52lb ‘Charlie’s Mate’ Caps Incredible Winter Haul for Ian Russell

The unstoppable Ian Russell has done it yet again on a trip to Frimley, continuing what he already described as his ‘best ever winter of carp fishing’. This time he’s only gone and landed the famed ‘Charlie’s Mate’ – his second UK 50 of 2026 – and it’s still only February!

Arriving at Frimley Pit 3 for his usual Monday-to-Wednesday session, Ian was surprised – but not displeased – to find absolutely nobody else fishing. Little did he know he was about to experience a totally mind-blowing session for any time of year, let alone in the cold.

After a full lap of the lake, with no obvious signs of fish showing, he decided to settle into a swim called ‘The Stick’, where he had success on his last trip, and set about using the same tactics.

“Stealth is important at Frimley – they hate the disturbance of the Spomb – so instead I tied up 10 PVA bags of 10mm iScream boilies, 10 bags of iScream crumb and 10 bags of maggots, and catapulted them all around the swim,” Ian said.

“I put the rods out at the same range as the last session and within an hour started getting liners. This happened last trip too and I was slow to react, so this time I pulled all three rods in and staggered them at different ranges.”

It didn’t take long for Ian’s smart and stealthy feeding tactics to pay off. At midday he caught his first monster carp of the trip: a fully scaled mirror known as ‘Jerry’s Fish’ at a whopping 42lb 4oz – what a start!

"This beautiful fully scaled mirror known as 'Jerry's Fish' went 42lb 4oz"

“After that opener, I quickly put all three rods at the same range the bite came from and put out another 30 bags of bait – again 10mm boilies, crumb and maggots,” he said.

His next bite came at 6pm, just as he was making dinner in the pouring rain. The culprit? A 31lb common. That was followed just an hour later by a 33lb scaly mirror carp.

“This was bonkers. I hadn’t been there that long and already had three fish,” Ian told us.

Reducing the top-up of bait to just five bags of each offering during the hours of darkness allowed Ian to retain accuracy. At 8am the following morning, the left-hand rod was away again… another 31lb 8oz common.

“It really was crazy fishing. I put out another five bags of each to top up. I was using so much bait but still only using bags, and had already got through nearly 20m of Chopstix PVA!” Ian said.

Just an hour and a half later, his right-hand rod whizzed off and this time it felt substantially bigger. After a short but powerful battle, a 43lb common with unique jigsaw-like scales on its shoulder was lying in Ian’s net.

“Just mind-blowing – five big fish and the rods hadn’t even been in for 24 hours,” he said.

“Again, I repeated the process: five of each bag – maggots, crumb and 10mm iScream – on the same line.

“Liners continued and I was hoping for more. At 1pm I was chatting to Mark, the owner, and mentioned ‘Charlie’s Mate’ – the big ’un – when the right-hand rod suddenly pulled tight…

“I’ve caught that fish twice before nearly 20 years ago, so I jokingly said, ‘Don’t want that one again!’ Ironically enough, Ali was on the Thinking Tackle shoot where I caught it before on a Zig.

“This carp came in really easily, which strangely enough is exactly how it behaved all those years ago, then it just ploughed up and down the margins.

“We were still joking, then it rolled over and we both went into complete silence. It all got a bit tense until I netted it…

“It was indeed ‘Charlie’s Mate’ and at a humongous 52lb!

“The bailiffs came down to help with this great big fish and, to be honest, I was a bit dizzy. It was all a bit crazy – and despite being a recapture, it was a new UK PB common!”

The enormous and highly sought-after common provided the perfect end to a truly red-letter winter trip for Ian and, like the others in his epic haul, fell to half a 14mm Yellow iScream pop-up presented on his favourite Lock Ronnie Rig, with 10–12 maggots flossed on top.

Ian’s UK big carp tally since December now stands at two fifties and five forties from two different venues, plus at least 15 thirties thrown in – that’s winter carp fishing for the history books. Booking his place as a solid contender for ‘Carp Angler of the Year’ and it’s only February. Now that’s something to iSCREAM about!

Journalist Chris Haydon joined the OMC family in spring 2024, after six years working for the UK’s number one fishing publication, Angling Times. He is a keen coarse and carp fishing all-rounder, based in the South West and regularly fishing venues such as the famous Cotswold Water Park.