Fingers Sets New Horton Lake-Record

One water that is fishing its head off at the moment is RK Leisure’s Horton Church Lake which dominates the main news this week with a strong of good fish. Topping the list is James Butcher who set a new lake record with this 53lb 10oz mirror (main pic) known as Fingers which he caught during a recent four-night session; a trip which also saw him bank Scar at 48lb 2oz (top).

Commenting on his amazing trip, James told Carp-Talk: “Having booked the Thursday and Friday off work I found myself with four nights ahead of me. I arrived after work on the Wednesday around 5pm and was surprised to see quite a few anglers already set up so I opted to fish the bank with the least amount of pressure. With the fish not showing themselves I had little to go on, and with remaining hours of day light limited I thought I’d better make my mind up. I settled into a swim called Scooters where I already knew a few spots.

 

“After a quick lead around to confirm the location of these spots I cast my first rod at 12½ half wraps with a Ronnie rig and a Mainline Diamond White pop-up. I then baited up with 2kg of Cell 15mm & 18mm whole and chopped baits. The second rod was placed slightly closer in at eight wraps onto an area of firm silt. I repeated the baiting process however, I opted for a fluorocarbon D-rig on this rod with a 15mm Cell Wafter hookbait.

“With the rods on the spots I got my head down for the night as I wanted to be up at first light to watch the water for any showing fish. The night passed by with only a few liners on the left-hand rod and bite time had been and gone. I decided to reel the rods in and head up to the café for some breakfast. Once I got back to the lake I re-sharpened my hooks and put fresh hookbaits on before flicking the rods back out onto the spots. Around an hour later the left-hand alarm let out a few bleeps and with that I noticed some fizzing on the spot. Moments later the bobbin shot up and I was in to my first fish of the session!