Charlie revealed:

“This spring has been a very different spring from the norm. After getting the keys to my place at the end of March, just as we were allowed to go fishing because of Covid, I had a lot of work to do which meant not a lot of fishing time. However, I always kept in touch with the lake with what was going on for when I returned.

“After hearing there were a lot of fish being caught from a particular area of the lake, I knew where I had to be. Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite get close enough to them as all the swims were taken. Thankfully, one of the available swims allowed me to get to an area out very long on the back of where the fish had been. I knew at some point the fish would push out of that area when the weather changed. I found a nice silty area where I deployed three Chods and a kilo of Krill boilies soaked in Pure Calanus, which was spread quite widely.

“The night passed with nothing to show for it. On first light, the kettle was on and just as I got my shoes on, I had a single bleep, before the line popped out the clip and I was away. As I was fishing very far out, with a lot of weed present, I got straight into the boat to help me get the fish back. As expected, the fish weeded me up some 150 yards out. As I got right over the top of it, the fish kicked, and it was game on! A good 10-minute battle ensured in the boat. Going round in the circles, I could see it was a decent common and soon drew it over the net cord.

“When I got back to the bank, I properly looked at what I had, and it was a lovely 38lb 2oz common nailed on the trusty Chod. A few of the boys came to do the pics, I was made up considering I had only been back at the lake a few nights. Unfortunately, the fish moved out of that area the following morning, so I decided to get on the move at 6am down the other end of the lake where I found them. Nothing else happened that trip, but I couldn’t moan with a fish like that, it was just nice to be back out doing it again.”