Norfolk Forty - Dave Swan

This entry was posted on 23rd September, 2015

Our very own Steve Swan, along with his brother Dave, have been putting the rod hours in on there current Norfolk syndicate water and have been reaping the rewards with a steady string of fish, however last weekend was a real session to remember, especially for Dave who smashed his PB by an incredible 10lb and in the process landed his first Norfolk forty! We caught up with Dave to find out exactly what happened…

‘We arrived as normal early afternoon on the Saturday and done our usual laps of the lake looking for any signs of fish, any activity that may give away where they are hiding! On an expansive piece of water this is always key, especially when your fishing time is limited.

For this session there’d been a real strong warm wind hacking down one end of the lake, it’d been blowing like that for a good 24 hours, so as you can imagine it was a pretty good place to start. When you’re presented with a big wind, especially a warm one, it can often pay to fish right in the teeth of it, as more often than not the fish will follow it, chasing the food that gets blown along.

After settling for a spot I’d fished before I soon had the rods out, with all three of them positioned at the bottom of the marginal shelf.

Just as it was getting dark I received a big liner on the middle rod and plumes of bubbles broke the surface over the patch where the rods were positioned. I must admit this was pretty surprising, as traditionally the evenings are normally very quiet - the majority of both mine and Steve’s fish have been landed in the morning.

I guess it was around 30 minutes later when the same rod came to life, with a slow ponderous take, as soon as I lifted into it I knew it was a good’un! Certainly one of the lakes bigger residents!

The fight was pretty uneventful and I guess probably within five minutes I had the big girl in the net, I still wasn’t sure of the exact size, but as soon as I flicked my head torch on I knew I had the big’un, the fish they call ‘3 Scale’ and whatever she weighed I knew she’d be a new PB!

I was straight on the walkie talkie to Steve who was fishing the next swim down, he was soon on the scene and helped me weigh and photograph her.

In the end the scales settled at 42lb 2oz, a new PB by a huge 10lb and a lifelong dream achieved, in the shape of a Norfolk forty! I honestly can’t tell you how happy I was, even talking about it now I start to buzz!'