twenties for good measure
IS THERE a finer canal carp in the country than this 36lb 7oz common?
The immaculate specimen topped a succession of 20lb-plus fish from the Basingstoke Canal for Laurence Burchall.
All came after a spell of closed-season prebaiting on a wide stretch of the waterway that runs through Hampshire and Surrey.
Laurence, who grew up close to the venue but had not targeted its carp before, said: “I found a stretch with a large boat-turning area where I had seen the largest common that I really wanted to catch.
“During the closed season I began taking a dinghy out to the far side where I had seen it most and baited regularly with chopped CC Moore Pacific Tuna boilies and some fresh hemp.
“When I wasn’t baiting, I’d sit until dark after work and watch the spot from the bank. I saw a good few shows over the bait, including what looked like the big common.”
In the first week of the season Laurence’s first trip produced a scaly mid-twenty within an hour.
“The next day I was back down to the spot and had another fish, a little bigger at 28lb 12oz.
“As you can imagine, I was over the moon with the results from my prebaiting and couldn’t keep myself away.
“After each fish I’d pop home after putting some more bait out on the spot in the dinghy and wait for them to return! “The idea was, I was going to put more bait on the spot the following day to get a large amount there and hopefully hold them, but as I got to the spot the fish were already there, churning up the bottom!
“I put in a few more chopped
Pacific Tuna to move them out so I could row back to the bank and send a rig over to them.
“I did just that and the next bite only a short while after it was out was the one I wanted – a colossal common for the canal and canal pb for me at 36lb 7oz.
The action didn’t stop there, as Laurence went on to bank two more twenties.
“Word had got out of my success and I found it difficult to get back down to the spot, but I was over the moon with the result!”