Mark Garrett, 46 and Son Kieran Evans Garrett 22, from Wales had one hell of a session on the Kracking Carp Lake, Mark smashed his Personal Best with a 39lb Mirror and Kieran caught a 26lb 5oz Common topped off with a 31lb Mirror!
They both used fake pop up sweetcorn popped up about an inch from the bottom and a few scattered sweetcorn around it. They used their own rigs, made from Korda N-trap coated braid hooklink, stripped about an inch past the eye and the rest left stiff, fake corn was attached via a hair rig and size 6 Korda wide gape. The lead was attached via a led clip on to 15lb mainline.
Mark caught his 39lb Mirror on Peg 1 by the Lilly Pads to the right, Kieran caught both his 26lb 5oz Common and his 31lb Mirror to the extreme right of peg 2 by the side of the weed.
Trevor Walker, 61 from Wakefield landed this gorgeous 6lb 3oz Koi from the Koi Lake – An awesome picture of colourful fish.
William Leonard, 18 from Harlow, Essex had a very successful week catching a variety of exoctic species including this stunner!
William caught this very rare and unusual 3lb 8oz Two Tone Golden Tench from the Specimen Tench and Orfe Lake using the traditional lift method with an Allcock Aerial Match Centrepin and handmade float. The bait of choice was sweetcorn fished in the margins.
Jacob Wise in this picture is an Angler who does love to catch eels, this one was from the Octopussy Lake, there are eels the Lakes up to 6lbs may be more!
Anglers Paradise is undoubtedly North Devon’s premier venue for big catfish with numerous specimens caught every year over fifty pounds.
Zyg Gregorek sent me this report today that follows on from my initial report on the new complex record. This fish being born and bred in the UK should undoubtedly qualify as a UK record.
The record for Wels Catfish was discontinued in 1990 because the Record Committee believed monster fish were smuggled in from the continent at over 60lbs (but Carp were and still are)
I had official permission to stock Wels Catfish from MAFF (this was after 4 years of trying) and bought the Catfish from Neville Fickling in 1994. They were small Catfish born and bred or rather spawned in this country, the biggest about 10 inches, well under 1 lb. Over the years the Cats grew 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 etc but I was not going to claim a record until we had an 80lb plus.
As I said to them, as I have done everything by the book the Record Committee should recognize the fish. The captor was Dion Cook-Martin one of my employees who is “over the moon” about it. If I hadn’t told him to go in the water and untangle the line from around the bushes the fish would not have been landed.
It’s great for the South West and Devon to have produced a record fish.
Anglers Paradise(Above)Previous complex record catfish of 74lb 2oz.
Well Done to Julian Winspear and Partner in Crime Caz Osborne who both had a great session on Eldorado’s Bottom Cat and Carp Lake catching 5 Cats to 30lb+ and 4 Carp to 20lbs, all on the popular and faithful Paradise Baits Catastrophic!
Caz caught her Personal Best and Biggest Ever Fish to date with this 25lb Wels Catfish and Julian had his Personal Best 30lb+ Cat and a 20lb Mirror to put the icing on the Cake!
Euan Mclachlan, 19 from Sunderland who caught his Biggest ever Fish, a Personal Best 41lb Catfish from the Day Ticket Specimen Cat Lake.
Euan’s Story –
“I have never ventured much further than the Easy Access on my previous visits to Anglers Paradise, with my catfish PB being a little over 25lb, however after consulting with some of the members of staff me and my two friends decided that the Specimen Catfish Lake was throwing up the odd fish and that’s what we’d like to target. Before I came I said to my dad that I’d like to beat my Catfish PB by at least 5 pound and reach the 30lb barrier, however a 40 would be out of this world!
At the start of the week we did a night where I managed to get a 32lb 4oz from down the margins on meat, however after seeing this fish I knew I had to give it another shot for a bigger one. So Thursday came, and we hiked all of the gear back down to the Specimen Cat and I pitched up in the same corner swim (peg 3) as I did before and flicked a meat rod down the left margin. After hours upon hours of single bleeps from little Perch etc, I decided I’d try and get some sleep. I managed to zone them out until about 6am in the morning when I was awoken to about 5 or 6 continuous beeps on the alarm and then a massive drop back. I struck into it and knew I had a decent fish on, and after taking me round the back of the island and through the reeds on the far side, a 20-30min fight resulted in a new personal best catfish of exactly 41lb, Anglers Paradise really living up to its name and reputation once again.
