| | | | | | | Size : | 14lb 4oz | | | Venue : | Wintons | | | Notes/Comments : | | Fishing for carp can sometimes throw-up the unexpected, as happened to me on the beautiful southern still water, Winton's. Many will have heard of this venue, Andy Little did a catfish video from there that has been transmitted on Sky. Matt Hayes also caught a catfish that went in to an article in Angling Times and the superb "Smurf,"(Jason Callaghan), put his winter carp catching exploits at Winton's, into print. Winton's is a three-lake complex, Mallard, Kingfisher and Heron. The latter is a general fishing lake containing most species. Kingfisher is reputed to be the hardest of the lakes and you are usually assured that if you hook in to something it will be special. Mallard is the main lake, bigger by far than the other two and home to the Winton's cats, big carp and occasionally a surprise. On the first chance I had of fishing Mallard, I was held up at work and did not arrive at the lake till late in the day. After sorting a swim out and getting all the gear round to the far side of the lake, darkness was setting in and it would not be long before torch light was needed to see anything. I managed to drop a bait right next to a weed-bed barely three rod lengths out to my right and the other into the darkness in the general direction of a gap between the two islands on the lake. An hour or so later with everything basically sorted in the bivvy and a liberal helping of trout pellets near the weeds it was time to put the kettle on for a well-earned cuppa. My watch said 9.45pm but it felt a lot later, the sky was overcast with no moonlight and all that could be seen were beams of torch light from the bivvy communities dotted round the lake. The occasional shriek of a bite alarm cut through the darkness and seemed to echo off every tree and bush. By 11pm I was tucked-up in my sleeping bag after trying time and time again to set the bed-chair to the most comfortable angle (why is it you can never get it right when you are tired?). Now well on my way to the land of nod, dreaming about carp the size of a double-decker bus from a lake that has not yet been found. The shrill of my girlfriend's voice from the other bed-chair filtered into my head "Alan!!! your alarms...." Trying, for what seemed like ages, to focus my brain I turned the bivvy light on, what greeted me was the sight of my girlfriend mummified in her sleeping bag wrestling with a zip that refused to move. By now, the sound of my bite-alarm was ringing in my ears and, as if through instinct, I was out of the bag and playing a fish in what seemed like a fraction of a second. It was the right hand rod near the weeds. The fish made an immediate run for open water and then doubled back straight in to the weeds and reeds. For a moment, it felt as if it had come out but no matter what I did or how long I left the line slack it was not moving from its new residence. My girlfriend finally got herself extricated and the angler from the next swim wandered over to see what the commotion was about, he brought extra lights and we could vaguely see the line where it went in to the reeds as the fish had gone through the weeds and in to the reeds behind it. Now it was decision time, pull for a break or to pull the fish out if possible, no, these were quickly discarded and I had to go for a swim. Stripped down to underpants and socks,I heard a female voice from behind me as I entered the water say,"fancy going for a swim at half past twelve in a morning..." The answer was unprintable and probably muffled by mouthfuls of water as I made my way over to the weed-beds. I had taken the landing net, my aim if possible was to get the fish in it then cut the line. All went to plan, even though I had the fish in the net I still had not seen it, the line was cut and I even managed to retrieve all the tackle. Making my way back through the darkness and making for the beacon of torch light from my swim, I felt confident I had done the right thing and not left a fish to possibly suffer or die from its entanglement in the reeds. Back at the swim, my neighbouring angler held the net handle while I got out and my girlfriend produced a towel and dry T-shirt. After a little drying it was time to look in the net and see the culprit for the first time, with torches ablaze I lifted the net out, the three of us said one word in chorus "wow..." My prize, my surprise, a 14lb 4oz Koi carp courtesy of Winton's. | | | | | |
