Korum backed Duncan Charman has been putting in a lot of hours this year in the search of a monster eel but although he’s been getting plenty of pickups on a Stillwater known to have produced eel to over 9lbs, the eels seemed to have the upper hand on him.

Scratching his head he stumbled on a solution after an opportunist walk along a stretch of river and as he spoke to an angler the tip pulled round and a very large eel surfaced, estimated around 6lbs that had engulfed a prawn offering. Never one to miss an opportunity Duncan returned two days later and fished a totally new swim where he started by bait dropping two pints of maggots and a packet of prawns.

The action started at midnight when he lost a good eel that managed to bite through his hooklink, however shortly afterwards landed a 4lbs 13oz sample, which set a new personal best for a running water eel. Two hours later what initially felt like another big eel turned out to be a double figured carp. First light came and the indicators started bleeping with the arrival of a few perch and almost at the stages of giving up the alarm screamed once more resulting in an even bigger eel of 6lbs 7oz.

Duncan commented, that he had always neglected rivers as it’s a numbers game before a big fish turns up, but how wrong l,ve been. It also shows how important it is to act on a lead and spend as much time on the bank, even if it’s not with the rods!

All the fish were tamed on Korum Neoteric Twin Tip 1-75lbs rods; 10lbs Korum advanced main line, 15lbs Quicksilver hooklinks along with a size 2 S5 hook.

Understandably Duncan wants to keep the venue well under wraps and as much as we tried he would not reveal it!