AN ANGLER spent six hours trapped up to his waist in mud after becoming stuck in a lake at Anglers Paradise at Halwill last week.
Dion Cook-Martin, 20, was stuck so firmly that even the efforts of 12 fellow anglers and a tractor could not free him. His six hour ordeal was brought to an end when firefighters used high pressure air hoses to blast the mud away from his legs.
Dion had travelled to Anglers Paradise from Stoke on Trent to join volunteers to net and move carp from lakes at the end of the fishing season.
He became trapped shortly after starting work at 6.30am on Tuesday, November 4.
Specialists teams from as far away as Barnstaple and Plymouth were called in to rescue the young man using high pressure hoses and air jets.
One firefighter from Holsworthy injured his back in the rescue attempt and had to be airlifted to hospital, but was later allowed home with a muscle strain.
Fisheries management student Dion was eventually freed unhurt and warmed up with a cup of coffee and a hot bath.
Zyg Gregorek, who owns Anglers Paradise said getting stuck in the mud was an occupational hazard when clearing lakes, but he had never known a rescue operation take as long as six hours before.
?People are always getting stuck in the mud and normally just climb out of their wellies, get out and then go back later to fetch the waders.
?Unfortunately, Dion was wearing big lace-up walking boots under his waders, so he could not get them off and that was why it was so hard to free him.
?We tried with about 12 of us pulling him, then with a quad bike and tractor - but we had to stop because he was not budging and the rope was hurting him.
Zyg said although the sturdy boots meant Dion didn?t get hypothermia in his legs, if he had not been wearing them he probably would have been rescued in no time at all.
Zyg said: ?We tried everything to pull him out but nothing worked, so we called in the firecrews and it took them about three hours to get him free.?
Zyg said Dion felt a bit embarrassed about becoming stuck in the lake because he is actually studying fisheries management and is an experienced angler.
Dion said he had been ?really worried? when he first became stuck, but while the rescue operations were in progress he concentrated on keeping calm. However, Dion said the experience hadn?t put him off, and he would be back on the riverbank again soon.
This was the fifth year Dion had visited Anglers Paradise to be one of the 80 volunteers helping to move fish from lakes at the end of the fishing season.