Having the chance to pop back down to Westhampnet on Monday night was a bonus. I had to visit two shops in the area so I shot down there straight from the office.

The wind was blowing strongly from the west so I knew where I wanted to be and just hoped that the swims were free. Amazingly when I got down there I was there only one on the lake.

Quickly getting the bivvy up because of the threat of heavy rain I saw half a dozen fish show just in front of me about thirty yards out. With the marker float I found three clear areas in the weed and baited up heavily with s pellets halibut pellets and both 15mm and 20 mm of the new prototype Session Shellfish and plum boilies from sonubaits which I am testing.

The rigs were just 12inch long nylon hook links with size 6 talon tip hooks.When the rigs were cast out I masked the hook with dissolving foam to make sure the hook points could not get covered with weed.

With everything sorted out by eight o'clock and with the fish still showing I was expecting action.The first bite came from a 5lb tench which was quickly followed by a low double mirror.Now it was dark the fish stopped showing and I  tried to get my head down.Unfortunately another tench and a bream stopped me from sleeping but finally I did managed to sleep.

At 3am the left hand rod signalled another take that to be honest I thought was one of the big bream. When I got it in the net and turned my head torch it turned into a big mirror carp. Maybe I was still half a sleep but I,m sure it didn't fight at all but when I got it on the scales I,m glad it didn't scrap because it was a new personal best for me at 39lb.

It,s not the prettiest fish I've ever caught but it looks pretty dam good to me.