In my summer holidays I had 6 weeks off so I decided I should do something special before I needed to start working really hard for my GCSE’s.

I thought I should have a quick look around at a few day tickets watch a few videos and see where looks good!

After another watch of the Shimano DVD where they went to Holme Fen and a Fox video there I thought it looks good then I looked at the last weeks report and there were, 1x50, 3x 40's and 3x30's out. I thought this wasn't allot fish but then I thought there aren't many places in the U.K. Where you can catch this amount of big fish on a day ticket.

After 2 hours of us leaving home and going to the tackle shop we had arrived at Holme Fen. We went in to the shop, brought our tickets and a 25kg bag of pellet as you are only allowed to use their pellets on the lake.

After that I had a look around and I knew a few swims that looked really good for a few bites and seeing a few small commons in one of the bays but nothing huge or no jumps. Even though I came out the draw last I still managed to get the swim I wanted, 'Party Point'.

For the first hour I just sat there watching the water hoping to see something to go off of but I didn't see anything unfortunately, Martin came round every swim and gave everyone a few tips and told some spots that are good! He said there is a spot at 80 and there is one long range but not sure how clean the one is long range is as not many people can reach it. I cast a few times just wetting the braid for a longer cast and I soon found a slightly shorter area of Canadian pond weed which I think was around 2 inches high so very easily presentable but everything around it was very very thick weed even just reeling the lead in you would get 20 or so yards then just hit a weed bed which you can just about get fish through.

So I set up 2 rods and I found the gravel spot at around 72 yards which was perfect for fishing over and I could get all my bait within about a 1.5/2 meter area just enough room for 1 rod. Anyway fast forward a few hours I put 15-20 spods of pellet, a few crushed boilies, a handful of whole boilies and a handful and a half of corn just enough to get the colour going but not too much that it distracts them from the rest of the spod mix. And 15 on the 1 rod area which is normally more than I would put out for just the one rod but I thought they are very big fish and they could easily eat 8-10 spods of bait.

I find it very important to do a cast a few steps forward and some a bit back and some a little bit sideways just so I have a 2 meter circle of bait not just a 2 meter line which I think is for more unnatural and I think the fish are a bit more wary feeding in.

After that it was almost dark and I wasn't feeling too confident as I had only seen one good fish jump all day which was on my spot, also the lake hadn't produced a fish that week so I knew it would be hard, but I ate my dinner, set my alarm for just before light and went to sleep.

My alarm went off at 6am and by then the sun had burned through most of the mist and the lake was looking prime for a bite also there was a huge slick coming from my spot! (I got very excited!). After just watching the slick off my spots for an hour and a half I sat on the grass verge thinking if I get a bite now, how will I get to my rods and just as I was thinking that I had a single bleep! Then it screamed off and straight away I knew I was into a very good fish that slow plodded until it hit one of the thick weed beds In front of me, where I just kept a steady pressure and slowly I played him in. With the spot still slicking up though I was still confident of another bite as I was playing this one! The fish kited right and John the guy in the next swim was in my swim by this time and kindly brought the rod in. Then the fish hit another weed bed and stayed in it for a good 5 minutes. I was starting to really feel the pressure, everyone around the lake was watching and I had a good fish weeded! Thankfully I started to feel it again and it started to swim towards me for a few minutes which I was very happy about until it hit its 3rd weed bed only 20 yards out. I started to walk up the grass bank to try to get a better angle and it definitely worked as the fish soon started to slowly swim towards me and John got his waders on, ready to help. I was grateful but  but like I said I prefer, especially if I think it's going to be a PB, the self satisfaction of doing everything myself including netting the fish. So I went in with shorts because I didn't want to put waders on just in case when I was putting them on I slacked the line at all. The fish was swimming up and down the marginal shelf for a few minutes while I just let it tire itself out and slowly I felt it rising up in the water. I started to see the top few inches of tubing and a little more and I saw this huge mirror just below the surface and then it eventually started to wave that white flag. I scooped her up in the net at the first time of asking... I'd got her! I had a quick look and the shoulders on her were the thickest I have seen, so John passed me the retainer to carry the fish in to the mat because at this time we weren't sure if t would top 40lb. It did, at 41lb 9oz and I was truly astonished.

After letting my new PB go, I then started to put some more bait in I put around 5 or 6 spods in and brought my rods in I could see bite time had been and gone and I didn't think I was in for another fish so I brought my rods in and got a bucket of bait and had a walk round the lake baiting little spots and talking to the anglers and then found out I was the only person to catch that night and I was the first person to catch that week and I only arrived on the Wednesday!

After a slow walk around I had found a few fish but I realised they were out of casting reach as I would of had to cast Over a tree that had fallen in and these fish didn't look like big fish I think they were the original commons in the lake so probably around then 20-25 lbs mark but not sure I just watched them react to everything for a few hours and it was very interesting seeing how they reacted to no lines in a Bay Area and in no fishing zone which to my surprise they didn't even go in! They were just happy around some snags.

I got my rods on the spots 1st time and I felt confident of another bite!!! John and I spent a lot of the night talking and at 12 his rod had a screamer which turned out to be a lovely 30lber, we got some nice pictures and let the fish go!

At 6:30 my rod screamed off and as soon as I hit it, it felt like a much bigger fish and took a lot of line, knowing how weedy the lake is I knew I needed to slow the fish down so I tightened the clutch and started to pull! After bringing the fish back 20 yards the fish found a weed bed and I kept steady pressure and soon enough the fish came through it only to find another weed bed and another after 3 or 4 weed beds the fish started gulping for air and I scooped the net under the 26lber which I found very hard to believe from the way it fought! We got a few pictures and slipped her back and she sulked for a bit in the margins.

Knowing I only had a few hours left I needed to create more chances. I set up a few spots safely nothing started feeding or even touched my stalking spots. I wanted to be ready and packed up for 10:30 when my mum got there so I started at 10 and left my rods in till 11 when I left after a very successful session down Holme Fen, a new PB I went home a very boy! Thanks for reading and tight lines!