Ian Pettitt When I arrived at the lakes my first thoughts were I was surprised at how many people were already packing up in what I feel is prime bite time. I parked up my car collected my net, sling and mat and started my lap to try and spot some signs. I got to a swim that I had done a lot of time in, in the autumn and stood looking out and noticed that wind was changing direction and thought this would be a good place to intercept them if they followed it. I dropped my bits in the swim to reserve it and carried on my walk telling myself if I saw a better opportunity I would go with it. I did a full lap of the lake seeing nothing and spoke to some of the other memebers who said it had been very quiet and they had seen nothing. Next job was to move all my gear into the swim and get set up. I knew the spots from the autumn so didn’t lead about and positioned all 3 rods back where I had done ok previously. I then deposited a good spread of cell response pellets and whole and chopped cell onto the areas. The day and night passed without a beep or sighting but I was undeterred as this swim had always been kind to me in the morning. I sat on my hands until 11am when I thought my chance had gone and began to slowly pack away, unbelievably at just after mid day a single bleep and the sound of the line being pulled from the clip let me know I was in and battle commenced. The fish scrapped like a demon and repeatedly tried to get into the thick marginal cabbages and pad roots but after steady pressure for a good 15 minutes it was resting in the bottom of my net.