Despite my best intentions to get out into the big French wilderness and bag some uncaught monsters, I’ve been so busy with work that my fishing is being limited to the odd session on our own lakes down here. Whilst I love the lakes, I’m wary of fishing them; somehow being involved in a fishery makes you lose your appetite to wet a line there, it’s hard to explain.

Anyway, despite that I had lined a session up for wednesday night starting straight after a day of chainsawing and clearing trees on the stock pond. However, the heavy rains of recent days forced a change of plan as the stock pond was slowly emptying 3 days worth of rain and the skies threatened to worsen that situation. Reluctantly I decided to set up my gear and see if the weather improved.

In search of something a little bigger, I decided to fish Papillon Bleu, in the hope of connecting with one of the stunning ’startburst’ Mirrors I had seen photographed so often, but never banked myself. I positioned myself in the most central swim on the lake facing an island, but with plenty of open water to my right should the conditions dictate a change of approach. The initial plan was to cast one rod between some overhanging trees, and the other to a gravelly slope off to the right of the island; both spots produce throughout the summer.

The first rod was positioned after careful clipping up of the line to allow me to get as close to the island as safely possible. I attached a small stocking bag of pellet and crushed tiger nut boillies - this time not home made ones, but those manufactured by Dynamite baits. The hook bait was one 10mm boillie and one 10mm corkball to create a critically balanced presentation.

The second rod proved somwhat troublesome, as an errant first cast looped over a branch and well and truly snagged. A short trip in the boat, after reeling in the freshly cast first rod for safety’s sake, and the rig was retrieved. An auspiscious start to proceedings, that got more comical as i tried for 10 minutes to re-thread the tubing on the snagged rig.

It was mid-threading that my other rod twitched into action, the indicator falling slightly then lifting up to the rod butt. On the rod in a flash (leaving a trail of tubing and rig bits) I lifted into a heavy fish that plodded solidly around for a good 10 minutes before succumbing to my net. As it rolled over the cord i could see it was a solid specimen, a fact that the scales confirmed to the tune of 22lb 12oz. A thrilling start to the session, and whilst not one of the ‘biggies’, it was my second twenty of the year and had some ‘Starburst’ scaling near the wrist of it’s tail to boot.

Without delay the rod was recast, and my battle with the tubing re-commenced. Having become thoroughly frustrated and ditched the original length in favour of a fresh lot from the packet, I had barely chance to utter a ‘Why the heck didn’t I just do that straight away?’ before the other rod was off again. This time the heavy lump on the end was in a feisty mood, and a tense stand off around the island snags ensued. After what seemed an age the fish relented, and instead ploughed out into open water. A long fight approaching twenty minutes followed as the fish made burst after energetic burst for freedom - a tell tale sign of a Common in my experience on this lake. Sure enough a perfect looking Common of 23lbs was eventually netted and photgraphed before being slipped back into the water. Another fish destined for great things.

If two twenties on the bank within 30 minutes of each other was far in excess of my best expectations for the session, the six fish that followed over the course of the afternoon and night were really the icing on the cake. Mostly high doubles, with the notable exception of one beautiful juvenile Common around 8lbs; this fish was exactly the same shape and proportion as the big Common and was clearly only 2 or three seasons old.

It was a rainy afternoon, and an icy night but the fishing was so superb it kept me warm and smiling throughout - how can you argue with 8 fish in under 24 hours in the middle of February?

Stumble it!