I have just returned from visiting Hardwick and Smiths lake at the Linear Fisheries complex. I was faced with tricky conditions this time round with Oxlease and Brasenose 2 being closed, which understandably put a lot more pressure on Hardwick.

After arriving I had good walk around and saw a couple of fish roll about 100 yards out in front of the conveyor bank. I quickly grabbed my kit and decided to start with simple solid pva bags of pellet and my homemade bait. Within an hour I had my first fish on the bank, it was only a double but a good start. I continued my success that night by having a further 6 fish until it went quiet and the fish had obviously moved.

I decided to have a walk around and found a few fish tucked out of the way in a quiet area of the lake. I grabbed my kit and quickly flicked a solid pva bag out nearby and was away within 2 minutes! After landing another double the rest of the fish in the area seemed to move off, so I decided to go back to my original swim and fish the same as I did the previous night.

I ended up having a few more that night and I finished with 11 fish in total to 21lb, only 2 twenty’s and the rest were mid to upper doubles. All the fish were landed successfully using size 8 Covert Mugga hooks, 3 inches of 15lb Trickster Heavy braid, a 3oz Gardner Flat Pear Inline lead and 2 foot of Gardner Plummet Leadcore.