Gary's day

Today we were over at Hall Farm's large lake with a cooler start forecast. A welcome relief after the recent hot spell. Out of the draw bag came peg 1 for me, a flyer so the pressure was on.

On plumbing up I was surprised to find so little depth with 1-2 foot at most but it did not seem to be putting off the carp that were cruising around the area. It helped cut down the prep though as my shallow rig could fish on the deck.

I spent the first hour or so fishing shallow trying to mug the odd carp cruising past. It was a steady start with every carp going nuts when it was hooked and charging over towards either the lillies to my left or the weed bed in front. After an hour I had half a dozen small carp - slow but steady. To my right on peg 2 Tony was busy catching roach and rudd with the top end of the lake seeming fairly quiet.

The middle of the match was much the same but feeding a few 6mms seemed to help. A quick try on the method feeder midday allowed me time for a bite to eat. I had a couple of carp on this but getting them past the reed bed on the left was tricky with a shorter rod.

By now the pegs up the lake were starting to wake up with the occasional net going out for a fish. It was time to give paste a go again and this time they seemed interested. And that was pretty much it to the end of the match alternating pellets or corn as feed. There was the inevitable spells of missed bites and lost fish but, thankfull, more stayed on than came off. The middle pegs of Mark, Jeff and Peter also looked to be having a good finish too.

With the sun coming out and the temperature rising the final whistle was welcome. I had had a busy day and I finished with just under 120lbs for 1st. The rest of the lake had also fished pretty well and it was all down to who had managed to land the carp they had hooked. Peter managed to nudge Jeff into third place with 53lbs to Jeff's 47lbs with Mark and Fred nipping at their heels. Today's picture is Tony with a tidy net of silvers.