Lance revealed:

“I found a few fish early on during my first session and knew where I had to be when I returned the following week. Coming through the gate, I was delirious to see the swim was free and no one had been in there since I left. The rods were put back out to their spots and after a couple of stockies on the first morning, all went quiet. In a way, I wasn’t too worried, I doubted all along that the older target fish would be in amongst the ravenous little ‘uns. 

“Bite time came and went, and I was having a nana nap, when I had an initial single bleep. On a tight line, I knew there was a possibility of a bite developing, and sure enough as I swung my legs off the bed the rod went into absolute meltdown. After what felt like a lengthy struggle to get the waders on, I picked the rod up and instantly knew it was a better fish, I took my time and gently teased it towards me. I’m sure its happened to us all, some multiple times but I can only still describe what happened next as gut wrenching; it all went solid! I kept the tension on and slowly but surely it started to ease my way, and soon there was a huge ball of weed on the surface with a distinctive black, crusty back bobbing in the middle. As the whole lot drew over the net I lifted trying to engulf the whole weed bed and with a few decent shuffles my attention was drawn to a very ‘Floppy Tail’ rolling into the net.

“If you don’t believe in self manifestation then you should, I’d willed that carp into my net over the previous few weeks and days leading up to that session and there it was languishing in my net!”