Gary's day

Today saw us on the small lake at Hall Farm.  Not one we usually fish but the weed at MBL meant a change of venue.  It was a lovely clear day to start but it did not last.

Out came peg 7 for me; I was not happy as it has none of the reed beds that almost all the other pegs have - just a couple of small tufts along the edges.

At the start I went out long on the pole with hard pellets as the trick today would be avoiding the masses of small silvers in the lake.  Well, I avoided the small silvers but so too did I the bigger fish.  I did manage one small carp but some unhittable bites signalled the silvers had found me.

A try closer in at 2+2 with paste and corn when the wind picked up and I could not see my float further out did not work.  Lots of float movement from small fish but nothing more.  The odd fish was cruising so I flicked a feeder out whilst I set up a shallow rig and the tip went round.  It was only a 6oz carp but it was something and the rest of the lake was not fishing well.  Steve opposite had one reasonable size carp and Rob had a couple of smaller ones and I could hear Mark to my left seeming to be getting a few.

With the rain starting up and the cruisers disappearing the shallow rig stayed largely unused as the tip kept going round.  The feeder swim needed a rest now and again but kept coming back to life and saved a poor day as my margins never kicked into life.

At the weigh in I had a little more that I thought but not quite enough but it was lot more than I feared at the start.

1st Mark Halverson 22lbs 7oz with a mixed bag of mostly small carp with a couple of crucial bigger ones, 2nd Gary Pickard 18lbs 7oz and 3rd Tony Cruci 12lbs 5oz. Photo today is Mark, Tony and Phil having a chinwag before the all in.