Rob's day
At Hall Farm today – a warm day promised with no rain. Fourteen on the lake today – had to split it eight on the low bank and six on the high bank. All wanted a draw at the car park end but out came peg 18 for me so was going to tough to compete with the pegs in the 20s especially 26.
Kept it simple today – thought I would fish shallow for most of the day and the edges later. Quite a few fish showing on top at the start. Did set up a rig for the bottom at around 6 foot but only one foul hooker lost on this line today. Started shallow at 13 meters and a good start with two carp in the first 20 minutes and a couple of foul hookers lost. Kept on this for a couple of hours but surprisingly no more bites. Tried the short line a couple of times but nothing.
From early on a few carp had been visiting the left hand edge – not so much colour in the lake now and could see the fish clearly – some good commons but as usual very spooky and disappeared when putting a rig in.
Tried the shallow rig a couple more times but nothing so concentrated on the margins, just dropping the rig in with a bit of groundbait and being patient. Had a couple on this but very few proper bites.
Could only see the other bank but seemed very hard for pegs 13, 10 and 8 – Jeff had caught a few on the pole and Tony Parker seemed to be doing well on the tip. Further down Phil seemed to be finding it hard (maybe with peg 1 in) but Ray was catching a few next to him. Not sure about my bank but no doubt they were catching on pegs 24 and 26.
Into the last hour – fish still very spooky – could see them coming in briefly, swimming out, circling and coming back in again. A change to a lighter rig helped and managed a few at the end to bump my weight up.
At the weigh in – on the low bank the high number pegs did fish hard, Adrian's one carp the only fish from the first 3 pegs. Better further down with Jeff's 37lb 12oz good enough for third, Peter second with 38lb 7oz but Tony Parker taking top weight with 41lb 12oz from peg 5
On the high bank my 55lb 11oz made third place just behind Bill’s 56lb 10oz from peg 24. Only problem for John Carter on peg 26 was not having enough nets – he weighed in 142lb 10oz for an easy win (would have had over 160lb)
Picture today is Tony Heath with his biggest fish – weighed at just over 14lb