Greg beats his pb carp in style.
LymmAC member and bailiff, Greg Winstanley, has been targetting the carp at Lymmvale in a bid to beat his peronal best and to try for his first ‘twenty’. Well, he recently managed to do both and you can read below Greg’s account of his memorable capture……
Well where do I start…… The beginning I guess! After much deliberation (5mins) I decided to take Thursday off work and have a bit of a social with a friend on ‘The Vale’. Thursday morning started at around 4:30 a.m. with an easy coast up to Lymmvale from Derby, unfortunately where I work. After a stop at the Golden Arches for a fill up, I eventually arrived still in the hours of darkness, at around 5:45 a.m.
For those who have never had the opportunity to visit Lymmvale, it is probably the most magical of all the Lymm waters. that is true for both night and day! Being able to watch the place come alive is a favourite pastime for me as you get to see and hear things that most people don’t. I had the lake to myself for approximately half an hour to absorb all the goings on and cast an eye around some of the likely places. Even though there seemed to be more ‘fishy’ swims, I decided on opting for the Sandbank Swim as it’s very comfortable to fit two bivvies and be able to sit and chat without disturbing the rest of the anglers.
After setting up my swim and baiting up a likely margin area, I cast out my rigs and sat back to make my first brew of the session. This is where things got started… Guy and Andy from the Lymm estates maintenance team turned up and informed me that there was going to be some pruning and bark chip spreading going on around the Sandbank and adjacent pegs, so I would have to vacate the area. As you can imagine I was devastated and reluctantly packed up! By this time my fishing buddy, Mark, had arrived and we spent the next couple of hours, where possible, helping the lads and acting as site foremen. Oh yeah, plus giving them some humorous abuse/banter! By the way excellent job lads, the effort these lads put in is matched by no other.
Once the peg work was complete, we moved back in to the Sandbank swim and began setting up (take 2 for me!) The evening came with no action apart from 5 mins of panic followed by hours of mickey taking – sorry nearly forgot, I had a bream just before we turned in for a kip – not funny Mark!
The early hours of the morning arrived with still no activity, that is until my margin rod pulled tight and I was in to a nice tench, not my target species but nice all the same. After sending the tinca on its way and as if they where watching me, my second rod pulled tight and I was in again to a much nicer tench. This one was absolutely mint and a nice male weighing in at 6lb 2oz equalling my personal best.
The morning came and went with nothing else but rain and banter but we still enjoyed the company and watched the bird life on the lake. It came to the point where the final rigs of the session were sent out, we agreed that we would bait up and sit it out until it was time to go. An hour or so passed and my left hand rod received a slow but definite take… I jumped up and lifted into what I thought was going to be either another bream or a tench. Once the fish had realised it was hooked, it decided it would ‘start its engines’ and kite to the right looking for the weed beds, I knew for definite this was no bream or tench….. The fish definitely knew what it was doing as it continuously rolled over the line trying to rid the hook. When it came to the point of tiring, I had to promptly remove my boots and socks, roll up my combats and join the fish in the water to net it safely (The water in front of the Sandbank is very shallow and no large fish should be pulled across the stony bottom)
After the fish passed over the net cord I knew I had smashed my personal best and had been graced with one of the mystical Vale Gems. The scales confirmed I had broken my previous record of 17lb 3oz with a pleasing 21lb 7oz stunner. So thank you for reading my most memorable session and let me introduce you to my first ‘twenty’ and new personal best!
New personal best and first ‘twenty’ for Greg!
Our congratulations to Greg for his capture of a stunning fish. Want to have a go for fish like these yourself? Visit our website www.lymmanglersclub.com to view the lengthy list of waters available on the Lymm AC card and details of how to join us – we look forward to hearing from you.