ON A ROLL!
18th June 2020
Tom Maker has been on a roll as he finally gets his hands on another one of Linear’s finest, Oxlease’s largest mirror at over 46lb.
Fresh from his recent Brasenose Two haul, Tom Maker was on a roll and has once again done the unthinkable whilst using the highly anticipated Krill Active. This time he targeted Oxlease on the Linear complex, and proceeded to bank the biggest mirror in the lake, if not the whole complex at this current time, at a huge 46lb 8oz, along with twelve other fish during his stay!
He revealed:
“I got down to the lake for the gate opening, joined by Tom from Sticky to shoot a feature for Carpology which funnily enough was going to include my last session on the complex. I had a manic time back then, so we’d come back down prior to a few tutorials that I had, to knit the pieces together for the feature. I ended up in peg 14 which commands a nice area towards the island and as an added bonus it is quite far away from peg 13, so you get a fair bit of water in front.
“Despite the morning sun beating down on the lake and the fish clearly on the surface sunning themselves in the heat, I flicked the first two rods out, after quickly finding a firm area around eighty yards. A few spombs of the mix later, and the first rod was away which turned out to be a solid mid-twenty mirror to start the day. No sooner had that fish been retuned, the remaining rod was away too, and once again it brought a cracking fish my way.
“It was clear that despite the conditions, as soon as the bait went into the water, the carp simply followed it down into nearly 14ft of water and started feeding! By mid-morning, I think we had two fish in each net, whilst I was playing another. Tom and I knew we needed to have a breather at some stage to photograph all the carp, but in fairness to him and despite him needing to get off ASAP to the office, he persuaded me to keep going as you never know; and boy am I glad I kept re-casting – we really were on a roll!
"That ever-faithful mix of Krill Active, sweetcorn, maize and Cloudy Krill has done me proud wherever I fish!”
“Feeding more of the Krill Active and replicating earlier scenes from the hours previous, the takes kept on coming through to the afternoon, and it was the second rod of a double take which would end up creating a memory to last a lifetime! After Tom lent me a hand with the fish already in the nets, I hooked into a fish which was clearly a better stamp.
“Slow and steady from the word go, I eventually got her to the bottom of the shelf in front and as she climbed through the layers, a huge set of shoulders breached the surface. I think we both knew we needed to just take a breath and concentrate with this one. With all the rods out of the water, I didn’t need to worry about any other potential dangers. After a few more surging runs, she eventually tired and came wallowing towards the net, ready for Tom to do the honours.
“Like kids at Christmas, I knew straight away it was the big girl which was last out around the 41lb mark. She looked bigger this time… WAY bigger! Carefully lifting her onto the mat, we hoisted her up and I couldn’t believe what I was reading; 46lb 8oz of colossal Oxlease mirror was there before me!
“Over all the years I’ve fished the complex in search of the bigger fish, it’s been worth every second to wait for moment like that, and boy am I glad Tom was there with me to capture the moments as they happened. What a buzz! That ever-faithful mix of Krill Active, sweetcorn, maize and Cloudy Krill has done me proud wherever I fish, and I can only hope my good run of the big fish can continue right through this year!”
