I arrived at the lake, Manor at Linear, in pretty poorl conditions. The fish had been spawning leading up to the session, the sun was beating down and there was not a cloud to be seen.
The lake was pretty quiet for this time of year, so I had plenty of choice for swims. After a lap of the lake, I knew the fish that were spawning or getting ready to spawn, were down the deeper, weedier part of the lake, in front of some swims that had been roped off. The wind was pushing down into the bay, the shallower end of the lake. There were signs that fish were in there, so I thought that this would be my best chance at getting a bite.
I knew that from chatting to the bailiffs, Kempy’s had been seen in there previously. Kev Hewitt had also recently caught her and the big girls were prone to being caught in quick succession. Maybe, just maybe…
CC Moore Live System and sweetcorn soaked in
Roasted Nut Extract has been the basis of my spod mix since I started targeting Manor a year ago and has been responsible for all my previous captures from the lake. I didn’t know when I started fishing there, but soon learnt that Live System had played a key part for at lest 3 previous captures of Kempy’s, coincidence?
I went round to the far margin and baited 2 spots that I had previously caught from. I was confident that if any fish started feeding, I could get a bite. I put in roughly 2-3 kilos of bait. Whole and crushed 15mm Live System, corn and Roasted Nut Extract, with a
Citrus Zest pop-up fished over he top.
I let the swim settle for a couple of hours before getting the rods out at about 4/4.30pm. At 7.30pm I had my first and only bite of the session, little did I know…
Out of nowhere the bobbin on my right rod hit the deck and I was quickly onto it! As I lifted the rod, winding in as quickly as I could to make contact, the fish had already swam halfway back across the bay. As soon as I felt the fish on the end, I thought it was a good one. It stayed low and plodded around in front of me, still at halfway. After about 10/15mins, I could feel the fish slowly coming up in the water and I got my first glimpse, a HUGE head broke the surface, I knew it was big. The fish then rolled over the surface of the water and with that I saw the inch-perfect scale pattern that could only belong to one fish, it was Kempys!
The following few minutes felt like hours, but eventually she gave herself up. As she tilted onto her side: her scales reflecting majestically off the sun lowering behind me, I pushed out the net, slid it under her and she was mine.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would catch her, especially so soon, but apparently dreams do come true.
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