2023's 'Carp Angler of The Year' Lauren Stanford has latched into her first giant fish of 2024, but it wasn't quite the one she was after - a huge 60lb grass carp!
Fishing Jonchery Main Lake in France for feature with Angling Lines, Lauren was stationed for a week in Peg 2 when the monster carp picked up her Mainline Baits Pineapple pop-up soaked in Isotonic Goo.
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"I had a slow steady take and the line kited round to the right," she told us.
"It was a pretty boring fight for majority of the time, until it got under the rod tip and it decided to go ballistic!
"It rolled out in front of me, and although I wasn’t there to catch a grass carp, the size of it shocked me massively!
"After maybe 5 minutes of playing it in the margins, I scooped it into the net and was just taken back by how big it was, thinking it would maybe go 50lb-plus."
In a crazy moment, Lauren then nearly lost her prized catch as it escaped the net...
"It torpedoed itself straight out the net and there I found myself playing it again!", she said.
"What a crazy fight, finally I managed to land it after playing it twice, and when we got it onto the mat it just grew!
"It weighed 60lb on the nose, can't grumble at that!"
GET LAUREN'S BEST TIPS FOR HOLIDAY CARP FISHING IN THIS ARTICLE.
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