Doing a bit of homework certainly paid off in style for Ian Petch as he slipped his net under this personal best 6lb 7oz eel.

Ian told us “I had heard a few reports of eels being caught accidentally at an undisclosed southern stillwater, with that in mind I planned an overnight session with the goal of beating my old personal best of 3lb. I went with the faithful small roach head as hookbait and presented this on a free running rig and I received the all-important run in the early hours of the morning. To my right was a big bed of lilies, which the fish headed into but thankfully I managed to play it back out into the open water and it was at that point I got my first glimpse of a big eel with the aid of my headtorch. My brother Andy did the honours with the landing net and after it had reversed back over the draw cord a few times, we finally managed to get it into the net. I peered into the mesh and let out a big sigh of relief as after all the years of chasing a big eel, it had finally come good.”