..here, he knew things would be tricky, with cormorant issues and some of the stock dying off meaning that only a small population of big redfins remained.

A few early sessions had only produced carp and odd small roach, but on this occasion, Stephen had seen a few fish roll just into dusk and felt he might have a chance, but nothing materialised. He didn’t give up that night though, and set alarms to go off every two hours, waking him to recast his maggot feeders, which he fished on heli-rigs. These were cast to a spot where he’d fed six spombs of hemp mixed with a sprinkling of maggots. At 7:40am his persistence paid off in style when he hooked and landed this roach of 3lb 4oz. It fought well, kiting to his left, before he managed to gently coax it back to the bank.

Well done Stephen!