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WASING WHACKER –
Sharing a home with the biggest
carp in the UK, it very rarely gets
uttered in the same breath as its
substantially bigger fellow
inhabitant, but when it comes to
looks, there is no competing with
the Floppy Tail Linear. Arguably the
second most desirable sh in
Cranwells Lake on the Wasing
Estate, Berkshire, behind the
60lb-plus Parrot, became the toast
of the venue when it was landed at
its biggest-ever weight of 47lb
(above) by Roy Allen during a
24-hour session.
Roy told Carp-Talk: “My mate
had Floppy Tail this time last year,
almost to the day, and it looked
fantastic then. In fact, all the sh in
Cranwells are absolutely stunning.
My last sh at the end of November
was a 42½lb mirror and that was
lovely, and the majority of the other
sh I’ve had from there have been
crackers too – it really is a special
place.
“After dropping my kid o at
school in the morning, I arrived at
the Lake at around 9.30 and found a
couple of sh in front of one swim,
so set up where I could access them.
I expected the sh to move at some
point during the day, as they have
been quite active recently, but by
the end of the day they were clearly
still there, so I redid the rods and
started setting the bivvy up for the
night. Just as I had put the bivvy
up, one of the rods was up and
away. I thought it was a coot at rst,
because I’d been done half a dozen
times by them in the clear water. Inthe twilight I could just make out a
crash on the surface, but couldn’t
work out what it was. I was actually
on handsfree to my mate James
Pierce at the time and felt quite calm
about things until suddenly
whatever was on the other end got
caught up on one of my other lines
and I could see a big ank of linear
scales roll out in the clear water. I
said to James, ‘Mate, it’s a big linear.
It’s the Parrot!’ e sh wouldn’t
come in any further because it was
stuck on the other line, so I waded
out to it and freed it by biting the
other line. is gave the sh a bit of
extra leeway, but it still wasn’t
within reach, and because it was
wallowing around on the surface, I
felt certain it was going to work the
hook out. With the landing net
oating on the surface, I inched my
way forward, allowing the water togo over my chesties the closer I got.
Because the sh was tethered up
and line was pulling from the other
angle, the sh couldn’t work out
which side of it I was on, and before
it probably realised, it swam directly
into the net. It was unbelievable. By
this point I was up to my chin in
water and had completely ruined
my phone, which was in the pocket
of my waders.
“I managed to bounce my way
back to the bank along the shelf and
chucked the landing net to one side,
which was when I realised it was
Floppy Tail looking deceivably
massive. I was on my own and my
phone had stopped working, so I
had to ring James o my iPad to tell
him. Credit to him, he made a
two-hour journey down to the Lake
to photograph the sh for me.
While I waited for James to turn up,I had a look around the swim and
could only count two rods – I
thought I was losing the plot. It
took me a while to realise, but my
third rod was actually at the bottom
of the lake! When I netted the sh, I
had dropped the rod in the water
without even realising. Anyway,
with a bit of leading around, I
managed to recover it.
“James stayed over that night
and we did the photos at rst light
the next morning. e sh had
moved by dawn and I considered
moving on them, but I had to be
home by 10 o’clock and decided to
call it a day.”
Roy tempted his sh using a
TMT hookbait on a blow-back rig
incorporating a size 4 Atomic Claw
hook. His setup also included 3¼lb
JRC Extreme rods, Penn Black
A nity reels and 15lb Berkley
Trilene Big Game line.Our rst bumper issue of the year will reach shop shelves next week, and readers can expect the usual mix of
news, features, interviews, reviews and competitions, plus a free gift from bait giant Sticky.
Each issue will come with a free sample of the amazing Krill boilies, which have been taking waters apart at
home and abroad. As well as the free gift, we’ll have interviews with the winner of the 2014/15 Fox-Mainline
Carp Angler of the Year, Sean Kelly, and northern big- sh ace Myles Gibson. We’ll also have features from Iain
Macmillan, Simon Crow, Sticky, Korda, Nash, Taska and Gardner, and there will be the chance to win air-dry
bags from Ridge Monkey, Avid Carp Cradles and other prizes.
e bumper issue will be available to download from Monday 30th March for £2.49, before hitting shelves
on Wednesday 1st April priced at £2.95. Don’t miss it!FREE GIFT WITH NEXT WEEK’S BUMPER ISSUE!
DON’T MISS IT! DON’T MISS IT! DON’T MISS IT! DON’T MISS IT! DON’T MISS IT!
I had a look around the swim andAND IT’S NOT THE PARROT
News_A_CT1064.indd 4 20/03/2015 15:02: