We’re desperately trying to find huge lakes or wild waters for our films. I can safely say that Gyékényes is such a lake. It is more than 300 hectares big and has a crystal clean water. There are many features on the bottom and, what makes angling even more difficult, there are many scattered peninsulas and islands.
Knowing the fish stock of the lake, we were excited to start the session and pitch our camp in one of the corners of the lake near a fresh dredging. The weather was changeable. In the beginning it was gloomy, windy, and a bit rainy. We placed our rigs on the edge of an old dredging boat, where the murky and crystal clean water met. We used one of our 2020 novelties for feeding and baiting: The Big One. The Big One products have salmon-chili flavors. The 24 mm boilies are boiled. I first hair rigged one single boilie for both of my rods. Of course, we used The Big One around the rig for feeding. During the first half of the trip, the wind made waves, so finding the right spot was not easy. Still, we managed to locate a few promising drop-offs with the help of our fish finder.
To be honest, we thought that during the first two days we would be busy finding the fish. We didn’t expect what happened a few hours after setting up our tackle…Suddenly, a strong bite broke the roar of the wind. We quickly got into the boat and went near the fish. I think the fish playing that followed is the dream of every carp angler. The water was 6-7 m deep below us and the cleanness of the water was unique. Playing a huge, over 10 kg common makes you forget about everything.
Catching my first, over 10 kg carp from Gyékényes, especially in such a short time, was an unforgettable experience. After releasing the fish, I took back my rig and threw a handful of Big One boilie around it. As soon as I got back to the shore and put my rod on my rodpod, Józsi got a bite. After another exciting fish playing from the boat, I could land a magnificent over 10 kg mirror for Józsi.
We didn’t expect to start the session like this on a huge mine lake. We had plenty of bites on the first day, however, we didn’t catch any real monsters. The night was relatively silent, so we could rest enough. We landed a few beautiful carp in the morning. All of them were around 10 kg. I had another bite on my left rod. I decided to go on the water alone, because I thought I could land a 10 kg carp by myself.
I was approaching the fish and what followed next, was a bit of a nightmare. My line got snagged, but fortunately, I could get it out and felt the fish again at the end of my line. The weight I felt was heavier than usual and the fish swam unhurriedly near the bottom. A few artificial spawning nests for zander had been placed near the shore. These were indicated by a buoy. I tried to lead the fish far from the buoys, but of course I got snagged up again in three of them. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see the fish, but I could see the buoys moving left and right. I finally managed to untangle my line after 10-15 minutes and spotted the fish on the surface of the water. I quickly landed the huge common and sat down on the edge of the boat. I started going towards the camp and when I got to the shore, I asked Józsi to help me carry the fish to the cradle. I was trembling… We laid down the fish and weighed it. The scales showed nearly 25 kg.
It was a great fight, and it was worth every minute of it as I was holding a stunning carp in my hands, which I’d caught within 24 hours from our arrival. After taking some photos, I quickly released the old warrior. Then, I had to rest a bit as I was still shaking because of the adrenaline. We caught a few smaller carp in the afternoon, but during the night we had less bites. The next day the sun was shining, there was a slight breeze, and the water was flat calm. As the stormy weather went away, the fish disappeared too from the area in front of us. We had less and less bites during the day and we saw less and smaller fish on the fish finder too. Unfortunately, this kind of weather remained until the end of our session. Due to the weather we caught only a few fish. We tried to figure out where the fish had gone to and of course we also tried changing our hookbait. We used smaller boilies, pop-ups, but with less success. Anyways, the first half of the session was sensational. We gained a lot of useful experience and we caught some magnificent fish from this lake.
Written by Norbert Paál
Translated by Mihály Köntös