I just want to say thank you again to you guys for making the holiday so
special, from the help in the tackle shop all the way up to the welcoming
and accommodating nature of all of you down there.
I’ll sure be back again,”
WELL DONE EUAN – ANOTHER GREAT WINNER!!
Here he is with his Winning Fish and being presented his prizes by Zyggy
Luke Potter, 30 from North Tawton, caught this Personal Best 29lb 12oz Mirror from Nirvana’s Day Ticket Kracking Carp Lake caught on a snowman setup, fished over a mix of 12&16mm Manilla boilies. Luke saw lots of Carp crashing up the far end (inlet end) so he set up in the last two pegs and fished very tight to the right hand side of the island. It’s the second time Luke has fished the Kracking Carp and to make the catch even more special, he caught it on the Morning of his 30th Birthday!!
5C’s Member Chris Flook from Ivybridge caught a new UK Personal Best 38lb 9oz Common from the Kracking Carp Lake. Chris caught the Common from Swim 1, 15yds out in a gap in the weed using 20lb line, 2 nr 10mm Duster Matrix pop ups on a hinge rig, size 4 barbless hook. Chris Said –“It was a tense fight with such a fish at short range. Thought I’d lost it at one stage in the weed, but as it was close in I was able to exert pressure from above and it came free and after that scare it came easily to the new net. Not a bad way to christen a new rod and net.I went on the lake hoping for a PB so it was mission accomplished.I have to thank Lee and Frank Hydon, two other anglers who gave me a few of their pop ups to try when they left. Thanks to Zyg, you and Joe and the rest at Anglers Paradise for giving me the chance of catching such a magnificent carp.”
12 Year Old Alfie Bartholomew caught his Personal Best 19lb Mirror from the Main Carp Lake on a White Pop Up!
It’s so great to see the younger generation out there with their Families enjoying it together.
Tom Chambers from Skipton caught a stunning 26lb 8oz Common from the Specimen Carp Lake on Pellet fishing in the margins.
Lee Graver, 45 from Bude, joined his friend for a quick session, this was his 1st time on the Kracking Carp and within just a few hours he landed a New Personal Best 48lb 4oz Mirror beating his previous PB by 10lbs!! Lee used a 3oz inline drop off lead, with inches of esp braid, size 6 barbless hook with 2 grains of fake corn, he fished from swim 3 across the far margin.
Thomas Starbuck, 48 from Croydon, London, caught a Personal Best 25lb Fully Scaled Mirror from the Main Carp Lake using an ARSD rig from CMCR, on a 18mm Essential Cell Wafter.
PB COMMON FROM THE KRACKING CARP LAKE! Steve Elsbury, 34 from Holsworthy caught a New Personal Best 38lb Common from the Kracking Carp Lake! It’s the 1st time this year that one of the ‘Original Commons’ has come out so it’s a pretty special catch!! This was Steve’s 3rd attempt on the Kracking Carp and after seeing several of the lakes residents over the last couple of weeks, he was over the moon when he managed to bank one on his 3rd attempt! Steve used CR baits Cr1 wafter over a bed of CR1 bottom baits.
(Below)OFF THE TOP! Ellis Titheridge, 37 from Kent, had plenty of stunning Carp off the surface using good old bread crust, he caught a 23lb Mirror and 21lb 6oz Mirror from the Main Carp Lake and also a 22lb 8oz Mirror from the Specimen Carp Lake using his treasured 50 year old Richard Walker Split Cane Rod and won Fish Of the week with this Scaley stunner from the Specimen Carp Lake!
(Below)Phil Burke, 35 from Eastbourne, caught 21lb 4oz and 26lb 6oz Mirrors both from the Main Carp Lake using Scopex Squid Boilies.
(Below)ANDY JOINS THE 40 AND 30 CLUB! 5C’s Member Andy Pickard, aka ‘Johnny Vegas’, 37, from Yorkshire can now join the 30’s and 40’s club after catching a 42lb 1oz Mirror and a 31lb 4oz Mirror from the Kracking Carp Lake. Andy caught the fish on double bottom baits ‘lucky 13’ and cream haze, using a baiting spoon to put the rigs in place after casting to the far bank.
(Below)James Howland, 23 from Tonbridge caught a New Personal Best 32lb 8oz Mirror from the Main Carp Lake using a Poacher Baits T&M 14mm Wafter.
