Terry told us:

“As always, I was buzzing to get back out fishing and with the weekend upon us, I decided to get down my syndicate lake again. I was full of anticipation, as I had previously been fishing one of the more productive areas of the lake recently, and I had already caught one, which turned out to be a mega, dark 33lb 8oz common.  I also knew that the area did a couple of bites since then too, so my mind was made up and I jumped into the same peg again.

“With my gear in the swim, I got the rods out and baited the zone. As much as I felt like I was in with a chance, the first night passed uneventfully. I woke at first light and for the first few hours of the morning it was bleak, no shows, no fizzing and I hadn’t heard anything through the night. I was gutted, I can’t lie! The swim I was in gives you a view of the main body of water and being so shallow it’s not usually that hard to find them.

“As the day went on the sun came out for a few hours and I started to see them show, but it was a good 150 yards past me, I knew that there would be a couple more out there in a pod moving around. So, I needed to move. I quickly took my gear around to where I saw them. The rods were soon dispatched with quick bite tactics, white Signature Squids with a mesh bag of crushed Krill Active boilies.

“I managed to get everything out without much disturbance and shortly afterwards, I saw a couple of shows, perfect! It wasn’t long before one of the rods signalled a bite and I was in, after a good old scrap I managed to net the carp, and it was massive!

“On the mat it just grew and looked even bigger, I was just in awe! When we put her on the scales it just flew passed 48lb, finally settling on 48lb 5oz, a truly colossal common. After that my phone went mad and after a couple of phone calls and cups of tea, I got myself sorted and put the rod back out for the rest of that night.

“I woke up early Sunday morning and the lake was just covered in mist, it looked prime and a few shows in the area told me they were still there. Shortly after, the same rod was away again, once the carp was in the edge, I saw it turn in the gin clear water in front of me and could see it was a mirror, and a big one at that.  This was mega exciting, as the lake’s stock is mainly commons! Eventually when I landed her on hoisted it onto the bank, I realised it was a fish known as the Fat Lady and at 37lb 12oz. It was a another one off the list, I was absolutely made up!”