He arrived at a Scottish river on a frosty morning. Moonlight illuminated the fields. The river was up a good foot, and Simon wasted no time in plumbing up in a swim where he had 9ft of water around a rod length out. After feeding a few maggots, he dropped his 6g loafer in and had to wait less than a minute before it buried.

Connecting with a hard-fighting fish that forced him to backwind, a few hairy moments followed before he laned the three-pounder. Over the rest of the morning, he landed six other ‘twos’, topped by a 2lb 12oz fish.

Well done Simon!