In the summer of 1982 I started to fish further afield having spent my first two years carping on my local ponds. The place I headed for was a small fenland village called Mepel which sits beside the Hundred Foot Drain. Here was a wealth of lakes to choose from and all had carp in them. Most of them were stocked in the 1970's and like most places the average carp was still only 5-10 lb but there were some that had a few older, bigger ones.
One lake that did was Mepel kidney pool, so named because its shaped like a kidney bean. About an acre in size it held about 8 carp at that time, again around 7-12 lb but two of them were bigger, one at 17 lb and another at 21 lb.
The lake was split in two by a dense line of lilies, the right half of the kidney was solid weed and the left half totally clear. I struggled, only managing one fish that season off the bottom from the clear side despite going a number of times and doing overnight sessions.
When the start of the season 1983 came I was by the bank on the first day for two nights and once again I blanked followed by three more. After that I decided to take a different approach doing day sessions only on hot sunny days when the fish would be on the top. That way I could stalk them giving myself a much greater chance of success. It worked and within two months I had managed to catch them all including the two biggest, all stalked and caught off the top using floater cake.
The day I caught this fish, my first twenty, was hot and sunny. I found it together with the 17 lb'r catching the sun by some lily pads.
The moment the fish turned with the bait, the struggle the ensued trying to get it to the net, all remain fresh in my memory, I haven't forgotten a moment of it.