GETTING THE BEST OUT OF THE GUEST!
Andrew Murphy made the most of a guest session on a Suffolk syndicate water over the Easter weekend to bag himself two beautiful carp, a mahogany-coloured 31lb 10oz mirror and an apple-scaled mirror just over 26lb.
“I got invited down by a good friend of mine, Chris, who I met in France, to his syndicate water in Suffolk, and with a 72-hour social session ahead me, I was buzzing to get there,” admitted Andrew.
“Chris had managed to get two decent swims that give us a good scope of water and put me on some good spots at 80-plus yards. It was a firm area on a 5ft bar alive with silkweed. I loaded up both rods on Ronnie rigs with size 6 hooks and 15mm Pink Perils pop-ups soaked in the matching Intense Booster and 15-plus Spombs of whole and crumbed Bug boilies soaked in Bug Hydro Spod Syrup and Hemp Oil.
“My session started well. On the first afternoon I had one-toner that resulted in a lovely, dark, scaly 26lb-plus mirror. Out went another 10 Spombs on to the spots, but unfortunately the bream got on the bait and over the next 24 hours I was plagued by them.
“After 48 hours in this swim and no more carp action, there was a change in the wind and I started spotting some fish to my right on the other bank. I decided to pack up and do my last 24 hours in a new swim, knowing I would be on fish.
“I got the rods on some lovely spots backing off to a thick bed of silkweed. I put 10 Spombs of just Bug boilies out on both spots, one at 60-plus yards and the other at 40 yards. I was feeling good settling down for the afternoon.
“Within the first hour, I had a one-toner on my longer rod and knew straight away it was a decent fish. After a 10-minute battle, she was mine! It was an absolute stunner of a fish with linear scaling down one side and dark. Just knowing these carp have been around way before I was born makes you cherish the captures even more.
“After a phone call to my mate Chris and another mate, they both popped round to help me out with the weighing and the pics. She tipped the needle round to 31lb 10oz. When catching those old originals, weight really is irrelevant, but to say I went home happy would be an understatement; I was over the moon!
“Pink Perils and The Bug did the damage once again; you really can’t go wrong! Thanks to my good mates Chris and Gav. The Chinese is on me next time, guys!”
26lb-plus
