My Biggest Ever Carp | Alfie Russell | London Carp Fishing

Alfie Russell settles a score 10 years in the making…

#espcarpgear @AlfiesRusselsAngling

i’ve fished and known about this lake for well over 10 years it’s somewhere that just by chance I really was fishing because I was fishing local after a certain target and at the time I wasn’t fully aware really what was in here it was quite a mystery with the venue being how it is you’re just never sure what really is in here i was doing the odd day session and doing nights elsewhere sort of for my first target fish on on that other venue and this was more of a pit stop i wasn’t 100% sure what was in here from what I could gather it was very low stock and there was rumors of a a big gun in here um someone that I bumped into fishing elsewhere he told me and my my other friend “Oh yeah I’ve had a a 40 pounder out of there.” And he just would never show us the photos it was really It was a really strange um strange moment because we see him loads you know what I mean it was fishing the same lake of as him at the time um but just didn’t show us the pictures so I was pit stopping on here fishing elsewhere and ended up catching my target on the other lake i saw what I thought was a big carp in the water on here um wasn’t sure whether it was a black bag because there’s a lot of bags in this lake but it it turned out to be a carp at the time I couldn’t really get much high and see really what it was but I wasn’t driving so to get the bus and the train and stuff to a low stock venue where I’m I’m pretty sure they they’re all all commons bar a couple with the mystery of maybe a big fish it just didn’t seem too appealing at the time but after I caught my target from the other pond we bumped into to that guy again down the other lake I was fishing and he actually showed me and my friend a photo of the carp and I won’t name the venue but those that know will know and you could tell by some of the background that it was definitely this lake and I think it was just under 40 a real nice carp a very rare one the only photo I had seen of that fish and from then on my friend had a go for it and he caught it after maybe a couple of months maybe let’s say I done the photos it was really nice cuz he done the photos of of the other car that I caught around a corner and it was 4012 from memory um carp had probably been that carp had probably been caught a couple of times times other than them two captures but at the time it was super unknown super rare and no one really knew that that carp was in here this venue has been a fishing lake for a long long long time the stock’s been really thinned out over the years from certain things net nettins probably fish being stolen eaten and you it’s a it’s a park lake so you get all kinds of stuff going on over here it’s such a unique venue this venue it’s a beautiful lake in a proper horrible area and as far as carp lakes go if you can manage to ignore everything around it it really is a beautiful lake it’s low stock i guess a carp an acre maybe 17 to 20 carp it’s really all over the shop you got loads of little bays and islands and it’s such a a really carpy lake so to speak and to have that fairly local is is quite special you usually find these like not not in London let’s let’s say that with the average depths of 2 to 5t it means that I could find the carp pretty easy a lot of the time but in the warmer months it also meant that the lake would get really weedy the water quality is really good it’s crystal clear most of the time there’s lots of things you have to deal with like the public and it being 24-hour access it’s a strange area as well it’s not the most comfortable and there’s also a lot of bird life with it being shallow and you just would have to fish in certain ways to not attract the bird life when you’re baiting etc it’s days only so that wrote off a lot of night sessions and also it has a close season so you generally miss a lot of the spring you’re going sort of through into early spring late winter and then close season overseas most of the spring and early summer so you don’t really have a big window to to fish for the fish it’s as and when and what you can do to really get around it and with it being so shallow I thought that although the stock is really really low that there would be potential to fish this venue in the colder months which that was my main target to to try and have a go throughout the late winter early spring roll back to 2018 i thought that I’d give this venue a proper go knowing that that cop was was definitely in here and I come for a walk around in the winter i had just joined ESP at the time and had a nice little wrecky and I was baiting a few spots and having a little go and a little look around preparing for for a proper do on here i started by trickling in a little bit of sweet corn and crumb boily not going too over the top i didn’t want to attract all the birds but also knowing it being low stock I didn’t want loads of bait sitting out there just rotting on the bottom it’s one of them venues at the time it wasn’t getting fished i didn’t think the bigon had probably been caught for a couple of years since the previous capture of my friend Dan and I just knew that I’d be able to prep an area and it’d be left alone little did I know that someone was going to turn up um with the lake being a fair size as well he ended up fishing in the swim in I think it was January um or February it was it was early early in the year and uh he was testing a couple of new rods that he had bought for the day and just cast a couple of rods out didn’t have a clue that I was trickling some bait in but ended up catching the bigon and them photos ended up circulating on Facebook and through a group of friends and it was from then that that capture become um known and that’s when people started fishing here a lot more things like that happen i mean if them photos didn’t go up online I’d have