The fish came from a Kent gravel pit where Simon was targeting them for one of the last times this year, hoping for a few bites before turning his attention to rivers. Rather than searching for clear gravel spots, as many anglers do, Simon seeked out silk weed, which he’s confident in fishing over.

To do so, he uses in-line maggot feeders, which he fills with chopped worm and casters, and uses segments of hair-rigged chopped worm as his hookbait. To help this settle on the weed, Simon adds a piece of PVA foam around his hook, which ensures it’ll fall slowly to the bottom once the foam has dissolved. This, combined with a 20lb fluorocarbon hookbait, which has enough stiffness to kick his hookbait away from the feeder, offers excellent presentation. Simon fed around 10 spombs of micro pellets, maggots and chopped worm, with the ten-pounder came in the morning of his session, whilst the ‘twelve’ picked up his hookbait in the afternoon.

Well done Simon!