Ben picks up the story:

“When I arrived, the lake was super busy, so I decided to use my time wisely and not fish straight away. I just set up my brolly and bed, and got my head down, before waking up during the night to try and pinpoint where the fish were in relation to the free swims on the lake.

“I opted for a swim the following day, it commanded a bit of water with a large weedbed off to the side of it. I had seen other anglers fish up to this weedbed before, with the typical Linch tactic of a few spombs of bait on a tight area. I knew this hadn’t produced for them, so I went in with something a bit different. I tied up a solid bag, with a Manilla Dumbell tipped with a yellow Mulbz pop-up. I used a mixture of Bloodworm pellets, Manilla Active Mix and some chopped 12mm boilies inside the bag.

“I waited until just before dark to cast the rod out, so as to avoid the bird life ruining my trap. The spot I chose was a firm silt area, which was close to the large weedbed. I cast the rod out and set an alarm for just before first light, as I knew the fish would be straight in there as the sun hit the weedbed in the morning.

“As daylight broke, I switched the kettle on and snoozed my alarm, it was clear the fish were there in numbers, as plumes of fizz came up just off the spot, followed by the odd subtle show. As time went on, I began to think something was wrong as I still hadn’t had a bite despite the amount of activity.

“Suddenly, all doubts left my mind, when the solid bag rod almost bent in half as an angry carp made a bid for the weedbed. Thankfully, it didn’t really do a lot after the initial run and I soon had it in the net.

“It turned out to be one of the fish I had bookmarked for the catch list, the Big Lin at 40lb on the nose. I was absolutely buzzing!”