Rob's day
At Hall Farm today for the first round of the Winter League – looked to be a nice day weather wise – warm and dry with no wind at the start and only a breeze blowing into the carpark end through the match. With 12 on today I didn’t have to put in pegs 13 or 14 so out of the bag came peg 20 for me – in the middle of the lake. Still deep here, had about 5 feet on the top 2 and 2 line and about 8 feet at 11m.
Plan today was just to fish with maggots on both pole lines and maybe maggots or corn near the margins later – in 3 feet. Started short and after a few missed bites hooked into the first carp. Had around 4 after an hour along with a few small roach and perch. Kept on this line getting the odd carp along with the silvers – including a roach around 10 oz and a 1lb skimmer. It seemed to be quiet on the other bank – Terry landing an early carp and Bob on peg 2 catching a few roach – just the odd carp coming out. No idea what was being caught on my bank.
Carried on for most of the match on the short line – a couple of tries on the longer line bringing one small carp – still getting the odd carp but long waits between carp bites. Into the last 45 minutes a try down the edge on corn brough an instant bite but a foul hooker which came off. A couple of more bites resulted in a couple of better carp to finish. I had clicked 30lb something but had used 2 nets for carp and maybe missed a couple, so wasn’t sure what I had – maybe 40lb something?
At the weigh in Bill did well from golden peg 16 with 46lbs 12oz – Fred next door 27lb 5oz. I had underestimated and weighed 59lbs 6oz but bigger weights usually come from the higher number pegs. As is happened my weight topped the High Bank with Steve 3rd with 32lbs from 22, Fred 27lbs 5oz and John Todd (today's photo) weighing 24lbs 11oz from 26.
On the Low Bank some good weights, notably Bob Fox’s 51lbs 5oz from peg 2 (peg 1 not in today) which included 18lbs of silvers. Phil did well from peg 12 with 30lbs 2oz for second on the Low Bank and Jeff third with 18lbs 4oz from 6. Everyone caught a few today, Terry 14lbs 6oz – peg 4, Peter 14lbs 1oz from 8 and Barry 13lbs 12oz from 12 completing the weights.