Rob's day

Hi All

Back at Hall Farm today for the over 65s match – a warm day expected with apparently light winds. We had 9 at the draw today so decided to put in all 12 low bank numbers and see what comes out. Peg 10 for me not where I wanted to be in the first few pegs. In fact after we drew the three numbers left in the bag were 1, 2 and 3. Maybe though this would be a fairer match although John Carter on peg 4 would seem to have the best draw with all the lake to his left free.

Set up some pole rigs for close in at 6 foot, further out at 9 foot, margin and shallow, although the margins are not great here – a few inches at 1 ½ foot then slopes sharply down into the depths. No bites on the pole short or long so decided it had to be shallow although not many fish showing. Took a while on the jigger to get the first fish, but started picking up a few. The wind was proving an issue now though, difficult to hold the pole out at 13m – a couple of times almost blowing into Tony’s peg to the right. Still getting a few though – mainly small carp and F1s.

Jeff to the left had a few carp short on the pole – Tony struggling on peg 11 – couldn’t see anyone else although Peter Green appeared half way through to say the early pegs were doing well (no surprise).

Into the last hour and tried the margins – had one carp on pellet to my left before trying the paste. Not easy as the float wanted to disappear down the slope but had 3 better carp in the last 15 minutes to weigh in just over 60lb. This was never likely to compete with pegs 4, 5 and 6 though and this is how it turned out to be.

John topped the weights with a great 129lb from peg 4, Graham Carter second with a creditable 87lb 4oz peg 5 and third Phil with 70lb 2 oz for third from peg 6.
Thanks for everyone who turned up and congratulations to John Carter.