I had first pick on Dreamlake 3, and after a quick walk around the lake and talking with the 3 other guys I went with, I decided to choose peg 16, this peg is known as the ‘big fish peg’ as the Big Common are normally caught from this peg.

There was the odd patch of weed in front of me and this did pose some challenge as I am not used to fishing in weed, however after looking around the area in front of my swim I decided to pick the margin to my left at about 50yds and 2 gravel areas at about 60-70 yards in front and to the right of my swim.

I had a good start to the week and had managed to catch a few twenties, 10 Thirties and 5 Forties, which included a stunning 48lb mirror. Most of the fish headed for the weed, which meant that my Sonik SK4 3.25TC were really put to the test.

The lake seemed to calm down on Thursday and only a few fish came out. I decided to change my tactics and fish Live System chops soaked in the Live System Bait dip. Every 6 hours I would walk round to the margin and spoon out my bait around the bushes where I was fishing.

On return from my breakfast at about 10am on the Friday, I cast out my margin rod and missed the area I was aiming for, I then quickly recast and it landed exactly where I was aiming for. I was fishing a 2” Chod with a yellow pop up and had my 48lb mirror on this set up a few days previous.

Just before midday my left hand rod had a very slow take, as I picked up the rod I could feel a good weighty fish on the other end and after about 20 minutes I managed to get the fish about 10yds from the bank. I then saw a huge common near the surface of the water and thought that this must be the 50lb I was waiting for!

I called for a bit of help landing the fish, as I didn’t want to run the risk of the hook pulling at the net. Joe, who was on lake 4 walked round and offered his help, when the fish came closer and closer to the surface and I brought it closer to the net, the net seemed to shrink in size. As Joe slid the fish into the net, he looked at me and said, “that’s a good 50 that mate”. I was well happy and couldn’t believe that on the last day I had landed my target size!

As Joe lifted the net and the fish left the water he said he thought the fish might even be over 60lb, it wasn’t until we tried weighing it that we found my 60lb scales couldn’t cope with the weight! Joe rushed off to get some larger scales and as we started to weight it we both noticed the white markings on its tail. Joe looked at me and said that’s the Big Common mate, and when we weighed it the scales shot round to a massive 76lb 12oz.

This monster was the only fish caught that day and all the lads from lakes 3,4, and 5 came round to see the Big Girl, they all helped to make that moment extra special.

I am sure that my new rods, which I bought from the Brentwood Carp Show, aided me in landing that fish. Your rods gave me complete control over every fish I hooked that week and I look forward to using them for many more years to come.

Steve Musk