Specialist angler, Dan Woolcott landed a huge 3lb 11oz roach from Highbridge Fishery in Norfolk recently, smashing his previous personal best in the process by a whole pound.

Dan explains: “Highbridge is a very unusual water. It’s a large clay bedded lake of 6.5-acres and is up to 35ft deep at times. It is used by a farm for irrigation purposes so the water level fluctuates enormously at times. Although it seems pretty featureless, I have managed to locate a few features during the summer when the water has been at it’s lowest. 

“There is one small shoal of around eight to ten large roach in the lake so you can imagine how pleased I was to finally catch one of my target fish from the venue. I planned to fish the venue for the weekend, but after landing the fish after just seven hours I decided to go home and celebrate.”

Dan caught his huge roach by fishing to a small ledge he had located when it was incredibly low and he baited the area with a mix of hemp, dead maggots and Scopex flavoured corn.

His helicopter rig consisted of a single grain of corn mounted directly onto a size 12 Wide Gape Specialist hook on a 5lb Fluorocarbon Fly Leader hooklink, 6lb Supplex mainline and a 30g Stainless Oval Cage Feeder.

This impressive capture earned Dan a weekly Drennan Cup Award in Angling Times.