THE UK’s record carp brace, weighing an astonishing 115 lb 10 oz, has fallen to a top carper thanks to taking a mate with him as a guest.
The record carp brace was formed of the giant mirror carp, going 58 lb 12 oz (pictured above) and 56 lb 14 oz (below).
The immense fish were landed within 15 hours of each other by Darren Belton from £2,000-a-year Wellington Country Park in Berkshire.
Darren, a train driver from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, explained how some good fortune – not to mention smart angling – brought the record carp brace.
He told Angler’s Mail: “I took my friend Rob Marsh with me and as the rules state members with guests have to fish in adjacent swims, this restricted the choice of places we could fish to only two.
“There was a cold northerly wind blowing so we chose to fish into it in Bramble Bay.
“This contains one of my favourite swims, The Snags, but I gave Rob first choice and he chose this one.
“This left me with The Daisies which in the three years I have had on the lake, I had never fished before, so didn’t know quite what to expect.
“I plumbed around for a while and found a few decent spots at only about 30 yards.
“We settled down for the night and about midnight one of the rods shot off and I was overjoyed to land my biggest ever UK carp of 58 lb 14 oz. And it was just below the 59 lb 12 oz lake record.”
Second take comes at 3pm
“I wasn’t really expecting much after that but around three the following afternoon I had another take.
“Then the fun and games really began as I soon noticed what I thought was a trailing line attached to mine, so I waded in to try to clear it.
“But then I realised that what had happened was it was tangled up with one of my other lines, and asked Ken to pick up the middle rod.
“It then became apparent that it was this rod the fish had been hooked on.
“What happened was, as I was using back leads to stop the geese catching the line, the back lead had slipped down the line and snagged solid on some submerged brambles.
“This meant the fish took the bait but couldn’t take any line…. but it had kited into my other line which had then given the bite indication!
“In fact both lines soon snapped. Luckily I had the line in my hands with the fish still connected, so I was left in the water playing the fish by hand for 20 minutes which was quite a battle.
“To say I was gob-smacked is an understatement. If I hadn’t gone with my mate I would never fished the swim, and also never landed the second fish, so I guess the carping gods were really smiling down on me.
“And it was only afterwards that I realised that this second fish was actually my 40 th UK carp over 40 lb including five 50s,” Darren concluded.
The 47-year-old used Mainline Cell and Hybrid boilies over a kilo of chopped freebies around each bait.
CAUGHT A BIG FISH? Email photos and details exclusively to: anglersmail@timeinc.com – you could star in the weekly print magazine.