My 25th birthday was here and finally it was time to get back on the bank!
With 48hours booked in the cabin on the syndicate I couldn’t wait and as soon as I arrived my eyes where scanning.

With no obvious signs of feeding fish I picked two spots which had previously produced. With a generous amount of bait on both areas I sat down to get my favourite rigs tied, consisting of the Ashima C430 Goliaths in size 8, Rig ring, ground-hog braid and finally a small piece of shrink tube to help kick the point over. With the traps set on the money I was feeling really confident going into the first night. I finally nodded off about 10pm and didn’t even stir until 4am … beeeeep beep beep, yes! fish on? How wrong was I, a false alarm from 2 ducks diving down! Out came the green laser and they soon got lost!
The morning quickly arrived with the 4am offenders not in site (result!), unfortunately the carp also where not in site with the day quickly passing with not even a single bubble of hope.

By 5pm this all changed with an out of the blue screaming run from my right hand rod which felt like a good fish. It soon was heading towards me though and had me thinking it was a low double. Nope wrong again as it then spent the next 10 minutes beating me up under the rod tip. Eventually a chunky Ghostly glided over the mesh and the birthday weekend fish had arrived!! With the cradle, sling and scales all ready I quickly treated the hook hold and weighed her, the needle quickly pasted
10, 15 and stopped just off 20lb @ 19lb 14oz’s. A stunning fish which made up for the previous 30 hours of silence.

The final night was here and I was heading to sleep a happy guy! But like all of us anglers I was not going to turn down a 2nd if it should wake me in the night. Unfortunately it wasn’t going to be and I packed up the next morning heading home with a big smile on my face.

Until next time!
Lee @fixedoncarping