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Forty-Pound Norfolk Result For Mike 'Spug' Redfern
Long term Mainline addict, Mike 'Spug' Redfern has been in touch recently after achieving a right result in the shape of his eigth UK forty, fish caught from seven different lakes! Mike told us..."I have joined a local syndicate complex in Norfolk and I am looking forward to fishing locally next year, rather than all the traveling involved with getting to Monks Pit in Cambs. Which I have been doing for a few years now and with a recent capture of “Charlies mate” at 42lb 8oz, my time on there will finish at the end of the season, as I had been after a Cambridgeshire forty for a while.
So, I did some research on the carp in the local syndicate complex and found out that there are a few fish that can hit 40lb at the right time of year and one called, “3 Scales” is a forty-pounder all year round. The fish are spread between three lakes all around 30 acres and weed choked.
I found out a few of the details regarding “3 Scales” recent captures and there was definitely a pattern to those captures and his feeding habits. So, after catching "Charlies mate" at 42lbs 8oz from Monks pit three weeks previously, I thought maybe to start doing some homework for next years fishing on the local complex, before giving it a final push on Monks Pit at the end of the year. To cut a long story short I returned to a swim where I had previously fished a couple of weeks before, when I very first purchased my ticket and had baited quite heavily with a few kilos of Mainline goodies as I left it.
I fished one rod close in, and the other two further out onto a bar about 40 yards out. The first night I received a massive liner on my close-in rod, but that was the only action that night between all three rods. The next day I moved the rods around and decided to fish a helicopter set up on the right hand, close-in rod, thus placing a pop-up on top of a weedbed, above a bed of bait that I had put out on the first night of my second session. This spot 15 yards out, was also the same spot I had fished two weeks previously and had baited with Cell and The Link boilies and a tub of Power+ Particle. The pop-up used was a 14mm Fluoro Pink & White Cell (I was using the pink), fished on a Korda Krank X size 4 hook, on a Korda boom and ready-made Kable Helicopter Rig.
About 3pm that afternoon I saw a coot agitated by something swimming underneath it and I wondered if it was a big pike, as the coot had young on a nest nearby and was being protective. Many years ago, I saw the coots on Coningbrook chasing the carp, in a similar way, so bearing in mind the heavy liner I had received the night before, I didn’t rule out the possibility that a carp maybe close by.
At 6pm that night I was standing just looking out in the lake, when I saw a carp come slowly cruising round near the coots nest. The carp didn’t look massive, maybe around 25lb (or so I thought). As it came around 6 feet away from my bright pink pop-up, it just sank down out of sight and headed straight for it!
The next thing I know the alarm is bleeping and I am having a tug of war with a fish, that has buried itself deep into a marginal weed bed. After gently feeling a few strands of weed breaking by applying gentle pressure I managed to get the fish moving and I was unsure as to just what I had on the end. When the fish came into view, I realised it was a carp with a fair amount of weed over its eyes and I gently coaxed it all towards the net, about 10 yards out I had a fair idea which one it was, luckily it went straight into the net. When I pulled the weed out of the net and looked at my prize, I couldn’t believe it, I was right, it was next years target fish, “3 Scales” a true Norfolk warrior, steeped with history, chased and respected by many.
We weighed, quickly photographed and returned the great fish at 44lbs, what a result!
Although I admit I was very lucky, I had laid the perfect trap down and he just happened to turn up to the party, 35 weedy acres with only one fourty in it and he just happened to come along. What a result! My eigth English forty, five of which come from four different Norfolk lakes, (seven different lakes in total) and of course my second UK 40 this month!"
