Angling Times Jon Walker big fish challenge. Part two

Rolfslake's Specimen hunter Jon Walker

Today Rolfslake welcomed Ben Fisk from the Angling Times down to the lake to do a feature on Jon Walker and his recent big fish catching exploits down on the lake. Jon came second recently in an open with only 9 fish but these fish went an amazing 169-08 and his fish went 12-08, 14-12, 17-00, 17-08, 18-08, 19-08, 21-00, 21-04 and the final a lake record mirror of 27-00.

The challenge today was to see if Jon could catch to order one of these massive fish for a feature to be printed in this weeks Angling Times, so on a very cold October morning peg 8 was the chosen place for battle to commence. Jon was already familiar with peg 8's big fish potential as this was the peg that he set the current lake record of 530-00 back in 2006.

The thing that makes peg 8 so good is that all the fish at some point have to go through the peg as they make there way from the big to the small lake, and also the are so many different options for an angler to exploit. Jon today was going to to mainly use two lines one straight out in front at about 8 metres and the bush to his left which normally hold a few resident monsters, but at the same time as a back up he was going to feed the margin to his right and the far bank just in case plan A did not work. As i arrived at the lake Jon had already caught a lot of small fish { 8 - 10lb} and a few specials in his his two other nets, and i decided not to go round and disturb him but watch him from the other bank.

John today was using one of his new designed long bristle double stepped floats to catch his fish and by using a combination of cautious feeding and either flavoured pineapple pellet or stinky red meat as he calls it helped him amass his big weight. Jon is always a thinking angler and he always tries to work out how the fish want their food or how they want it presented as his match results down on the lake have born out this year. The key to getting the most fish to bites ratio as Jon would tell you is to have your float dotted down as low down as the weather allows to ensure you give your self the best chance. By fishing his rig on a lift and drop method Jon mananged to lure the carp into taking his bait as they are sometimes wary of a static bait and by having his bait fluttering in front of the fish they could not resist {all 250lb of them}. He also believes in trying to get away with as small a float as possible and with only the tip of the float visable he just waits for the float to pop before he lifts and not strikes in to his fish which he believes do not make them bolt away.

Elastics also play an important part in his fishing and today Jon opted with Vespe's hollow red and orange fished soft in the pole so as to give him every chance in landing every fish that he hooked, and today when he caught his biggest fish of 21-00 he had it on the orange elastic and in the net in 90 seconds, not because he bullied the fish but because with the elastic set correctly he was able to steer the fish eventually where he wanted it and had confidence in both elastic and pole.

Where anglers normally make mistakes at Rolfslake it is normally because of three main reasons,

1. they think fishing here is just turn up and catch 200lb which many anglers fail to do.

2. they do not get the feeding right and end up foul hooking lots of fish as they travel up and down the water levels.

3. and the most important if they got point two right and have not got the right balanced tackle then it normally ends in broken rigs or broken poles.

After a few hours Jon had put together not only a match winning weight but also a set of specimen carp any big carp angler would of been proud of and not a spod rod in sight. All Jons carp were caught on the pole and placed in nets but only for this feature as double figure fish are not allowed to be retained in keepnets but must be weighed and returned straight away {take note Mick and Paul}.

Tri-Cast Finesse Competition 15.7 mtr

Jon earlier this year brought a Tri-Cast Finesse Competition pole which all the anglers got a chance to have a look at and were very impressed with it due its light weight and stiffness and he has probably caught more big fish on this pole since he brought it than anyone who currently owns one. The pole is made using special High Modulus carbon fibre at the critical points to help the pole in areas of balance, weight and stiffness for any conditions that an angler would come up against. The pole is rated from 0 - 16 but but as Jon has proved with the right set up { Jon used Vespe's hollow red and orange elastic to catch his fish today} any fish can be landed with a little patience and a little care. This is also the pole that Jon recently used to catch the lake record carp of 27-00 and also earlier this summer during an Advanced Pole fishing feature caught the largest match weight done in a feature at 388-00 in five hours.

The amazing thing about this pole is it is just at home catching roach from the far banks of a canal as it is catching carp from a lake or massive carp from Rolfslake. The pole weighs 620 grams at 11.0m and comes with a fantastic spares package ;

2 x spare match top 4 kits 0 - 16 elastic , 4 x spare big bore top 2 kits rated 16 , 1 x cupping kit plus the cups a deluxe pole holdall and tubes.

So if you are looking for a new pole that will cover everything Jon Walker highly recommends this pole as being brilliant for all occasions that an angler will come up with.

For more information on this brilliant pole visit www.tri-castfishing.co.uk you will not dissapointed.

Jon Walker and John Bennet displaying only a small part of Jon's catch today.

When it was time to do this photo shoot Jon asked if i could help him take out one of his nets as it only had six fish in and as he gathered the net in there was no commotion from the fish so i though no problem, as i went to lift the net it would not move so i thought damm it was hooked on the platform but Jon said no its not and as it cleared the water Jon neglected to tell me that the smallest fish of the 6 was 17-00. As i stuggled to the top of the bank and looked in the net i had 6 fish for about 105-00 and Jon was bringing the small fish net up {they were all about 16-00} to make up this picture.

All the fish were in fantastic condition and were returned unharmed after the photo to await their next battle with the anglers.

Mission Accomplished a big beautiful common of 21-00
caught from peg 8 on a very cold day in October


Here are the scales to prove it 21-00

Angling Times Ben Fisk in action

After Jon had caught enough fish Ben was itching to have a go to see if he could catch a big fish and after a few small fish of about 8-00 eventually caught one of 17-00 that Jon Walker now turned photographer took a few snaps of.

On behalf of Rolfslake i would like to say thanks to John Bennett for letting Angling Times use his lake for the feature Jon Walker for again giving up his time to do another promotional feature on Rolfslake, Tri-Cast for making such a brilliant pole {the Finesse Competion} and Vespe for making one of the best elastics for catching big fish out there, and for Jon for making the best hand made floats money can buy .

I hope i have covered everybody and i hope you have enjoyed this special feature which you can also read Ben's report in this weeks Angling Times.

Until my next report tight lines Eddie T-Green.