Joe revealed:

“I turned up to find the swim I wanted to fish vacant, so I got round and set my bivvy up and no sooner after getting the rods out of the sleeves, the fish were showing themselves down a reed line at the opposite end of the lake. I upped sticks, whacked the gear onto the barrow and got round there.

“Lado in the swim was luckily packing up but I don’t think he realised that fish were showing on his margin! He kindly told me the spots he had been fishing and no sooner after he left the swim, they were absolutely smashing it to pieces; reeds knocking, fish boshing, it was like a jacuzzi down there. Wanting to keep my presence unknown, I let them be and almost gave them a free feed with no lines in.

“A few hours passed, and they stopped fizzing, so I quickly placed a German rig out there with a Krill Wafter on and catapulted around about 2.5kg of Krill boilies soaked in Pure Calanus Liquid and Himalayan rock salt, plus a few handfuls of The Krill Active in the zone.

“I was quite shocked to wake up the next morning without a bite, having heard fish showing down the reeds all night, I was almost certain I’d have nailed one. It was about 9:30am and the liners started! I knew they were there and a few hours later I was rudely woken from a morning snooze by an absolute one toner on the right-hand Neville. I could tell it wasn’t a huge fish as it was shaking its head too much and was a lot more active than how the big ones usually fight. It was a common that I had a few weeks prior to this session, and she was 24lb 6oz, so I was buzzing but I didn’t quite realise that the session wasn’t going to end there.

“The wind changed direction in my favour, a warm south easterly trickled into the reeds, so I had a little gander up in the trees. As I was climbing the tree, I spooked the big common, the one that I’d been chasing for a month on and off and I thought I had blown my chance. However, five minutes later I had two bleeps, so I jumped down from the tree, raced round to the alarm and no sooner had I got to the rod, the tip absolutely doubled round, and I was connected with what felt an absolute chunk!

“From the off I knew it was a good ’un, staying deep plodding around but I had no thoughts of it being the big girl, as I had spooked her not long before the bite. A few minutes passed of legs trembling, until I saw the width of her and the markings on her head, I knew it was her! I desperately threw the net in and as I did, she went on one last run, I knew I couldn’t lose her! She came up the second time spitting water at me as her big black lips came above surface level and in seconds, she was in the folds of the net. I shouted to a mate on the opposite side; ‘Gaz, I’ve got her I’ve got the big girl’! The whole lake cheered as they knew how hard I’ve worked for her, sometimes moving 2-3 times in a day to try and keep up with her movements.

“We got her sorted into a sling and let her rest for a minute whilst we sorted out all the weighing and camera gear, the latter of which was sorted by a friend who is a dab hand with the camera. Luckily, Gaz come round with his waders to give me a hand lifting her out the water as she looked big! She went 47lb 8oz, but the weight was truly irrelevant for that fish it’s more looks than anything. As I peeled back the sling to show her to everyone there were Krill boilies absolutely everywhere, she had been munching! I couldn’t have got better photos if I had tried, they were perfect!

“The action didn’t stop there, as a friend of mine Matt Poulton came down to congratulate me and he had his gear in his motor. I told him to stick a rod on my spot down the reeds and whatever happens, happens! Within 20 minutes he only went and bagged the next fish I wanted to catch out of there The Royal Common at 33lb 4oz. Truthfully, I was buzzing for him, he put in just as much time as I have to catch these fish and I was buzzing for him.

“I then went on to catch another 12, off the top and on over depth zigs, whilst spombing out Krill Floaters covered in Pure Calanus liquid and Bloodworm Active Mix. Matt ended up with six-fish to 39lb 4oz, which made it even better!”