Gary's day

It was a chilly start today with the lake covered in a thick mist before the draw. Thankfully though the day quickly warmed up.

At the draw bag it was time to test my luck with the car park end pegs being favourites. When David declared he had just drawn peg 2 the odds of a good draw dropped. In went the hand and out came peg 26 to much abuse - honestly I do draw iffy pegs.

My day was going to be simple or so I thought - down the edge and hauling them in from the start. The water though was at least a metre down so the left margin was very shallow. An early start long on the pole with maggots saw a steady stream of good quality silvers including some of the chub introduced last year heading to the net. But the F1s were not showing up. A quick look down the edge did not get a sign.

Time for a try on the feeder whilst I had a sandwich and re-think. A couple of F1s and not many signs meant it was time for a change. It was then a game of patience down the margin with paste to avoid the hoards of perch. Not many bites but they tended to be from decent sized carp so worth the wait On the far bank I kept seeing David netting a few good sized looking fish but the lake was fishing a bit tricky. At the all out I weighed just over 51lbs for a win. Today's photo is my very fishy looking margin.

1st Gary Pickard 51lbs 3oz, 2nd David Jones 25lbs 10oz, 3rd Terry Moranda 22lbs 10oz and 4th Dave Knapp with 12lbs 7oz.

Gary won the Ralph Jarvis Rose Bowl with 2 points with Mark Halverson as runner up on 8 points.