“We were sitting down having a chat when a huge fish took the bait..“

Ian Wynter hadn’t been fishing much last due to many health issues, but instead of fishing, he spent the time visiting various reaches of the River Thames and planning his trips for the year ahead.

Ian told us “I started on the opening day of the season and lasted about a week but only had some chub and bream to show for my efforts. I then started to move up and downstream but that only upset my tactics so I planned for a different approach. I visited Wraysbury Bait & Rolling and loaded up with all the baits that I guessed I would need and set off towards the more promising stretches that I’d seen last year. Within half an hour I managed 2 fish and was over the moon, my plan was now to fish every 2 days and search for them every other day which made hard work coupled with a lack of sleep but they do say effort equals reward.

I was contacted by an angler who I’d fished with before and he decided on the swim downstream of me. I could see some activity and decided to cast a little further out and told my companion to do the same. We were sitting down having a chat when a huge fish took the bait, I clutched my rod and the fight was on. He wanted to net it there and then, but I said give it two or three more minutes as it’s a big fish. We were both amazed by the size and when he read the scales and said “17lbs!” I had to laugh. I was so pleased.”