WRASBURY WEEKENDER - SPRING 23

Where it all began
During the mid 90’s, like most now mid 40 year olds we were hooked on the monthly Carp World magazines, the then recently produced and brilliant ‘A passion for Angling’ & John Wilson’s ‘Go fishing’. From memory the anglers we regularly saw were my dads age at the time; mid thirties, early forties in age. There wasn’t anyone, like there is today, who represented a similar age to what I was at the time. Then a young, scruffy haired (I had a similar mop myself!) young lad was tearing up lake after lake catching these fish we in the West Midlands and further North could only dream of let alone, get access to. It was amazing to see and read about and when he launched his first book ‘In Pursuit of the Largest’, I couldn’t put it down. I was never a big reader, bang average at school and it was almost unheard of for me to have a book in hand. My dad got me a copy of In Pursuit and I was spell bound or hooked if you like?! (🙄🤦🏽‍♂️🤣) Chapter after chapter of how this kid was doing the unthinkable. An unbelievable read. It was however ‘Wraysbury - a new record’ chapter and the capture of the iconic Mary which truly blew my mind. The story telling was outstanding and the photographs of the British record fish, Mary were something else. This lad, only a few years older than me wearing dark bottoms, a darker sweater, green polo underneath and a green beanie, on his knees with this fridge of a fish in his arms was something to behold and cemented the thirst for capturing big carp well and truly into my DNA 🧬. 

Almost thirty years later after 'life' got in the way; careers, women, etc we see RK Leisure’s ‘Hut Island’ advertised on YouTube sent it around to a few of the lads and we booked to go in Easter 2023. Our chance to wet a line on Wraysbury! 

Anticipation was off the scale!

The anticipation was monumental. Excited messages over FB messenger discussing bait, rigs, tactics and so forth. We couldn't get on to Hut Island until midday and we had a two and a half hour journey but we still left at the crack of dawn. Driving down the M40, around the M25 for a couple of junctions going past a host of famous history waters got the juices going!

On arrival into Wraysbury village we went for breakfast at a lovely little cafe (well worth a visit if you go) called 'The Kitchen'. The food was banging and staff very friendly. It filled our bellies and killed some time before we went onto the hallowed grounds...

Still early we chanced our arm and went with an hour to go officially before being allowed on. This meant we could have a little look at Wraysbury North from the bottom end. Just looking across the expanse of water was mesmerising. Crystal clear, weedy as hell and it looked deep from what we could see. We also saw where Tel caught Mary as well! 

We were right in between where the North and South meet and could see Dredger bay in front of us, and we had the North lake behind us. Straight away with the polaroid's on we saw carp in the margin. This was it boys!!!

The Draw

Ad Griffiths had dice and the idea was that the highest number gets first pick. I wanted one of the first two pegs to the left as you get onto the island. First peg aimed straight at the dredger (must hold fish FFS) and the second (double) had a awesome looking far margin a short chuck away. Anyway, back to the draw - Alex rolled 11, Micky & Josh rolled a high number as did his pal. Paul pulls out 9 or 10... Cant make this shit up I thought. We were at Crete lakes in the Autumn and we come out second to last, I was last out of the draw for opening night on the syndicate last year and second to last this year too! Any way, my luck must change surely... a quick shake of the dice in my hand and away they went. it felt like time was going on slow-mo for once, even if it was only for a second or two... four and a one. FML!!! There was only Ad who threw a smaller number and that meant we would be sharing a double peg in an area neither of us fancied but we get on like a house on fire, it was Wraysbury, we had a great bunch of lads there so it wasn't a biggie!  

On to the Island

Finally we were allowed onto the car park and was met by the bailiff who was a nice guy too! To our left we had a fabulous view of dredger bay so being all 'touristy' we had to have a photo - Wraysbury newbs!

With the van unloaded, on we went to the island, absolutely buzzing and we hadn't cast a line yet! The island and the set-up on there looked unreal. Couldnt speak highly enough of it. Imagine a central hub only a few feet away from every swim with a BBQ, seating, a fire pit, electricity points etc. A far cry from the Wraysbury of the 70's, 80's & 90's but very welcome nonetheless.

Comedy Central

Every one of us was like a dog with two dicks finding spots and seeing what the suggested spots were like from the information we were given. It looked pretty efficient in every peg apart from Ad and mine. We had over hanging branches encroaching in on our lines hampering our casting so there were tussles, tug of wars with the trees, the air was blue with the language coming from us, there must've been 5kg of bait in those trees as we were trying to just miss these wanker branches. Either way we were both pissing ourselves and when we were finally sorted, we cracked a couple of cans open. Everyone was still buzzing and having a laugh in the hut and all of a sudden... BEEP!

