“I had been fishing with Zenia and the boys during the afternoon, and caught some lovely little koi from the Koi Lake with them. But after they returned home, my mind turned to the large red and black Koi Carp I had seen cruising the surface during the morning before they arrived to join me. I didn’t have any trouble finding it. It seemed confident in itself, knowing that it was clever enough by now not to get caught.

I stalked the fish around the margins with a rod/line/hook simple surface set up. The bait of choice was a chunk of bread crust. But no matter how hard I tried, the Koi evaded me at every step. Eyeing the free offering with a concealed look with suspicion, before turning it down flatly. Mouthing the bread to inspect it, then spitting it out in disgust at my poor attempt to trick it. 2 hours passed in the hot sun, with me slowly and stealthily stalking the margins, only to either miss a take from it, or it spook at the dodgy crust and swim off.

I must have missed hooking it a good dozen times and I became more frustrated and dismayed as the time progressed, stalking my rod in the air and cursing my bad luck. It was indeed a clever fish! Then, when I couldn’t find the Koi to follow anymore, he appeared right beneath my feet, supping up some other morsel. Seeing the opportunity at last, I rolled the hook bait bread on the backside and allowed it to plop into the water right on its nose as if something had just fallen in from the side – and it took it straight away!

Red and black colour filled the air as it leapt and dove down into the lake. My pulse of sheer relief, excitement and joy on hooking the large koi, was soon swapped with a teeth clenching 5 minutes deftly playing and dodging the fish from one snag to another, hiding places it seemed to know all too well were there to lose me in. Soon enough though it was tired enough to be netted and photographed, a wide shouldered 8lb 6oz, with magnificent colouring as to be expected of an Anglers Paradise Koi. The fish stood as a testament to what can be achieved with a LOT of patience and persistence. A fine reward for two hours on tiptoe!”

WELL DONE STEVE – STUNNING FISH AND PROOF THAT PERSISTENCE PAYS OFF!!

Here he is with his winning Fish and being presented his prizes with special thanks to PB PRODUCTS UK.

Brett shared with us –

“I stalked this fish for 45 minutes. There were multiple failed casts, a good few rejections of the free-lined dog biscuit, and a lot more whispered swear words. Then on probably the tenth cast, the bait dropped just on the fishes’ nose and it came up sweet as nut and gulped the biscuit down.

The fight was absolutely mental, probably 3 or 4 minutes of dogged power, mostly right under the rod tip. I did forget to say that even though I had 12lb line straight through to a size 8 hook, I was using one of the light lure rods I had with me for the lure weekend, and it was bent double.

I eventually slipped the net under and I knew it was biggest Koi I’d personally seen at Angler’s Paradise in more than 20 years visiting, shaking like a leaf I was.

Seeing the scales spin around to well over 10lb shocked me. A new PB Koi at 11lb 7oz and it’s also one of my many favourite Angler’s Paradise experiences. Lovely.”