never known that that fish was caught from from my swim and I’m pretty sure the guy didn’t even know that that carp was in here so fair play he had a great surprise that day and that’s just the risk that you take with bait in public venues you know people can turn up and fish them um without having an idea so a lot of plan and preparation on places like this they they should be uh taken account for and you should really think about the areas you’re prepping um at the time no one was fishing here but like I say you get randomers turn up and yeah fair play with the big being caught there’s not really many backup fish in here maybe one 30 common and the rest are probably double figures and and 20 pound commons and not something that I really would set my stall out for so I left it that year and I thought that I’ll have a go the following summer and occupy myself elsewhere and return the following year when I returned the same thing i baited for a little while um I was going out in a boat checking my spots i could see the carp were eating it i felt pretty close and I was building up and building up and building up my swim for a hit of fish and going to drop in on a good moon or something like that and good bit of weather and have a chance of really hitting the big and quick again totally random i’m pretty quiet i keep my fishing to myself and I don’t really tell a lot of people what I’m up to someone had dropped into the swim where id bait him because they had seen carp showing and and whatnot they had given the game away and they ended up having to hit a fish that that morning um and it was just one of them that he didn’t catch the common that guy he didn’t have a clue that I was baiting it but it just was another poke in the ribs and I just thought really is that venue for me you’ve got one bigon the rest aren’t really anything that uh I’d scream and shout about so I just ended up fishing elsewhere until now fast forward to 2025 i thought that I’d come back for another go this fish hasn’t done many bites since it’s done a couple and uh I’ve noticed that it has been growing substantially um since I first thought about having a go it’s somewhere that I’ve always wanted to get done i intend to write a book at some point and I really dearly wanted this to be in there so it was something that I had to just get over and done with i thought that I’d start again late winter and fish through the early spring period this time I had a different approach i wasn’t going to be burnt again and uh be baiting up for someone else to drop in and have a field day i thought that I’d target it with a different approach fishing little patches of natural bait just fishing for a bite at a time and fishing days i could only park for 6 hours at a time now there’s been a lot changed since I’ve first stepped foot on this lake um free parking all willy-nilly lovely and uh yeah a lot’s changed you said there’s there’s been a lot of things that’s been thrown in in between to make it trickier but I was adamant I was going to make it work so I fished hard and fished just days dotted about and uh just tried to locate and nick bites when I could i always travel light particularly on this venue um I just take my standard kit i mean my little barrerow set of rods some wellies and waders because sometimes I’m uh in and out the water on here um but most importantly a little bag of fresh natural bait because that seems to be the winner on here um but in my barrel I got everything everything I could need for all different situations in my angling and over the years I’ve really narrowed it down although it looks like I’ve got a lot of kit in here the bed takes up a lot of space but most of it um isn’t needed a lot of the lake bed is really silty so presentation was going to have to be important i knew that I’d have to fish lighter baits longer rigs especially where I was fishing random areas just trying to nick bites here and there i knew I had to be presented so fishing different rigs with light hook baits and little handfuls of maggots that would sit on top of the sill and casters and stuff would be a perfect approach for keeping mobile just grabbing some bait out of the van um to load the barrel up before I head to the lake taking some some worms some nice casters and a few pints of red maggot and uh whilst I’m sorting this out I’ve stumbled across this as you can see looks a little bit different to the other pint of casters I got in my hand it’s probably couple of weeks old and god forbid that explodes I think even uh the smell of that in a fishing van wouldn’t be very pleasant so they’re going to go in the bin um before they cause World War II my first session I fished midFeb as the temperatures started to rise and not go backwards they started to be inclining i thought that would be a great time to start and I actually managed to catch a couple on my first trip so I was really confident i knew that the bait was working the rigs were working and in the winter on a low stock venue every bite is special although they was 20 pound commons nothing to scream and shout about size-wise but spe special fish all the same um I was really chuffed and I knew that I was on to something then but a lovely probably 22 23 pound comment got my little puppy in the background i’m after the big it’s like this but probably double the size it’s getting back bit of spring gold with the days being so short like I mentioned I couldn’t park for days on end so I wasn’t tucked up in a bed chair and bivy sitting there b trying to board them out i really had to fish hard and I I concentrated a little bit more on sort of getting them bites and thinking a lot more about my fishing it was really nice so I got to bring the dog she was she was great fun she was really good company and just had good days fishing you know really productive thinking about my angling and uh trying to work out what the next step would be to get to be getting closer to