Phil Smith hasn’t lost the thirst for specimen coarse fish despite a list of personal bests that virtually any other angler in the UK could only dream of.

His latest triumph came during a three-night session on a stillwater in the Midlands that marked the start of his spring campaign, and produced bream of 13lb 15oz and 15lb 9oz (his fourth biggest), plus a few nice tench.

Coventry based Phil fed three swims with pellets and boilies, bagging one of the big ‘uns on sweetcorn and the other on a boilie set-up.

Almost unbelievably, Phil has now banked nine bream over 15lb, and surely the tenth is not far away.