First Blood

Beep! BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP everyone for a split second was looking at each other, grinning like Cheshire cats wondering who's alarm it was. We should'e known - it was Josh's. Josh is from Bristol and is a fantastic angler and a better person but he would catch from a toilet so it was no real surprise. What was a surprise though was the clamber to get to Josh & Bens peg first. There was some decent pace for a few fat lads to be fair!! After a 5 or so minutes, Josh netted a lovely upper double. Everyone was over the moon for him and we had a group shot with the dredger in the background (had to be done). 

kicking off!
We all went back to our brollys absolutely buzzing to have seen a Wraysbury carp so quickly after arriving. Lying down on the bed chair watching the water and then Ad and I heard some muffled noise coming from the double peg to our right (not a fancied peg but how wrong were we proved to be?!). Micky was in! Watching Mick masterfully play and net his own Wraysbury carp was great to see. An absolute pearler as well. Back to the dredger for another photo shoot…

My mouth was watering. I needed one of these fish. Adam and I watch the water in front of us for hours and only saw fish on the far margin. Well out of distance annoyingly. I decided to go for a little explore and found an area with collapsed scaffolding, large snaggy trees and I thought this absolutely SCREAMS Terry Hearn! I chucked a handful of chops and crumb no more than 4ft from the bank under this sunken tree trunk with the intention of coming back a little later. Low and behold two fish came in and starting feeding instantly. F*ck me!

I got a rod as quickly and quietly as I could. I could see everything and was waiting for the fish to polish off the freebies and leave so I could get a rig in and re-bait. Finally they moved off and now was my time. I lowered the rig into position from the rod tip and a few more freebies were canvassed on and around the spot. The rod was set well back, line really slack and now time to hide behind a tree and watch. It didn’t take long before a fat common came in… holy f*ck. my heart started beating like mad. It fed around the rig, over the rig but nothing. Sh*t, what’s wrong? Is the hook lying funny? My mind racing, I finally made a decision - I’m redoing it. Just as I went to move two more fish came in. A lean mirror and a short, dark but plump mirror. The lean mirror was heading straight towards the bait. Go on… GO on… yes? No? Wtf? As the fish froze and rose up in the water. It’s hooked isn’t it? Then a shake of the head and it bolted towards the snags, within a second I’d engaged and was holding on for dear life. I didn’t know how bad the snags were but they looked awful so I bullied the fish a little to get it away from them but then the sunken trunk, ffs. I had to Wade in a little to unloop the line going around the tree trunk which was pretty easy but I’m drenched now. Who cares?! I’m attached to a Wraysbury carp… finally obstacle was the sunken scaffolding. The easiest way to deal with this was to walk on it a little and net the fish in front. Wrong! I stepped on it and slipped instantly - ffs, rookie error! I managed to divert the carp to the right of the scaffolding, under the trunk and keep it to the left of the snags whilst netting it swiftly and first time. BOOM!

It was only an upper double but that fish meant so much to me. The way it was caught, the venue, the history and Terry! I couldn’t have been more pleased!

Back to the dredger for a few snaps…

On arrival, Josh had had his second so a couple of brace shots it is then 🔥🫱🏽‍🫲🏾

After returning the fish safely, I honked more bait in the secret snag and rested it for the remainder of the day with a plan to re-visit the following morning once the fish had built up confidence again…

They Kept Coming!
Paul was the next to have one at range. Fishing small bullet like solid bags at 130yds his rod ripped off and he then had an epic battle which after a few scary moments the blackest mirror you’re likely to see was in the net. A mega fish!




Then Micky had two on the spin, Josh had another. It was carnage. Carnage in the most brilliant of ways!




The night was drawing in and now it was BBQ and fire pit time!


The night passed off really quietly after the fun of the BBQ. I was certain we were in for a relentless evening but it wasn’t to be… until first light!

The final morning

It has to be said that both Mick and Paul did brilliantly in their swim which was pretty featureless and deep! The worked their swim superbly and ended up having the most fruitful haul between them so hats off, boys! 🫱🏽‍🫲🏾
Mick’s rod was away at first light and after a short battle, one was in the net. Paul’s rod tore off, another in the net, Jase came walking across, he’d just had one from the dredger. Unreal stuff!

Right, f*ck this. Back to the secret snag swim. I want another but before doing so I offered Ad and Alex the option first. Being polite they both declined and I understood why. Straight away carp were there looking for more food. The process of the previous day was rinsed and repeated - wait for them to leave, lower a bag on the spot with a few freebies around and wait…

Boom - once again fish came in pretty instantly and the short fat mirror from the day before snaffled the hookbait this time. It tore off like a rocket and I was in the snag - Ffs. Back in we go!
Left hand down to the bottom of the swim and give it a little force. Remarkably the fish came out without a hitch and was netted without fuss. Another Wraysbury carp stalked - cloud 9! This one was a looker too albeit a shade under 20 which doesn’t matter!



That made four of us all with carp in the net within minutes of each other. Unfortunately the camera didn’t work for the group shot 🤦🏽‍♂️ but an unreal way to end a monumental first trip to Hut Island.

Micky had the biggest and best looking fish of the trip - a fully scaled just under 30. An absolute banger of a fish. He also had the most fish too! Well done, mate 🫱🏽‍🫲🏾

We will 100% be back…

(f*cked up group shot - gutted)

Until next time…