Captor’s five-year-old witnesses a 41lb 8oz common

A week of overnight sessions for James Winters was crowned by a very special moment with his daughter.

This 41lb 8oz common was the pick of a string of fish, and was witnessed by five-year-old Hattie.

In a hectic week that saw James fish four separate overnighters at the Carp Society’s Farriers Lake in Gloucestershire, he banked two doubles, three twenties to 29lb and a 36lb common, plus the forty.

It was the final session of the week that produced the biggest fish. Said James: “I was due to go on holiday on the Thursday so on the Tuesday I decided on one last quick overnighter. This time, though, I took my five-year-old daughter Hattie along. 

“We arrived at the lake at around 5pm and I knew getting back in the peg I was in before would be unlikely. It can be busy, especially if it’s done a few fish.

“Unsurprisingly, the peg was taken so we went just around the corner so I could get fairly close to the area I’d fished at the weekend.

“It was building up to a full moon and there were a few fish about, so I gave them a bit more bait than usual – around half-a-kilo of Sticky Manilla boilies per rod.”

After a fitful night’s sleep interrupted by tench and line bites, James eventually got a carp bite as dawn broke.

“It wasn’t much of a fight,” he said. “It did pick up my other line but within a few minutes it was in the net. 

“With no sleep I was absolutely hanging, and Hattie had slept through the lot, but to have to wake her to share the moment of catching a forty made it all very special indeed.”