Angler Name: Thomas Kearns

Hometown: Chertsey

Fish Weight: 39.8

Bait: Sticky baits krill pink pop up

Venue: Thorpe Lea fishery

Rig: Solid bag rig

Tactics: Fishing in weed with a parcel of bait to trip up older carp

Additional Info: After a quiet 24 hours I thought I’d change up my tactics. After having no success firing solid bags at showing fish (who clearly weren’t on the feed) prior to when I set up, I decided it wasn’t gonna do, So I reeled both of my rods in and tweaked my solid bag rigs by shortening the length of the rig to around 3 inches, adding a Sticky baits the krill pop-up (12mm) and finally accompanying the rig with a split shot further up the hook link material to create an anchor for the pop-up. I then set my traps for the next half of my session and planned to put 4 spods over each solid bag every 4 hours using the Wraysbury baits house pellet mix as my freebies. And later on in the evening a pristine mirror by the name of “Mary” was on the end of my line. She came in at 39lb8oz, just shy of a Uk 40lb. This was a new Uk pb for me and I was informed that “Mary” was the largest mirror in the lake!. I will never forget that night for the rest of my life. I have definitely had my brace of multiple high 20’s and 30’s in my 8 years of fishing but she was something else! There will be lots more to come from me in the upcoming years -Tom