His huge fish tops the river’s previous best of 20lb 6oz, caught back in 2020 by Sew Kowalski, and is a specimen that, come the end of the season, could pushing the 22lb British Record. Neil was fishing a challenging stretch on the Trent’s middle reaches when he hooked the fish on a 14mm boilie.He told us “Although I wasn’t targeting that fish specifically, I always had it in the back of my mind. It’s been caught in the autumn over the last two seasons, last year at a weight of 20lb 2oz. Unusually, it doesn’t get caught at any other time of year, but what it could weigh later in the season is frightening.”

Rather than introduce a bed of feed, Neil opts for a patient approach, baiting lightly with of small pellets and a few boilies, then sitting and waiting for a bite. “My previous PB was a 16lb 1oz fish caught from the same stretch nine years ago, and whilst there are good numbers of big fish in the stretch, I seem to catch the smaller ones,” he revealed. “That changed on this occasion. I prayed I hadn’t hooked a carp as I played the fish, and whilst I knew it was big, it wasn’t until I lifted the net that I got a true sense of its scale.”

Well done Neil!