I woke up early and I couldn’t get back to sleep, it was still dark outside and raining heavily. I looked at my weather app and the forecast was rain, rain and more rain, but the temperatures were good. As the family were still fast asleep, I grabbed my rods, gear and bait and made my way to my chosen venue. After a short drive I arrived at an old canal and luckily the spot I wanted to fish was still free. To my surprise the whole stretch was devoid of anglers.

It was still dark when I arrived, so put my head torch on set about getting the rods ready. One rod was positioned under a small bridge and the other next to a water overflow from a nearby ditch. The rod under the bridge had my ever faithful multi rig on tied using 20lb Trip Wire, 20lb Trickster Heavy and size 6 Covert Incizor. A small pva stick with a mixture of half and whole boilies and a couple of milky amino pellets from Northern Baits was nicked onto the hook. The second rod was fished on a chod rig over a scattering of boilies.

I was pleased to have the rods in position and I took shelter under my old umbrella. The rigs went out perfectly and after just an hour and a half the rod positioned under the bridge was away. The rod was fished locked up and the Hydro Tuff line stood firm as a led the fish away from the structure. The carp gave a good account of itself, staying deep for most of the fight. When it finally surfaced by the net I was surprised to see it was a mirror as I had yet to land one from this canal.

After a couple of minutes I finally had the fish safely nestled in the waiting net. I carefully placed the fish on the unhooking mat and after pealing back the mesh back I was greeted by a gorgeous mirror. The fish tipped the scales at 12.8kg. The session was a great success and after carefully slipped the mirror back, I headed off to home a very happy angler.