Fishing a stillwater in his home county, Paul originally planned to target the big bream that inhabit it. He kicked off by feeding five pints of dead maggots, three pints of casters, plus chopped worms and fishmeal groundbait to a gravel plateau at range. Over the top, he cast feeder-fished worms, but as darkness fell, he was plagued by a series of screaming runs followed by missed takes.

Knowing these were likely to have been caused by eels in the swim, Paul cut down his rigs to aid their hooking properties and switched to worm kebabs on the hook, rather than whole worms. The tweaks paid off when he received his next run he hooked a powerful fish, and after a memorable fight he was blown away by the side of the eel that surfaced ahead of his landing net. At 7lb 3oz it’s Paul’s PB and a truly special fish, which he followed up with another of over 3lb soon after.

Well done Paul!