The Quest for ‘3 Scale’ - Steve Swan

This entry was posted on 3rd July, 2017

Last week, I had the week booked off work to go fishing down at Bawburgh lakes. If you haven’t read any of my other blogs, this is my third season there, with Lodge lake being the water where I've been spending most of my time. There are around 100-120 carp in the 30 acre lake, with most being stocky fish ranging from 12lb -26lb, the rest are made up from different stockings that have been put in over the years, and of course the odd original.

I arrived at the lake at around 4:30am and had a good walk around to try and spot any fish, after doing a couple of laps I noticed some fish in one of the bays, so I went back to the car and loaded up the barrow - the bay in question looked a good place to start! After barrowing the gear round, I quickly got set up ready for the day (and night) ahead. All day I was watching the fish swim around the bay, but around mid afternoon I saw something that really got the heart racing, I saw the biggest carp in the lake, a fish known as 3scale. This was only the second time that I'd seen her in the water! (I'd seen her out of the water when caught by friends, but she was still to grace my landing net!)

After a good nights sleep, I woke at 5am to the sight of one of my mates playing a fish on the other side of the bay, unfortunately the fish got away but only an hour later someone else had a run that resulted in a nice common of around 20lb. The morning went by without much happening; I could see nothing moving in front of me either so I decided on a move, I'd seen both tench and carp rolling at the entrance of the bay so decided to head there.

I had a quick chat with a couple of lads on the way there and I told them I’d seen 3scale, one replied with “the next time you see her, she’ll be in my net!” The challenge was on!

I set up again and cast out my rods out, I could see there were a few carp moving up and down along the bar, and after about an hour, one of the alarms burst into life, upon picking up the rod, a huge vortex boiled on the surface, at first I couldn’t even get a tight line to the fish, but then all of a sudden a heavy weight mounted on the rod.

Only a few minutes later the fish surfaced about 20 yards out so I donned the waders and began to move into deeper water as it was only very shallow in front of the swim. The second time the fish surfaced, it was right in front of me and it was only then that I could see which fish it was, so with no hesitation I walked towards the fish and scooped it into the waiting net. To say I was happy would be an understatement.

I quickly unhooked her while in the water and put her on the scales, the needle swung round to 43lb 8oz, a new personal best! I took a few photos on the bank and in the water, and then I slipped her back into the lake to fight another day and hopefully make someone else as happy as me.