My reliable car, ‘The Tub’, has been suffering of late and was due to go into the garage on Wednesday night. This left me without transport for Thursday morning, so being the dedicated professional that I am, I offered to camp out at the lakes just so that i could work a full day on Thursday - the garage being within walking distance of the Papillon complex.

I opted to fish Bleu from a newly dug swim that i really liked the look of - in fact, the same swim i had a bumper day in last month but newly modified to make landing fish easier.

I started out on fake corn fished to the inflow from the stock pond, and a homemade GLM and Garlic boilie to the island, and before long i had my first take resulting in a super little Common of 4lbs exactly.

Almost immediately after re-casting, the pace of the day caught up with me and i was crashed out asleep on my bedchair! I had half-expected this to happen and switched my bait from corn to boilie to prevent the bream from keeping me up. However, i was woken by a scorching run to the island rod and stumbled to the rods to lift into a hard fighting fish. As i gradually regained my senses i noticed it was no longer light, and i was into a good fish! As the fish was eventually coaxed under the rod tip, it began to hammer around in the margin and catch my other line.

Thankfully i got it in the net eventually, only for my other rod to pipe up again. Two single bleeps…just the line settleing back down i though as i drew the netted fish closer for inspection. Beeeeeeeeep! … off screamed my right hand rod and i grabbed hold of the bucking rod blank - double hook up!

This was new territory for me, knowing that i had a fish in the net, another one on the end of the line and no-one in earshot to help out! Trying to keep cool, I secured the net under my boot, released the bail arm on that rod and concentrated on fighting the fish i had on. It became clear this was no little ‘un either, and after a strong tussle with some overhanging trees, the fish succumbed to my net to join it’s compatriate.

I took a second to work out the best plan and sneak a smile to myself before biting through both lines, breaking down the net and clearing the rods out of the way and dragging my unhooking mat closer. As i carefully-carefully lifted the fish out of the water and onto the mat, i wondered if maybe both fish would push 20lbs..in between panicking about how the hell to deal with this situation!

I quickly unhooked both fish, flicked on the camera and blasted a quick shot using the remote - no time for posing as these fish needed looking after properly. I weighed the smallest looking fish at 19lb 8oz and slipped her back quickly, but not before admiring the lovely trademark scatter-scales on the tail. The second fish weighed in at 20lb 4oz, and i grabbed a quick photo before she went back into the cool Bleu water.

After a lot of head shaking, smiling and text messaging i got both rods re-rigged and back into the water. Just as i was dropping back off to sleep the inflow rod ripped off again and resulted in a nice chunky Common of 15lbs. This was closely followed by a run from what i suspect was a Catfish, which came off 10 minutes into an epic, lunging fight.

The evening was rounded off by another stunning Mirror of 18lbs 8oz, again falling to the GLM and Garlic by the inflow. What a night! Knowing that i had a heavy day on the cards, i reeled in and checked the time on my watch - nearly midnight. Fair to say the fish were having it tonight: 5 fish in under 6 hours angling.

Unfortunately, the job on the car took longer than expected and i had to repeat my dedication the following night… This time though, conditions were unfavourable and a night of torrential rain was only interrupted by two mid double Commons and another elusive Catfish that ran fully 60 yards before spitting the hook.

I will be back - next week is officially Catfish week!

Stumble it!