(Above) Zenia Drury-Gregorek, 33, (-; I got a rare window to fish on my favourite lake, the picturesque Koi Lake and just before leaving to pick the kids up I caught this stunner, using a cocktail of maggots float fishing on the bottom. God I love fishing and it was so GREAT to be out there.I really hope to encourage more ladies to fish as it’s simply magical.
Gavin Simpson, 40 from Wellingborough caught an amazing Personal Best 6lb 12oz Golden Orfe from the Main Carp Lake which is just 1lb 9oz short of the British Record! After about 4 hours of fishing he had a great bite, and he knew this fish felt different straight away. Gavin Said – “As I played it towards the net I saw this huge orange flank and thought WOW! I put the net under it and couldn’t believe what I was seeing, the most enormous Golden Orfe I had ever seen, what an amazing fish! It weighed in at 6lb 12oz, I had to check what the British Record was as I was sure it couldn’t be a lot more. I was right, the current record is 8lb 5oz, this fish was just 1lb 9oz off of the British record!
What a great fish and what a great memory for a trip that was a present from my wife Kerry for my 40th Birthday. I am sure there is a British record to be had in that lake for someone. Get yourself to Anglers Paradise, buy yourself one of Zyggy’s magic hats or hoodies and get yourself in those record books! I’m ‘Orfe’ there again soon myself to try and catch a bigger one!”
Paul Shepperd from Southampton is now the NEW CATFISH COMPLEX RECORD HOLDER – with a 74lb 8oz Catfish from the Main Carp Lake beating Sean Tacy’s weight by exactly 1lb that was caught 2 weeks after!!!
Paul went from 8 years of trying to catch Cat with no success until last year when he caught his 1st to then catching this Monster! Paul baited his swim with 14ml pellets, soaked overnight in Korda halibut goo, using a nine inch hook link with a long hair, with a korda size 6 curved shank hook. Paul Said – “Thank you to my wife and all the lads who helped with netting and weighing this monster. Also, Joe, the estate manager, the rig clinic guru, said this cat only has to eat a 10lb carp to be 84lbs. So there’s the challenge ladies and gents, beat that!
Thank you to the Paradise family for making this dream come true. See you next May. Also just to add to this great weeks fishing, I also met my fishing hero’s Ali Hamidi and Dean Macey at Anglers Paradise. Certainly a Week to remember!”
(Above)Jo George had a day’s surface fishing with her husband Alan on the Koi Lake and managed to land this stunner at the magic weight of 8lbs 2oz!! Plus, it’s one that we haven’t seen for a long time so it’s even more special that it’s one of the craftier Koi in there.
(Above)Zenia Gregoreks latest catch from Anglers Paradise.
It really is an exciting week at Anglers Paradise this week as you may have heard we have Ali Hamidi, Dean Macey, Jimmy Bullard and Jamie O’Hara filming for the next series of ITV’s ‘THE BIG FISH OFF’.
They went on the Specimen Tench and Orfe Lake yesterday and caught some great fish, all to be revealed next year when it airs and it’s going to be an AMAZING Episode!!
1ST EVER LADY ANGLER TO CATCH A 40 FROM ANGLERS PARADISE
Sharon aka ‘Frogs’ Fowler, 55 from Bedfordshire, made Anglers Paradise History by catching her 1st ever 40 from the Kracking Carp lake, Frogs caught the legend that is ‘Silverback’ at 48lbs 14oz. Frogs has made the Anglers Paradise Record Books by making angling history becoming the 1st Ever Lady Angler to land a 40lb Carp here!!! What an achievement!
Frog’s Story – “Having rested the lake for a while and kept the lines out of the water for a bit as we were conscious of the fact that most of the fish were at our end of the lake! (Or after having returned from the pub after lunch lol) Both statements are true!
A Denham baits 15mm Element bottom bait was cast approx. 3 ft off the island in front of me using 12lb Tiger Line fluoro-line fished slack-line, where I had seen movement during the morning, and caught an 11lb carp earlier that morning, within an hour or so a hesitant take which turned into a positive rod wrencher resulted in playing what was obviously a very heavy and angry fish.
