Prebaiting campaign produces brace of thirties

A THREE week prebaiting campaign paid dividends for Rob Shanks when he landed a brace of thirties during a 24 hour session on a Norfolk stillwater.

Targeting a couple of spots on the lake which had a track record for producing some of the venue’s bigger fish during the colder months the Norwich-based rod had been trickling in a steady supply of Sticky 15mm Vor-Tex boilies.

He said: “I noticed that the lake’s birdlife were actively searching for baits but had shown very little interest in the area I’d been baiting. I’d put in about 7kg over a three week period so I knew it was very unlikely that they hadn’t stumbled across and I figured the carp had to be wiping it out. And with milder weather forecast I decided to do a quick 24 hour session.”

It proved to be a wise decision and after casting out three chod rigs, each baited with glugged Sticky White Chocolate pop-ups, over a deep silty area it wasn’t long before he started receiving several liners.

“I topped up the swim with a couple of handfuls of boilies before hitting the sack and I was awoken at 1.30am by a twitchy take on my middle rod. After an epic battle it turned out to be a repeat capture of one of the lake’s character fish – a 31lb 4oz mirror. A few hours later I received another take which resulted in a cracking 33lb 8oz common.

“By the time I slipped her back after a few pictures the lake was 80 per cent frozen. It was definitely one of my most memorable winter captures in nearly 20 years of carp fishing.”