Gary's day

And we are back after the close season break for official Club matches and we picked the start of a scorching few days. It was off to Home Farm's small lake today which has not been fishing great this year so far with the fish seeming to favour one end or the other with those on the wrong end only being able to look at others catching.

Out of the draw bag came peg 9 for me - in middle of the lake so equally good and bad hopefully. As we were setting up there were carp milling all around on the surface and looking like they might be up for feeding today as a few were gobbing at bits on the surface. Come the all-in whistle they had done their usual disappearing trick but did come back on top eventually.

The plan today was to catch loads shallow (it was only about 3 feet deep anyway) towards the middle at around 10 metres and then keep filling the nets down the margins. Whilst I waited for the carp to come back on the surface I tried 6mm hard pellets on a shorter line and had a very encouraging small carp about 3lbs after 20 mins. After that though it was just small fish nudging the pellet around. It was also proving a slow start on the rest of the lake.

A try out long trying to mug the carp cruising around was frustrating: you needed the Sun out to see the fish but the slightest shadow of the pole being cast over the carp you were after sent it swimming off at high speed. Eventually I connected with one only for it to fall off. It was still proving hard on the lake although Kevin on peg 7 was now getting a few and a few foulhooked fish too.

I managed 3 more carp by the half-way mark but it was proving difficult. Peter on hotly favoured peg 1 after recent results was also now catching and his fish looked much bigger and then everyone suddenly seemed to have 1 or 2 carp in their nets which levelled things up. Kevin meanwhile had been having a steady run of carp also fishing long trying to mug fish and was looking a run away winner.

The second half of my match was hard work only stringing together another 4 fish with a couple more lost along the way. Peter was still catching, although slowing towards the end, and Rob on peg 2 also getting a bit of a late run of fish. No one though looked to have caught up with Kevin and so it was: Kevin ended up with 72lbs, Peter 42lbs, myself sneaking in next with 35lbs and then Darren with 26lbs. As ever though at Home Farm there were plenty of fish that failed to get in the net that could reshuffled the results.