I started a four night session on my local syndicate and as there were not many good swims left I set up next door to a mate. I hoped I could tempt the fish over to my swim with some bait but after two nights I moved swims first thing that morning. There were a few fish showing straight out, so I left the area quiet for a few hours until they moved off. Once the fish had finished their morning feed I had a quick plumb around and found a clear spot around 60 yards out. Armed with the spod rod I dispatched a mixture of particle and Mainline Cell over the top. I clipped up two of my rods to the area and the third was going to go out by a weeded with a solid bag on it. That evening I got the rods sorted ready for the night ahead.

I awoke at dawn and was puzzled why I hadn’t had a bite as there was a bit of fizzing going on over the spot. I thought I’d wait until bite time was over and think about moving again. I was just talking to my mate and unexpectedly I received a slow take. I pulled into it and it slowly plodded around the swim. As it got to the weed it surfaced and I caught a glimpse of the fish, which only looked around 15lb. I soon guided it over the waiting net and it looked a little bigger than I had first estimated. After placing it on the mat, I removed the weed from the fishes head and instantly recognised it as a fish that I’d had a few weeks before at 29lb 2oz. As you can see it has put on a lot more weight and the scales confirmed this with a reading of 31lb 1oz! I was so pleased as my target was to catch a thirty before my holiday’s finished and I had to go back to school. I took a few quick snaps before carefully putting her back.

The fish fell to a long piece of Gardner Plummet leadcore, a Covert C-Thru brown lead clip and tail rubber, with a combi rig made from Trip Wire and 15lb Trickster Heavy. On the business end I had a size 8 Covert Mugga hook with a Mainline Banoffee pop-up soaked in the Banoffee liquids.