I got down to my local syndicate around midday and walked over to a mate of mine that was had done the night before, he was kind enough to tell me which swims looked good and where he had seen the fish.

It was a nice clear day with a South Westerly wind blowing across the lake. The majority of the fish seemed to be on the back of the wind, so I immediately decided to set up on that side of the lake. I wheeled my gear into a swim called ‘Middle Woods’ happy about my choice, as I saw plenty of fish boshing whilst I got my gear set up.

As soon as I could I got my spod rod out and started to have a little lead around. I found one spot straight out at around 60 yards and also a spot out towards the right at the same range. These spots were clean with gravel bottoms and just behind the spot was a huge weed bed that the fish like to stay in during the day time. Then I spodded out about a kilo of mixed particle and boilie (with a couple of pints of maggots thrown into the mixture) spread out between the two spots.

I got my rods clipped up and started to tie some rigs up. On two of the rods I used a blow back rig made up with 25lb Brown Ultra Skin 25lb on size 6 Incizors and a large Covert Rig Ring. On my other rod I decided to tie up a little maggot ‘combi-rig’. This arrangement used a section of stripped braid out of the 25lb Brown Sly Skin tied with a Palomar knot to a Trick-Link boom. I also used the same Incizors and Covert Rig Ring, but this time I also incorporated a size 14 hook to act as the hair stop and to hook the maggots on top of the small pop up.

I cast the rods out for the night and waited…

The morning slowly rolled in and the night was quiet with no action. There was a thick fog all over the lake, which lingered until around 1 in the afternoon. It looked like the fish had moved down the other end of the lake for the night as a couple of my mates on the other side had caught. I was seriously contemplating moving, but I then reassured myself that I was in a good swim and had found some promising looking spots.

So after that I reeled in and re-baited and spod out a little more bait. The rigs were fine when I brought them in and I was puzzled to why I didn’t have one in the night. I put a decent amount of bait out this time; 18 Spombs over the main spot and 12 over the right hand spot. I put fresh hook baits on and then cast them out back onto the spots. After that it was once again a case of sitting back and watching for any little signs while the night unfolded.

I must have drifted off, as around midnight I was suddenly awoken by a screaming run on my right hand rod. I ran over to it and hit into what felt like a decent fish. It slowly and heavily plodded its way towards the net and after about 8 minutes The Golden Common was in the back of my net!

I got the sling and scales out and got her out the water and carefully laid her on the mat to be unhooked and weighed. Once in the retention Sling I hoisted her up and she went 30lb 8oz on the scales. Naturally I was buzzing and I quickly got her back in the water and got the rods back out.

I caught this one on the blow back rig with a single 18mm Tuna and Garlic boilie. As soon as it was first light I was up and ready to do photos, which we quickly completed and safely returned her back into the lake.