Early Autumn Campaign Success for Liam Fagg

27th September 2018

After a course of pre-baiting on his target water, Liam Fagg kickstarted his autumn campaign with a bang! His first bite of the season produced an incredible fully scaled mirror, a fish known as the Upfront Fully.

When we spoke to Liam about his autumn campaign and how it’s been going so far, this is what he told us: “With autumn upon us, it was time to have ago on the ‘torture pit’; I had done a fair few nights on it last winter but only landed a small stocky and lost two others, but in that time, I really got to know this little lake. I started my campaign a few weeks back now and had planned to bait two areas that suit a certain wind, one swim just off the end of the wind and another right on the end of it.

With a westerly having blown for a few weeks now, I decided to fish the swim just off the end of the wind. I did a few one-night trips in this area with no luck at all, so with a big low pressure coming in I decided to get down and fish the other swim I had been baiting, right on the end of the wind.

With the big winds and low pressure setting in, I thought something had to happen, but the night passed without any carpy activity. Something wasn’t right, on inspecting my lines, the undertow had been that savage that my lines were now pointing up the other end of the lake. So, with this in mind I decided to wrap up early and go and bait the spot on the back of the wind before heading off to work.

With this pit being only 4 acres, everyone sees everything, even when you’re the only one there it still feels like your being watched. I had been super lucky baiting this spot without anyone knowing as the other lads always wrapped up before me, with 5kg of The Krill going on this one spot after every trip, I was just waiting for the perfect time to fish and with this undertow being so savage it had to be worth a night the following day.

With the spot baited I prayed all day, whilst at work, that no one would drop into this particular swim. Driving slightly over the speed limit to beat the darkness, I arrived at the lake to an empty car park, result! With the light fading fast I flicked two single 12mm krill pop-ups either side of the spot before getting my head down for the night.

Another quiet night passed and I began to think it might have been too early to be on this spot after a heavy bait up. Just like the night, the morning passed with very little activity other than the odd spot of fizzing. By midday I was getting slightly irritated and started to pack up to get back home to spend the day with my family, when out of the blue the right-hand rod signalled a few bleeps.

As I walked over towards my rods I noticed my line was bowstring tight towards the spot, “game on” I thought. After lifting the rod, I knew instantly it was a good fish, it held its ground and kited right into a small bay where it tried to seek refuge under a tree to my right. As the fish swam ever closer to the tree it suddenly rolled on the surface, brushing the leaves on a low-lying branch. My heart immediately sank as I could see that I was connected to one of the lakes amazing fully’s.

After just one more hairy moment, the fish came straight in towards the net and slipped straight over the cord. I stood in disbelief for a moment or two, “has this really just happened” I kept thinking. I was a complete mess, pacing up and down the bank trying to come to terms with the fact I had a possible 40lb plus fully in the net. I made a few phone calls to a few friends, of whom came down to the lake to help me with the weighing and photographing of this incredible 40lb 4oz creature.”

Liam used our forthcoming ‘OE’ out turned eye hooks in a size 4, Tungskin in 25lb and the Hook Ring Swivels to bank his target – Well done from all of us at Thinking Anglers Liam!

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