Sean Howard bags his 50th carp from Temple! - 11 11 2008


Sean Howard catches his 50th Temple carp of 2008!
Temple member Sean Howard has just banked his 50th Temple carp in what Sean describes as his “best year ever”. Fishing swim 3 last Sunday, Sean fished his favorite bait, popped up glugged red corn to the island margins catching a very pretty 28lb 2oz mirror (see picture below).

Below is a light-hearted account of Sean’s year.
The 2008 season.... after a long hard winter fishing Temple most weekends from October to February with only one fish to show for my efforts, I set myself a target at the end of February to catch 15 fish and 1 thirty in 2008, which interestingly was the same number of fish I had caught in 2007 when I fished Temple for just half a year. Indeed, I thought that 15 fish since the previous June was a really good return.... and it was!

So I felt a lot of relief at catching the first fish of the year, a 26lb common from swim 3 I think, which remarkably I caught within an hours of setting up... and this was the end of February.

The trend of catching fish within the first hour or two of setting up on a Saturday afternoon continued for the next 12 weeks or so.... in fact it still frequently happens even now as my 50th Temple fish was landed just 90mins after casting out. This really is a strange sequence and I wish I knew why as I have to follow the same routine every Saturday morning.... same soap... same breakfast... long play with the dog but not the wife! before I leave etc… I would like to say its just good watercraft, but there's definitely something else going on! I have some theories, which normally cause uncontrollable laughter... or strange looks... so I've learnt to keep them to myself, sorry!

My target fish at the start of the year was the stunning ‘Big Lyn’... so you can imagine my excitement to have caught her twice within a couple of months.... the second time she was joined by ‘The Ghost’ at 35lb 10oz, which was the first time I’ve had a brace of 30s in an afternoon... and what a brace, the glugged corn was certainly working amazingly well that day!

Big Lyn weighing 32lb 6oz

After that, it just got better and better... my 6 fish session which included 4 thirties to 37lb 10oz was also an amazing time and most likely the reason that swim 10 now counts as my favorite swim on Temple. And it then got better still.... in September I caught 3 thirties in just 4 hours, which is an achievement for any water in the country! It was late Sunday morning and I’d had nothing, so I texted my friend Robin saying that I wished I was at the same water as he was on as he had had a 21lb mirror and 4 others that morning. Still 4 hours later I was to eat my words as I was holding a 32lb common, my third thirty that morning, which was unbelievable!

The Ghost at 35lb 9oz

So all in all an incredible year, 50 Temple carp with an average weight of over 29lb, which incredibly included 16 thirties, thank you David... its a great water... and its challenging... and the fish love my aftershave (given it away now!)

Seans 37lb 9oz Temple mirror

Next year will see the first 40 out of Temple I am sure, hopefully in my net.... but I guess I’ve had enough luck this year... so I will be happy to see it in someone else’s net!

All the best and regards Sean…

Sean’s list of Temple thirties caught 2008:

May                 Mirror             37lb 9oz
April                Ghost               35lb 9oz
March              Mirror              33lb
October            Mirror              33lb
September        Common          32lb 9oz
April                 Linear              32lb 6oz
October            Mirror               32lb
May                  Mirror               31lb 12oz
September        Mirror                31lb 10oz
July                  Mirror                31lb 8oz
May                 Mirror                31lb 6oz
March              Mirror                31lb 4oz
May                 Mirror                30lb 8oz
September       Mirror                30lb 4oz
August            Mirror                30lb 2oz
May                Mirror                30lb 1oz