PB COMMON AFTER COMING OUT LAST IN DRAW!
When Liam Searle came out dead last out of 14 anglers in the draw for swims on his long-awaited Sandhurst Lake social, little did he expect to be cradling a new UK PB common a few days later!
Despite the shocking draw, Liam was relatively happy with the swim he ended up in, initially adopting a cautious and deliberate approach, which paid dividends on this pressured venue and outfoxed this special, PB-busting Yateley carp of 39lb 8oz.
Liam said: “We arrived bright and early at the cafe for the dreaded draw. I wasn’t all that nervous about it, to be honest, as even a top-10 draw would still mean a good peg, but I well and truly bummed out on this one, coming out dead last of the group of 14!
“I thought I was guaranteed one of the two end pegs, but to my surprise, Left-Hand Island was also left available. This was what I went for, as it demanded a good chunk of water and the fish always seemed to be passing through in front of here.
“I left the swim pretty much pressure-free that first day, doing a little leading just before we all reeled in for barbecue. I found a nice area out towards the middle zone and applied 10 Spombs of a real smelly mix consisting of 12mm SLK boilies, Crayfish Maxi Mix pellets, Insect Meal and lots of liquid, namely SLK Hydro Spod Syrup, Hot Hemp Oil, BetaStim and Crayfish Hydro Spod Syrup.
“Work had been manic over the previous few months, so I ended up having a good catch-up and social with the lads, deciding to leave my swim be for the night and get the rods out the following morning.
“I sent out two solid bags first thing to the area I’d baited the previous evening, then just roamed one around short. I spent a good amount of time watching that day, and it became apparent the fish were patrolling and feeding a lot closer in than the area I’d baited. So, later that day I had a good lead around and found a much shorter area, where I decided to offer a small SLK Corker wafter tipped with a little bit of PB wafter, just to give it a fleck of colour. I decided to bait this one with boilies via the catty, as it was just in a nice range to give a create scattering of SLK 12-millers. The rest of that day and night passed quietly with the odd liner.
“I was up at first light watching closely and could see there was plenty of fizzing and feeding activity present, some on the longer baited area, but much more closer in. I decided to give it an hour, then just fired out a few more baits over the short spot and within minutes they were back having a bit of a feed. Then it slowed up, so an hour later I did exactly the same. Then at around 8am, that shorter rod burst into life with a steady take. The battle wasn’t all that manic and after stopping it from trying to kite around a point to my left, I was convinced it wasn’t all that big, and after a few more runs it was safely in the net. It wasn’t until one of the lads lifted the net arms up that we realised how big it was! A huge-framed common just sat there sulking in the net with the small SLK wafter with that little fleck of yellow hanging from its mouth!
“Lifting it over to the mat to get the hook out was when I realised how big it was. I’d already zeroed the sling, so decided to give it a quick weigh, settling on 39lb 8oz, a new PB common for me! I was over the moon, and after my mate got some mega shots, I sat back and soaked it all up.”
