Gary's day

After another mild week it was back to Hall Farm's large lake with the water still very low but a bit of colour left. It was to be peg 20 for me today pretty much in the middle of the high bank. With some space near me it looked a pretty good draw, not a flyer but should be good for a few fish.

I set up rigs for out long on the pole in 10ft of water, closer in 6ft and near the margins in 3 1/2 ft. I had forgotten how deep it gets in these pegs even with the low water. A try on expanders on the 6ft line was pretty useless with not a wobble of the float. Jeff over on peg 10 was off to a flyer though with a carp in the first few minutes. A try out long brought a few bites but shipping 13m of pole for a 1 ounce roach was not much fun.

A try shorter was also full of small silvers. It looked like I was in the nursery peg today. Everyone else seems to be having similar issues with small fish. Phil though was having none of these issues with his maggot feeder catching a steady run of carp. Mark on 26 was also having a good run on the method feeder.

Finally at around halfway the float went under on the long line and it was not a tiny roach. Not the biggest of F1s but worth a lot of the roach I was getting. Next drop in the float went under again and a nice crucian was also in the net. Had the carp rocked up? Sadly not, I had another couple of smaller carp but the swim then filled with mini roach.

Darren on peg 8 was now starting to get a few carp on the pole and it looked like it was between him and Phil. Peter on fancied peg 2 also had a couple of carp later on but was having the same issue with silvers.

A try towards the margins to avoid the mini roach was mostly a swap for micro perch although I did get 1 more carp and lost a couple more that were foulhooked. A very frustrating day with the wrong fish finding my maggots.

My lost couple of fish did not make a huge difference but it was a tight finish with 3 on around 40lbs. Heading the 40lb pack was Darren Cope with 45lbs 4oz and then a battle of ounces with Mark coming in second with 40lbs 13oz just fending off Phil with 40lbs 6oz. Photo today is Phil who I thought had the match sown up.