LUKE TAMES A 102lb HUNGARIAN BEAST
Vanes becomes the fourth Brit in history to bank ton-plus fish
LUKE Vanes has become just the fourth British angler in history to land a 100lb-plus carp. This beast of a 102lb mirror came from Hungary’s Euro Aqua. The stunned 35-year-old said later: “It was just an absolute monster, an immense fish.
“Lifting it was back-breaking. Normally you lift fish with your arms, but with this it was a case of holding your arms out and lifting with your back. It still hurts now!”
Two hours before catching the ton-up carp, the Wolverhampton angler had another mirror of 69lb, and later added a 44lb common to his tally.
It’s the sixth year that Luke and fellow big-fish angler Luke Edwards have travelled to Euro Aqua, but their previous biggest fish to date was ‘only’ a mid-70pounder. On their latest trip the pair were
fishing to a silty area, where they alternated their rods along a 60 yard zone 130 yards out and baited heavily with 200kg of hemp, 50kg of maize and 50kg of the fishery’s own Euro Aqua boilies.
The monster mirror was banked on just the second day of the trip. “We arrived on Monday and I got the bite at 1.30pm on Tuesday,” said Luke Vanes. “Between 6am and 4pm was bite time on the early part of the session.”
“It was a slow and steady take from the 102-pounder, which just felt like a big, heavy weight. It plodded around for 10 to 15 minutes, then we saw it as it came up about two rodlengths out. “We thought it was a big 80 and probably a new pb, but when we came to lift it in the sling we knew it was much bigger.”
The fish is a new 100-pounder for the venue, which contains at least two others over that weight. It was last caught in 2017 at under 90lb.
The two Lukes travelled to Euro Aqua for their week-long session straight from seven days at Italy’s Parco del Brenta, where Luke Vanes had 82 fish to mid-50s.
Luke fished snowman presentations on D-rigs made with Korda IQ2, Korda D-Rig Kickers and size 4 J Precision Curve hooks.
The other three Brits with 100lb carp to their name are Colin Smith (Etang La Saussaie) and Steve Weir and Warren Harrison (both from Euro Aqua).