DECIDING to avoid the rivers on opening day in favour of a forgotten Fenland drain paid off in fine style for Mark Barrett and Chris Ponsford when they struck gold in the form of some huge rudd.

After adopting simple floatfishing tactics with sweetcorn on the hook, Worcester-based Chris came up trumps by landing this enormous 3lb 11oz specimen, plus another over 3lb and several ‘twos’, while Mark weighed in with a cracking specimen weighing 3lb 3oz.

“While my big rudd isn’t the best-looking fish I’ve ever caught, it’s still a huge specimen. I had another of exactly 3lb which was one of the most beautiful fish I’ve ever seen.

The pair fished maple-flavoured Van Den Eynde corn to catch their rudd, while Mark also tempted a brace of common carp weighing 21lb 4oz and 18lb 4oz on Mainline Maple-8 boilies..