59lb 6oz Single Scale sets new pb during a social session

HAVING worked his way through most of the stock, Adam Rawlings thought his time on Rockford was done – but a return visit for a social produced the lake’s biggest resident at 59lb 6oz.
The 32-year-old, known for his long-range tactics at the Hampshire venue, fished a comparatively conservative 165 yards out and baited heavily to snare Single Scale and set a new personal best.
The Southampton angler arrived at the venue at 10.30pm and had a quiet first night before seeing signs of fish in daylight. He said: “I awoke at first light and saw two fish show, and I heard three in the night, so I told my mate ‘they’re moving, they’re feeding’.
“As I was pulling the rods back in I had a feel of the lake bottom and found spots in places I’ve not fished before, so instead of going to the normal spot at 187 yards it was closer in for a change!
“I put one rod on that hard, clean spot with 5kg of 16mm and 20mm frozen Sticky Krill boilies and 2.5kg over the other two rods.”
At 1.30am, Adam had a couple of bleeps on one of his alarms.
“I ran over to the rods and the latching light went off,” said the installation engineer. “I sat and had a fag and said to myself ‘if it doesn’t go again I’ll go back to sleep’, then it went again and pulled out of the clip.
“I lifted into it and it was grating a lot. It was just collecting more and more weed on the way in. After 20 minutes I finally saw this weedbed. Not knowing what was in there I put the rod down, pulled the lot in by the leadcore and got it in the net.”
With the help of his mate Ryan, Adam began to peel away the weed and realised it was bigger than he thought. “I pulled a bit more weed, saw the scale and thought, ‘oh my God, it’s Single Scale, she’s going to be huge’!
“It was insane! I sat up all night with excitement. Twelve people came down for photos and to enjoy this moment of insanity!”
Adam fished a Sticky Krill White One pop-up on a rig made with 25lb Fox Camotex and 25lb Korda Mouth Trap with a size 7 Fox SR hook.