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Debbie Shinnock & Glyn BondDebbie Shinnock and Glyn Bond spent a hectic week at Nash’s Lac Chateau Cavagnac, in south-west France, during the first week in May - a popular date for this venue.

The intrepid pair had caught fish every night – all between 19½ and 26½lbs - but Debbie was desperate to get a thirty pounder. As every fish was caught, she couldn’t wait for it to be weighed and kept asking Glyn - ‘D’you think that’s a 30? You sure it’s not a 30? This one’s gotta be, surely!’

So many fish were caught on Debbie’s rods that they decided, the next time a rod screamed off, to take it in turns and treat the rods as ‘communal.’ Grabbing the rods alternately meant that Glyn not only caught a few decent sized fish of his own but also caught a few thirties that, as they were on Debbie’s rods, technically should have been hers. Deb was not bothered; judging by the size of the fish Glyn was getting from the lake, she was confident that her turn would come.

Fishing the Channel swim, they’d been having mostly commons all week but on the Friday – last day before departure back to Blighty – Glyn had a couple of mirrors in the morning. At 2pm Debbie was suddenly into a fish. ‘It tried a few lunges,’ Debbie told me, ‘and then it felt as if it had gone into the weed. Glyn kept asking me if I wanted to get into the boat. I told him I didn’t. I needed to do this by myself – all the time thinking that this fish might be my coveted thirty.’

Ten to fifteen minutes later, Debbie gave in and she and Glyn got themselves into the boat. While Glyn sculled, Debbie played her quarry. As they got nearer to the fish, Glyn suggested that Debbie let out a little more line. ‘I appreciated his guidance,’ said Deb, ‘but I was determined that he wouldn’t touch my rod. This was going to be my prize!’

‘I managed to get the fish up to the surface,’ Debbie went on, ‘and as Glyn was struggling to get it into the net, I kept on about it being a possible thirty – Do you think it is? It could be couldn’t it? No, really, what do you think? – he told me that it looked pretty big and, in fact, might smash anything he’d ever caught.’

‘We netted the fish and started back to the Channel swim. Meanwhile, Stuey and David had spotted that there was something big going down and were on their way round the lake to meet us. I asked David ‘Is it my thirty, do you think?’ ‘It might be a forty,’ David said, as he lifted it on to the bank. When he opened the sack and said it was at least a fifty, I can’t tell you how I felt! I was so excited and proud. I even got into the water with it, fully clothed, when it was time to let it go.

Debbie’s long anticipated ‘thirty pounder’ weighed in at 56lbs 8oz. A magnificent, golden mirror.

Debbie Shinnock & Glyn Bond