Fish of a Lifetime !
It was half term week and my Dad and I went on three seperate visits to the amazing Dever Springs Fishery in Hampshire. We caught really well on trip 1 and 2 but on both occasions I hooked, but then lost, really nice brown trout. On trip 1 the fish was lost at the net and on trip 2 one snapped me off in some reeds. I was so sad as I knew both fish we would have been close to my previous personal best of 12 lbs 12 ozs. My dad woke me up this morning and said "lets make it third time lucky" so we drove to Dever Springs again and started fishing at 08:00. Just before 09:00 I hooked into the fish above. I was using an orange hakcle damsel I had bought in the Dever Lodge on a 7 wt rod with light breaking strain flourocarbon. The fight was just epic. It lasted over 15 minutes and it took me down to my backing twice. Finally I managed to get it close enough to the bank for my Dad to net it and I knew I had smashed my PB. The fish was weighted at 19 lbs 6 ozs. I wonder if I will ever catch one bigger ?
