I used to live in Paris many moons ago. I used to love fishing the wild rivers and big public waters around me whilst I lived there. To be honest I was spoilt for waters. This is where all the sponsorships started. Through catching some big fish in a relatively short space of time. All from big waters that anyone could fish. Here’s the story of one water that was very very kind to me and holds some great memory’s.

For a few weeks I’d been prebaiting an area on a 360acre lake. Three times a week I was driving the 20minutes or so to the public water near to where I lived. The area was near to some peddlo’s and a bridge not far from them. About 3 kilos of boilies on each visit was scattered over a fairly wide area. This particular area was used by a swimming club during the summer months and it was not possible to fish until after 9pm. This is when they had to get out.

Now some times the views were brilliant. Fit babes in swimwear, it was like miss world . In fact it was on this lake that I was once propositioned by a guy with 5 very beautiful women in toe. I wasn’t sure what his game was, offering me any one of the 5 girls, so declined. Back to the story, I arrived around 8.30pm to be ready for the mass exodus from the lake. Setting up the rods on the bridge and baiting them in anticipation. I would be fishing from the bridge and if I was lucky enough to get a bite, I’d have to walk to the end of the bridge and go down a steep bank across rocks to land the fish. I’d done this before but with friends present. This time I was on my own. 9pm soon arrived and as the last of the swimmers got out, I cast in. I cast towards the either side of the peddlo’s where I’d been prebaiting. I’d only got the 2nd rod into position when the 1st cast to the left of the peddlo’s ripped off. Straight away I knew this was a good fish as it tore line from a tight clutch. The swimmers who’d only just got out, came over to see what I had. I played it quite slowly as I didn’t want to lose it in front of my audience. Whilst playing it I was talking to one of the swimmers who was asking if it was a big fish. Yes I said, just as it turned on its side and slipped into my waiting net.

The swimmers couldn’t believe the size of the fish they were swimming with and some saying they would never swim there again! I told them there was bigger in there but they wouldn’t hurt them. A quick call to a friend who lived local and was good with a camera had him out to do the pics.

I was over the moon with the capture as it made all the running around prebaiting worth while. I did have another couple of commons a little smaller during the night too. If you can find an area the fish like to frequent and trickle a little bait in, it does work. You can supplement the boilies with particle to make it cheaper but drop the particle on the last week of baiting. At this time I was using Mainline baits activ8.

This still remains a great bait today and is partly what hybrid is made up of, as well as cell. I don’t like to spoil a story with plugs but at the end of an article but I would like to thank my sponsors for all their support at the end of an article. So…….. Thank you Rigmarole,Mainline Baits, ATT, Harrison Rods, Navitas, Pottys Leads and Koala fishing footwear.

Les