Three fish for 111lb on solid bags

Simon Harbottle landed three fish for a combined weight of over 111lb during a 72 hour session on the Monk’s Pit syndicate in Cambridgeshire.

The fishing had been very slow over the past week so the 42-year-old Stockton-On-Tees-based rod decided to avoid fishing over a large bed of bait and instead put his faith in a solid PVA bag approach with the hope of nicking a bite or two.

After a couple of laps of the lake he had noticed a few carp showing out towards the centre of the lake, and following a quick lead around he located a clear channel in among the thick Canadian pondweed at around 100yds to fish over.

Despite fish still showing, Simon had to wait to until the following morning for his first take. “It weeded me up straight away and I had to go out in the boat to free it,” he told Angling Times. “I got over the top of it and soon had a huge ball of weed coming towards the net. Back on the bank, once I’d cleared the weed, I realised I caught one of the lake’s known big mirrors which tipped the scales at 42lb 10oz.”

Almost exactly 24 hours later his alarm signalled another hooked fish which resulted in a 39lb 10oz mirror on the bank.

“On the final morning I’d just made myself a brew when the bobbin on the left-hand rod pulled up tight. I had to go out in the boat again because the fish weeded me up and I was soon heading back to the bank with a 30lb 6oz mirror.”

The trio of specimens all fell to snowman rigs consisting of Nash Scopex Squid Red bottom baits and pop-ups. These were placed inside solid PVA bags filled with boilie crumb, a couple of whole boilies and pellets.