In pursuit of a 40! - Lakeside - Matt Eldridge

In pursuit of a 40!

Matt Eldridge

 

This is my first session of the year and I decided to do a 24 hour session on Broadlands Lakes, van loaded and off I went. On arrival I realised there was a problem as the gates were locked shut. After speaking to the bailiff & being told it had been shut due to flooding I decided to head over to Lakeside in Eastleigh. A lake I’ve fished in the past & wanted to wait until the winter months to fish when I knew the fish are at there heaviest weights.

After a short drive I arrived at the lake only to meet lots of cars & vans in the car park so decided to have a walk around the lake first expecting every swim to be taken but to my surprise the bottom bank of the lake was empty.

I quickly got back to the van, unloaded onto my barrow & was off to a swim before anyone else jumped in. On my way round I stopped to chat to a couple of lads to see how there were getting on. After being told they had done a couple of nights and had nothing my confidence wasn’t great.

 

My rig presentation

 

Got to my chosen swim and got the rods straight out & home was set up for the night. After leading around a little I found a harder area between silt beds, I placed both rods 50 yards out 10ft apart and scattered a kilo of Shorelines Red Bull boilies over the spot. I have great confidence in the Shoreline bait as ever since we have been using it we have had some excellent results!

My swin on the bottom bank

Not long after settling down & watching the water for any signs to my surprise my left hand rod was away. After a short battle she was in the net. A 17lb+ Common was more than welcome after having it in my head it might be a bit of a struggle!

I got the rod straight back out on the spot & topped the area up with another ½ kilo of Red Bull and sat back watching the black clouds & bad weather roll in.

After a couple of heavy showers had passed and the evening light was fading away my swinger suddenly buried itself onto the alarm, unfortunately this was only a bream.

I got the rod straight back out and was about to topped up again with a bit of bait when my left hand rod was away again. A little common carp rolled in over the net so I wanted to quickly release it & to get my rod back out on the spot before it was to dark to see where I was casting.  Just as I was letting it go I looked up as my right hand rod tore off. As soon as I connected into this I realised it was a good fish. The fight was immense, every time I gained line it just powered off melting line off my spool. By this time it was dark which didn’t make things any easier.

After about a 25 minute battle the fish was beaten and as she came to the surface I realised I was connected to my target fish ‘Seven Scales’ the nerves kicked in but luckily she swam straight into the net! I peered in the net and rolled her on her side & she laid there showing how beautiful 7 scales, I couldn’t believe it, she looked huge!

 

40lb 4oz & New UK PB

 

I was fishing with my friend Stu and he shouted out with joy ‘you’ve got her!’ A few other lads on the lake could hear what was going on & came round to have a look & congratulate me.

So the moment of truth, was she going to break the 40lb mark?! We knew it was close! I zeroed the scales & lifted her as the needle went round to 40lb 4oz & my new English PB. Over the moon! After getting some photos I released her back. After everyone had gone I sat down and couldn’t believe Id just caught my first UK 40. After sorting myself out I got the rod back out & no longer than 10 minutes later it was off again, this time another small common.

I had 3 more that night including a lovely 22lb 8oz Common. What a brilliant start of 2014, hopefully it will be the first of many monsters this year for myself & Team Noble’s!

 

22lb 8oz Common

 

 Matt Eldridge - Noble's Fishing