Gary's day

It was back to Hall Farm's large lake today. With a possible thunderstorm later, getting a few fish in the net early on could be crucial. Today I was back down in the deeps on peg 10 although this end of the lake has been fishing quite well lately.

I decided to start with a short line on hard pellets (still in 7ft of water) and feed a longer line to try and get them shallow later. Within a couple of minutes the float slid under and a small skimmer was heading into the net. A very odd start followed shortly after by a nice crucian and then a gudgeon. A bumped carp put paid to the short swim.

A try out long found me one fish but they were hanging back and cruising along the far side. The rest of the lake also seemed very quiet although you cannot see your own bank for the bushes hemming in this peg.

By half way desperation was setting in and I was trying maggots on the shallow line. This found me a few roach and rudd but they were much too small. Mark then came along to see how we were all doing and the most anyone was admitting to was a couple of carp. It was fishing hard

A try back shallow after a bit of rain passed through found me a few more carp but far too many were coming off. With a couple of hours to go it was time to try the margins as Rob on peg 8 looked to be catching a few close now.

I had a couple on paste but then the bites went funny and I spent the next 30 mins getting more frustrated. A change to hard pellets instead brought instant results with clean bites and fish heading to the net rather than coming off. It was a busy finish to the match but would it be enough to beat Fred on peg 2?

With Fred not admitting to more than 60lbs and both me and Rob guessing similar weights it was going to be a close one today. At the scales it ended 1st Rob Calderon 72lbs 12oz, 2nd Gary Pickard 72lbs 4oz and 3rd Fred Hunt 62lbs 13oz. Photo today is Phil.