Quest Baits Blog

20lb stalked Mirror from one of the Free Spirit DVD's

Saturday was another real long day. Up at 5.30am to be able to get down to Johnson Ross for their Free Spirit Fishing open day. Having been involved with Free Spirit since its launch I am still proud to be associated with the brand, so with my Free Spirit head on for the day I ventured south. It was nice to meet many new faces as well as catch up with a few I haven’t seen for some time. Thank you everyone involved for making us feel so welcome.

I had a little further business to do in the evening whilst down that way. It seemed to make sense to kill two birds with one stone so to speak so I had arranged a meeting elsewhere Saturday evening. In hindsight – not such a good idea as I really did know about it for the final part of my journey as tiredness kicked in.

It was during this journey though that I received a text message telling me that the big common in one of Kevin Nash’s lakes had gone over the record weight. This I thought was brilliant news although there will be many ill informed who would no doubt knock it. It was great to see another fish come up against Two Tone at Conningbrook.

I telephoned Fran to ask her to mention it on the Quest Baits Facebook page to spread the news.

Seems now though that the information perhaps shouldn’t have slipped out or is perhaps even not true – time will tell on this one. My source is usually very reliable and I have chased back to where the information came from (4th hand when I received it).

Personally I hope it is true. I was fortunate to see Kevin’s lakes in the early days and watched them develop along with the fish he stocked. Already on the forums people are talking about ‘Garden Ponds’ etc, but the truth of the matter is that these fish have been properly fished for. There was a syndicate on there for quite some time. I have been fortunate to fish one of the lakes and believe me the fish aren’t easy – I had a couple of blank trips before I managed to bank a fish.

The fact that Kevin lives on a farm with acres of land brings things away from your average ‘garden pond’.  Okay so not everyone can fish for these fish but neither could they fish Redmire and no-one ever cared one bit that the record came from there and stood for almost 30 years.

The fact that the pool is on Kevin’s land should make no difference whatsoever. If the owner of the house on the banks of Conningbrook caught Two tone at a record weight – would that not count – it’s in his garden!

Anyway, I for one take my hat off to what Kevin has achieved with these pools. Very sensible management has created a terrific environment which has enabled fish grown here in the UK to reach continental proportions. Good on yer Kevin – living the dream at last!

If the fish has been caught or not I’m sure we won’t be long before we see another fish come through from there anyway. Everyone seems a little tight lipped at the moment to know if it has definitely been caught or not.

Footnote:

Looking doubtful that it has been caught – someone spread a rumour and that rumour really did spread.

At least it has given airing in a few places the truths behind Kevin’s lakes. Yes they are in his grounds but are no different to lakes in the grounds of anywhere else. The lake in question has been fished for many years and even had a syndicate on it at one time. The fish are English and far from easy to catch.

If and when a record comes from here then no doubt all the knockers will start again. I guess that’s life. Plenty of people speaking from the outside who really don’t know any facts. A very familiar story that one don’t you think?

Stop Press this one! Just heard that the British carp record has been broken with an upper 60 common from Kevin Nash’s lake. More details as we get them…

The thaw appears to be setting in but with a build up of ice over the past few weeks it could still be some time before the water temperatures rise above that so important 30 degrees farenheit to make the catching of carp a strong possibility. Certainly my pool in my garden has a real thick covering of ice still with water sat on top of it.

As I mentioned a couple of Blogs ago there are only really the rivers at the moment offering any chance of sport.

Fortunately this time of the year there is always something fishing wise going off. This Friday night I will be popping over to the E.M.C.S.G. meeting at the Underwood Miners Welfare to watch Terry Hearne give a slide show and talk.

Next on my carp fishing social calendar is Friday 29th January at  the Doncaster Holiday Inn for ‘An Evening of Carp’where Rod Hutchinson, Tim Paisley, Lee Jackson and Paul Forward will be entertaining everyone for the night. There will be a slide show and talk about Conningbrook, the inhabitants, the record fish, and the anglers.

There will also be an opportunity to get your hands on Rod’s latest book Carp Along The Way, Volume 2, as well as Lee’s new title Just For the Record.

Doors open at 6pm with the meeting starting at 7.30pm.

So, if you are missing the actual fishing why not do the next best thing and simply mingle with other anglers?

Here it is Martin Locke’s 94lb Rainbow Mirror!

I must say it is looking in great shape at the moment and possibly doesn’t look 94lb because we are so used to seeing carp pushed out towards the camera. However if you check the size of Martin’s hands then this is always the give away – I guess you struggle to push a 94′ out towards the camera!

It is certainly not a bloated fish – I wonder if it’s frame is still capable of growing more? If it isn’t there is still room for it ‘bulking out’. It really does look as though the first 100lb carp could be closer than we perhaps think.

I’m not sure if anyone knows if it is a male or female fish but if it is female then this fish will definately top 100lb with spawn!

Best fishes

Shaun