FIVE FORTIES MAKES HIS AVENUE SESSION ‘MORE LIKE FRANCE’

...and they all fell in just 72 frantic hours!

“One epic session for sure. I had to pinch myself that this was UK fishing, not France”

IT WAS ‘the greatest session of my life’ for Craig McEvoy, who has banked five forties and three thirties in less than 72 hours.

So gruelling was the action at the Avenue in Shropshire that one of his reels broke as he tried to land a 42-pounder.

Banking eight fish in total, Craig’s tally included mirrors of 44lb 4oz, 43lb 14oz, 42lb 4oz, 42lb and 40lb 8oz. He also had a 39lb 8oz mirror.

“This has got to be the greatest session of my life,” said Craig. “The only word I can use to describe it is ‘speechless’.

“It’s worn me out. My reel even imploded with all the action, but I still managed the 42-pounder, known as Rude Boi, on it!”

The biggest fish of the trip, a 44lb 4oz mirror, is such a rare visitor to the bank that Craig got to name it, calling it Summer’s Mirror after his baby daughter.

Interestingly, Craig began his session by setting up just off fizzing fish. “Previous experience had told me that if I set up right on top of them then I might nab one but more often than not they would quickly do the off.”

Having landed the biggest fish first, Craig decided to bait heavily at the base of a bar, depositing 5kg of mixed particles and Dynamite Baits Red Ammo and Monster Tiger Nut boilies on the spot.

“What happened over the next couple of days simply blew me away,” said Craig, who presented Red Ammo pop-ups on multi rigs.

“One epic session for sure. I had to pinch myself that this was UK fishing, not France!”