Rob's day

At Hall Farm today after a week of temperatures into the 30’s. A bit cooler today but still sunny with a gentle breeze blowing across the lake into peg 26. Wasn’t too sure how it would fish today due to the recent heat and the fact that it was noted that the fish were spawning at the weekend.

Walking round the lake early on, a lot of fish swimming around in nearly all pegs and many fish sitting around in the margins, especially on the low bank. I drew peg 26 – didn’t win a couple of weeks ago but a peg you would definitely have, always some fish close in and across to the reeds. Set up a short pole line, margin rigs and a couple of shallow ones as it looked like the fish could have a feed on the top.

Started trying to mug a few swimming around, but no success as the fish seemed very spooky. No bites short on the bottom so tried the method across to the reeds. After several line bites managed a couple but didn’t really want to fish the tip so went back to the pole shallow. In retrospect maybe should have spent more time on the feeder, as had one fish on the jigger then nothing.

After a couple of hours fish were appearing in the margins – close to the keepnets – some good fish including a couple around 10lb or so. This is where it went a bit wrong – I spent most of the remainder of the match trying to catch the margin fish – they were very spooky and I foul hooked more fish than properly hooked ones including a fish around 8lb hooked in the tail that took around 15 minutes of tug of war before somehow netting it.

Definitely should have rethought the tactics for the last couple of hours as despite the number of fish ended with 48lb 7oz – not a terrible weight but not great for this peg in May. That was enough for second on the high bank though with Gary Pickard weighing in a creditable 84lb 8oz from peg 18 – a great result – a lot of fish caught shallow I believe [About 50:50 - Gary]. Third on the bank Graham Carter with 46lb 11oz from peg 22.

The low bank fished well with peg 2 winning the day, Jeff Pearson weighing in 62lb 3oz, Peter Green second with 61lb 7oz from peg 6 and Phil completing the frame with 48lb 6oz from peg 8

So we all caught some fish today – maybe a rethink before the next Hall Farm match needed. Thank to Gary today with the help in weighing in and well done on top weight on the day. Photo today is a very happy Jeff.