Stewart Bloor

Field Tester

1

As far as night fishing is concerned, October is for me, the best month of the year. It gets dark quite early and that continues until well into the next day. In fact, if you take dusk and dawn into consideration, the hours of 'darkness' exceed those of light. Perfect for venues that respond better to the night-owler approach.

I haven't done an overnighter for quite some time, so it was great to get back on the bank as dusk approached, knowing I would be there until the next day. Variety is the spice of life, so they say, and my approach as an all-rounder definitely keeps the enthusiasm level bubbling away nicely.

I opted for SBS strawberry jam boilies, with a pop-up on the left rod into open water and a bottom bait on the right one that was fished to overhanging trees. Both spots were fed with a handful of loose offerings and multi-mix proactive pellets. Then the waiting game began. It was 3.30 am when the left indicator came alive.

The fish put up a great fight and did all it could to resist capture. Eventually though it succumbed and was engulfed in the mesh of the submerged landing net and straight on the unhooking mat. Photographed and released, I did some filming and had a cup of tea. Then I did what all good anglers do in the 21st century - I went on social media to tell the world about it!

You can never have too much of a good thing as far as angling is concerned, and I was back on the same venue for another overnighter. My bait approach was the same and it's true to say that the strawberry jam boilie from the Eurostar range has become a big part of my armoury in the last year or so since I gave it a go. And that's exactly what I did, I decided to fish with it - and it was an instant success.

That's always been something I've been aware of with SBS Baits - the products have delivered the goods from the start. There's never been the need to put in lots of bait to get the fish switched on or used to it. I've been on canals especially where you never see a carp angler, and the bait has been successful.

Settling down for the night I thought one fish would be a result and anything else a bonus. Netting two commons meant that I was definitely a happy camper. I've still got some strawberry boilies left and so I'm thinking I'll return and do a couple more overnighters in the near future. It would be a shame to not use the bait up before winter, wouldn't it!