that bigon lovely old golden commonness come on the big girl i’ll mention a little bit about where I was positioning my rods in the mornings I would get here and I wouldn’t get here first light it would be more more time after the school run um so it’d be around 10:00 in the morning and I’ll be positioning my rods out in the open water i noticed that the carp liked it out there in the mornings and I didn’t actually manage to catch any carp out there because I was gettingounded by bream i’d catch three four bream in the morning and uh they really did like the naturals i gathered that they were starving hungry and uh it probably put the carp off a little bit by the time I disturbed them catching three or four bream every every morning and I was actually moving my rods from the open water to the shallower shelves where the sun was hitting throughout the days although it was still freezing I had had a couple of bites off that shallow shelf on a a sunny February day so I knew that the car were getting up on them shelves and I was moving my rods from morning to midday um which a lot of people wouldn’t do when their traps are set they’re set but I was confident that the car was spending in the mornings out in the middle and then moving to the the shallower tree lines of the afternoon absolutely bars in in this spring sun second day of a campaign and there’s only maybe 20 to 23 carp in here i reckon that’s being generous and um just landed the lake’s second biggest and yeah had two yesterday and then just had that one um so I’m absolutely buzzing tearing through this stock let’s go for it my third bite was a really nice fish it was the second biggest a beautiful common once again and uh it was 33 lb i tend to always think all commons are the same but this one really wasn’t it was a really long fish with a a really unique characteristic to it it had a extremely long barbule it was around four to 5 in and uh it was it was really crazy to see a cart with a with a Barbie all that long look at that big whisker what a lovely big spring common i mean it’s only a couple of it’s only a week into March he is freezing so just coming out of winter early spring come on the big girl really nice old one and one that really did make me smile i thought that it was going to be a grueling campaign of catching small commons after small commons but it was such a nice carp and a a really a really nice good fish to catch in February as well from a a low stock venue like this i’ve done a few more sessions and managed to catch a couple more fish and also the odd blank in between it was never going to be um as easy as I I would have hoped maple are you the good luck charm you are i don’t seem to catch when you’re not with me did we catch one this morning yeah weren’t a big girl though was it she’s coming soon she’s coming soon male fish definitely get some pictures getting back oh it’s freezing as most of you will know we’ve had a pretty warm march we had a few heat waves earlier on and with the lake being so shallow the car really react to changes in the weather they started to get down in little bays and arms and stuff like that earlier on than I would have thought which meant I had to move around a little bit more and every bite was a step closer to to the big and with every bite being special on this low stock venue you just didn’t know whether it was going to be a 15lb common or a fish of a lifetime so with me having to move about and keeping me on my toes it was uh it was great fun rigwise I was going in with simple Ronny rig pop-ups um small bright pink hook baits washed out pink hook baits over a real small handful of maggots and casters and chopworm or a small bag just enough for a bite at a time i was adamant that the car were coming in to have a little mouthful on on them naturals and seeing the the hook bait and nailing that at this point I knew everything was working perfectly i was catching carp regular and there was just something in the back of my mind telling me that the big was probably a little bit cleverer than some of the others i thought I’d have a few changes i’d go out and out naturals on a couple of rods that maybe that would be the difference between catching this this common quicker i’ve been using two different presentations on here they are completely opposite ends of the spectrum with a bright pink popup being a go-to as well as this big bunch of natural worms my loose offerings always stays the same but I just feel like sometimes on different days and in different angling situations that something like this which is out and out naturals um can really catch them old wild ones when they’re uh their guards up so yeah that is what I use it’s completely different it does look really crazy but believe you me it works and the benefits of this with a slip D style rig I can change my hook point um when I’m moving about and stuff and it’s it’s quite a grally shallow lake can change that without changing the rig and a little bit of foam just balances out that big bunch of worms nicely so fished as a single wore over a little bit of bait this is is a really good good presentation by this point the weather had really picked up i’d noticed that the lake was also getting busier not only with public but with a few anglers having a go and walking around too so my time was running out close season was right knocking on the door and I had a few things coming up had my cousin’s stag do something that I I really didn’t want to go on um months prior to this and as I felt so close to the big and uh with such little time it was like making more and more pressure on myself to make me not wanting to go on that trip so the the day before I went um was the day where it all unfolded it was quite a different day so to speak the day hours were longer and I thought that I’d actually move the van um to get a couple extra hours in in the in the evening just knowing that I was going away the next day it was the