In the spring of 2009 I was looking for a water to concentrate my efforts on, there were numerous places I was thinking of fishing but in the end myself and a friend decided to get tickets for Moorgreen Reservoir in Nottinghamshire.
During this season we had some pretty good sessions of fishing in numerous spots around the res, our approach was a mix of 3 techniques.
- Big beds of Pellet and hemp (10-20kg)
- Boilies tight to the marker (2-3kg)(Hydro-Shrimp)
- 6 bait stringers at distance
Through the spring and summer we fished most Tuesday and Wednesday nights to avoid the hustle and bustle of weekend fishing, as we all know this can be and pain in rear. Most sessions we would average between 3 and 6 fish each with a few sessions going into double figures, mostly when air pressure and conditions were just right for big feeding spells over lots of pellet, boilies and hemp. Occasionally we would use approximately 50 kg each over a 48 hour period. We simply whopper droppered the bait over an area and fished it.
Although this was a good summer for us and we banked many20’s we didn’t manage to bank any of the larger fish, the biggest 
was 25lb for me and 27lb for my friend.
Over the Winter I started to think about how I was going to fish the reservoir following spring as my ticket was due to expire on the 1st May. I knew there were some pretty big fish in there but how was I going to catch the BIG ONE!
On the arrival of spring, I decided to have a last ditched attempt at catching one of the bigger fish that lurked within the reservoir. It was a glorious late April day and for anyone that knows the reservoir, I decided to have my last session on Goose Point, just up from island. The marker went out and I put 3-4 kg of the pellet mix on the spot, both rods went on the mark and I put the kettle on and sat back to wait. I finished my brew and decided to take a walk down to the shallows behind the island to see what was about and within a few minutes of being down there it was apparent that the fish were actively swimming up and down the channel between the island and the bank. Rushing back to the bivvey and snipping the marker off the marker rod I set up a rig and got myself back down there asap.
By this point more fish had joined the party and looked to be actively feeding, there was a few small fish there but there was one fish that stood out from the rest. I bided my time and waited for the small fish to move on, at that point I cast the small bag of 
boilie and pellet out on the spot about 10 yards. I had no alarms just a rod and a net, so laying the rod on the floor and making sure the line completely lay on the bottom. It was clear to see that a big fish was within the area and after about a minute of casting in, the big fish moved closer and closer to the bait. After just a couple of minutes all hell broke loose and there was a massive boil and line started
to peel off the spoil. On hitting into the fish I could see it was as large as the water was deep, it could hardly swim in the couple of foot of water I was fishing in. Shoes and socks came straight off and I was in the reservoir so I could at least net the fish in some depth of water. Following a 10 minute battle with the fish in very shallow water she was ready to slip over the net , as she came over the lip of the net I instantly knew that it was a fish they call Big Girl. We put her on the scales and she weighed in at 40lb 13oz…The last ditch attempt was worth it.