Two thirties in 30 minutes

Tackling a low-stock, 96-acre gravel pit certainly isn’t for the feint hearted, so Ed Betteridge was understandably delighted to bank a brace of thirties from the venue.

The Derbyshire-based Hardy and Greys media manager landed mirrors of 34lb and 31lb from a spot which he had been prebaiting heavily for a couple of weeks.

He said: “I hadn’t been able to get in to the productive swim from the previous week where I’d caught fish of 30lb 2oz and 26lb 8oz. I spent most of the first day of my trip walking around the huge pit and looking for signs of fish. I saw nothing and unsurprisingly the first night proved to be a blank.”

A second day of searching still didn’t yield any results so he made the decision to drop in to a swim which he’d been prebaiting.

“I woke up fishless at dawn and started to wonder if I should have stuck to my original plan of baiting the area and leaving it unpressured for another week. A fish then showed right over the spot and within an hour I had a good fish sat in the net. I wasted no time tying on a fresh rig and bait and recasting it to the long distance mark. Half an hour later the same rod was away again and I had a brace of thirties – what a result!”

Ed’s winning setup consisted of a hinged-stiff rig tied with a size 8 Korda Choddy hook and a 20lb Mouth Trap and IQ2 hooklink. This was baited with a Mainline Hybrid pop-up hookbait.