Gary's day

It has been a funny old week weatherwise from 25C+ down to a chilly 12C or so over the bank holiday weekend. A cooler start saw us on Hall Farm this week with 8 of us squeezed along the low bank. Out the bag came peg 8 for me - one I seem to draw a lot and not a favourite peg as things get warmer.

It was going to be out at 5 sections in 9ft of water with hard pellets and then down the edges (in nearly 5ft - it is rather deep down this end) later on cubed luncheon meat. Well that plan did not work and an hour in saw me with no signs of a bite on pellets and it was slow going for most of the rest although Jeff on peg 10 snuck an early carp and Peter on 9 was busy catching plenty of roach and rudd as he was keen to snare a few more big roach after getting one over a pound in the Weds match.

Thankfully I had some maggots and decided to join Peter catching silver fish and hoping some carp or F1s would rock up - and promptly missed the keepnet with the first roach I caught (spoiler alert - that and some other misses were going to be costly). An hour in the roach bites were slowing and then the float went under and something more solid was hooked - and promptly came off after charging cross the lake. I did get 1 small mirror that took pity on me on the shallow line but it was going nowhere. A few tries down the edges was also producing nothing. By the midway point Phil on peg 2 had been catching steadily and Fred on peg 5 was admitting to 6 carp.

A F1 finally felt sorry for me on the long hard pellet line but that was the one and only bite on this so it was margins or bust. Nothing to the left which looked the better side. A bite to the right which I missed. With just over an hour to go things were not looking good but then the lake finally seemed to switch on for us in the deeps. It was then a case of swapping left and right and the peg was getting better although the carp and F1s were small at about 2lbs a piece but each one was very very angry. A 2lb+ koi was a nice surprise (sorry no picture) and the bites were finally flowing just in time for the whistle to blow.

Apart from Phil who had a clear lead on us all the results were very close: 1st Phil Whitmill 64lbs; 2nd Rob Calderon 44lbs 9oz and 3rd Fred Hunt 43lbs 4oz just beating me by 3oz. Pic today is Fred not yet knowing he had ounced me.