After suffering nine blank nights in three 72-hour carp fishing trips, Paul Heseltine's fortunes finally turned round in spectacular fashion when he landed one of the biggest UK carp of the yearat a whopping 61lb 4oz.
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Fishing the famed Meadows Lake at Cambridgeshire's Holme Fen Fishery, Paul found that locating the carp was difficult due to their dormant nature at this time of year.
"On the previous sessions I had no sightings or any feeding activity to go on," he told us.
"This trip things had changed dramatically, it’s as if someone had flicked a switch, I had quickly seen a few fish show and found areas where the fish were obviously feeding."
Not wanting to disturb the carp too much, Paul got bait out as quietly as possible, with just 6-7 Spombs of ASM boilie crumb, maggots and corn over each spot.
Over the next three nights he got through 2kg of crumb, 1kg of corn and 5 pints of maggots as the big carp finally got on his bait. Alongside the giant 60lb-plus mirror, he also landed fish of 43lb 10oz and 41lb 6oz - quite the hit of fish for March!
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"I was completely blown away with the big one as it came right at last knockings," he said.
"I had already started to pack down but I just knew it was a matter of time before this rod went, as I’d seen two very good fish show over that rod - thank you carp gods!"
At the business end Paul used the Multi Rig with a size 8 Wide Gape hook, this presented a small ASM topper which he had dried from 10mm down to 8mm for 6 months.
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