Two St John's thirties for Chris Lowe

A change in tactics paid dividends for Chris Lowe who landed this stunning scaly 30-pounder.

The Avid-backed angler had nothing for two days at Richworth Linear’s St John’s Lake, until two thirties showed up on the final morning.

The heavily scaled specimen went 30lb 8oz, while the other pulled the needle round to 30lb 12oz.

The Linear regular said: “I fished for three days and filled it in with boilies. Initially I put in 5kg of 15mm Sonubaits’ Code Red and then topped it up with an additional 2kg of 12mm ones. To be honest I thought I might have overdone it as no fish showed over me for two days. In the end I received two takes and banked two thirties.”

Chris, who often fishes pellets and particles at the venue, added: “It’s not generally a boilie water, you’re normally better off fishing ‘bits and pieces’, but I changed my approach this week as we’re moving into autumn.

“I was fishing over the top of some weed, which was the closest area to where I thought the fish were. I was using inch-and-a-half pop-ups, just resting over the weed, and used a lead clip system so I was detaching the lead when I hooked the fish.

“The scaly one was an absolute beauty. Linear’s fishery officer, Chris Blunt, did the pictures and it’s not one we recognised.”