CHARLIE’S MATE OUT AT 48lb 3oz

A WEEK of prebaiting worked wonders for Peter Bond as he bagged a sought-after Frimley common at 48lb 3oz.

The 64-year-old, known to many as ‘Pete the Painter’, caught Charlie’s Mate from Pit Three at the Surrey venue after careful preparation. It came just two and a half hours after the venue reopened following spawning.

Pete told Carpfeed: “For seven or eight days before that I’d been putting some bait in a swim called Cat Walk every day, and was relieved there was only one other angler on the lake when we were allowed to fish it again.

“I got in my swim and my first fish was a bream before I had the bite at 2.30am. I was fishing slack lines with tight clutches, so it was a few beeps, then the bobbin slammed up to the rod. I knew as soon as I picked it up that it was a chunk.”

The fish, which Pete had caught four years ago, beat his 46lb 10oz pb. The Berkshire angler targeted a small gravel area about 40yds out and baited with Nash Candy Nut Crush boilies, hemp, sweetcorn, groats and maples. He presented two matching hookbaits snowmanstyle on a line-aligner rig made with a size 8 Nash Fang X hook and Gardner coated braid.