AN intensive two-year campaign at a large day-only Cheshire park lake lead to the capture of a north west record common carp at a massive 57 lb 4 oz.
Captor Rob Allen finally hooked the monster common carp after countless hours of baiting and fishing without putting a fish on the bank.
The 36-year-old builder from Warrington, Cheshire told Angler’s Mail: “Massive amounts of bait were used over a two-year baiting campaign.
“I mixed my baits using Sticky Baits Manilla and The Krill using a bag a of each one, plus lots of hemp and mixed particle’s from Cheshire Particles.
“Four day sessions the weekend before resulted in my first fish of the entire year, after months and months of silent rods. But what a fish it was, the finest looking common I’d ever seen, tipping the scales to an impressive 32 lb 8 oz.
“It was a season-maker itself but made me believe I was very close to achieving my goal,” said Rob.
“It almost broke me – mentally & physically”
Rob continued: “So, the following weekend couldn’t come quick enough as busy as I was at work, but I had to let the lads down once again, and do another four days session, although it was actually on the first day I hooked the fish of a lifetime.
“What a campaign it was, unexplainable in small words, but it was the toughest challenge you could ever imagine, and almost broke me both mentally and physically.
“But it was worth every minute as now I’ve caught the north west record and the finest looking carp I will ever set my eye on, so incredible it almost brought me to tears.
“I won’t lie, there was a few when it went in the net,” he added.
Rob used a simple hair rig, with a very long hair, to take two 20 mm bottom baits as this allows swapping from bottom only to a snowman presentation.
It was a snowman, the topping being a 16 mm White Manilla pop-up, that tricked the stunning common carp.
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