41lb 10oz common sparks perfect campaign start

JUST four nights in to his campaign on an Essex clubwater, Dave Springall landed his target fish in the form of this 41lb 10oz common.

Targeting an area of the lake which wasn’t particularly popular with other anglers his first couple of sessions produced a handful of tench and a low-twenty mirror.

“I slipped the carp as quickly as possible without any photos as no one else seemed to be paying any attention to section I was fishing and I wanted to keep it that way,” he told Angling Times. “My third overnighter didn’t produce as much as a single bleep but it proved to be an ideal opportunity to apply a decent amount of Baitcraft 15mm and 18mm Super K boilies.”

Arriving for his latest session just before dark the Century media manager was met with the sight of tench rolling in his swim. “Unsurprisingly, I had a near sleepless night landing tench after tench. At 4am, however, I had the slightest of indications on the bobbin with just three bleeps registering on my alarm.

“At first I thought it could be a large tench wrapped in silkweed due to the nature of the bite but when something that looked about 3ft long appeared 20 yards out in the light of my headtorch I knew there was a good chance I was attached to my target fish."

“With very little resistance she went over the net cord on the first attempt and on the bank she tipped the scales at 41lb 10oz.”

Dave used a naked Chod presentation comprising 18lb ESP Syncro mainline, 25lb Stiff Rig Bristle Filament and a size 5 Stiff Rigger hook. On to this he mounted a 15mm Baitcraft UK Tactical washed out Super K pop-up heavily glugged on K Cola.