Following some frantic sport over the past couple of weeks which has seen 20 thirties caught from Temple Lake at Bury Hill, this week saw Temple’s first forty banked, the infamous Ghost weighing 40lb on the button.
Barry Osbourn from Essex was the lucky angler to bag Temple’s biggest fish so far and a new PB to boot! Grabbing a last minute session fishing from Thursday night to Saturday morning, Barry was due to be away camping, but luckily it was cancelled at the last minute. Having struggled on Temple during previous sessions and after dropping 2 fish back in April, Barry was praying for a result this trip, but never in his wildest dreams did he expect to catch his first forty.
Choosing to fish swim 15 after seeing 3 carp surface close to the far island, Barry decided to fish 3 rods, positioning 2 rods tight against the reeds by the island margins. Using Korda Super Natural hooklink with a knotless knot, ESP size 8 wide gap hook with Mainline Cell 14mm boilies on a hair rig and PVA stocking filled with 5 free offerings on the catching rod, Barry landed the Ghost around 10.15pm Friday night after a very strong 20 minute fight. The fish was weighed on a set of Kevin Nash nightlite scales, which had been zeroed and weighed exactly 40lb, at this point Barry re zeroed his scales and weighed the fish a second time just to make 100% sure that its weights was 40lb.
After catching Temple’s much sort after Ghost, Barry said “I have been waiting for this moment for 18 years, as when I was 20 years old I caught a carp which was 30lb + but as I was putting it in my weigh sling the fished flipped and rolled back into the water. So it was never weighed and there was no photo as evidence. My goal has always been to catch a 30lb carp, not a 40lb one! So as you can imagine, I was just happy to have done it and that’s why I panicked and did not think to shout for help in order to get a decent photo”.
