Gary's day

Today we decided to try and catch a few fish so headed off to Hall Farm's large lake which seemed our best chance. With Tony's car playing up I was guest match runner today and opted for a roving match so no one could complain about the pegs I put in the bag.

We ended pretty well spread around the lake as everyone took a guess at where the fish would be. With second pick I opted for peg 26 which is normally pretty reliable.

I set up a few options: a pole rig for on the deck at 10 metres; a shallow pole rig as a few fish were cruising around before the all in; a feeder rod; and a waggler just in case. After way too much feeder fishing this winter I was keen to catch on the pole so started with micros and expanders whilst pinging a few 4mm hard pellets for a swallow swim.

I was soon 2 fish down as Phil on peg 1 got off to a flying start. Finally I had a bite after about 40 mins and a small mirror carp was in the net. 1 more carp and then a bumped fish killed this swim so time to try a feeder. There were worryingly few signs despite fish topping over near the reeds and it was a few casts before I had a bite. One more carp on the next cast followed then it went quiet.

John Carter to my left was also now getting bites on the pole and Phil was still getting the odd fish.

All this time the temperature was slowly dropping and the the first of a number of rain showers arrived and the cruising fish disappeared. I changed the shallow rig to another deck rig for hard pellets which was the change I needed.

After that the peg started getting stronger as the day went along. Phil was still catching well but I was catching up and the fish size was getting better with them now being more 3lbs than 2lbs. John was still getting the odd fish (including a couple of skimmers) and I could see Peter on peg 8 had a couple but it looked like it was between me and Phil unless Mark in the far corner on peg 13 and well out of sight was catching.

Despite the rain I had a great day with plenty of bites which helped after over 10 hours for 6 bites before today.

The rain stopped just as the whilst blew so it was a thankfully less wet weigh in. Now to see how well Phil had been catching. 1st Gary Pickard 89lbs 2oz, 2nd Phil Whitmill 64lbs 2oz and 3rd Mark Halverson 49lbs 1oz with everyone catching a few. Picture today is John Carter near side and Phil over on the other side at the sunny start of the day.