Lanark Loch is a 20 acre public water and as usual on this type of water it's not the kind of water where an angler can relax, as the huge amount of traffic and dog walkers on the bankside can annoy you no end..... Anyway Lanark was stocked in the sixties but drained in the mid-seventies, Carp to over 33lb were found in puddles by the few carp anglers who unsuccessfully tried to save them. It now holds 12 originals from high doubles to mid twenties (some of these fish evade capture for years) and about 40 stockies to high doubles.

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The Story:

       THE SCOTTISH CARP RECORD

   By Calum Boyd 13

My brother and myself arrived at lanark loch at 5:45 A.M. The conditions were perfect, a warm overcast day. After a walk around the loch we found no sings of carp but did find Andy Goram, the Man U. goal keeper,

fishing for pike at 'the point swim'. My brother opted for the Wishing Well Bay where he had had 4 takes the previous day and I opted for 'The Car Park Swim' as I had seen numerous big fish head and shoulder also from the previous day. To cut a long story short, I had one rod in the margins and the other two to the peat mounds. For anyone who is unfamiliar to peat mounds, they are big lumps of peat that grow in the summer, some grow as large as transit vans and are obviously hot feeding areas for the carp. I ended up falling asleep as I had only 5 hours sleep the night before ( I was making up my bait). I ended up waking up to the sound of a run on my right hand margin rod, yes fish on! It was a scale perfect 11 lb common. I soon recast to produce a violent take only 5 mins later on the same rod, it felt a lot bigger and battled for 15 mins to the net. When I saw it I knew I'd broken my p.b of 12 lb, the mirror weighed 18 lb and was an unknown fish.  

I eventually caught another double at 12 lb and two commons at 9 lb a piece, all from the margin rod. The peak of the session was when I landed the biggest carp to ever grace the banks of Scotland. It weighed 26 lb 4oz and beat the old record set 10 years ago by 2 oz. It was weighed and photographed by 3 anglers and witnessed by a 20 old, grannies and some dog walkers. 

I was well chuffed to catch a carp out of my wildest dreams and to have beaten my personal best twice in one day. My brother, Lewis, landed two from the wishing well bay and I ended up with 8 takes, six fish and a Scottish record to boot.