James told us “I’ve had the same PB of 5lb 2oz, caught from the Shropshire Union Canal, for nearly 15 years. But this season, I said that I’d spend a bit more time in search of them and had earmarked a few venues to try. On one of these waters, a friend of mine fishes for eels and has had some success. Anyone that’s fished for eels will know that the last thing you want is excess angling pressure for them on a venue, so I had planned to leave him to it. However, he invited me down for a catch up, so I set off on my first eel session of the season.

What that followed was just mind-blowing, as at 1:30am, he had a take and hooked what we both knew was a good fish – big eels fight like nothing else. That specimen weighed 7lb 14oz, and as I was congratulating him on the fish, my rod ripped off in the next swim. Lifting into it, I knew the fish was a proper one, and once it was in the net we could see that it was something special.

At 8lb exactly, it was a phenomenal result on my first eel session of the year, and specimen I could go many years without ever beating. Tactics wise, my successful hookbait was sections of dendrobaena worm on a size 6 wide gape hook. This was fished alongside a feeder packed with dead maggots and chopped worm which I cast over a bed of the same. Creating scent in the water is key in my eel fishing, and I introduce my feed by mixing it with molehill soil or worm castings, to help get my feed down to the deck. This was fished on a spot four wraps out, just beyond the marginal weed, which, when was clearing a bit of it to give me better line lay, I noticed was packed with naturals. I felt that the weedbed would be a patrol route for the fish, and so it showed.”

Well done James!