As I arrived at the lake for my latest session, for once the low pressure that had been forecast had moved in. Straight away I saw fish, they were behaving differently to the last few weeks and I knew if I could get in the right zone I had a good chance of a bite. I decided to fish an area I had raked out a few weeks back. I also decided to fish all three rods on the same spot (a big mistake) and as I settled in for the night the promised weather front moved in and there was thunder and lightning on the horizon.

At around 4am my right hand rod let out a few beeps and I ran down to the rod and felt if the line had been pulled from the clip. The line was bow string tight. As I lifted into the fish I immediately knew it was a good’un feeling real slow and heavy. Seconds later, the fish picked up the line on my left hand rod and this is when I knew I had made a mistake putting all three on one spot. The rest of the fight was horrible as I also managed to pick up the middle rod and all I could feel was grating and snagging. Eventually I could see a big pale fish in my touch light about three rod lengths out. At this stage everything locked up and I couldn’t move it any further. Without thinking about it, I grabbed the net, jumped in and at full stretch I just managed to get the net under the fish. However, I couldn’t lift it, these were really tense moments. Eventually I let go of the rod and with two hands on the net I lifted as hard as I could. Thankfully, all the new tackle that Gardner kindly supplied me held tight and I landed my prize.

After un-tangling all the lines and unhooking the fish (which was still in the net) I thought it was the Snubby Mirror and she looked at a good weight too. Being on my own I didn’t want to get her out of the water, so I decided to transfer her from the net into the retaining sling until first light when I could get some help. On the scales she went 44lb 8oz and was one of the Roach Pit Carp that I really wanted to catch. Happy Days!

This wasn’t the only bite I was to receive that session and I also landed another fish known as The Torpedo Mirror weighing 26lb 12oz. Both fish were landed using 45lb CamFlex Leadcore and bottom bait hinged stiffies, with the size 5 Covert Chod hooks and 2.5oz Gardner Flat Pear leads.