It is a rare occurrence to catch a fish older than yourself but that is exactly what happened when Kyle B, caught the seldom seen Koi from Oxfordshire's Linear Fisheries.
Fishing during a session on St. John's Lake, Kyle decided to swim towards the area where he and a friend had spotted some fish showing, with the wind blowing in. The pair deployed zigs into the area and hadn't been fishing long when Kyle received his first bite.
"After finding a swim and with the sun out, I thought the fish were likely to be up in the water, so I elected to start on zigs targeting the upper layers," Kyle told us.
"The depth in front of me was around 12-13ft, so I went for zigs at 8', 9'6", and 11', one all black, one black and red, and one black with a clear/white line aligner."
"Once the rods were out, I proceeded to set up the rest of my gear when, from the corner of my eye, I noticed some movement of my middle bobbin. Not a bleep on the alarm, but the bobbin continued to almost jump on the bowstring tight line I always fish with when using zigs. I knew there was something on."
"I lifted into a fish that proceeded to act unusually, with very short jerky runs followed by nothing. It didn't take long to get it in the net, and when I peered in, I knew it was something a bit special."
"I had no idea that there was a koi like that in St. John's and only found out later that it was likely to be the same age or older than I am, at 22lb it was one of the most memorable fish I have caught" he said.
Upon speaking to Linear, they told us they believe the koi is one of the oldest fish on-site and will be at least 35-40 years old, as the fish resided in the lake when they took over the site all those years ago!
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