Gary's day

It was another bright start at Beggars Hall with the view at the draw being that there would be no rain; we were very wrong.

Out of the bag came peg 4 for me. A good summer peg with the dubious pleasure of giving you a great view of fliers 17 and 18. A quick try on hard pellet on the pole had no signs so it was on to the feeder. An hour in things were not looking good - no bites or liners and John on peg 5 was reeling them in. Finally, I had a bite after just over an hour and one of the smallest carp in the lake was in the net. At least a blank was saved. With no more signs on the method feeder I had another bite fishing a small cage feeder. Sadly it came off.

Time to try the pole again which seemed to be working for Mark over on peg 17 who was also now catching well. A couple of dead maggots on the hook was getting me bites but from small perch and not the carp I needed. And then the rain started about 12.30 and the next hour was not pleasant. At least I had a bite from a proper carp during the downpour but then it was back to the small perch. At this stage it looked a 2 horse race between Mark and John - they looked to be fish for fish. A consolation third carp with about an hour to go had the hopes up but then it was perch again.

At the weigh in my 19lb came nowhere. John's steady day on the feeder took him to 92lbs 2oz, with Mark's 77lbs coming second with Phil sneaking his way into third with 54lbs off peg 10. Today's photo is John with part of his winning catch.