St John's Lake at Linear Fisheries near Oxford is renowned for its large stock of big carp, made famous by the Underwater Series of films produced by Korda over the years. However, alongside the carp, there are some huge catfish that can be caught, and that's exactly what Karol Vapno decided to target during his recent birthday visit to the complex.
Spodding lots of pellets and boilies, Karol had tackled up far stronger than on his previous visit, where the catfish caused him all sorts of problems while he was fishing for carp. This time, he was back with a plan to take revenge.
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"My friends Gab and Eva and I headed to Linear Fisheries, aiming to fish St John's. We arrived early and managed to secure three decent pegs next to each other," Karol recounted.
"I spodded heavily and started witha pop-up rig using a white Scent From Hell bait. On the first night, I managed to land a 70+ pounder, followed by two smaller fish the next morning."
After catching the smaller fish, Karol decided to change tactics, opting for very large hookbaits and applying extra bait to his swim in the hope of attracting one of the lake's larger specimens.
'Around midnight, I had a ripping take, but unfortunately, when I got to the rod, there was nothing there. So, I rigged up fresh baits and got it back on the spot,' he recounted.
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'Then, at around 3am., I had a slow drop-back, concerned it might be a bream I didn't rush to the rod, but when I lifted into the fish, all hell broke loose.'
"After 30-40 minutes of what I can only describe as pure hell, with the fish weeding me up several times and wiping out both of my other rods, we finally managed to net the beast."
'We couldn't believe what was in the net, it was massive and took us all by shock. It was definitely the fish I had been after,' he added.
Karol and his friends gave the fish some time to recover and took a well-earned break themselves after such a tremendous battle. This pause also gave them a chance to set their mats, scales and slings up to safely bank such a huge fish.
"We tried to lift the fish on two separate scales, but each time it easily bottomed them out. Our scales weigh up to 100lb, so the fish was well over that."
"The fish was well over 2 meters long too, so we estimate it weighed somewhere in the region of 130lb+, but we will never know! It was an enormous fish and a capture I will never forget!" Karol conclude
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