Gary's day

After a bit of a break for the Christmas/New Year period the first match of 2024 ended up on Hall Farm's large lake after some reshuffling due to conflicts and the River being in flood. Thankfully the day was due to be dry but it was a chilly start.

The draw bag arm needs a bit of work as I pulled out peg 9 - not really where I wanted to be and with pegs 8 and 10 also in it was going to be a tough day. With the water still carrying quite a bit of colour the plan was the pole at 5 sections where it was 3 sections (10ft) deep and then a feeder out long plus pinging the odd bit of corn long for later. After an hour trying maggot, cage and hybrid feeders without a sign things were not looking good. Mark, on peg 8, then had a bite on the pole and foulhooked a carp on the strike which came off - at last some signs of life in the lake. Time to try the pole and .... not a sign. Back out on the feeder it was. Rob on peg 10 then had a carp on bomb and bread and Mark one on a method feeder. I was getting battered either side.

Finally I had a bite on bomb and bread a couple of hours in and a small carp was safely in the net. Word came down the bank that Phil had 2 carp and John 1 so it was clearly fishing tough. Despite trying the pole a few more times there was nothing there - this seemed to be the case for everyone. Rob then picked up another couple of carp and it looked like a 2 horse race between him and Phil. I had 1 more bite before the all out but it came off pretty much on the final whistle and there ended my day - 2 bites and 1 carp for 3lbs 15oz.

In the meantime John had snuck 3 more fish into his net to win with 15lbs 15oz with Phil and Rob sharing second spot with 11lbs 2oz. Picture today is Rob with his 3 carp on a very hard day.