The first documented capture of the Croc was in 1993 at 23lb, when I first saw the mighty fish, it was on a trip with Simon Scott while I was at Sparsholt College. I spotted it in the out of bounds section of the lake, and I knew there and then I wanted to catch it!

To cut a long story short, I fished the lake for three seasons and despite landing many of the lake’s other residents, the big girl evaded me. Being around 70 acres in size, with a lot of out of bounds areas along with rowing clubs, swimmers and dog walkers it was a very challenging place to fish. It would be first light, the fish were showing, and all was good with the world, when a swimmer comes towards the tips of your rods! I spent most of my time in waders, ready to jump down and sink the tips; it can be a right laugh when you think about it. You have to respect everyone, that’s what I learned. I might be looking at some old boy swimming round the lake at 6am and question his sanity. But when you think about it, I was sat under a brolly all night waiting for the slim chance of catching a fish only to put it back! Everyone has their own enjoyments, not matter what we think of them, so I have found to be respectful and they will be to you.

I decided to change my tactics in my fourth season on the lake. I swapped the corner for open water and decided to go in super heavy on the bait. I saw a few fish showing around 100 yards out on one trip, and I soon found a nice spot to bait up. I put in 5kg of bait every other day, mostly maize with a few kilos of boilies. Even though the lake was low stock in terms of carp, there were plenty of nuisance fish and crayfish in there to eat any bait not eaten by the carp.

It was two weeks later when I returned and I had seen fish showing over the spot, plus, the weather was perfect. I fished three hinges with Signature Squids wrapped up in shrink-wrap to avoid the crays and put another hit of bait out there. The first rod went at 2am in the morning with a 25lb mirror. Over the next few days and nights, everything came together and I landed a good number of fish, unfortunately most of them were repeats. On the Sunday night, I baited with 20kg of mixed Krill and Manilla boilies as well as maize. With the intention of coming back the following day.

I caught a couple more fish, both repeats, on that night. Everything in the lake was eating off my spot. I thought I was game on for the big girl, when one night I counted 15 shows over the spot and after that it went dead. I had caught 7-fish off the spot, but I had noticed the fish showing further out.

One day the light was perfect for seeing spots and this gravel spot just shone up out in the lake. It was right in the vicinity the fish had been showing, so I plumbed it all up. It was covered in silkweed and was a couple of feet shallower than what surrounded it.

I began to give them a bit of bait and on the first night of fishing it, I caught a fish known as Patch at 32lb. She is a cracking carp and although I had caught her before, I was happy to see her looking so perfect.

I lost two fish the following morning, which wasn’t good at all. I thought that was it, all that hard work was over; I could have lost her and all of it was for nothing. I packed up and went to work that day but was back in the evening for a look. I walked into the snags and there she was, The Croc. I watched her gracefully feed, totally happy and I couldn’t see any marks in her mouth! It was game on and I knew I hadn’t blown my chance.

It then weeded me solid. I walked back up to the top of the bank to gain a bit of height on it, but I could see a swimmer coming. She was heading for the same direction as where my line entered the water. I thought the worst, so I sunk the tip and prayed the now group of swimmers didn’t pick it up. It ended up working in my favour, as the swimmers ended up spooking the fish and it was free again. She was up in the water and around 50 yards out and her unmistakable head breached the surface. I was shaking, I knew it was her and prayed to every god I could ever think of. At full stretch, I slid the net under her. I had done it! The Croc was in the net and she looked absolutely immense. In all the excitement, I also landed a stunning 33lb mirror straight after the main prize. In the end The Croc weighed 44lb 10oz, a typical Cotswold mirror! All my hard work, years of effort, time and money, all came down to that one moment. It is a hard feeling to describe, but boy it was one that I will cherish for the rest of my life – catching The Croc isn’t something I’ll forget in a hurry!