Pallatrax's very own Paddy Leigh accounted for one of the best-ever hauls of rudd to be reported in England taken from a river. Fishing the River Cam, Paddy took 7 big rudd the first evening of; 2.15, 2.11 , 2.9, 2.7, 2.7, 2.2 & 1.14. and then the following evening returned to the same spot and took 4 more rudd going 3.9, 3.2, 3.0 and 2.11.

Paddy's 3lb 9oz Rudd from the second evening

Part of the catch from the first evenings trip

Paddy commented "I'd seen a big shoal of Rudd the previous week whilst travelling the area by boat and made a plan to return to the area for a concerted effort as some of the fish in the shoal took my breath away. Eventually after family commitments I was able to have a go on the Wednesday evening and was soon in an area some 100 yards upstream of where I'd seen the fish.

"I did not want to drop straight in on top of them in fear of spooking the shoal and knowing that if they went too far downstream I'd have no access to the area. So, the plan was to fish upstream and feed in a way that brought the fish closer to me"

"I made up a light mix of bloodworm crush groundbait and added a very large amount of dried shrimp to the mix. The plan was that the groundbait would break up quickly on the river bed and the small pieces of shrimp etc would float through the water level attracting fish to feed above the dense streamer weed in the area."

Tackle consisted of a 13' Hardy float road, youngs centre pin loaded with 2lb Gamma, a small avon/stick type float and size 12 or 14 drennan hook. On the hook Paddy fished some of the new Pallatrax River shrimp with a dried Gammarus shrimp wich gave the bait a neutral density and made it appear just like the freebies leaking from the groundbait.

"All the bites were really confident and the only battle was the fish making for the safety of the various weedbeds. I lost over the two evenings about 12 fish to the weedbeds and some of those fish were well over 3 with one being an amazing creature which I am sure was over 4lb's."

"I'm going back this weekend for another go and hope to make contact with a few more special rudd"