Mark’s Monster

The lake looked stunning as we did the walk-around with the bailiffs, it was like nobody had fished it for ages, even though we knew that the lads from the previous trip had only just left! It was noticeable that the mood, which was buoyant as we walked round, became much more serious on the last 200 yards before the lodge. Everyone fell silent, thinking hard about their swim choices!

You’re always hoping for good draw, so I couldn’t believe it when I pulled ball no2 from the hat! Now, you can never say anything for sure in angling, but I felt like I was in with a great chance of some action. Rather than rub people’s noses in it, I quietly shuffled off to the toilet before I screamed with joy, or perhaps pent-up frustration, after a year of restricted fishing!

Jake Taylor came out first and he plumped for Alamo, which gave him access to the middle area of the lake and would allow him to fish at range, which he’s proficient at. That left Co’s Point open for me. Co’s is the royal box of the lake; you can see the whole lake from there and it’s an amazing place to spend a week’s fishing, regardless of action.

I set up my rods with Tapered SUBline, naked Chod Safety Systems, down to Helisafe Beads and QC Ring Swivels which allowed me to quickly change rigs, which were my favourite loop combi rigs. I made these from 20lb IQ booms and 25lb Supernatural loops, attached to size-two Kurv Shank hooks, which had small pieces of silicone sleeved over the eyes. The rigs were baited with 18mm hardened Royal Marine hooker baits, which I drilled out and popped a small dumbbell Hell pop-up into, so that it just poked out, giving the bait a fleck of colour and buoyancy.
I was away that night with a cracking 40lb 3oz fish, which just served to make me really confident in putting that much bait out. Catching that quickly over 15kg confirmed that they’d clear whatever I put down there. On the Sunday the fish moved off me and in front of Alamo and The Beach, so I slowed the baiting down a touch, introducing 5-10 kilos instead of 15.

The rod was compressed like my rig was weeded, but it was kiting right all the time, so I knew that something was on the other end! What I didn’t know, was that it had ditched the lead and come up in the water, which was exactly what I wanted the Heli-Safe to do for me. I was still partly convinced that I was attached to a weed bed, but then every now and again the rod would nod really slowly. I flicked my head torch on and could see to about 30 yards. Gigantica bailiff, Steve Rocke, had joined me by now and he had a much more powerful torch that we could use to get a fix on exactly what was going on out there. In the strong beam from Steve’s torch, we saw this big, white ghost coming towards us at about 60 yards…

It was amazing; the fish’s head was kissing the surface and its shoulders were sticking 4-5 inches above it. “Oh my God!” Steve said, “Did you see that? Did you see that?” “Yeah,” I replied, “It’s a good ‘un”. “A good ‘un?” He snorted, “That’s colossal!”
At that point, my knees went. With the headtorch on it, I swear that the fish was dazzled like a rabbit in the headlights, and it came straight in, just like it had two years before. I’d lost it last time after reaching down to grab the net, taking the beam off it, which allowed it to revive and charge down the slope. With that in mind, when Steve asked whether I wanted him to switch his torch off, I said, “No, no, keep it on the fish.” I gently walked back up the swim and Steve needed two attempts to net it, due to the incredible depth of its belly. He managed to do it though, and I went running forward and clambered round to get a look at it. Bizarrely, I took my size-10 shoe off and held it over its back – the fish was wider than the shoe was long! We must have been making a bit of noise, because pretty soon we could see a parade of lights snaking their way towards us.

By the time it was light enough to do the pics I’d really built the nerves up, which was good because my adrenalin was pumping and I hoped it’d help me hold the fish for longer. All the shots were to be done in the water, which is great for fish safety, but meant a problem for my back as I’d have be standing up the whole time. Luckily, the bailiffs had a weightlifting belt, which helped me massively because my core and lower back were supported. Because of its insane width, a fish like Fudgies takes up the whole of your forearm and so you need to lift up almost 90 degrees. With a crowd of 15 people, I was able to hold it just long enough so we could rattle off the pics!

I suffered for my efforts once the adrenalin had left my system; a day later, my back was killing and I discovered that I’d ripped some of the small muscles in my bicep! It all meant that I struggled to spod and cast, but did I care? Not a jot! I was so blown away by the experience that it really didn’t matter!