Ant said:

“With my trip to Rainbow Lake in France cancelled, I was really gutted, and, in all honesty, I was feeling down in the dumps about it. After a bit of thinking of what to do, I decided to do my remaining few nights on my summer ticket, known as the Zoo. I’ll be honest too; I really wasn’t feeling it either as the air pressure was through the roof and we were about to get our first couple of frosts since the beginning of the year, but I just thought, I won’t catch anything sitting at home.

“I’ve had an epic summer this year, catching lots of fish from one of the more unpopular swims on the lake. For some time, I’ve been baiting really heavy with The Krill Active, soaked in Pure Calanus Liquid. But, on this trip I didn’t fancy sitting in that swim for three days as it is very closed in and you can’t see the water very well. So, I decided to fish the main part of the lake, and as always, I put out a full bucket of chopped Krill Active, soaked in Pure Calanus Liquid over my three rods.

“That first night I got absolutely punished by the tufts’ almost to the point of reeling in, but I persevered and as first light broke, I had another pick-up, I thought it was one of the birds at first but the alarm carried on screaming, and I realised it was fish! On picking up the rod the fish kited on a tight line towards a bay beside me and round a bush next to my swim. I suddenly found myself up to my knees in the water with just socks on, making my way round this bush in freezing water trying to gain some line back. After a couple of minutes, I managed to get the fish on a short line close in and then realised it was an absolute unit, I tried to stay as chilled as possible and eventually I slid the net under the fish.

“On looking down into the net, I couldn’t believe it, it was the one I’d been after, a fish known as, One Eyed Nelson and it looked massive! With everything sorted and ready, up it went on the scales and I was blown away when they flew past the magical 50lb mark and finally settled on, 52lb 9oz. I couldn’t believe my luck, happy days. Nothing else happened for the remaining two days and the cold really knocked the water temperature down, but it didn’t bother me as I had landed the mighty, Nelson!

“It was crazy to think, that if my trip to Rainbow Lake wasn’t cancelled, I wouldn’t have caught him; it’s a funny old game.”