PB Hunter
The day i caught that magical fish!
It was a blistering hot august day, the hottest of the year by all accounts and day was breaking over Clattercote Reservoir in Oxon, this was to be a eventful day for Chris Ritch and fishing buddy Paul Dodge as on this day things would take place that would shock both of them.
As our Ford Galaxy pulled up in the car park we were brimming with excitement at attempting to conquer a new venue.
they carted all their armoury of tackle to the peg and proceeded to set up and get down to having breakfast!
After about an hour no success so I decided to put a rig in the margins next to the boards to see what would happened and in an instant;
BAMM!
the float bombed straight under and i was onto a carp, and a good one at that but as the adrenaline surged through me
DISASTER!!!!
The hooklink snapped leaving me fuming. dpodgey added a quick chuckle and carried on fishing with a polaris float from my memory.
I set up another rig on stronger line with a strong hook and plumbed up and dropped my bait in, a few minutes passed and then
BAMM!
the float slid gracefully under the sheet of surface film and disappeared into the deep and i struck and the fish was on but in a mimic of the last fish, shot straight under the boards and the rig flew back into an un-curable tangle!
Gritting my teeth i smiled and then me and Paul came up with a plan
we set up a rather crude rig on 15lb line straight through to a size 10 hook with a small waggler attached and a large 2.5lb test curve rod with a Dyna Drag reel
after being in the water no less than 30 seconds the float drifted off gracefully into the midst and a firm strike and he was on, Paul struggled to keep the carp from the snags and suceeded and soon a pristine mirror of 9lb was in his net, this was soon followed by a common of 11lb and then everything died down.
We decided a change of peg was in order and asked around and the recomended peg was number 16 spo we carried our gear to the peg and settled down, i was using my pole under a near tree and paul was using a waggler just out in front of him, content with what he had already caught.
Many missed bites on my pole and i gave up and went for a walk and when i came back paul was using my pole saying hes having loads of bites but couldnt connect with them.
i took over my pole again and then shipped back and began to eat as usual then out of nowhere something dragged pauls rod straight off his rod rests into the lake and sped off into the deep.
Paul was gobsmacked and so was I trying to hold back laughter aswell, we decided on a trip round the lake to tell people to keep their eyes out for anything when we got to a rather obnoxious old fellow who said 'serves you right'.
we went back to our pegs and then sat back and i shipped my pole out and carried on fishing as Paul tried to explain to his dad what had happened when i had a bite and managed to connect with a big lump
'B****er I've found the sunken tree roots' i said
then the 'snag' roared off towards the middle of the lake and after a long tussle which almost resulted in an elastic snap i had in my net a pristine mirror of huge proportions (compared to anything I have ever caught) rumaging for my scales in my bag we hooked up and they bottomed out.
'B***er'
I then ran upto the next person on the lake and begged a set of avon scales and proceeded to weigh the leviathan
the needle swung round to 18lb 8oz, a new PB
i was full of excitement and as i had no camera had no choice but to keepnet her and wait for my stepdad to arrive with a camera.
the rest is history.
a brilliant end to what looked at first like a bleak day.
I've been back to this water many times but have never equaled or bettered this.
Will I keep trying? you bet i will.
Chris Ritch