Ryan continues the story:

“On arriving at Thorny Weir, my mate and I were met with a very busy lake. After a good walk around, we decided to temporarily double up in a small corner swim, as we had bucketed the two swims next-door, so we could move into them once they became free.

“After a slow 48-hours, the swims we wanted became free, and following a quick move we were finally in the swim and set up. I had been tracking the weather, and a big low-pressure front was due to roll in that night and stay for a few days. With this in mind, I opted to give them a big hit of bait. This was deposited out to the back of a bar in open water. I used a mix of maggots, crumbed Manilla Active, Manilla Active Mix, Bloodworm Pellets in both 4mm and 2.3mm, and good old Hemp. Just over 50 Spombs later, I was happy that I had created an area that the fish would find too hard to resist.  With the baiting done, I made up three 10-inch-long Slip-D rigs, armed with 12mm Peach & Pepper Pop-Ups, which I also tipped with ten red and white maggots.

“I was full of anticipation of what the night could hold in store for me. So, you can imagine how gutted I was to wake at first light without a single beep. After a little ponder, I decided that it would be worth leaving the rods out on the bait for another 24 hours and just sit on my hands.

“That day and the following night passed by uneventfully. However, the following morning my left-hand rod was away just before 6am, and after a dogged battle on the surface, I was soon staring at a lovely long mirror in the net. On the scales it spun round to 29lb, I was buzzing to say the least. With the fish sorted, I got the rod back out, but I didn’t re-bait straight away, just in case there was still fish out on the spot. This proved to be a good move as a while later the middle rod was away, and after a brief fight another mega upper-twenty was in the net, this time a dumpy common.

“With the rod back out, the rest of the day was quiet, and I waited until dusk to re-bait the area. Once again, the night was dead and the morning was also quiet, which had me thinking they had done the off. Again, I sat on my hands and just left the swim alone, this was once again the right thing to do as just on midday, I had another bite that resulted in a stunning slate grey mirror of 29lb. Later that day, my friend and I had a big BBQ, so I didn’t get my rods out until it was dark, but they all went out without too much hassle.

“The following morning the left-hand rod was away just on first light, the fight was mental, it gave me a right run around. Once in the net, I could see it was a much better one, and on the scales it spun to a very pleasing 36lb! It was a really lovely carp with two large scales on its flank.

“Like clockwork, I had another take at midday off the baited area, this was a lovely 24lb mirror, after that the lake went dead for the next 24-hours. With this in mind, I decided to go for a walk around the lake, it wasn’t long before I found a group of carp in some snags in the channel, I made the decision there and then to do my last night there. So quickly packed down and made the really long walk with the barrow.

“Just on dark, I had my rods positioned along the snags, with little bags of maggots. I was confident of another bite before I had to leave! Sure enough at 5:30 am the next morning the middle rod was away and after a quick fight a lovely crinkle tailed 28lb 8oz common rolled into the net. I decided to quickly move one of the remaining two rods to the middle spot, hoping for another quick bite and it didn’t take long before it was away again with a mid-double ornamental. Frustratingly the next bite managed to cut me off even on 35lb braid!

“Throughout the remaining few hours before we left, I managed another two fish, a lovely, clean 25lb mirror and an old, beat-up scraper twenty common, which topped off a really enjoyable session.”