I had been fishing this pit on and off for around 4 years at the time. I pulled away to venture off elsewhere and planned to return for the summer and autumn the following year. I had a phone call from the office in August asking if I wanted my ticket back, to which I snapped their hand off. 

I immediately started baiting an area of deeper water planning ahead for the colder weather in Autumn. Roughly 5 kg twice a week split a few days apart to keep them busy whilst I wasn’t there. The plan was to start fishing the spots around mid-September. 

Well by the first week of September it got the better of me and I found myself driving down to the lake after work for a quick night. The lake hadn’t done a bite for over 6 weeks so I wasn’t feeling overly confident but with the bait having been in there consistently over the course of 4 weeks there was always a chance. I arrived in the dark and set about getting the rods on the spots as quick as I could. 

I had already clipped them up on a baiting trip to make life a lot easier when I started fishing. The rods on the spots, brolly up and dinner sizzling away the buzz was unreal. No longer than three hours into my first session the left hand rod was away and I was attached to what felt like a very angry carp. 

A savage battle up and down the deep weedy margins commenced but after a few minutes I managed to slip the net under my first big pit carp of that year. The lake contains a few ghosties and koi from the floods from the river. And that’s what my first carp was but in the net it looked a lot bigger than any of the previous koi I had caught. And it was. At 31.12 I was very surprised as I had not seen or heard of this before. 

That was it for that session but with the result I immediately planned to come back down the following night to try and make the most of this feeding spell. Arriving back down the following day I repeated the process and settled back In for the night ahead but this time the buzz was even more intense. The anticipation that the rod could go into meltdown again at any moment was electric. 

Like clockwork at around the same time the left hand rod and gone again and this time the fish seemed to give up very easily. It was in front of the net in no time at all just wallowing in the margins and the moonlit night. I slipped the net under this one flicked the headtorch on and could instantly see it was a big linear with crazy colours. Absolutely buzzing.

I made a call to my friend who lived close by to see if he could come and do some proper shots for me. No later than twenty minutes and he arrived just as buzzing as me to get the shots done. Once again that was the only bite of the night. 

Morning came round in a flash and I was back off to work feeling on top of the world. But not before I disposed of another 5kg of boilie over the spots. I then strung together around 8 blank nights over the following two weeks. Wondering what I was doing wrong after such a good start. I decided to stick to the plan though and keep the bait going in consistently and knocked the nights down to a couple a week and base longer sessions over likely looking moon phases. 

We were now at the beginning of October and the full moon was a few days away. With a handful of nights planned in and between work that week I loaded 5kg of boilies in before the session started. I blanked another three nights in a row and the long nights in the dark and the early morning cold pack ups were starting to take there toll on me. When I woke up on the forth morning I spotted a fish show over the back on the right hand spot. I decided I would stay a bit longer that morning and slip into work a few hours late. 

It turned out to be the best decision I could have made. 

I’m normally away from the lake by half 7. At 8.15 I received the most savage take I have ever witnessed as it stripped 60 yards of line straight off me out into the deep water, I just had to hold on. Twenty minutes later I started getting the better of the fish and had it in front wallowing up and down the margin. The water had gone quite murky close in due to the undertow and strong winds straight into my swim which meant I couldn’t see what I was attached too. 

A few more twists and turns and I managed to get the net under this one and could instantly see it was the one I had always wanted. A fish called “Tom Daily”.   It got its name by an old friend of mine catching it 5 years previous to me and he fell in when receiving the take. 

I couldn’t of been happier that morning and phoned a few friends to come down and help me and have a look at her as it was only the second time it have ever been banked. For me it was completely irrelevant but for the record the weight was 38.12. We lifted her out and done some bank shots and quickly got her back to the water for a few water shots before watching her waddle off into the deep margins of this savage big pit. 

Autumn complete and another one ticket of the wanted list. 

I’m sure I will be back again but after that capture it was onto pastures new for me. 

Dan Chappell