I’ve been baiting a few areas in the margins this week, with a few scoops of particle, pellet and crumbed boilies. There were a few fish in the area yesterday and they were looking very active when I arrived for a quick overnighter. I dropped the rig, with a spoon full of bait on a margin spot using a baiting pole and then settled well back from the edge to try and keep everything as quiet as possible. I was sure I heard a few fish in the snags during the night and just before first light I had a couple of bleeps on the alarm and my rod was pulled right round; all locked up against the snag bar. The fish was desperate to get into the snags, so I piled on the side strain and kept it well clear of the snags. It managed to find a huge raft of weed that slowed the fight down a bit and also made the netting a bit tricky. I was really pleased to ‘christen’ my new ATTs alarms with a nice autumn forty.

Andy used 16lb Mirage fluorocarbon mainline, 35lb CamFlex leadcore leader, with a 3oz GT Flat Pear lead on a Covert lead clip. Hook bait was a trusty double tiger nut on a combi-rig, with a razor sharp size 6 Covert Wide Gape Talon Tip.