Ash Bradbury

Name:                   Ash Bradbury
Occupation:           Tails Up Director
Home Town:           Dunmow, Essex
Venue:                   Manor Farm, Essex
Date:                     16/3/08
Fish Caught:           The Annie, 58lb
Length of Session:   40 hours
Bait Used:               Special, flouro, white, Pineapple & Banana Cork Ball Pop Up, fished                     over 2 kg of our currently on test Pro Fish.

Set Up, Diawa 6000 tournaments, 2,3/4 tc rod, 17 lb x-line, esp leadcore, chod rig, with 20lb iq, sixe 6 wide gape, 2 ounce atomic dung lead.

Details Of Capture:

First trip back since early December last year, nearly 3, ½ months.

I arrived shortly after 10pm Friday night before eventually deciding to fish a swim known as the flat, the rod that I caught her from was positioned at nearly 3 in the morning after finding a little clear area to the right of the swim, with a light lead about. The chod rig was attached, so I new I would have total confidence in the baits presentation, cast out and I felt a nice donk, pukka. That was followed by a small scattering of  our new on test bait, The Pro fish.

The other two rods were positioned out in the middles where the majority of fish were showing. The right hand spot however is a spot I am sure I lost her from a couple of years ago and is a known spot that she has been caught from in the past.

As it had been over 3 months since id wet a line, i was just chuffed to be out doing a bit of fishing, a lot of effort had gone into making it for weekend, not to mention I had a proper case of the old man flue syndrome.

With one swim left Saturday night, it was clear everyone had woken from their winter sleep and so it seemed had the carp! Saturday was a glorious early spring day, the reeds could be herd cracking from the strength of the sun. The lake was waking up in front of our eyes. I tried the zigs that day and decided to leave it out for the night, shortly after 2am Sunday morning the zig rod signalled a burst of bleeps and I was soon winding down only to connect with thin air!  

Sunday morning the weather took a turn for the worse, rain, well lets just say it rained, rained and rained some more! The wind had swung from a lovely warm southerly the day before to a horrible bitter northerly. Strangely enough though, ive often caught in a northerly over the manor and that goes for whenever there is a good wind on the water, it seems to stir them up a bit. However this was proper cold and even though we were seeing fish I have to admit I didn’t hold out much hope! In truth if it hadn’t of still been raining I may have been back at home with a nice Sunday roast in front of me.

It was 2.30pm I said to the lads id give it to 3-4 pm before id start to pack up, standing chatting, I had a slow dull beep, beeeeepp, the right hand rod was away, running down to the rod it hadn’t even pulled it out the clip, the bobbin hit the top and I lifted in to the fish. Simply wound it in, till the fish was right in front of us. I had a feeling straight away it was her, I saw its back, the width of it just blew me away it had to be her I said to Alex, standing with the net. At this point it woke up and powered of to the right and my heart was in my mouth before I finally got her back in front of us, it turned on the surface at this point I saw the four dropped scales and new then I had my prize. A few minutes of twisting and turning before I got her head up and slid her over the net!!!!!

Shouting screaming and generally hollering, I let all the emotion of out of pursuing that fish for nearly the last 3 years of my life. Finally it was mine and that was all that mattered.

At 58lb a new pb, although weight was really irrelevant. A few photos were taken before my prize was released to sulk in the margins for the next two hours before finally swimming of back into the depths of the manor.

Thanks goes to Alex for the photos, George for the video, and everyone else that has supported me along the way

Ash