Ian Pettitt Over the course of a three-night session, I’d been plagued by diving coots and nuisance bream. The carp were passing over my spots, but they were cruising high in the water and showed little interest in feeding. On the last morning of the session after catching yet another bream at 5:30am, I decided to flick the rod back out, this time just short of the baited area in the hope of avoiding another unwanted visitor. As the rig landed, I was rewarded with a lovely drop. Confident everything was sitting perfectly, I settled back with a cup of tea and waited. A few hours later, I started seeing carp passing over me again and felt my chance might be slipping away. Then, out of nowhere, the bobbin pulled up tight and the rod tip wrenched round, signalling a take. Early in the fight, I caught sight of the fish and instantly knew I was attached to one of my targets – one of the lake’s A-Team residents, the Coffee Bean Linear. After a tense 10-minute battle, during which she tried several times to find sanctuary in the pads and the reed bed to my right, she finally slipped safely into the net. With the fish recovering quietly, I took a moment to get the scales and camera sorted before appreciating what had been an unforgettable capture.