It is not often you catch a UK 60lb carp, let alone two in the same session, but that is exactly what happened when Adam Honeysett and his friends fished on the Elphicks Complex in Tonbridge recently.
Booking a lake exclusive on the renowned big fish lake, Pullens, it coincided with the weather warming up and conditions looking favourable, the anticipation amongst the anglers was high. Adam and his friends knew of potentially two 60lb fish in the lake but had no idea both would grace the bank during their visit.
"I had been keeping an eye on social media during the last few weeks leading up to our trip to see if they had been caught, knowing that if they hadn’t we stood a good chance," Adam told us.
"We done a draw for swims in which I came out first, so after a bit of indecision I chose swim 1 on the road bank."
After the draw was completed, fish activity seemed quite high in all the swims. With optimism running high, the anglers deployed their rigs and bait in the hope of enticing some of the elusive Elphick carp.
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"Swim 1 is very close to Swim 2 so I opted to put a rod on its own in there at short range, putting this rod out last just using a solid bag of Key Bait Solutions ASM Crumb/ Pellets with a small ASM wafter hook bait at 3.5 wraps along the margin."
"I thought I heard a fish crash on a couple of occasions but couldn’t see it from where I was, but it wasn’t long at all before the rod next door signalled a one-toner."
"I picked the rod up and battle commenced, I had no clue what I was attached to at the time as it was still taking line when I got to the rod."
"I finally managed to stop what felt like a good fish and for the next 10 minutes or so I was thinking yeah this could be a 40 until all of a sudden it surfaced a rod length or so from the net and I recognised it as one of the biggun’s thankfully it went straight in the net first time," he said.
Despite recognising the fish, Adam and his friends still weren't ready to comprehend the size of the fish, but after careful weighing of the fish spun the scales round to an astonishing 61lb 8oz.
"I couldn’t believe it when the scales went round to 61.08 never did I think I would catch Uk 60!"
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That would have been enough to end the session on a high but Tony Plummer, was the next angler to have his season made, after landing fish of 47lb and 49lb that very morning, the next bite was going to make the session go down in history.
"After watching Tony catch his fish, he had another bite whilst we were chatting and it looked like another good fish."
"15 minutes or so had gone by and I hadn’t seen the fish surface so I went round to lend a hand and after a further 10 minutes of heavy battle another huge carp surfaced & I stuck the net under it."
"We both looked in the net and said it looked 50lb, but were utterly overwhelmed when the scales revealed we had landed another 60lb fish, at 61lb 2oz," they exclaimed!
During the week, the group landed over 25 carp with a total of 14 over 40, a 50 and the two 60lb fish.
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