42lb mirror from St Ives Shallow Pit

Anglers fishing the St Ives Lakes’ Shallow Lagoon have certainly been making the most of the autumn feed up with some of the lake’s biggest residents visiting the bank.

Fishery regular Paul Rudd continued his impressive run of form on the Cambridgeshire complex with a 42lb mirror.

After baiting a small clear area 60 yards from the bank with two kilos of spodded boilies and pellets the 37-year-old had to brave a night of torrential rain before his alarm burst in to life the following morning.

“The fish charged straight in to the weed and I eventually brought a ball of weed the size of a brolly towards the net,” said the Bedfordshire-based owner of Denham Bait Innovations.

“I stood in the margins pulling the weed away and when I saw the frame of a large mirror I feared for a minute that I’d caught the lake’s biggest carp – a mirror called Colin which I’d had earlier in the year at 46lb 4oz.

"Thankfully it wasn’t a repeat capture, but one of my other target fish from the venue known as Big Head.”

Paul put his faith in one of his own Element cork ball pop-ups which he presented on a size 5 ESP D7 Raptor hook and a Sufix Stealth Skin hooklink.