39lb 2oz 'Patch' banked on overnighter

An overnighter on Frimley Pit Three produced this beautiful fully scaled mirror for Alisdair Stevens.

The Hampshire rod chose an unfancied swim and banked the 39lb 2oz fish, known as Patch, at 2am.

The 43-year-old said: “I chose the swim because it had been unfished for a while. I heard two fish roll while I was there and I got a one-toner at 2am. I was watching an episode of Entourage on my tablet and by the time I’d landed it it had finished, so I knew it took 20 minutes to come in!”

The sheet-metal fabricator added: “The fish came to the surface at first but once it got in the margins it fought well, plodding away. I didn’t put my headtorch on so I didn’t know which fish it was until I got it on the bank.”

Alisdair, who has previously banked a 42lb common from Frimley, baited a silt patch between weedbeds at about 30 yards. He fished a double 18mm Mainline Cell hookbait over 20 matching free offerings and his successful rig featured a size 6 Gardner Incizor hook attacked to 20lb Fox Cortex and a 2.25oz inline lead.