Gary's day

It was a trip to Home Farm's small lake today and, with a bit of break in the weather (only 20c today), we were hoping it would fish a bit better than recently. Today I was going to be on peg 5 - one I have been waiting to draw for ages. Phil on peg 1 looked to have lot of fish in front of him and there was the odd fish moving around before the off.

Plumbing up I found my shallow rig was also pretty much my bottom rig with about 20 inches of water in front of me. The water level had really dropped on the lake.

It was to be a start out at 6 sections pinging a few pellets over the top and looking around for cruising carp to have a flick at with the bait. About 20 mins in I found one willing to take the pellet - and it fell off. I needed the fish to stay on the hook as nothing was really being caught.

Darren on peg 3 started catching about that time too and the fish were pretty big according to Rob over on peg 7 who was keeping tabs on me and Darren.

Slowly I started getting a few more bites but was having issues keeping them on the hook. About 90 mins in it was Gary 3 carp 3. A try on paste proved a bit of a waste of time with fish in the area but not taking the bait. Fred opposite me on peg 6 was having the same issue with fish showing but not wanting to feed.

Coming up to the half way mark I was falling behind Darren who was still catching whilst I was struggling to get a bite. A quick run of carp fishing a 6mm pellet on the bottom on my longer line was welcome and I was back in the race.

Coming up to the last 2 hours it was time to see if anything was in the margins. The answer was yes with lots of signs but getting them on the hook was a different matter. Double corn and patience seemed to work and they were a good bit bigger than the fish out longer. Tony was also having a good finish with a few decent carp heading to his net.

The opposite bank was first to weigh and, apart from Tony who had had a good finish, it was tough going. Phil down on peg 1 had a mixed day with a few good carp but quite a few lost. It looked like it was between me and Darren and I knew he had some decent carp. After admitting to 15 carp and probably around 70lbs his 2 nets went 99lbs. I thought I had about 90lbs and when the first net went 46lbs, a little more than I expected, I knew it was going to be close. I ended up just edging past Darren with 102lbs.