Crowy revealed: “This is a real history fish for the north, a home-grown warrior that’s been around for years. The 20-acre lake has a very low stock of around twenty carp and has been my main focus for the last couple of seasons. It is 50 miles from my home, and I’ve spent the last two summers and springs making the 100-mile round trip to walk and fish it for short trips before and after work, sometimes twice a day.
“On this occasion I’d walked the lake the day before and seen no signs of fish. When I arrived at 6.30am to set up I had it in my mind I’d try a swim called The Lawn which offers some good water. It was a drizzly morning and my gear was soaked from having fished at Eric’s Angling Centre’s Willows syndicate during the night. Just as I put the last peg in my Razorback I turned and saw a fish roll three swims to my right. The fish very rarely do this so I shot round and got a mark on it, and packed down in a frantic rush because other anglers were arriving for the start.
“Ten minutes later I was in the new swim, and I put my left-hander bang on where the fish had rolled at 30 yards range, and then just as I was doing the middle rod I saw a smaller ring and some fizz 50 yards out so put this rod bang on that mark. The right-hander went closer. I was buzzing with confidence, and less than an hour later my middle rod produced a fish known as The Little Linear; frustratingly my third capture of it so you can probably understand that at times I was wondering if I’d ever catch the Big ’Un.
“I was intending to leave for work at 12pm, and at 11am I began tidying some of my gear away when my middle rod dropped back to the floor. Thinking it might be a bream, I was pleased to have the rod almost wrenched from my hands as I tightened up to the fish. Most of them hardly fight in this lake so I was confident which fish it was because it ripped 50 yards of line off me before it stopped and made a loud ‘slap’ on the surface well out in the middle. It then plodded its way towards me, went through my left-hander before I netted it a short while later to the left of my swim.
“As I stood there and peered over the net it didn’t quite sink in that I’d got the Big ’Un. There’d been all sorts of rumours surrounding its whereabouts but I knew it was still in there after seeing it on several occasions last year. My thanks to Vince for the photos and the weighing, and also to my mate Wonky Pod who’s been as addicted to this fish as I have.”
The biggie fell for a single 18mm Solar Club Mix readymade fished alongside six similar sized baits, three of which were BYT and three Club Mix. Crowy’s hookbait was offered on a size 6 Solar X-Wide Gape hook and Solar lead clip loaded with a 3oz lead. He completed his set up with a Venture VXR2 rod.
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