A special one for King boss Nic.
"What a day of ups and downs, but what an up I finished on!
Thursday is my day off, so as often as possible I take the chance to get on the bank.
Today I returned to the Lake In The Forest. Many of our public lakes are closed due to blue green algae but this lake is certainly not a poor back up!
The weather was at last supposed to change with a temperature and pressure drop, strong winds and maybe even some rain, so things looked good.
The day started off quietly with only one show to go on, then out of the blue one of the rods rattled off and a lovely mid 20 common flopped into the net.
The day stayed quiet with only a grotty old tench to show for the constant work of wading out and clearing the blanket weed and weed from the lines.
I had noticed a huge flock of coots a few hundred yards up to my right on the end of the strong wind and around some dense weed beds. After 10 minutes peering through the binoculars I saw one roll amongst the birds, a few minutes later another. So I whipped in one of the rods, rebaited the multi hinge with a fresh TLC Pop Up, filled my chest pocket with a few handfuls of Pro Milk and headed out towards the weed. After a good shuffle around I found a clearly fed on area in the zone I'd seen the shows, so lowered the rig onto the spot with no more than 20 baits dotted about and waded back to the brolly.
An hour or so later I was back out in the margins clearing weed from the lines when I heard the bobbin crack into the blank a split second before the alarm went into meltdown.
With the cross wind and floating weed it was a hell of a battle as I waded out to the shelf, wind screaming through the line and waves crashing over me. I remember thinking this is what it's all about... Then I saw it roll and the knees went!
Long story short I eventually got her in the net and took a deep breath. I gave a mate a call on Facetime to show him her in the net and then safely transferred her to a retainer, just whilst I calmed down and set the camera up.
Everything ready I hoisted her onto the mat, instantly feeling some proper weight. As I opened up the retainer I was blown away by the size, shape, length and scales. For a truly wild fish, in this region of France, and possibly never caught before, a fish like this is seriously rare. It's everything I personally want in a carp and is probably my favourite capture to date.
With that I slipped her back, had a fag, called Sharon to tell her all about it and then packed up, wet, covered in weed, but seriously, seriously happy!" #kingpromilk #kingtlc
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