Shortly after landing his PB 11lb 2oz tench, James Champkin returned to the same Cotswold pit to bank this 11lb 15oz giant. As the lake was deep and the weather cool, he was confident the fish hadn’t spawned yet, and was proved right over a three-day session.
It was early on the second morning that the Milton Keynes angler had a savage bite and connected with the powerful fish that fought hard in the margins. In addition, he landed one of 10lb 7oz, plus five others between 7lb and 9lb.
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"I have done a lot of tench fishing after catching my PB of 10lb 11oz five years ago," James told us.
"Since then, I have always wanted to catch an 11lb tench but never felt close to catching one despite putting in the time and effort."
"I hadn’t seen the lake until the end of May and just hit the ground running with tactics and location and was luckily into fish straight away."
"Amazingly, within three sessions, I had caught three fish over 11lb, including my new PB of 11lb 15oz," he said.
All fell to worm kebabs fished in a silty gulley between gravel bars. Feed of 2mm and 3mm pellets, hemp,
casters and chopped worms did the trick.
"Interestingly the previous morning, I lost a big fish to a hook pull and then had another loss in the weed with the fluorocarbon I was using letting me down."
"The big fish I had the next morning had a little mark that I’m sure was where my hook had pulled the previous day, I guess when your luck is in, it's in," James added.
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