Shane continues the story:

“I made the effort to get down to the lake late on the Thursday night, in the pitch black, at around 8pm to try and get myself on the fish before the mad Friday rush came with other anglers turning up to take advantage of the good weather conditions. I ended up having nothing to really go on and so I got two rods out to the far margin snags which I caught from the previous week and sat back down in the bivvy. I did start to hear a few up in the next swim but come morning with not even a liner or any signs of fish in the area, I decided to have a reel in around 9 am and took a walk around to the snags I was fishing to check if there were any carp tucked up at the back of them.

“Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything in the snags, so I had a little walk up a bit further to where I heard them the night before. I found 6-8 carp just sat chilling in the snags in the peg two down from the one I was in so a quick pack down was on the cards before anyone else turned up to the lake.

“After getting set back up in the new swim and all the rods set ready to go, I jumped into the boat and took a slow paddle to the snags where I saw the group of carp held up in. Being able to drop rigs from the boat is a massive edge on this lake and so I dropped my first rod just on the gravel as it entered the snag, rigged with 5 fake casters tied together with a bit of foam trimmed down to give it that wafter effect. A handful of Manila Active boillie crumb and a couple handfuls of casters later and the first rod was done. The second rod was placed with the same tactics again but just a little bit further down under the overhang of the tree on a nice clear gravel area.

“The day and night passed by with little to show for in until the early hours of Saturday morning, I had my first take which resulted in a nice mirror of 27lb 2oz. After getting that sorted and zipped up in the sling, I got the rod back out there with as little disturbance as possible, still hopeful of another bite. I put a little more Manila Active bollie crumb and few more handfuls of casters back on the spot and it wasn’t too long before the same rod again!

“I could tell by the way it was moving, staying down using its weight, it was a good one! After burying itself deep into a weedbed, I jumped straight into the boat to get above it. Alternating the angle of the rod left to right, I finally got a glimpse of it as it made its way to the surface, and I scooped it into the net!

“Back on the bank, I had a good look at what I’d just caught and realised it was one known as ‘Lucky’, a mega dark one going 32lb 10oz, what a result! Throughout the day I had a reel in around midday and went around to check if they were still held up in the snags, but after the disturbance of the two I had in the morning the other ones looked like they had done the off. I debated whether to stay another night or just pack up and end it on a high as there wasn’t the option to move swims. I did what any other angler would do and got the rods out for one more night just for a chance of another bite, and the following morning I managed another mid-double scaly linear to finish the weekend off.”