With only one overnighter a week on my hands I try and plan them wisely. After seeing the forecast due Wednesday night, I asked the misses and she kindly gave me the nod. It’s been a while since we’ve had a strong warm Southerly wind combined with a pressure drop, so I was feeling fairly confident.

I choose to jump right on the end of the wind, with only 12 hours fishing I already knew my spots. My German rigs, which were made using GT-HD, 25lb Trick-Link and size 6 Covert Dark Muggas, were placed out as quickly as possible with just 4-6 Spombs of bait over each rod consisting of particles and half a gallon of maggots.

With a half 5 pack up for work first thing in the morning, I got my head down early. I was woken by my middle rod peeling off at half 3 in the morning. It was lashing it down and after an epic battle with no wet weathers on, I was absolutely soaked but chuffed to bits when a massive common rolled into the net! After a quick glance, I knew it had to be the “Long Common”, one I’ve wanted from the day of joining and the last big common I needed from the syndicate. The scales bounced round to 40lb 4oz and I was over the moon. With the wind so strong and the weed drifting by like traffic, the next hour was a battle itself trying to get the rod spot on, I could hear the fish constantly crashing out. The rod was back on the zone after a few attempts and many bags tied up.

Back up at 5.30 fighting the weather again, I started packing all the kit into the van leaving the bivvy up, allowing me to move it to set the camera up under on my tripod ready for self takes. Next minute, the same rod rattled off, and after another strong fight, as the fish were really using the wind in their favour by kiting hard right on me, I managed to slip the net under a lovely mirror known as “Kim” due to the scale pattern. 37lb 2oz this one! It was a mad rush to photo them both and get to work for 7.30 but I succeeded. This had been truly another mental overnighter.

Gardner Products Used