Rob's day

Back at Beggar's today – mild for the time of year but with the promise of showers throughout the day which never materialised. 14 on today for the second round of the Winter League, 7 on each bank. I drew 17 – so was hoping for a few bites today but this time of year who knows. Set up a few feet above the water level as too dodgy to put my box in the water. Two feeder rods and a couple of pole rigs – one at 6 foot deep at 11m out and one at 4 foot deep at around 6 feet away from the edge.

A couple of hours in with the feeder casting along the island produced nothing – then a bite out of the blue and an 8lb carp in the net. Bill in the meantime had had a couple on the next peg (16). A try on the pole and maggots caught a few roach and perch but needed carp. No bites on corn so back to the feeder across and to my left – not a touch. Back to the pole produced one carp on corn then no more bites. Looked to be hard on the other bank – not a lot of activity and Peter on peg 13 had only silvers.

Into the last 30 minutes and Bill next door was having a good day – on about 7 or 8 carp mainly caught on the waggler. Desperation now creeping in, only thing to do was to pack away the pole (always gets a bite) – in fact had 2 in the last 20 minutes to boost my weight to 31lbs 12oz but way behind Bill who weighed in 64lbs 5oz for an easy win – Phil second on the High Bank from peg 18 with 35lbs 15oz and me third. The rest of the High Bank fished hard with a couple of DNWs

It was difficult on the Low Bank with Graham topping the weights with 15lbs 2oz from peg 3 – Ray second with 11lbs 9oz from peg 2 and Bob third from peg 6 with 9lbs. The rest struggled with just a solitary carp or silver – Peter included a 3lb bream in his catch. Not often that pegs 2 and 3 finish first and second on this bank.

Hoping for a bit of rain soon as levels still painfully low – no doubt we’ll complain when it does rain though! Photo today is bagger Bill.