After a week away in the Lake District climbing fells and looking at lakes, I headed home with only one night left to fish before my return to work after the summer break. I had managed a few nice fish during August, but I was keen to get down to my syndicate for one last chance. I sorted everything out at home and then loaded up the van to do the night. Sunday nights are generally not too busy, so I arrived at around 5pm and went for a walk around to see where the other anglers were and hopefully find a few fish.

After a lap of the lake and having a chat with a few anglers that were already set up I learnt that it had been a slow week while I had been away and not many carp had been caught. Undeterred I kept looking and stopped for a tea with one of the anglers. Whilst sitting and having a chat I could see he had quite a few fish in front of him and some were also the other side of the bar, where another angler was already set up, so I kept my eyes looking down the lake for signs anywhere else. Just as I was finishing my tea and saying my goodbyes, I saw a good fish show on the tree line further down the lake. That was enough for me and I was soon racing for my barrow and heading for one of the swims that fished to that area.

I pushed my barrow round to the first of the swims that fished the tree line and hurried down to check out the swim that fished the lower end where I had seen it show. As I walked around the corner I could see it was busy down the far end of the lake, so instead of fishing the last of those swims I opted to stay where I had put my barrow in the hope that the fish would be pushed further up to me by the anglers who were setting up.

My rods had to be sorted first as I wanted to get them out and settled before setting my brolly up. I decided to use hinge rigs on two of the rods as the weed was starting to drop and I felt they would give me a better presentation. These were tied using Mirage boom sections, a Trip Wire end section and trusty size 5 Covert Dark Chod hooks. After a quick cast about with a bare lead I felt one of the spots was still very clean, so I put a D rig on the third rod with a hardened bottom bait.

My rods had to be sorted first as I wanted to get them out and settled before setting my brolly up. I decided to use hinge rigs on two of the rods as the weed was starting to drop and I felt they would give me a better presentation. These were tied using Mirage boom sections, a Trip Wire end section and trusty size 5 Covert Dark Chod hooks. After a quick cast about with a bare lead I felt one of the spots was still very clean, so I put a D rig on the third rod with a hardened bottom bait.

Before casting my rods out I took a quick look in the swim next door which fished to the end of the bar. I could see there were quite a few fish around the pads in front of that swim, which is always a good sign for a night bite in the swim I was in as they moved off the bar in the night.

I quickly wrapped up the rods and cast each one out in turn. A hinge on the left-hand rod, a D rig on the middle and a hinge on the right-hand rod that was fished towards the tree line. After I was happy with the drops on each rod, I set about sorting the rest of my kit for the night.

It was already 7.30pm so I sat down with a cup of tea waiting for the light to fade before putting any bait out as it would make it difficult for the gulls and it would stop them from bombing the area and causing disturbance. Once the light had faded, I put out 20-30 baits around each rod.

It wasn’t long into darkness before I started to see fish rolling around to my left as they moved off the bar into the open water. I got into my bag feeling quietly confident and got my head down for a bit of sleep.

It’s weird how it happens but I always seem to wake shortly before I have a take and this night was no different. Shortly after midnight I stirred and opened my eyes to look out over the lake. I heard a fish roll further out and watched for the ripples hitting the bank in front of me. They took a while, so I thought it must be quite a bit past where I was fishing. Then I heard another, this time much closer. I laid there in the darkness just loving the feeling of sleeping outside with the added excitement of knowing there were fish in front of me.

After about half an hour one of my alarms sounded. The left-hand rod made a few quick bleeps and I was out of bed, shoes on in a flash and by my rods. My bobbin was still on the deck, so I initially thought it could have been a mouse or rat running across the front of the swim, but then I noticed my line was out of the line clip. I waited for about 30 seconds and gently lifted the line back into the clip. Almost instantly it started to lift very slowly and then stopped for a fraction of a second. I crouched there poised, just willing it to keep going then beep, beep, beep… up it went slow and steady, right to the top of the rod and then pulled out of the clip. I lifted the rod and was bent into a fish that was kiting around to the left.

The fight was slow and steady with the fish staying deep. The fish took a bit of line on solid runs that I wasn’t going to even try and stop, even if I could. I gained a bit of ground before it took off again. As the fight drew nearer to the bank, I lowered my other two rods to get them out of the way and after one final burst I slid the net under the fish before taking a look inside. There laid a good sized common, quite a long fish which I guessed to be around the mid to upper thirty mark. While the fish was safely resting in the net, I got the mat out, wet the sling and zeroed the scales. After filling a bucket with water and getting everything ready, I got my waders on to get the fish out of the water. I rolled the net down, checked the pecks were flat and started to lift the fish out. It was heavy, much heavier than I had expected! I placed it on the mat and took the hook out before putting it in the sling. I lifted it onto the scales which were on the weighing station behind me and the needle swung around to bounce between 45 and 46. I was so surprised I looked down to check I wasn’t standing on the cord. I lifted it off the scales and put it back on. Again, the needle swung round to the same place. It settled on 45lb 7oz and now I had the dilemma of what fish it was. There were only a few fish it could be and one of which I’d had before, so I put the fish back on the mat and took another look. I checked for any distinguishing marks and realised I had one of the big commons known as One Barb, a fish I had not had before. I quickly zipped up the retainer and placed him back in the water before sitting down for a second to calm myself down. Buzzing wasn’t the word, I was absolutely ecstatic!

Once I had calmed down a bit, I woke up one of the anglers a couple of swims down to do the honours with the pictures, which he was more than happy to oblige with. We then sent ‘One Barb’ back on his way to one day make another angler’s day/night, as he had made mine.