Quick take results in lake's biggest common

STUART Cobb has been enjoying an impressive run of form on his Cambridgeshire syndicate, landing the lakes biggest common and a stunning dark coloured mirror in back to back sessions.

The Peterborough-based Taska consultant found a few fish close to a set of snags and cast as close to the feature as possible.

“The temperature had dropped to minus one, but amazingly I had a take within 30 minutes of putting my bait out,” said the 29-year-old. “After a brief scrap I landed a 36lb 4oz common – the biggest in the lake.”

The fish was taken on a Denham Bait Innovations pop-up on a Chod rig running on a length of Taska iCore.

He then returned the venue for a short eight hour day session and headed to the shallow end of the lake which the fish had been visiting when the sun was out.

“I put my right-hand-rod as tight to a Norfolk reed bed as safely as I could because the fish had definitely been using it as cover over the winter months. After a couple of casts I was happy with where the rig had landed and sat back and tried to enjoy the little bit of winter sunshine. A couple of hours had passed when I started to see a couple of subtle signs of fish moving in and out of the reed bed, and at 3 o'clock in the afternoon my rod pulled round and I was into my second carp in as many weeks.

“After a spirited fight a lovely dark mirror rolled into the net - a real gem of a fish, especially in the depths of winter. At 21lb it wasn’t the biggest carp I've ever caught but certainly the darkest.”