WITNEY angler Paul Claridge’s third carping holiday trip to Furzebray Lakes in Devon proved one to remember.

The 54-year-old yardsman at Toll Chains Supplies in Stanton Harcourt caught a 22lb linear, a 28.0.0 common, topped by a 40.8.0 UK mirror carp known as ‘Charlotte’, which is the biggest specimen in the lake and also Claridge’s personal best.

He used his own bait, which was plum and squid boilies, topped off with a small Mainline pop-up.

Claridge said: “I noticed people who put a lot of bait in were not catching anything, so I just used a stringer of PVA containing five boilies.

“I spotted some fizzing in a bay early in the morning, left it for a couple of hours, and decided to place hook and bait in between the bubbles.

“I fished with a slack line pinned to the bottom and set the clutch to very hard because an island was very close.

“After an hour, the rod bent right round as the fish tried to make for the island, but I managed to stop it and after a short battle, it rolled on top 15 yards out and then came calmly into the net.

“I used Fox Rangemaster rod, Diawa Emcast Advanced 5000 reels, 15lbB GR60X line and Korda size 6 wide gap barbless hook.”