A whacking 43lbs 14oz carp from a remote drain is believed to be the biggest fish ever caught on rod and line in the Fens.
Ely-based specimen hunter Mark Barrett is better-known for his predator fishing exploits, with a string of double figure zander to his credit. Now he has set the carp world buzzing with the capture of a massive mirror from an undisclosed water he describes as virtually unfished.
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The fish came on the final evening of a three-night stint with mates, which had yielded just one mid-double before the big fish slipped up.
“There was a thunderstorm on the Sunday night and right in the middle of it I had a run,” said Barrett.
“I’d forgotten to switch the alarm on after recasting and I just looked out of the bivvy and saw the indicator fall off.
“When I pulled into it, it stuck in some far bank lillies or a bit, then nod, nod, nod – out it came. It didn’t really fight after that. It came in like a dog on a lead.
“The only time I realised I had something exceptional was when I went to lift it out and couldn’t. I used to be a bricklayer, I’m used to lifting bags of cement about but I couldn’t lift this out.”
Barrett, whose previous PB carp was ounces under 30lbs thought he’d banked his first 30 as he saw the length of the fish. Possibly spawn-bound, its bulk belied its length.
“I got it on the mat and unhooked it, then I’m trying to weigh this thing in a thunderstorm when I’m soaked wet through,” he said.
“I put it on my 40lbs Avons and it bottomed them out, so I sacked it up and phoned a mate to bring some bigger scales down.”
Barrett said the significance of the capture did not sink in until the scales went round to 43lbs 14oz.
“I was stunned. I’m thinking I can’t believe this. There we were like the Gibbering Idiot Society, running around the bank in the rain going woooo-hooooo….”
Barrett had the drain pencilled in after hearing of a 15lbs 5oz zander which looked capable of going bigger. But his first zedding trip, on June 16, saw carp bow-waving away as he cast his rigs out.
The zander went on the back boiler and mates – some who had already kept carp to high 20s from the same stretch quiet – were enlisted for a pre-baiting campaign.
“We were putting 20 litres of particles and boilies in every couple of evenings – I suppose we must have put around 200 litres in since the start of the season,” he said.
Carp were sighted from time to time – usually heading off into the distance at the first sign of anglers.”They’re incredibly easily-spooked,” said Barrett. “When we’re bivvying up, we’ve got the bivvies right back against the floodbank as far back as you can go. Put a line in there without back-leading it and you don’t catch anything.”
The fish fell to a Nash Pineapple boilie on a bolt rig with 3oz lead, safety clip and lead core to nail the reel line to the deck.
Barrett tied an eight-inch Snakebite hook length, with size six Drennan Boilie hook at the business end, while a 13ft 3.5lbs TC rod, Shimano Aerlex and 15lbs mono made up the rest of the shooting match.
The drain the fish came from is being kept hush-hush to keep the pressure off the water. While the Fens are better known for their bream, tench and predator sport, there are nomadic carp in some drains which show occasionally and a few die hards are targetting them.
“The morning after I caught it, I could look two miles one way, or two miles the other way and not see another angler,” said Barrett.
