Savay specialist Mark McKenna had a cracking result recently when he caught one of Savay’s most prized jewels, an original Leney mirror. Here Mark’s story:
‘I love fishing Savay due to the fact that you just never know what’s going to pull your string. I got down very early Sunday for my rota and had a thorough look around the pit for signs of happy carp. All I saw was a couple of fish show in ‘Bramble’s’ water and on ‘Mosquito Point’ – not terribly enthused I opted for ‘The Gravelly’ which is in the middle of it all at the lower end of the canal.
‘The Gravelly is king’ is how the saying goes but it gets absolutely hammered week in week out on both rotas so anything that’s in there nowadays is feeding gingerly. The canal bank as a whole has been on the wane over the last couple of years as a lot of fish have been caught from the area. I opted to fish longer than usual around the usual left hand area as it was scarily clean and I fealt I had more chance of disguising my terminal arrangement and ‘getting them going’ by fishing in the dirt over the back a heady blend of light silkweed and sandy silt.
I also opted to fish quite far right and to a break in the bars straight in front of me so by the time I’d got three rigs out it was a bit ‘rods akimbo’ in the ‘Gravelly’ swim. Rigs we’re simple low down knotless knoted pop up set ups critically balanced and long enough for one suck nailing, constructed from ESP Two Tone coated braid, size 5 D7’s, a blob of ESP tungsten putty a heat shrink tubing and a ‘Savay Salmon’ Pop Up put the finishing touches on the set up.
I baited all three spots liberally nice and tight with a blend of chopped Savay Salmon boilies, hempseed, halibut pellets, rock salt, ‘Salmoniser’ Liquid, freshly pressed whole salmon oil, groundbait, a can of sweetcorn and a tin of Salmon all of which clouds the water nicely as it descends to the bottom whilst simultaneously creating a slick of biblical proportions. In a nutshell by the time I’d finished the swim was as salmony as a freshly caught salmon from Salmon Street, in the town of Salmon on International Salmon Day in the Savay year of the salmon!
Well nought occured that evening but by the following evening I had a swim full of carp and let them have it again both barrels. They were clattering out all over the shop in front of me, to my left, to my right, I saw 22 shows whilst I was actually spodding and by the time darkness fell I’d seen 50 – anywhere else you’d think you were in for a hatfull but let’s just say things looked good for a bite!
I didn’t have to wait long before my right hand rod was away and I was into my first really big fish of the year. I’d hooked it a long way out and thankfully I made slow steady progress with it until it rolled over the draw cord and was mine! I flicked on my head torch and peered into the net to be greeted by a very long ‘Leney’ strain mirror. I got my mate out of bed with a ‘lumpage’ call and we set about weighing it and getting the pics done a spawned out 36lb on the nose it looked awesome, a real Savay character.
The fish gradually melted away from me after that and I had to settle for just the one ‘toffee crisp’ but what a fish, a new one for me from amongst the A Team and I’d saved the Looneys from a blank rota to boot. Can’t wait for the next one!’