Two 10hour round trips to venue delivers record results for dedicated angler.


Back-to-back 40pounders and a new lake record was the reward for Wigan rod Phil Woodcock after putting in a total of 20hours traveling time to his target water.

Fishing Kent’s Wingham Lakes, 46-year-old Phil made the 5hour trip from up north to the exclusive syndicate water, landing the strapping carp known as The Orange at a new venue best of 45lb 1oz.

As if that wasn't enough though, on his next 4day session down from Wigan, Phil fished the same swim, this time hooking into another of the 40lb residents – just 4hours after his first cast.

“It’s amazing to have caught a lake record, especially at such a stunning venue as Wingham, but I was overjoyed to have caught this second 40 as it was a fish I really wanted to get on the bank, especially at this weight,” Phil told Total Carp. “Nelson (so called due to the fish only having one eye) is one of the fish that everyone wants to catch and to have it after having another 40 on the bank the session before is just unbelievable.

“There was a point where I didn’t think I would get it to the bank though,” continued Phil. “It weeded me up very badly about two rod lengths out and I couldn’t do anything with it. In the end I put the rod down and left it in the hope it would free itself. I picked the rod up a short time later and the fight was back on, it was a real stroke of luck.”

Phil’s tactics that fooled both fish consisted of feeding a kilo of Nutrabaits Trigger boilies over each target spot before fishing a single 20mm popup over the top 2inchs off the bottom on a size 6 hook with a 6inch hooklink to an inline lead.

Both of Phil’s 40s came from a light weedbed at around 80yards range.