Having previously hooked a large fish and lost it I had spent a day or two studying books by Trefor West and the like to try to come up with a cunning plan to catch the beast that I have now lost twice.

I setup my gear in one swim and went to the next swim to throw a handful of bait in. I alternated between fishing and baiting up the next swim for nearly 3 hours - Taking 3 barbel in the peg I was fishing during the build up to catching the big boy.





I approached swim number 2 as dusk was taking hold. Doing my best to sneak about not wanting to undo all my good work. I crouched behind my rod having cast into the pre baited area. The idea of the pre baiting is to feed off the chub and smaller barbel and hopefully leave the big boys for me to cherry pick.

It wasn't long before the rod wrapped around with a good size fish taking a whacking lump of paste which was smothered around 2 elips pellets.

This fish was bigger than the average for the venue.

Second cast and another thumping bite!

Another above average fish.

3rd cast and same again!

A bit smaller.

4th cast and you guessed it, a wrap around almost instantly.



So, the fish are certainly average size or larger and they were certainly feeding voraciously. I just wonder if I'd pre baited for longer would I have fed off these average and slightly larger fish to get to the real big ones and the big one I've named Bertie?!?!? As is always the case the action stopped after the swim had been disturbed a few times, so I packed up and went home.

Food for thought from my point of view. The only way to be sure that I will get to fish a swim I pre bait is to sit in it all day whilst I pre bait it. Can I sit all day baiting without wetting a line?