Terry revealed:

“The first few nights were slow until I discovered what the fish wanted. It turned out to be Zigs, fished just inches below the surface on red and black foam. All of my foam is well soaked for over a year in the Signature Bait Spray to give it a little bit of an edge. Most of my bites came in the daytime, but I soon realised there was still a chance of a few more fish later in the evenings by shortening the Zigs down by 2ft.

“During the middle part of my session, the weather changed and went much cooler. This made me change to bottom fishing tactics. I fished over two different areas, one with a pure boilie approach with The Krill and another using bags of maggots over chopped worms. The boilie only approach accounted for three fish, topped by a 37lb 8oz mirror, while the naturals only picked up tench and a couple of small carp.

“The weather in the latter part of the week warmed up again, so I switched back onto the Zigs for the rest of the session. I was plugging through the bites, but I really wasn’t expecting what was about to happen. Three of us were just chilling in the swim catching up when the left-hand rod just pulled up tight and slowly ticked off on a 6ft Zig. After a real short battle the fish came in like a wet sack. It was just plodding around, but it wasn’t until it was 15 yards out that I recognised the mouth of the fish, it was Spike! In the end it weighed in at 40lb 8oz and with a few quick photos of each side in the water, she waddled off.