Paul Elcox, with Blush

THE Bathampton AA club record carp came very close to being broken at Hunstrete Lake when Paul Elcox landed the celebrated fish known as Blush' at a new top weight of 33lbs.

Having blanked on the previous day, Elcox, from Bristol, decided to fish a different area where he'd spotted a very big mirror where other anglers were fishing.

Luckily, no one was there when he arrived and in the first couple of hours he landed a common and a good 21lb 10oz mirror.

Then, at about 11 am he had, in Elcox's own words: "A ripper of a take and all hell broke loose as an obviously very large fish stripped 30 yards of line from the reel on three occasions.

"After about 15 minutes of mayhem, the big girl went over the net."

It weighed exactly 33lbs - a new personal best for Elcox and a memorable capture after 35 years fishing, 16 years of which have been fishing for carp.

After a break of over five years and a return to the sport just a year ago, Elcox kept in touch with developments through his younger brother, Gary, who is the resident carp expert at Veals fishing Tackle, Bristol, and a regular visitor to Hunstrete.

A single CS1 boilie fished over free offerings of the same was the successful bait.

The same bait accounted for a fine mirror The Parrot', of 28 lb 4oz landed by his travelling companion Mark Merv' Williams the day before, also from the Main Lake.

1:44pm Friday 16th May 2008

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