With only a couple of hours spare after work, Matthew Fernandez opted to fish an area he had previously located some big roach on the River Itchen.

“The bigger fish had always evaded me, but on this short session, I was into a few roach straight away, which was a good sign. I then hooked and lost at the net a roach easily over two-pound, my heart sunk, as I thought that was my only chance gone. But then the very next trot through the swim the float sunk in the same place and I struck into what felt like another huge roach. Thankfully, this one managed to make its way into the landing net and weighed 2lb 8oz, my first two, and a new personal best.”

Matthew used his 13ft Acolyte Plus float rod coupled with a centerpin loaded with 3lb 2oz Float Fish to which he fished a small 2BB Stick float and 2lb Supplex Fluorocarbon hooklink to a size 16 Super Specialist hook baited with two red maggots.

This impressive capture earns Matthew a weekly Drennan Cup Award in this week’s Angling Times.