Ted takes up the story:
On a three night session on a southern stillwater things just went from bad to worse for me but in the end there was a reward! When I arrived it was blowing a gale and raining heavily. I had a look around and got set up as quickly as possible, baiting up my rods and putting them out.
I was awake all night with the wind blowing on my lines. The rain eventually stopped when it got light so I packed up and moved to a swim where I was right on the back of the wind where I put all three rods out in the margins with around 15 baits over each rod.
As it got dark the wind and rain started again – and the wind had changed direction and was now blowing right in my face! I couldn’t believe it! And, as I hadn’t put the cover on my dome, I was getting wet. By the morning the water was running under my bed-chair and I hadn’t seen a fish all night.
The forecast for that day was for more heavy rain and most anglers probably would have gone home but I stuck it out and decided on one last move before the rain set in again. I picked an awkward swim on a slope and on a platform with my banksticks sticking through the gaps in the slats of wood. And then it started to rain, very heavily!
I sat in my dome wishing that I had actually decided to go home but at 7pm, when I was in bed trying to warm up and get dry, I had a take on one of my rods that was so hard it knocked the banksticks over. I managed to get down the slippery bank and pick the rod up. It was raining hard and after a good battle I netted the fish. I got back up the bank and onto my unhooking mat to weigh the fish. It went 40lb 1oz on the scales! I was very chuffed.
I sacked up the fish and put the rod back out and got my mate to come and take the photos in the rain, which he wasn’t very happy about. It was hard to take the photos in the rain as the lens kept misting up but we managed to get a couple of good ones.
I eventually got back to bed and the rain continued but I was up again at 10pm with another take, which this time it was a 25lb Common. I put the rod back out and got back into bed.
The rain stopped at about midnight and the temperature dropped to minus three. I was trying to keep warm when I had another take at 5.30am. There was frost everywhere! I played the fish and it was a good one and when I finally placed it on the now icy unhooking mat I was so cold in couldn’t move my hands properly! On the scales it weighed 30lb 8oz.
I have said it before and I’ll say it again: “You only get out what you put in” and the outcome of this three night session proves that!
The tackle and bait I used were: three, 3lb rods, Entoh reels loaded with 12lb Nash Bullet line, 2oz Nash in-line leads, size 8 Nash Fang ‘X’ hooks baited with 15ml Amber Strawberry pop-ups and baited up with 10 and 15mm Amber Strawberry boilies.
