Welcome to the Thinking Tackle podcast. Now back in 1992, today's guest caught a then unknown

46-pound mirror from a lake known as Coalmere. Now famously, this fish went on to become known as the Black Mirror.

And today, here in the studio, to talk about this famous capture,

amongst other things as well, is Jason Hayward.

The Thinking Tackle Podcast.

Jason, we're live. Welcome to the podcast. How are you? Oh, I'm very well, thank you. Yeah, now you've said we're live. I'm slightly more nervous. It's not something you do every day, is it? You've got a little bit more down key now. Have I? Oh, so. Well, you don't know what's, you know, you have a lot of things going through your head, didn't you? You haven't got to do this, James? Well, what do you wear? You know, things like, what do you wear?

I mean, You have a lot of things going through your head, didn't you? You haven't got to do this, Chase? Well, what do you wear? You know, things like, what do you wear? Close a bit of start. Yeah, but Ash Bradbury said he bought a new shirt, didn't he? He bought a new shirt for the podcast. And Martin Clark, well, he had new teeth, didn't he? You bought a new car, Jace, didn't you? Oh yeah, it's not new, yeah. First time it's been in Essex, I just hope the wheels are still on it and I go out. It's great to have you on the show anyway. It's lovely to be here. We should get straight into the Colmere stuff because it's probably what you're most, probably most well known for.

Do you want to go back to, you know, Phil Thompson, first of all and how the whole thing sort of started out?

Yeah, well, myself and Phil were the group of lakes,

we used to drive past it on the way to other lakes.

And I'd always said the one next door, I want to have a go.

Because it was the bigger one. We knew nothing about any of them because it was the bigger one. And Phil, we met up June the 14th of St. As we always did, our little group, and we was having a beer. And Phil said to me, oh, I'm going to have a go on that coal mire that was behind where I was fishing. And I didn't even know he was interested in it, you know.

So I said, oh, I'll see you over there, then.

Anyway, the one I was on, which is called Hyde Lagoon,

typical first night disaster, it algued up, and I just got tufted and cooted and algae and weed and the whole

disaster, you know, the whole climax to June 6-deep.

It all went, it always went, it always went wrong.

Yeah.

So anyway, I took a walk round and I knew Phil was up the other end.

Before that, he'd come up between the callsway,

and he'd shouted across to me, and he'd chatted across,

and I thought he shouted 13 and 14.

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