OUR long-awaited summer is well and truly here – and commercial anglers have been making the most of the sunny weather by compiling the first mega match weights of the year.
Records at some of Britain’s biggest venues have been shattered over the last few weeks, most notably at South Yorkshire’s Hayfield Lakes and The Glebe, in Leicester. The latter saw the biggest weight recorded, an immense 438lb from peg 98 on Pool 7, taken by Guru starlet Sam Collett during a charity match.
He caught most of his fish using the tactic known as ‘mugging’ – which entails looking for cruising fish and dropping a bait in their path – adding a few late fish on shallow caster.
Over at Hayfield, Dan Bennett qualified for the Match This final with 361lb 6oz, again a venue record, and again taken on mugging tactics.
Venue expert, Andy Kinder, believes that the current weather creates the ‘perfect storm’ for big weights.
“After months of cold temperatures, the heatwave really got the fish going,” he told us.
“As they prepared to spawn, carp were cruising on the surface and easily mugged. Most of the records were taken on this tactic, and I don’t think there’s anything else like it for doing such big weights. You catch the biggest fish on it.”