Dan Taylor I got to the lake early saturday morning on the 7th june 2025 - A day in all my years of carp fishing i will never forget. The weather wasn't looking good on paper if you wanted to go and visit the beach, but was spot on for a cheeky 24hrs fishing. The low pressure with rain, warm weather and the possibilities of a thunder storm was an opportunity I couldn't resist. I visited one of my syndicate lakes in Essex and took a walk around to see if I could spot any movement as the weed was quite dense in many areas. I spotted a few fish showing on the opposite bank approximately 80yards out. I took the approach of fishing just single hook baits to start off with, as i wanted to get some Cell boilies in a bucket submerged in lake water with a tin of coconut milk and half a bottle of Cell Smart liquid. Nothing materialised for a few hours on the singles so I started to introduce the boilies i soaked earlier that morning. A change of rig was also a key factor by going back to the ever faithful knotless knot using a size 4 longshank beaked hook with 20lb soft n-trap. My choice of bait was an 18mm Shelf life Cell boilie tipped with a yellow Quad . 2 rods fishing exactly the same and a 3rd on a spinner rig. Eventually after these few tweaks i had my 1st fish at 20lb 1oz, but unfortunately nothing happened for a few hours so I decided to put fresh baits on and straight back out on the spots. I baited the area again with the throwing stick to spread the baits around the rigs getting them moving again. This paid off with another low 20 within 15 minutes. RESULT im thinking they was still about in the area. I got the fish back and got the rod straight back on the same spot. The lake has a no bait boat rule and I was fishing in a weed hole about 10ft in diameter at 80yards with a strong side wind but I got the trap set. What happend next approximately an hour later I can only describe as the most amazing thing in my carp fishing. The rod screams off, I pick up the rod and straight away I knew it was a better fish. It's putting up a fight and goes straight into a weed bed. It's not moving it's locked up and all im thinking at this moment is please dont come off. I release the clutch and return the rod to the pod hoping it would swim out and what seemed like a lifetime the fish did exactly that dumping the lead and freeing itself. I continued to play the fish with a massive ball of weed covering the front of its face and eventually she graced the net. My mate Dave said "Taylor" I think it's the big girl. I'm shaking asking how big is the big one. Lol he says I dont know it's not been seen for over a year. We got her sorted and weighed her the scales went to 40lb 3oz , im lost for words a new PB and a fish we thought had gone. I have never had that feeling before having caught a UK 40 , and knowing that she was still alive and after a year of not being caught she took my hookbait and graced my net. I was given the opportunity to name this beautiful creature as its a new 40. So every body Im delighted to introduce to you all Kim's fish after my beautiful late mum. I managed to catch another fish shortly after, a 23lb 1oz common and another upper double early hours of the Sunday morning. I'm still in shock as im typing this but all I can say is thank you and can't wait to get back for a few of the other big ones. Dan