It was a very early start and after meeting Karl Pitcher at the gate we arranged not to fish too far from each other which was not too difficult as on arrival there was only three others on! They were all fishing tight together in one area we decided to get on the bank which had no lines out and in pegs which had reasonable form for the time of year. There was a light breeze directly facing us but the wind was due to increase as the morning went on, so making haste after our initial walk around it wasn’t too long getting back around and the rods ready to go! By this time though the wind had doubled it’s strength and so I thought it best to have three solid bags out to start with but all out as far as I could achieve into the head wind. So a marker was clipped up and cast out at 120 yards, therefore giving me a rough visual as to how far I could get the solid bags out. No clipping up, just light feathering them down as the first went roughly short at approximately 115 yards, the second at 120 and the final cast at 125. Chuffed with those placed and the marker reeled in I proceeded to spodding out Triple-N boilies pre soaked in Super CSL ‘Krill & Tuna’ liquid with a dash of the matching Stick Mix Liquid roughly spread out at all the distances! By this time I had three kilos spread out the wind was fairly strong, so I had to give up knowing that it would be best to wait later on in the late afternoon before dark for it to calm a little!

With the conditions being so mild and looking perfect, nothing showed over the area for me but by late afternoon Karl had a few in the peg close by, a promising sign! With the wind now very light, all three rods re baited pva bags using Triple-N boilie crumb with the Sweet Coconut flavoured Incredible Edibles pop ups hook baits and all cast back out at 29, 30, 33 wraps. Topped the baiting up again with 4 kilo’s and the long night then began! Thursday morning darkness and one impressive unexpected take had me out and into the waders in auto pilot and playing a powerful creature! A long surging run into open water, followed by a lengthy slow plodding battle to the net. If anyone was witnessing the commotion from the opposite far bank, they surely would have seen the shine from my teeth what with such a huge grin! So very pleased…a fantastic fish lay in the net and went 40lb 10oz on the scales, a result at last and therefore very chuffed!