We've met before!

An early start at Long Shaw Farm is 07.00 hrs (that's the rules!) so I was well within my comfort zone as I drove across to Canterbury in the superb light of the morning. My timing was spot-on and I was in the car park, unloading the car, bang on seven. I had decided to fish two rods with bottom baits, yet had brought along some cubed crusts and cat biscuits, as well as my Tring Tench rod and a choice of centre-pins, as a back up, should my Plan A fail.

Being on my own; I asked the guy in the next swim if he would be so kind as to grab a few shots.
It's my own fault that I didn't establish whether, or not, the guy knew how to use my EOS 400d.
The resulting images are not as I'd have liked - but they'll have to do.
If only Benno had been with me I would have been instructed
to lift the tail and he would have ensured that my head was also in the frame.

Fail it did - spectacularly! A snotty little Bream and a missed "screamer" being the sum of my return for this effort. Plan B, quickly into play, ensured a scattering of cat biscuits were deposited on the surface and a size 10 Korda wide-gape attached to 7 lbs b.s. line and loaded with a cube of Kingsmill awaited events. With the breeze in my face, the carp were quickly on the scene and happily munching on the freebies. I was throwing them out into open water and letting the wind push them under the overhanging bushes that bordered my swim. It became obvious, rather quickly, that there was a very large, dark old Common Carp showing a great deal of interest - slurping down great mouthfuls of cat biscuits yet steadfastly refusing the bread. It was doing a fairly regular patrol route which involved it passing directly below me and taking odd baits from the surface scum (willow/sallow debris) that had developed as the wind continued to blow into my swim. A long wait was eventually rewarded with the bite I'd planned, the fish taking the bread with complete confidence as it was heavily discoloured by the floating scum. A fantastic scrap on my very light tackle resulted in this old warrior gracing my landing net and being reduced to a statistic - 18 lbs 2 oz; the largest carp I've caught since 1984!

Almost a year, to the day, Benno had taken this same fish (off the top with a zig-bug)
It weighed in at 18 lbs 4 oz  on that occasion.

I thought I recognised it as soon as it was on the bank - arriving back home allowed me to confirm this with a photo check of the fish that Benno had taken on 26th May 2013 at 18 lbs 4 oz