Rob's day

At Hall Farm today – first thing the lake looked good with little wind and blue sky but that was about to change. Twelve on the bank today, seven on the Low Bank and five on the High. With pegs 18 and 20 in I really wanted one of the pegs nearer to the car park so was not unhappy to be left with peg 24 in the bag. Had John Carter to my left on 22 and Bill on peg 26.

At the start of the match the wind was not so bad, blowing into peg 26. Decided mainly to fish hard pellets at around 6 meters today, also setting up a couple of margin rigs in around 2 ½ foot. After about 20 minutes started to get a few bites – mainly smallish carp and F1s but already the wind started to be a problem with a strong tow on the water right to left.

Looked to be quiet on the Low Bank with one or two carp coming out and a few splashes from peg 26. Still getting a few bites, some missed bites and a couple of foul hookers, maybe the fish coming off the bottom. Fed a bit heavier to try and keep the fish down and had one or two runs of a few bites. Half-way through I had 45lb clicked so moved onto the second net (always a tricky manoeuvre) and that’s when the weather took a turn for the worse. Along with a couple of rain bursts the wind increased and gusted about causing some of the biggest waves I’ve seen at Hall Farm! This made fishing the pole almost impossible at times but I was cheered up with the sight of Barry on peg 2 fighting with his brolly in the wind!

When the wind dropped a bit I managed a few more carp but the second half of the match was tricky for me – tried the margins but no signs so kept out at 6 meters. Wasn’t sure what had been caught but Phil on peg 3 looked to have a good second half with some good carp down his edge.

At the weigh in Bill had 44lb 9oz, my first net did not go 45lb but went over by several pounds (have to work on the clicking) I think the carp were going heavier than we thought today. So knocked back to 50lb my total was 72lb 3oz to win the High Bank with John Carter second with 46lb 13oz and Bill third with 44lb 9oz. On the Low Bank Phil’s 46lb was enough to top the bank with Jeff’s 39lb 10oz from peg 5 second and Peter on the more sheltered peg 12 third with 26lb 13oz.

So all types of weather today, high winds, rain and at times sunshine, maybe with better conditions in the second half I could have had more, but possibly the winds help churn up the water and caused the carp to feed today with most catching a few.