So, it’s a normal Friday with Charlie and I going fishing at our syndicate water: Swan Valley in Yateley.

In front of us stood a 48 hour session! I took Charlie to school, came home; loaded the car up with our fishing gear and arrived at the lake in the early afternoon (we always try and fish in “the Oaks” as we like a double swim and I usually fish in the “main oaks”, whilst Charlie goes into the “small oaks”).

I set up the bivvys and all the fishing gear, Charlie likes to fish with 2 rods so I put on the rigs that he had made the night before – very simple rigs KD style with all the end tackle from Vardis of which he’s a  team members.

Charlie fishes with a 20mm boilie and a 15mm pop-up, making the snowman which is his favourite way of presenting his bait, he’s also a bait tester for Sandhurst Baits for whom we’re both currently testing a nut based boilie which Andy Blake (boss of Sandhurst Baits) came up with specifically for when he knew we were going onto Swan Valley.

Charlie likes his bait to be neutral in colour, not unlike the main line cell. Whilst he was still at school I put out the Marker rod and around about 2.5 KGS over the five Rods to let the fish have their free feed.

Once we got back to the lakes the rods went out straight away and we set our traps. Just before dark, we noticed plenty of fish fizzing and rolling over our bait… We were talking and laughing, debating who was going to catch the first fish, unfortunately however, it just wasn’t happening for us on that Friday night.

On the Saturday morning Charlie had a thought; that thought being that he needed to make a slight change to his approach and asked if we could go down to see Andy at Sandhurst Baits. Charlie was convinced that if he changed his pop-up to a fluorescent pink or yellow then it would make a big difference.

So I agreed and off we went and got the pop-ups that Charlie wanted on the Saturday afternoon. Upon our return we put out some more freebies and once again set the traps.
That evening the fish were rolling and topping all over us; we thought that “tonight is surely our night for success?”…

At around about 6:30 AM I heard the alarm give up a single bleep and we were both straight up and awake. Shortly after, another bleep and then another… Charlie was fishing slack lines but now the bobbing was tight up against his rod; he tightened up his clutch and hit into it and said “Dad, I’m in”. What followed was a great battle, lasting for about 15 minutes before we finally landed it!

This year Charlie has been in and amongst big fish in England and France; at the beginning of the summer holidays we went to Cretelakes where he had four 40lb as well as a 57lbs fish, so when we both looked into the landing net this time, we knew that this was a special one.

We left the fish in the net while I prepared all our weighing kit and when I lifted it out of the water I looked to Charlie and said “This is going to beat your personal best!” which was the Lumpy Half Linn at 40lb out of Swan Valley about six weeks ago.
When we weighed it we couldn’t believe our eyes it was a massive 46lb 10oz mirror! at that weight we thought it was “The Vain” the biggest fish in the lake. Whilst we were weighing the fish I phoned my friend Dan Hegan to take the pictures for us, obviously Charlie being only nine years old he’s not quite strong enough to lift fish of such a great weight. So I knelt over the carp cradle and lifted it with Charlie in front, making it look like he was holding the heavy fish.

After weighing the fish I was returning it to the water in a floating retainer, while waiting for Dan to take some photos.
As I put it into the retainer I thought that I had accidentally hit Charlie’s second line. We heard the alarm give a couple of bleeps and then a complete one toner, I looked at the retainer and it was nowhere near the line.

Charlie then picked up the rod hitting into it and said excitedly “I’m in again Dad.” – I couldn’t believe it!

Charlie stood there with his rod up in the air; with a massive bend in it. After another 15 minute fight between Charlie and the fish, Charlie was victorious and just as Dan turned up, we had it in the landing net.
Charlie turned to Dan and said that he had just caught two big fish within 30 minutes of each other
Dan and I couldn’t believe it, Charlie took a look into the net, turned around and said “Dad it’s a lump!”.

I placed this one on the scales and the dial went round and touched 37lb – all three of us were completely stunned as to what my young son Charlie had just managed to achieve: a brace of fish weighing over 80lbs!!
We now just had to find out what fish they were…

By this time a few fellow fishermen had started to gather around as they had heard the commotion of the past half an hour over what huge fish Charlie had caught. Dale Matthews, the bailiff, also turned up intrigued as to what was going on; about four of the boys raced to get their unhooking mats and then placed them on the ground.
Dale inspected the fish and confirmed the weight and what fish they were in front of about 10 witnesses…

The Korda fish at 37lb which is an absolutely stunning and Enoch at 46lb 10oz, which is a new weight record for the fish, as well as a lake record!

Not a bad 48 hours for a nine-year-old who just loves his fishing – well done Charlie!! And as he was 10 this Tuesday not a bad birthday present.

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