Thursday 24 April 2008

Record breaking day at Beacon View

New PB Carp 14lb 4 ozSecond Sturgeon around 7.7lb
New PB Sturgeon 12lb 1 oz
Same fish, different owner ;-)
CLONKER! Stumpy 20lb 15oz

Another early start at Beacon View, 6.30am in the car park and Beef was already waiting for me. We had to set up in the rain and it absolutely chucked it down. Today we decided to specifically target Sturgeon, this is because the Carp are still not feeding too well on this water. After the amount of bites I missed a couple of days earlier, (I'm convinced that Sturgeon do not like to feel resistance.) I decided to make my rigs very simple, changing from a semi bolt rig, to just free lining with a size 6 hook straight to mono. This worked an absolute treat, and within around an hour I was cradling my Personal best Sturgeon weighing in at 12lb 1oz. What a fight this feller put up, it took me half way across the lake and took me around 10 minutes to land. Soon after I had another Sturgeon at around 7.7lb Just before I had to leave to pick up Ellie from school Beef's alarm screeched off and he too was into a big fish, as it turned out unbelievably he'd caught the same Sturgeon at 12lb 1oz. Talk about steeling my thunder! The worst was yet to come. As I was returning to the lake from being away a few hours I phoned Beef to let him know I was en route. "I can't talk" he replied "I'm into a big fish, I think it's stumpy?" Stumpy is the lakes most famous resident, a massive Sturgeon minus it's tail, hence the name Stumpy! After being led a merry dance for around 15 minutes Beef managed to land his new Personal Best Sturgeon, a staggering 20lb and 15oz. Well done Beef! When he regaled his story to me upon my arrival he described Stumpy to being just like a dolphin! The show I'm glad to say was not yet over for me, as just as we were about to pack up my left hand alarm screamed into action, I had the mother of all takes. I hooked into the fish which at first felt only around 4 to 5 pounds, I couldn't have been more wrong, as all of a sudden it seem to find a big burst of energy, a fight ensued and some excellent work on the clutch soon paid off as I landed my new Personal Best Carp a cracking 14lb 4oz. I was absolutely made up, as this is my first Carp double, and believe me it's been a long time coming, I seem to be attracted to Carp around 6 to 7 lb. My next target now is to land a 20lb'er. Over all then we had a great day at Beacon View today, a day which we won't forget in a hurry.