New personal best follows two fish-less seasons on tough target water.


A run of two seasons without a fish on a Bucks syndicate water were ended for big fish angler Tim Walden this week, after he banked this 40lb leather carp.

Bedford-based rod Tim joined the lake last year with the sole intention of landing his first 40, targeting one of two fish present in the water that both go over the magic weight mark.

However, following a run of blanks the Drennan-backed rod was determined to get his autumn campaign off to a good start, and come daybreak on his second day it did just that.

“I was fishing three rods, one out into open water and two either side of my peg tight to snags,” Tim told Total Carp. “Because of the snags I had everything wound down tight, no baitrunner, no slack, only a 2inch drop on the bobbin and the snag ears firmly in place behind my Delkims.

“At first light the bobbin on one of the rods shot up and smacked the blank and I was in to a good fish which I really had to bully to keep it from getting to safety.

“As soon as I got it in the net though I knew it was a good fish, and when I weighed it it went to 40lb 0.5oz on the scales. Just to make sure I called my mate up to come and weigh it for me as well. I didn’t tell him what I thought it was, but he weighed it three times and got the same figure. My first 40. I’m over the moon.”

To fool his 40 Tim went for a straight forward baiting approach, catapulting half a kilo of CC Moore Odyssey XXX freezer bait boilies around his 15mm hook bottom bait of the same make.

"I wanted to keep it simple," continued Tim. "There are quite a few small bream around the pound to 2lb mark in the water which last season proved to be a real pain, so I use only 15mm boilies for baiting, no particles or anything, so they have nothing to feed on."

At the business end, Tim’s setup consisted of a size 7 ESP Raptor Big T hook to an ESP Two Tone hook link with 15lb mainline. Due to the snags in the water Tim also employed an ESP Ejector lead clip to dump the lead as easily as possible.

For more details on ESP carp gear click here, and for CC Moore bait click here.