A few months ago, miraculously I managed to break my Personal Best (my previous article). With the catch of that gigantic mirror my year has already more than succeeded. After that I deceided to leave the syndicate for a while, time to give the residents here some rest. In the colder months I will definitely come back it’s time to wet my lines elsewhere. The urge to embark on a new adventure is exactly what I need. I've put my mind on a big sand pit, it is unknown territory for me, I know almost nothing of the lake and its inhabitans. The only thing I do know is that there is a monster of a mirror swimming around. In other words, more than worth investing a lot of time in here. Months in advance I have been a regular visitor on the banks of the large gravel pit, looking for signs of carp activity. Armed with polaroid glasses and marker rod, I examined several potential swims. Now since 2020 the regulations have been changed and this to the detriment of angling. Especialy carp angling. There are several forbidden fishing zones and on certain parts of the water there is a night fishing ban. The safe zone for our finned friends has become almost 1/3 of the water. Somewhere around 7 hectares. To give you an idea how large the safe zone is. It is now up to us, carp anglers to adapt our fishery to this circumstances .
A few days after I managed to catch that big syndicate mirror I went down to the gravel pit for a walk. After having spotted a few fish shortly in the shore, my decision is made. Tomorrow morning I will drop my rigs there. But first things first, i have to leave a few hands of bait in the area. When I arrive at the van, I take a small amount of the new bait from solar namely the tunamino/E12 . I provided the spots with a few kilos to see how the fish will react. The bait consists of 2 different types. A dark colored fishmeal boilie based on tuna and an orange sweet bird food boilie. By combining both types of bait and colors you create a range of possibilities. In this way you appeal to a large part of the fish stock. Fact is that certain fish have a preference for presented bait.
The following day I am early on the appointment and luckily the intended spot is free. Rods are in position quickly. To my great surprise I can slide the landing net under a nice dark common carp two hours after arrival. I couldn't have imagined my introduction better. I Have a weakness for carp that look jet black. The fish quickly regains its freedom and the rod is thrown exactly on the same square meter. In between some heavy downpours the indicator of the same rod pops against the carbon. This time the fight is completely different and my opponent shows that he is not really set up with the whole event. After a few critical moments I manage to free the fish from some heavy snags. Minutes later a nice thick dark mirror appears at the surface. Once again the carp disappears into the meshes of the net. The needle of the scale gets stuck on 41lb and makes the test session more than successful. The following days I have been back a few more times for short sessions but without success. Soon it became clear that I wasn't the only one who had the spot in sights. Far to much baits had been thrown in. I decided to ignore the swim for a while.
The following week I still have some fishing hours available and I want to spend them back at the large gravel pit. Wisely i choose for another swim. Very carefully the place is examined for intresting spots in the shape of gravel or clay. Once found, the new tunamino/E12 baits will be presented. I don't really dare to bait up too much as I don't know if the fish will feed there. Again I am early the next morning on the appointment and in no time my two rods are spot on. It promises to be a warm hot day and I put all my hope on those first hours. Eventually after about 4 hours of fishing the long range positioned rod comes to life. The indictor goes a little up and down and the first bream is unhooked. The rig is again equipped with a tuna/E12 hardened 15mm hook bait combined with one of the new perfect pop ups, the sweetcorn. Half an hour later a similar bite is repeated and at first sight I think it's a bream again. A few minutes later I have to adjust my mind because the line swells to the left. From a certain point, I'm 100% sure that I'm dealing with a carp. I have to bend the rod firmly into the hilt to keep the fish away from an obstructive zone and also an enormous weed field. For a moment I imagine that the fish has swum into the weed because I pull a very heavy weight to the side. To my great surprise I suddenly see a big mirror 10 meters away from me and almost without any weed. Thinking to myself that this could be a good forty. Quickly I put on my waders and jump into the water. Almost immediately I sink very deep into the mud. This creates a huge black cloud. I can’t barley see the mirror carp at the surface but on the first attemp to land it, it slides into the landingnet. Because of the muddy cloud I still can't estimate what i exactley had caught. Its only when the recovery sling is pushed under the fish that i relize that i caught something very special. This is a very big massive carp. When the mirror carp is carried on the unhooking mat I have to squeeze my arm to make sure I am not dreaming. Its that big mirror that convinced me to fish here in the first place. With this mastadont I adjust my pb a bit sharper with 63lb. However, I personally think the weight is just an afterthought. Never have I dared to think to catch this magnificent carp. That is to say, not so fast. Not much later the fish is immortalized with the camera. While putting the fish back, I only realize what happened here. On a time span of 2 weeks I manage to catch 2 fish outside catagory. So you see that our hobby can sometimes be so unpredictable. The search for the unknown, it keeps me going.