Calls for assistance from the other 3 people present were a waste of time as they were enjoying a post lunch snooze so the fish was played and netted solo before a phone call could raise the dead to help with photos. Ironically this is probably a good thing as the entire capture is a solo effort and no husbands or friends helped in any way! I would however like to thank Ian for tying the rig, and Jeff for lending his scales (as Ian’s gave up the ghost at the weekend!) I came this year with same target as I have had for several years now – namely to catch a 40lb carp – the fish at 48lb 14oz smashed that- what a fish, what a wonderful holiday, in our 30th Anniversary year, I could not have asked for more (especially as Ian then also caught a 40lber!!). “
Superb Angling, and an inspiration to all us lady anglers! (Even more so the Male Anglers!). Frogs also Won our Fish Of The Week Competition.
(Above)Frog’s husband Ian Fowler didn’t want to be left out and went onto catching his biggest ever carp – The Famous Gorilla at 47lbs 10oz from the Kracking Carp Lake making one Mr Fowler a Very Happy Man!! Ian, 55, from Bedfordshire, beat his previous PB of 42lb 14oz which was also from the Kracking Carp Lake. Ian caught the Mirror on a running rig, 2oz flat lead with a Denham Baits Element 16mm bottom bait.
(Above)Frogs and Ian also had a double take of 20’s from the Specimen Carp Lake, Ian with a 24lb 8oz Mirror and Frogs with a 26lb 4oz Mirror which they fought and caught at the same time!! Both on Denham Baits ‘Element’. Great to see couples enjoying the sport together!
(Above)Jeff Rowland from Keighley caught this Stunning 26lb 12oz Common from the Specimen Carp Lake! Jeff caught the Common on a 20mm Vortex Boilie on a Basic Bottom Rig with 5 Freebies.
(Above)5C’s Member, Maggot Whitfeld aka Mike came down with his Son Jordan to have a session on the Main Carp Lake and landed a new Personal Best 18lb Grassy! Maggot didn’t use Maggots though! He caught the Grass Carp on Paradise Baits Beez Kneez on a German Rig.
(Above)5C’s Member Tristan landed his New PB Carp, a lovely Mirror of 22lbs 6oz from Eldorado’s Bottom Cat and Carp Lake 2 on a Crab Boilie.
(Above)Andrew White caught a low 20lb Mirror from the Kracking Carp Lake on Peg 4 caught on essential baits B5 on a snowman rig.
The latest big fish news supplied by Zenia and Anglers Paradise.
NEW CATFISH COMPLEX RECORD…73LBS 8OZ!!
Regular Sean Tacy, had the week of fishing dreams when he landed Anglers Paradise’s NEW CATFISH RECORD!!!
Sean landed a Monster 73lb 8oz Wels Catfish from the Main Lake, and had the shock of his life when he saw it!!
The previous Record was held by Adam May for 2 years running with a 70lb 12oz Catfish also from the Main, but that has now been beaten!!
Sean caught the Monster using 15mm Robin Red Pellet topped with half a Paradise Baits Original Raspberry pop up, served over a bed of mixed sizes robin red pellets. Fixed lead clear dark matter leader, size 6 korda kurv shank hook.
Sean’s Story –
“After trying for so many years to beat my PB Catfish which I achieved many years ago here at AP and failing to do so I decided it was time to have a go on the Specimen Cat Lake and drove down a day early, after losing a fish on there, I really was gutted, so headed straight to the Octopusy as soon as the welcoming party had finished!
It started off with a not so productive time and me playing about with baits that I was happy so along come the night out. Alarms buzzing, like an angry bee I stumbled out of my bivvy losing my head torch to god knows where and no shoes! At last it felt a monster, finally I thought this has to beat my PB for sure…but it was not meant to be! *play sad music* so unable to go on the Specimen Carp Lake, I decided to go on the Main Carp Lake putting out the same combo that had worked the night before up against the island.
I decided great really confident! But the day went on and nothing to come except a cracking Blue Orfe! Then BOOM!! Off goes the alarms again, jumping out of the bivvy this time with shoes, I hit into it! It felt a monster and a monster I couldn’t control!! To start it just went, I am sure the fish was playing me more than me playing it!
Eventually I managed to get my phone, so shouting to siri to call the old man to come help net this monster that I hadn’t even seen yet! He come and eventually managed to get it in close to see it but it just didn’t want to go in the net, almost deciding to jump in the water and picking it up finally it went in!! It was a beast for sure and one that I never thought I would be seeing!!! Truly a fish of a lifetime and one I am sure will be dam hard to beat!
So again AP has been another great holiday and really cracking fishing and people!”
WOW!! HUGE CONGRATS SEAN – AMAZING FISH, AMAZING CAPTURE AND NOW YOU ARE THE CURRENT CATFISH RECORD HOLDER!!
