Gary's day

Today was Tony's annual charity match - this year for Breath Easy again. The forecast was for rain and it was spot on with it raining pretty much all day.

With giving Tony a hand with the draw I was last out of the bag - peg 10 was not the one I wanted being at the deep end of the lake - great in winter but not so good in summer. With it being 12ft+ on a long pole line it was going to be shallow out long, a couple of margin rigs and one in around 6ft (only about 3 metres from the bank). I started on the short line whilst feeding the long shallow swim with 4mms and was very surprised for a bite and a fish on pretty much my first put in - the blank was saved. I had a few more bites and 1 more fish on the short line before it went quiet. A quick try on the feeder got me another fish and 1 hour in I had 10lb in the net for a steady start. I could see pretty much everyone on the far bank and it was looking very quiet over there with only a few fish coming out.

The first try long on pellets was a waste of time and nor was there anything under the pellets when I tried a feeder there. A quick look in the margins and then short also proved fruitless. Despite the rain there still seemed to be quite a few fish topping so it was time for trying something different. I had a pint of maggots with me so started feeding these on the long pole line to at least get a few silvers going in the next. After a few minutes feeding I gave it a go and - nothing. I was expecting to be plagued by small silvers. About 10 mins in, just when I was thinking of the next plan, the elastic shot out of the pole and an F1 was heading my way. I spent the next 2 hours plodding along getting the odd F1 and eking out the maggots.

At 2 it was time for the margins as the long line started to fill with small silvers indicating the F1s had gone. On the far bank the odd fish was coming out along the edges but not many so the lake was fishing hard. After an hour of trying both margins with paste, corn, hard pellets and dead maggots all I had to show was a few small perch, a good roach on paste and 1 carp lost on paste. It was not happening. With 30 mins to go it was time to gamble - 15 mins long and 15 mins on the feeder. Nothing to show long so feeder it was. With a couple of minutes to go I spotted a tail pattern to the left edge and quickly dropped the feeder in with pretty much the last of my micros on it - the tip went sailing round and a fish was on and being played very carefully as it was my best of the day at around 7lbs. I could see I had done pretty well versus the far bank but had no idea how my own bank had fished.

1st Peter Green 59lbs 14oz, 2nd Jeff Pearson 51lbs 3oz, 3rd Gary Pickard 40lbs 12oz and 4th Dennis Gellett 39lbs 12oz. Sorry the low bank weigh sheet is a bit wet today

More importantly we raised £275 for Breath Easy