Gary's day

Today we were at a bright and hot Beggars Hall. With little wind and high pressure I was expecting the fish to be high in the water and a good day on the pellet waggler. Out came peg 5 for me which I was pleased with as you have plenty of water to go at.

First rod out of the bag was the waggler rod with a feeder and then the pole. The day almost got off to a flying start with a bite on the pole out long with hard pellets on the bottom in the first few minutes. A couple of minutes later back came a scale: fish 1 Gary 0.

The next couple of hours saw me wasting my time on the waggler with the carp always just out of reach and not wanting to come into the feed. Darren on the opposite bank on peg 18 was not having the same issues and had a steady stream of carp going in his net. Our low bank was not doing well.

Finally I had a couple of small carp fishing a feeder under the pellet waggler line. But then it went quiet. Another small carp out on the long pole had hopes up but that was the second and last bite on this. Darren was still catching and so was Kevin on peg 19 and Tony on peg 17 also seemed to be tangling with a few.

A few more carp followed on the feeder: lots of liners when I fed some pellets and then the tip would occasionally fly round. It was time to try the margins with 90 mins to go but it had been strangely quiet. I should have stayed on the feeder as 1 lost carp was my lot for the margin and the lake was really slowing down in the last hour with even Darren now struggling.

Having seen Darren catching most of the day he looked to be the runaway winner although Kevin next to him had also been sneaking a few in the net. In the end it was closer than expected with Darren having 92lbs, Kevin 74lbs and myself 63lbs. Photo today is Darren with a nice little tench in the weigh bag you might just spot.