This month has been a very slow one for me as the temperatures drop and it has been a struggle to get bites. I have still been fishing my syndicate after the awesome result I had last month, hopeful of bagging one of the real big ones that were still due. The first session back was a four night session during reading break from college. I arrived to find the lake quiet, but typically the two swims I really wanted to be in were occupied so after a wander I decided to go into a plot near where I had been catching. Over the session a few fish did show in the area, but nothing seemed to bring a bite- even a bed of maggots!

Continental Mugga's, an awesome hook pattern

There had been a definite switch in the action, so I decided a change of bait was needed so for my next session I loaded up the freezer with CC Moore Live System in 15mm and 18mm, hopeful this would bring a result.

A lovely looking 30lb 8oz mirrorI was back the next weekend, but this time the lake was busy. Fortunately, where I fished the week before was free so I set up there due to the fish I had seen the previous week. My rigs remained the same with a size 8 Continental Mugga, but I decided to fine down the hook bait to a 18mm Live System topped with a 12mm Northern Special pop-up instead of the 16mm I had previously been using. This seemed the right decision when in the morning my left hand rod beeped once, before I heard the sound of the clutch fizzing! I was quickly on the rod, and slowed the initial run before bringing it all the way in from extreme range. It gave a really good account of itself under the rod tip, and once in the net it was obvious this was because of its enormous tail. It went 30lb 8oz on the scales, and I was extremely happy with a November thirty. Nothing else happened that session but I was now incredibly confident in my approach and keen to return.

A brace of big bream, I just had to have a photoI was back the next weekend, and fortunately the same swim was free so going with my instinct I was soon setting up in there. It was only a single night this time as I was off on work experience the following day and needed to sort everything for this. The rods were soon done again, and I was confident of a bite. It was soon dark and I was tucked up in my sleeping bag when the wind really picked up and my alarms starting beeping constantly. In my sleep deprived state I took the bobbins off to stop the beeping and went back to sleep. In the morning the left and the right hand rods were slightly slacker than I remembered, so after packing up I reeled the left hander in first. It felt really heavy all the way in, and the right hand kept beeping. I couldn’t work out what had happened until two big yellow shapes started rising up the margins! I had hooked two bream and due to my rods being fished so close together they had managed to tangle around each other! They were both big bream, so I weighed them in at 10lb 7oz and 13lb 8oz and took a picture, as I get some serious abuse from some friends who target bream for not weighing or having of a photo of them!

Jamie returning his new PBThe next week I was off on work experience at CEMEX with my mate Jamie. After doing a day chopping down trees, we were allowed to do a quick overnighter on Kingsmead 1. We set up in the nearest swims to the tree work we were doing, and quickly got the rods out. It was very cold and raining that night, and apart from a few liners nothing happened. The work was cancelled the next day due to the weather so we fished the same swims for the next night. I was feeling very ill at this point, and during the early hours I woke up to my name being shouted. I was very confused, but it eventually clicked it was Jamie and he had a fish on. It put up an epic battle, wiping out all of his other lines before I did the honours with the net. I knew instantly it was going to beat his pb, and the scales read out 44lb 8oz, smashing his pb by over 11lb! I was completely made up for him, and clicked away on the camera as he held up the fish.

Next month I am on work experience at Gardner Tackle and will be filming at Abbey Lakes in France for a few nights, and that will probably be the only fishing I get to do in December!