first day that I really put on them worm rigs i was fishing in a a shallow bay with it being warmer the carp had just got in here and it was the first day that they they was down the arm and uh they was feeding they was in a feeding mood and I had seen the big and about this was by far the closest I had felt to the fish for throughout the campaign i’m fishing down a shallow deadend arm um the c were coming in and out of the bay all day and I I knew I had a great chance she’d been in and around the rods i had lovely inconspicuous natural rigs on nothing that would scare any carp away and uh it was one of them where I was just waiting for the evening evening time was when I was getting most of my bites it seemed when the carp would be feeding um the most and it come down to that last hour with the worm rigs on i must mention that I just had something in my head with the light levels dropping and I had been out in the boat and seen a huge eel i said to my mate who was with me like I just had a feeling that there was there was going to be a bite from an eel at some point um the biggest hill I’d ever seen and I was just sat there sitting just how I’m sitting now and I heard a couple of clicks on one of the rods so I looked down at the rods and I I thought that’s a bit strange could see the the middle rod i was fishing three rods i could see that the middle rod was just tightening up and dropping back ever so slightly so I walked around walked down to the rod all calm wound down and I saw a little patch of fizz and there was a bit of resistance on the rod i could feel it and I just turned around i said “It’s that bloody eel.” Although I’d seen the eel like a few years prior I just like I’ve got that bloody eel i just had it in my head that uh I I was going to catch this ill um or I had an ill on so I can feel a bit of resistance it was a bit weird and uh just just gently bringing in what I I thought was an ill um the the carp had gone out of my uh my mind at this point there wasn’t much fighting and I’d got the rod within 20 yards 15 yards of the bank and up come my leader out of the water i thought “What’s that?” My leaders come out then my lead on my rig and it was hooked onto a piece of line that I had noticed was going down to my right then all of a sudden I had realized that the other rod had gone through that rod so I put that rod down opened the bail arm and picked up the left hand rod that I realized was the one that had the fish attached to still not thinking that there could be a carp on the end at this point I um just picked up the rod and ever so gently um was playing this fish he had actually swung it in to my near side margin um there was a bush down to my right about 15 yards out with it being so shallow it was a flat calm um spring evening and there wasn’t a ripple at all must I add on the on the surface so I also was pretty sure that whatever I was attached to wasn’t a carp um it was only a couple of feet deep so I was pretty sure that if I did catch a carp I’d probably see the bite before I I had the bite so to speak and um I’ve I’ve picked up the rod i’ve wound down i’ve noticed that the line’s going down to my right near the bush and uh I’ve just gently brought this fish out to in front of me within 10 yards and uh in the silvery water has come and my lead has come out the water and um then this huge head has just appeared no net set up at this point i was with with my friend G i’ve turned around and I’ve literally gone like that i’ve gone “Oh my god.” He’s gone “It’s the big one.” I screamed at him i said “Get the effing.” I can’t say that can I yeah get the effing net and he’s panicked um he set the net up and I was wearing my wellies and I’ve literally just walked out to to the big and she’s she’s come up um literally just lied on the side and it was just that what I see there i must add that my fishing that I do is is all is so natural you know I didn’t think to have a camera rolling or a GoPro on my head i was just fishing and that’s all it it ever was and that head just coming out of that silver water it was just a sight that I will never forget it was just Yeah it makes makes my legs go to jelly just thinking about it but I ran out and netted her there was there was no carp that was going to have a head that size and shoulders that big in here there was It was only ever going to be one carp what’s just happened what has just happened i can’t believe it um been a short campaign obviously close season is um literally knocking on the door and with some nice weather this year we’ve been blessed and with it being so shallow man they was awake early angry angry angry the light was fading so I knew I didn’t have long and um just needed to get get my energy back at this point I think I just didn’t know what was going on i just didn’t expect the that big carp to pop up at that point and it was such a buzz i think everything aligned perfectly to that moment and uh it was just meant to be that day well blown away fading light let her rest for half hour £48 jesus Christ almighty look at that you have to picture the moment i’ve just caught an absolute giant carp um biggest carp to date that I’ve ever caught mega and uh I was flying out the next morning it was all raw i didn’t have time to call on um a camera crew or anything to do any of this footage it was just me and my mate um fishing and we just had to deal deal with the footage and uh the photos within that short period before it got dark i don’t even think I had my camera flash with me um it was just amazing you know sometimes it’s just meant to be that probably would have been my large my last session of the spring um it was literally right on last knock of of close season as well so yeah it was just all perfect timing and a perfect capture and something that I’ll never forget and probably a great end to somewhere that I’d fished on and off for over 10 years that’s what dreams are made of street car baby [Music]