04 | Car Park | Tony Burnham
The final throw of the dice on the Car Park.
I was sat at my desk doing another day’s mundane work. Suddenly, the music cuts out as a call comes in from Martin “We’ve just shut the Carpark they’ve started spawning”.
The Sunday of the draw for the restart on the Carpark came around, and as usual, all the big swims had gone by the time Ray called my name out. Staring down the list of swims, I was not surprised to see ‘Waiting Mans’ was still vacant, as it had only done one fish in the last three years apart from the 38 mirror I had taken just before we closed, so I put my name next to it as I fancied fishing it close rather than the usual spots out in the pond.
A quick lead about after the draw quickly showed my old right-hand spot was still clear but due to the Canadian starting to go into turbo mode, the left area had already weeded over in only two weeks of seeing no bait.
I live approximately 40mins from Yateley, and going down at 5 pm from work to bait up can be an hour-plus drive each way if rush hour traffic is bad. It took every last drop of my motivation to keep going down three times a week to bait up. Still, three times a week, I made an effort to get down with 3kg crumbed Hot Shrimp, 2kg of whole 14mm baits, 3kg of pellet, and a few handfuls of crushed tigers, being just a gentle underarm with the big spomb speeded up the process.
The Friday of the start was quite chilled as we couldn’t start until 6 pm. I slowly tied up four new bottom bait rigs with meticulously sharpened size 6 ESP Grippers, as I had noticed my bottom bait rig worked slightly better with the 6 than the 5 I had always used for my balanced setups, but I was now fishing Hot Shrimp hardened bottom baits on the deck as the lake had seen everyone using wafters for the previous couple of years.
I had baited heavily over the last couple of weeks and decided for the first night to feed exactly the same quantity as over previous weeks' baiting trips, hoping they would take it as another safe dinner time.
When I crumb the hot shrimp up, I have some as very fine powder going right up to half baits, which I’m sure stops them from regulating the suck and sussing the hook baits.
When fishing multiple baits on the spot, I like having multiple baits on the hair. So the left rod went out with a single 14mm Hot shrimp bottom bait, and the right rod was on a large tiger tipped with a whittled-down red game-changer.
With the rods all out on the spots, Little Legs (Lee) and I, who was in Trumpton’s next door, chilled out with a BBQ and a few beers and took in the evening.
At 11:30 am, Lee started getting big liners, close ones; every 10mins I heard his bobbins pull up and then drop back down. Closing my eyes again, I must have drifted off as, 40mins later, my left rod let out three bleeps, and the tip arched over. Straight away, it felt heavy, slow and methodical with every lunge. It managed to take a few yards of the locked-up clutch. Knowing how bad the weed was out in front of the swim, I did not want to give it any more line, so I locked the clutch and flicked off the anti-reverse. The fish went solid 3 or 4 times throughout the fight, but with constant pressure each time, it gradually broke free of the Canadians' grasp.
Lee was with me by now, crouched down with the net, and I managed to roll her over and straight in. Lee flicked his head torch on and said, “It’s the Big Redmire,” a common I really wanted ever since seeing pics of Kingy from Yateley Angling Centre with her many years before.
A big ‘Oi Oi Redmire’ echoed off down the lake.
We sat down and had a brew, with her sitting quietly in the edge, taking our time sorting cameras and getting everything ready before getting her out. The weight was bouncing between 42lb 11oz & 12oz, so I said I’d take 42lb 10oz, and we settled on that, her top weight at that time.
I must have fallen back into a deep sleep as at 7:10 am; I was stood in the margin up to my waist in water before I realised what was going on; the rod arched over again as another fish tried to reach the heavy weed behind the spot, the same procedure in and out of weed beds as before. As she got in close, she rolled over backwards as her head came out. “That’s a big head,” says Lee, who is back at my side. She held her ground just out of net reach for a few minutes in the deep margin, but slowly she came up facing straight out from me. I turned her straight over onto her back and into the net; I walked to the left of the swim to get out, just as I heard Lee say, “No bloody way”. “What, mate?” I replied, “it’s the Slate Common”. A reply I was totally not expecting! I walked over, dripping and soaked to the waist and rolled her over in the net. A huge “Slate” shout echoed down the lake. I secured the net and got myself changed into some dry clothes.
We went through the same routine as before, but this time all the lads came around and did the weighing. I was still in shock when I heard Craig read out 47lb 6oz, so I pushed through the others to read the scales; for once in my life, I was lost for words, a brace of 40lb commons and a new 47lb 6oz personal best common.
With only one other fish in the lake that I really wanted, and I was getting some repeat captures, it was time to move on again for the next adventure.
