“Switching day sessions for night fishing paid off”

“You just can’t beat catching rudd off the surface with floating crust and that’s the way I intended to do it. My rig was simple, with 4lb mainline straight through to a size 12 hook and a 2g controller float sandwiched between two float stops around 2ft from the hook.

“Since opening day, I’ve probably fished the river three or four times a week for a month in daylight, rotating between swims that had better access than others. I’d flit between them and feed bread to get the rudd competing and I didn’t have any problems catching them – but they were all between 2oz and 10oz!

“I’d fish all day and struggle to catch anything close to 2lb. There were just too many small rudd around, so I began staying later.

“As night descended on one session, I began to lose sight of my hookbait and loose offerings, but I could hear larger splashes in the swim.

“I didn’t catch anything substantial, but those splashes got me excited, so I planned another after-dark trip. Arriving at 8.30pm I baited the swim with crust and hoped the big rudd would return. Nothing happened until 10pm, when the splashes began to get louder and the silhouettes of the swirls grew larger.

“I’d already secured a Starlite between two float stops just above my controller float for bite indication and pinched on a piece of crust. The splashes got louder as my excitement grew, then there was a large swirl as the Starlite shot under.

“The swim was overgrown with weed and lilies, so I bullied the fish, praying my line wouldn’t snap. Thankfully, it didn’t and I managed to net this beast of a rudd! On the scales she registered 3lb, which is my second-biggest ever.”

“The splashes began to get louder and the silhouettes of the swirls grew larger”