Luke Gray

A Right Royal Result

After being lucky enough to have caught the fish I wanted out of Silvermere, it seemed only right that I gave Richmond Park another go. But this year I really wanted it…no more swaning off and bottling it, all my effort was going to be put into the Royal Forty. The plan was to hit it with bait…and a lot! A quick phone call to Ash and 50kg was on its way, ready to start a proper baiting campaign; it’s a big fish and likes its bait so I was going to give it some! Mid-April was the first drop off; 15kg (10kg of hemp and 5kg of OCM) was to be spread over two pukka spots right up until the last Tuesday before the 16th. It was a lot of bait, but I needed to make sure the Royal was getting some, what with all the Tuftys, Coots, Swans esc, just a few problems that made me question what I was really getting myself back into?!

On a couple of occasion’s end of May I actually got it feeding quite confidently. One
time it came right up to the boat as to say, “About bloody time?”. It felt all too easy, but I kind of knew it would all be different come the 16th, the close season tends to do that to me a lot. Not wanting to get overly excited (secretly I was like “YES”), I plodded on with the baiting routine as though I hadn’t seen one fish which actually made the opening day come round a lot quicker.

We all decided to get down the night before for a big old social, most of the lads fishing are real good mates so another good night was on the cards. A few beers later and I was tucking into the bag, in what felt like minuets I was turning my phone alarm off? ...but id literally blinked…must have been the beer? Whilst the kettle was warming up I grabbed some bait and began to sort the rigs, when out of nowhere were the cries and shouts of excitement from the far bank? Looking out across the lake I could see young Sam Healy standing with net in hand shaking his head, “No Way?... I hadn’t even got a rod out yet?” Sure enough Sam had it in the net. At 46lb 6oz it looked stunning. Understandably he was over the moon. Sam’s a good mate and a likeable character, so we were all pleased for him (good angling fella).

 Now I didn’t know what to do, I had the Monday and Tuesday booked off work for Richmond, but by 6am Sat morning I was packed up heading for the car? All I kept thinking was when I could get down next, a week was the quickest it had ever been out after a capture, so next weekend it was then! In the meantime I still had 4 days off work so myself and Dave Mag  purchased a ticket for another local water along the A3. To cut a long story short I blanked my arse off, I always try to nab a half-decent fish before I go back to work (makes the first few days back a lot easier!), but by Tuesday I hadn’t even had a bream. One thing we did notice whilst packing up was the wind, it had swung right round to a fresh Easterly. Thinking for a second I said to Dave, “…that’s blowing onto my spots!” jokingly Dave replied “yea mate…you should get up there”. I was being serious; remember I hadn’t even fished my spots yet?

On loading the car I said to Dave that I was going up Richmond for a look, he was up for it too but wanted a shower first so said he’d meet me up there (yea right!). Pulling into the Car Park I thought i’d better take some gear just in case. All the essentials were loaded…mug, tea bags and kettle! Once fully loaded, I began to make that everlasting walk to my swim. The Royal had only been out a couple days previous, so understandably the place was empty which suited me fine. Looking out from the swim conditions were pukka. The wind was howling into my corner with waves crashing into the bank, I just had to get a rod out. Some of the stocky’s were good twenty’s now, to nail a few of them on my spots would be good for the old confidence.  To be honest I just wanted a bend in the rod. I thought id climb a tree to see what was about. Fish were evident, but the weather was making it hard to distinguish what ones they were? So the kettle was popped on for a relaxed waiting game approach. Three hours later and I found myself repeating those famous three words, “ten more minuets”. Whilst pacing up and down my swim, twiddling my thumbs, I noticed a big black cloud appear over the trees coming my way. I was nooooot interested in fishing in that, so using the clouds as an excuse I started getting the gear together. As the last of the luggage was put on the barrow my left hand bobbin dropped to the floor?...then up…then down again?, “poxy coots!”. I wound down and struck into what I thought was a bird, and then it kited to the left? “It was a fish, sweet”. The fight was strange; it plodded along but felt like something else was caught on the line? Thirty yards or so out it rolled. Expecting a stocky I was surprised to see a big set of shoulders break the surface. I felt sure I was seeing things because this looked far bigger than a stocky? A couple seconds later it came up again, I now knew exactly what it was but didn’t believe it. To be on the safe side I waded straight out to a better depth of water. With my heart pounding and right leg shaking (don’t ask why it does that?) I edged him ever closer before lifting the net up around the fish…”YEEEEES”, the Royal Forty was mine!   

I managed to get hold of a few friends to come down and do pictures and help with the weighing. On the scales it went 45.07 ...a new Pb and a dream finally achieved.
The fish was caught on a Large OCM dumbell hair rigged to a simple bottom bait rig comprising of a Size 6 ‘doctored’ ESP Mk11 Stiff Rigger, 15lb Atomic Jellywire fished helicopter style on a 6ft ESP leadcore leader and a 2.5 ounce Atomic Dung Bomb.   

Guys I’m loving the OCM more than ever, keep up the good work!

Luke Gray