“Having arrived late afternoon there weren’t too many choices so I opted for swim 18 which was on the end of a stiff breeze and had a bit of room either side. I adopted similar tactics to those that had worked well on my last trip, fishing on silt just off a hard patch at about 110 yards. The rig was a simple naked chod with a size 8 hook on a short link, with a home made fishmeal based bait. I didn’t use much in the way of free offerings, putting out no more than 40 baits.
The take wasn’t particularly spectacular and at first I thought it was a liner but then the indicator went to the top and stayed there. The fish put up a good account for itself taking about 15/20 minutes to get to the net. It picked up some weed at times but I managed to keep it moving.
On the scales it initially went just over the 50 mark but then settled at 49lb 9oz, a new UK pb! An absolutely stunning fish. Unfortunately I had left my camera at home but Geoff Wynn fishing next door came to the rescue and took some great shots…cheers much appreciated!
I have to say that when I moved up north from down south I never thought that I would get a pb from a Yorkshire water. It just demonstrates what a fantastic water it is.”
