Five forties and two fifties for bailiff who works in France

Dave Smedley was celebrating this week after taking one of the biggest hauls of day-ticket carp in history.

The 48-year-old, who works as a bailiff at French venue Dream Lakes, came back to home shores to spend a week on Meadow Lake, at Holme Fen Fishery in Cambridgeshire, and marked his return by taking a staggering hit of fish that included mirrors weighing 40lb 2oz, 40lb 15oz,
44lb 4oz, 47lb 14oz, 48lb 12oz, 53lb 8oz and 54lb 14oz.

All seven of the huge fish, plus a brace of twenties and thirties, came from a 12ft-deep area at 110 yards range, and fell to Mainline Salty Squid wafter boilies presented over a bed of new Mainline boilies that Dave was field testing for the company.

The secret to Dave’s haul was to keep things simple and to try to avoid making much disturbance – as he explained.

“There were quite a few marker and spod rods being used by the other anglers on the lake, and I’ve always found that at this time of the year, when the fish are less active, they won’t put up with that sort of disturbance. 

“The bailiff had told me about a clean area out in front of the swim I was fishing, so I simply attached a bare lead to my spod rod, cast it out, and it went down with a crack. ‘That’ll do for starters’ I thought, and I never moved my three rods from the spot all week!”

Dave kicked things off with a 35lb 8oz fish, with his next three carp out being the 48, the 53 and the 54. He caught regularly over the next few days, and capped the haul off with a 44-pounder on the last morning of his stay.

“All the fish scrapped like mad – I couldn’t believe how hard they fought. I was totally blown away by the session. What an amazing venue!” he added.