I have picked one of the point swims this time.  According to the weatherman, the wind will be swinging around to the south and there is a nice storm pushing through over night.  This should steer the fish up and I have been told they do move on the wind here.

This swim has a nice bay area with a small island to the right of me and open water to the right.

After a plumb around for the best part of an hour.  I was happy with what I had found and felt that one rod would be fished on a nice 6 ft plateau with 8 ft around it.  This would be a good start and the second rod would be fished at the back of the bay.

Just in front of the reeds where there was a nice clear area. I spomb’d out around 10 large loaders of ground bait and poloni boilies over each spot.

The ground bait was a mix of Bait-tech Poloni ground bait and the big carp  method mix.
With a bag of particles and a tin of sweetcorn with a good load of Krill & Tuna Oil for good measure.

Both rod’s had pop’s up on with a Godman Versacast filled with the Hemp oil to add to the attraction.

And by now it was time to get the Ridgemonkey going for a nice bacon sandwich, with a cup of coffee, sit back and enjoy the view.

As darkness fell,  I spotted a fish sticking it’s head out, not too far away from my left hand rod.  This gave me a nice confidence boost before I got my head down.  At around midnight, the wind started to pick up nicely and rattle the bivvy around a lot and I was still thinking of that fish.  By 0230 and no signs of any fish including the bream, I finally drifted back off to sleep and woke to a couple of bleeps on the left rod.  I quickly got to the rod and turned on a small pen light which I have in my pocket at night, so I can check what’s happening as I never remember to grab a head torch.  The bobbin was up the top and tilting forward and holding steady.  With another single beep,  I grabbed the rod and pulled into a nice lump that was having none of it and headed straight into the open water and past where my right hand rod was.  This was a good 70 yards away.  At this point, I knew I needed to turn the fish and get it a bit more under control.  There is a nice overhanging tree on the right side of the point,  which would be a right royal pain if the fish got into the bay round to the right of me.

I had the rod tip under water and I was pumping the rod hard to keep it away from the tree.  I could feel the fish fighting hard and I new that it was close to the tree and it finally broke water just the other side on the tip of the tree.  Luckily, the water is deep at the front of the swim and I buried the rod farther underwater and pumped nice and slowly, the fish passed this danger point.  It clearly knew this and powdered off into open water in front of me again.  I thought I would have to repeat the process (clever bugger), unfortunately for the fish, I was aware of it though and put a good bit of side strain on.  The fish was well away from the tree and after a good few more minutes of plodding up and down the margins with a couple more bids for freedom (under the tree) it was all over and I could breath a sigh of relief as the fish was safely in the net.

And it tipped the scales at 34lb 8oz and a new PB for me.

What a stunning long fish, which gave it all the power.

I checked over the rig and recast the rod and checked the time and it was 0515.  With only 45 minutes before the alarm was due to sound, I just sat and made myself a brew.

Till next time
Richard