Mainline consultant Jim Wilson has been in touch following another 'big-fish' result!
Over to Jim to take up the story:
"I arrived at my syndicate around half 5am on Friday morning for a rare weekends fishing, there were already three or four people dotted around the lake and a swim that had been kind to me over the spring was free. As it was the weekend I thought being in that area could be beneficial, as the swim I fancied is the only one giving access to the area of lake I liked the look of. By about half seven I had all three rods in position, two down the margins, fished in around 18ft of water, and the third rod towards the end of an overhanging tree line in around 22ft of water. I had three different presentations on the rods, one been on a Withy Pool Rig with a homemade washed out pink pop-up, one being a Hybrid Snowman Rig and the final rod armed with a little Hinge Rig presenting a mini Milky Toffee pop-up. Each rod was fished over a kilo or so of mixed Hybrid and Cell apart from the longer range rod, as I used the throwing stick to bait up the spot so that had 18mm Hybrid spread around the area.
Early afternoon and the middle rod fished to the tree line pulled up tight and after a typical longer range fight over the deep water the lake is famous for, I landed a stunning common known as 'Shoulders', which whacked the scales round to 32lb 80z, talk about pleased and an awesome way to start the session! I had to wait until just after midday the next day before any more action came my way, this time the left hand rod doing the business with a gorgeous mirror known as 'The Pretty One' rolled over the net cord weighing in at 30lb 10oz - I was buzzing! I decided to rest the area for a while and reeled the rods in, baited all three spots with about a kilo of bait on each area and wandered off for a chat and a cuppa with some of the other lads fishing.
About half two that afternoon I’d got the rods back out and sat back to wait for events to unfold, it looked good, but I didn’t expect the action to come so quickly, and only a couple of hours later my middle rod, fished on the hinge rig with a mini milky toffee pop up over the hybrid pulled up tight and slowly took a little line from the tight clutch. This fight was a little different as the fish hit the surface early on and I could see I was attached to a good 'un. After a powerful fight under the tip, when I saw the fish several times and could see it was a really good common, I eventually netted what was obviously a good fish. On the mat I could see the little Milky Toffee pop-up hanging from its bottom lip and my size 8 Choddy hook safe and secure. Once on the scales they pulled round to a whopping 41lb 10oz! Talk about buzzing! The lads came round and we got some stunning stills of the immaculate fish and watched her waddle off to the depths. It didn’t end there either as during my final night and morning I went onto land a further three fish including two twenties - Happy Days indeed!"
