Mark Weston's 39.12 Mirror Carp
Portsmouth carp fisherman Mark Weston smashed his PB last week with a superb 39.12 mirror carp from a Hertfordshire Syndicate Water.
Fishing a 3 night session at his favourite, but not easy carp fishing venue, Mark finally got the cracking reward he deserved for all his efforts with this huge mirror carp.
Mark was fishing a gravel bar at 90 yards over a small baited area of his own spod mix, consisting of prepared particles including hemp seed, maize, tares, groats and a few extra special ingredients which he declines to divulge.
On top of this he added approximately 2 kilo's of boilies which he has rolled by Mark McKenna of Harefield, to ensure a unique flavouring and texture.
Mark sat out 48 hours of his 3 night session without hooking a carp before getting his screaming run and hooking into the superb fish pictured here.
After the carp gave him a run for his money, Mark landed the huge mirror which he knew would break his personal best the moment he pulled the landing net over it and saw its true size.
Mark has put plenty of effort into his fishing at this carp water and it has paid dividends in the form of a huge Hertfordshire mirror carp, weighing in at 39.12lb.
Mark Weston, an accomplished carp fisherman of 30+ years experience attributes his success to patience, confidence, effort, and plenty of it. He said "one of the most important factors when spodding and fishing over small baited areas, is accuracy, your spod mix and hookbaits need to be kept in concentrated areas, so as to keep the carp feeding in a fairly tight target zone and not spreading themselves out over an area too big for you to be able to fish for them effectively and confidently."
Having known Mark for many years and shared many an hour talking carp fishing with him on and off the banks, i would personally like to congratulate him on his capture of this magnificent carp. And knowing how much it means to him and all the effort, hard work and thinking that went into it, i can only say it is a well deserved reward for a first class carp angler.
There is nothing in carp fishing that will give you such a massive boost of self confidence than catching a carp of your dreams from a difficult water, using the methods, tactics and rigs etc, that you know and trust will work.
Mark's confidence has just received a well earned boost with the capture of a huge carp that any carp angler would be proud to catch.
Carp Fishing Thoughts
"The landing of any carp should be seen as an achievement, and to capture a particularly wary fish is a truly remarkable event" - John Bailey - an excerpt from his book "Carp Challenge".