I started the month of with a visit to Longleat for a session to celebrate a mate’s birthday. We had two days to play with and after finding a few fish, I soon got the rods out and was confident of a bite. I soon had one in the net, only a small mirror around 8lb, but it was a start. As darkness fell, I had a double take and unfortunately one fell off, but the other was a nice 20lb 4oz linear. Unfortunately the rest of the session passed slowly and I only managed another small one.

After a weekend away from my syndicate, I was buzzing to get back. I had a good look around trying to find if the fish would give away their whereabouts. As I entered the woods side, which is very weedy, it was soon clear that there were a lot of fish held up in this area. I didn’t take me long to make the decision to quickly grab my kit. I tried to keep the disturbance to a minimum and after a couple of casts with the leading rod, I soon found a lovely clear area at fifty yards range. After putting some bait out on the spot, I cast the first rod out and placed it on the floor with the clutch slackened off and went back to my bivvy to sort my other rods out. A couple of minutes later the clutch started ticking away and I pulled into a good fish. It was all going well until the fish found a weedbed, everything went solid and the hook pulled. I was devastated to say the least!

I got the rod back out and just before dark I topped up the spot with a good scattering of boilies. The night was eventful and I landed a lush 24lb 6oz scaley mirror known as the bream, which is quite a rare one and a long grey coloured mirror weighing 27lb 2oz.

That day I repeated the process and got the rods back out. Unfortunately the fish had moved off and that was the end of the action for that session.

I returned the following weekend and it was soon evident that the fish were back in amongst the weed in the woods section of the lake. I soon had the house set up in the middle woods swim and found some nice spots. I quickly tied up a three blow-back rigs, a presentation that had worked well for me all year. My rig consisted of a long piece of Camflex Leadfree, a Covert Lead Clip set-up, 25lb Sink Skin and a size 6 Covert Incizor. Hookbait was two 18mm Tuna and Garlic bottom baits from Urban Baits.

After getting the rods out I sat back, almost expecting some action through the night. I awoke at dawn to motionless indicators; however the fish were still evident in the area. I saw a fish jump just behind a large weedbed, so I raked a little channel out to the area they were showing on. After a couple of casts with a bare lead, the area felt nice and smooth, so I soon had a couple of hookbaits positioned on the spot. During the early hours one of the rods was away, and after a short fight I landed a 22lb 8oz mirror. I got the rod back out and it was away again at dawn and after a good fight, I slipped the net under a good common, which looked a like an upper twenty in the net. As I went to lift it out, I soon realised it was much bigger. The scales pulled round to 36lb and it was a new PB to boot! I was buzzing to say the least and it was a great way to round off the month!