Word Record Carp

Name: Graham Slaughter
Age: 42-years-old
Hometown: Worksop, England.
Occupation: Brand Manager of Venture, consultant for Solar Tackle

1. Can you tell us something about you, your work and your carp angling experience?
I love carp fishing and have done ever since I was a young lad. I’m now aged 42 and I’ve been angling since a very early age. Carp fishing is my passion and I’ve spent a lot of time fishing many of the hard circuit waters in the UK for most of this time, only quite recently deciding to have a try for some of the large overseas carp. For two years I worked for Rod Hutchinson in the tackle business, but just over a year ago I joined the new company called Venture which is owned by well known carpers Steve Briggs, Simon Crow and Rob Hughes. I’m the Brand Manager for Venture and I also have a tie-in as a carp consultant for Solar Tackle.

2. Was it your first visit to Rainbow Lake? When exactly did you catch the big mirror?
This was my second visit to Rainbow Lake. I first fished there last spring with my best friend Tim Denyer. Both the two of us fished the lake for a week, with Tim catching fish to 57lb and myself coming away with a personal best common of 60lb4oz. All in, that week we landed 16 carp between us, which wasn’t a bad startfor a first trip to such a demanding lake.

This year we had two weeks booked for the lake, falling between the first two weeks of May. Tim fished a different swim to me on this occasion and we went to the venue with a group of other friends. I shared the two weeks in swim 19 with Mark Blacket, and halfway through, it was very tough going. We’d planned to fish one week each on both sides of the swim. The first week was very slow for me in the left-hand side whilst Mark tempted seven or eight up to 49lb from the right. Then on the Saturday it was my turn on the right and things just went from there. The biggie came on the Thursday 17th May.

3. Please tell us something about the circumstances, how was the weather, water temperature when you were there? Were there other anglers on the lake or near you?
Rainbow Lake is extremely pressured and for most of the year every swim on the lake has anglers in it. Therefore every swim was occupied for our visit, including those either side of myself and Mark. Number 19 is quite a private swim which allows you access to a set of snags where a lot of great carp are caught from. The weather was quite mild for the time of the year but the majority of the fish were the opposite end of the lake. Usually, there’s some good catches from 19 in May, but it’s fare to say the results over the last couple of weeks had been slower than normal. We needed to sit and wait to really get amongst them.

Thankfully they began to move back in during my week in the right side. I ended up with 17 takes, losing three fish. I landed eight commons on the bounce up to 69lb including fish of 47lb, 44lb and 42lb. The funny thing is, all of the commons came whilst I was using Solar’s Carp Head common carp bobbins. I thought the 69lb was my ‘fish of the trip’ so just as a bit of fun I decided to switch over to the mirror carp bobbins. Amazingly, that evening I went on to land a 42lb mirror, which made me laugh. Then, the very next day at 8.30am the same rod was away again.

I knew straight away that it was a big fish as it flattened the rod almost instantly as it pulled that hard. I managed to coax it back until I had it into an open water area in the middle of the bay before I took to the boat. I played it over 24ft of water and it just went where it wanted to. I knew it was big because it was pulling me around even when I had the boat in reverse thrust on full power!

Eventually I saw the leader knot as I began to gain line and then it broke surface! I looked at its back and it was huge, so big in fact that I didn’t know what I’d hooked. It didn’t look like a carp it was that big! I played it for another 10 minutes before I managed to get it sideways on so that I could scoop it up with the net. I got it first time, then knowing I had a biggie, perhaps a mid seventy.

I tried to lift it into the boat, but ended up making my way back to shore with it over the side as I couldn’t lift it. When on shore, Mark and I took the mat and placed it in the boat as we didn’t want to lift the fish in case it ripped the net or damaged itself. The easiest way to describe what happened next is we kind of rolled it onto the mat and then carried it up the bank.

By now, word had spread around the lake about what had been caught and Paul Hunt came over with his scales. I left it to the lads to weigh it. One set of scales read 88½lb and the other showed 88¼lb so we took the middle reading and decided on 88lb 6oz. It was a special moment, not just because of the fish or its weight, but also because I shared the moment with a group of mates who then proceeded to chuck me in the lake... thanks guys!

4. What was the spot where you picked the big mirror up from like, feature wise? Which bait and rig did you use?
I fished a spot away from a set of snags in the middle of the swim at 150 yards range. The big mirror fell for a 20mm Solar BYT snowman hookbait topped with a 12mm Winter Secret pop-up offered on a size 4 Solar Long Shank hook, 25lb Kik Bak hooklink and 8oz Korda Grippa lead.

5. What was your baiting strategy and in what depth did you fish?
This was fished over a kilo of mixed BYT Wedges, CC Moore’s Betaine Pellets, Rainbow Pellets (sold on site), Dynamite’s Frenzied Hemp, BCUK Parti-Blend and tinned tuna. I completed my setup with 30lb Fireline and a Venture VXR-2 Carp Rod. The depth where I placed the bait was 3m.

6. Lastly, tell us about how you felt when you knew you’d beaten the record?
I’m not one for breaking records as I just love carp fishing. However, when the lads told me I’d caught the biggest carp ever landed I must admit it felt rather strange. I can’t believe I’ve caught it now. I never expected to catch it as I just came away for a couple of weeks break after not having fished properly for quite some time.