Adam explains:

“Well, where to start!? It was quite a mad few days’ fishing, which incredibly kicked off with a 30-pounder, and ended with a 43-pounder! If that wasn’t enough, somewhere sandwiched in the middle of all the madness was a new UK PB!

“To give you a short overview of my recent lockdown fishing, I had been catching consistently in several swims over the last month or so. But there was no doubt that there was a particular area that seemed to have produced my bigger fish. With all this in mind, it was here I decided to set my stall out, I planned to bait heavily as I had the opportunity to fish a few consecutive day sessions in the same spot; to say I was buzzing was an understatement.

“I made sure I kept plenty of bait going into the area, in the form of a combination of The Krill boilies and Bloodworm Pellets, this is a mix I have upmost confidence in whatever the time of year.

“I arrived at the lake, and I just couldn’t wait to get the rods out to the spots, the anticipation was electric. With the rods out, I sat back, wondering whether the gamble of heavy baiting would pay off. Well, I didn’t have to wait long, as one of the rods signalled a take. After a brief battle, I was soon staring at what looked like a good fish. I wasn’t wrong, at over 30lb, it was a great start, and turned out to be the beginning of a truly mind-blowing run of action over the next few days.

“The rest of the first day was a blur, the action was just incredible, with a double, a 29-pounder and not one, but two thirties also gracing my net. It has to go down as one of the craziest day’s angling I’ve ever had. However, it’s mad to say, it was completely eclipsed by what was to follow the next day.

“With the first day coming to a close, I made the decision to bait up that evening, with every last drop of bait I had with me. As you can imagine, confidence was sky high, and it was clear that they were well and truly on the bait.

“I returned the following morning and things didn’t look great; the lake has a knack for completely ruining your plans! The wind had dropped in the night and all of the floating weed had relaxed and come away from the far margin, resulting in it spreading itself all over the lake, nightmare!

“This was a huge pain and made it nearly impossible to get on the spots. After a good look around, I noticed an opportunity. I waded down the margin and cast back up to somewhere near my spot. I got some sort of drop and managed to sink my line, by buring the rod tip deep into the silt, and hoped for the best.

“With no hope of getting my second rod out, I sat there contemplating whether moving to the other side of the lake might be a better option. Whilst I was watching the weed floating very slowly down the lake, I had a few beeps. With these coming so quickly after casting out, I thought it was the weed wiping out my rod. However, as I walked over to check it out, it tore off, it was quite apparent that it was no weed berg!

“I had to play it most of the way back with my rod tip underwater, there was no sign of what was on the end until it popped up only about 10-yards out and after catching my first glimpse, I was shaken by the sheer width of the fish, it looked huge!

“Luckily, I soon had it within the folds of my net, it was an absolute brute. Fortunately, a good mate of mine was fishing down the bank, so I gave him a shout. I also messaged the lake owner to let him know, and he soon came down to help out. We hoisted it up on the scales which rolled all the way round to a massive, 45lb 15oz which was a new UK PB! To say I was blown away was an understatement!

“After the photos were done, I had a quick brew, and it was time to try and get the rods back out, the weed was behaving a bit better, and I managed to get both rods out. It was probably about an hour later when the same rod was away again and a very gnarly 38lb 8oz mirror, with big chunky scales running the length of its flank was sat sulking in the net.

“The fish were clearly on the feed, so I kept the swim topped up with around a kilo of Krill boilies whenever I got chance. My next two bites produced a couple of the lake’s smaller residents, but equally as stunning, these turned out to be a very rare upper-double leather with no record of stocking and a mega dark 23lb mirror.

“Later in the afternoon, two bites produced a brace of 32-pounders; it was just insane! They turned out to be a mirror and one of the most amazing commons I’ve ever caught. Capping off another mental day’s fishing!

“I could have quite easily hung the rods back up in the garage, but with a little free time the next day I popped back down just to fish the morning. With only a few hours at my disposal, I gave up the opportunity to get back into the same swim and ended up fishing up against the weed down one end of the lake.

“It looked like the pressure had probably moved the fish anyway and they had dived under the weed for cover. Well, there’s no truer saying than, ‘when your lucks in, it’s in!’ Sure enough, the rod rattled off and after being stripped of line a few times, having to wade through the margin to the next swim, I managed to net what looked like another massive mirror!

“I signed off the most amazing few days’ fishing and a winter I’ll never forget with yet another 40-pounder, on the scales the fish spun the needle to an incredible 43lb 3oz! All I can say is roll on the spring!”