Thanks very much for the kind comments fishers, and your praise is too much Ali. I was just fortunate enough to land a carp of such size through playing the waiting game and putting up with nuisance fish. I found fishing the bottom with constant groundbaiting attracted carp and larger catfish so despite the lack of runs/action of the usual floatfishing, the rewards were far greater.
Day 5. Having listened to the sound of the clicker all day with numerous missed strikes and runs I wasn't a happy bunny, with just a handful of nuisance striped catfish to show for. It was 6pm, the mosquitos started to zone it and bite and I couldn't feel any tension on the feeder. Time to rebait. Proceeded to mold another melon-sized ball of bait for the umpteenth time of the day and dropped it a few meters out. Barely thirty seconds passed before the clicker sprang into an almighty relentless pitch, spooling like i just foul hooked a peddycab riding a 40mph. Picked up the rod, flipped the strike on and set the hook firmly. At this moment I knew I was into something of considerable size. Strong sharp lunges that nearly pulled me off the hut and short rapid runs in all directions made it no doubt in my mind that it was a huge carp. The drag was on pretty high so I felt everything on the dacron line, that includes my rear end puckering up everytime the line went a bit slack and was then followed by another giant dive down. The fish surfaced several times showing its ghostly palour only to return below with a big tail splash once it realised this. After about 10mins I managed to instill some sort of control onto the fish and somehow guided it into the net splashing away. It was mine, and my guide was still nowhere to be seen.. My pointless waving in the night and pleas for help were met by silence as I proceeded to be bathed in lake water. And it was a good 20mins before I received any assistance! Still it was awe-inspiring to see such a stunning fish wallowing in a net as I lay on the deck smoking a ciggie. It was also kind enough to leave me one of its scales which I still have to this date.
Regards
Rich