More than a record

We only had a couple of hours after work and school. We were heading to Carron Row, our newly found haven. We joined our local fishing club last october, so for this and our previous few trips, we had only seen these beautiful little pools in their winter dress.

Of the four lakes, we were fishing lake 2, our chosen start point and a lake that, at not much more than half an acre, seemed little affected by the weather. The water is fairly deep and has a cloudy mysterious look. Unseen monsters lurked, with carp to over 20lbs more than a challenge for the two of us. Growing up in the 70's and early 80's, these were the sorts of places I honed my skills and learned the ways of Walker and Yates. I found summer dawns and float fishing by lilies with luncheon meat or corn to be the most exciting and mysterious way to fish for carp and tench.

Today we would be fishing in our favorite swim known as' the bush' due to the large Rhododendron on the right hand side. The water just off this bush is about 5ft deep shelving gently down a few yards out. An obvious place for carp to patrol. The bank under the bush retreats a few feet in from our swim and creates a dark shaded margin. The first rod was Toby's new 10ft float rod, perfect for this situation. Bait was to be maggots. Trying to remain quiet was most important as we were fishing little more than 8ft away, sitting back and dispensing with rod rests as usual. The second rod was fished out into the middle of the pool. Bait for this one was a cocktail of maggots and Halibut boilie with a large mesh bag of maggots to attract attention. Our thinking was that with all the rudd and tench also in the pond, any food will be found quite quickly by the smaller fish and thus attract the carp if they haven't already found it. The boilie will help minimize the chance of hooking the small Rudd. All set up we relaxed. The weather was cloudy but none too cold and we sat throwing a constant trickle of maggots over the float spot, trying to hit the float. None too successfully I may add. Then the rain started........

Toby went to the car to get the brolly camp whilst i stayed with the rods. This way, we didn't have to reel in the rods. Toby, being my seven year old son, isnt a full member just yet. As he appeared in each new swim he waved and as he did so I had that feeling some get that 'it' was about to happen. With the brolly successfully out of the car, I could see the wee man jumping and stretching, trying to reach the boot of our estate car. Reach it he couldn't so i signalled him to come back and round he came.

Then it happened. Not long had he arrived back in the swim when the boilie rod quite positively raced off. Being nearer, i picked up the rod and with little need to strike passed it to Toby. The fish pulled hard for the far bank as Toby pulled hard back giving little line. The rod held, the hook held and the fish turned. We had little to worry about in front of us with just deep water and the fish, remaining unseen, churned and twisted for about five minutes. All the while Toby was asking if I thought it was a carp or tench and if it was a carp, was it bigger than my biggest? The largest carp I have ever caught and actually weighed was 13lb 2oz though bigger fish have come my way. I never quite got round to buying scales and never really weighed fish often. A situation we sorted out after Toby caught a few nice carp to about 8-9lbs from another local pond.

This fish definitely fought as good as any fish I had ever hooked and knowing of the size of some inhabitants, a large fish was becoming more likely by the minute. The only other angler on the complex was packing up before the fight started and was now stood next to us getting as wet as we were in the increasingly heavy shower. After a couple of final runs and dives, up came a beautiful double figure common carp and into the net she went.

Toby had done it. At 13lb 8oz, my record had gone and I wouldn't change it for the world.