Tactics and baits behind the week’s biggest carp catches revealed
Regular visitor gets an early alarm call
“I pulled into the fish to find it was solid in weed, so I walked backwards up the bank to gain height and held the rod above my head”
LINCH Hill regular Mark Litchfield has smashed his personal best by nearly 5lb with this mirror known as Scar at 49lb 7oz.
Fishing on Christchurch at the Oxfordshire complex, the 52-year-old had already banked Hartley’s at 38lb 12oz and a 25lb mirror from the area before this cracker turned up.
The Northampton angler said: “The spot in question was a hole in the weed where I had seen fish showing and fizzing.
“I had cast out and baited up the afternoon before and had a few liners during the night, and a couple of carp had boshed out over the baited spot, so I had been feeling quite confident.
“At 7.30am the next morning I received a few bleeps from my alarm, and when I checked my rod the line was bow-string taut.
“I pulled into the fish to find that it was already solid in weed, so I walked backwards up the bank to gain height and held the rod above my head.
“I managed to gradually move the fish and keep it moving. The fish then plodded around, and it was a good fight. “When I finally netted it I could see the fish was huge, in fact
bigger than anything I had ever caught before. It weighed 49lb 7oz and smashed my personal best, which had been 44lb 8oz for a mirror carp.”
Mark fished 12mm Sticky Peach & Pepper pop-ups over Manilla boilies and pellets. He used solid PVA bags and size 6 Korda Krank hooks tied to 20lb N-trap Soft.