A windswept and sleepless night aboard his boat was made bearable for David George by the arrival of this 28lb river mirror.

The Thames fish came after a few weeks off the river for the property maintenance worker, who caught a stunning 31lb 8oz mirror from his boat at the end of last year.

David said: “After being off the river for a couple weeks due to illness and a long cold snap it seemed a good time to get back to it and make the most of the end of the season.”

Having fished Friday and Saturday nights, then Monday night, for just a single bream, the 32-year-old remained confident.

“With the temperature still climbing I decided another session on Tuesday night had to be done.

“I arrived at around 5pm, positioned the rigs over the same spots, again with a very small amount of heavily glugged 15mm Nash Strawberry Crush boilies.

“After a long, sleepless night aboard the boat, kept awake by the wind, I woke up on Wednesday at 6am to an absolute peeler on my left-hand rod.

“After a couple of decent runs I managed to catch my first fish of the year.

“Being my first full winter fishing the mighty river, and a cold, slow start in January with only one other fish caught this winter, it was really nice to finally get back into them.”

RIG AND BAIT

• Short multi rig
• Hookbait: Nash Citruz 15mm pop-up
• Loosefeed: Nash Strawberry Crush boilies
• Lead: 4oz flat lead
• Hook: Size 6 chod hook