14-fish haul on new bait topped by 31lb mirror

Setting up in an unfancied swim paid dividends for Nathan Skelton who took a 14 fish haul from a tricky Milton Keynes syndicate water – this 31lb pb equalling mirror the highlight.
His catch also included 11 twenties with all of his fish falling to a new fishmeal boilie on test for Mistral Baits.

Faced with thick weed rising to the surface in places, the 20-year-old warehouse operative located a patch of silt around half a tennis court in size at 40 yards range and baited the feature with 3kg of 15mm and 20mm boilies.

“I arrived on the Thursday afternoon and had my first take on the Friday morning,” said the local rod. “I then landed a 24lb ghostie in the afternoon and while I was unhooking it my other rod burst in to life. I quickly sorted the ghostie out and then proceeded to land the 31lb mirror.”

Nathan used a combination of 20mm bottom baits and snowman hookbaits which he mounted on simple rigs tied with 8ins of Korda N-Trap and Choddy hooks.
“It was the first time I’ve used this bait so it was a real confidence booster to have such a good haul of fish on it. One or two fish over a weekend is normally a good result at this lake.

“The swim I was in often gets overlooked and is rarely fished. When I arrived I could see a number of carp grouped up in front of it so there was no way I was going to ignore it,” he added.