Gary's day

Today was a rare visit to Home Farm's Big Lake as the Small Lake was already booked. This lake has a lot of smaller carp and F1s so can turn into a bit of a fish race if they are feeding well

For my third trip to the venue I drew peg 7 up in one of the top corners. With pretty generous pegging on the lake it was going to be hard pellets long on the pole and the margins later on paste or corn. Rob on peg 6 got off to a flyer with a small carp before I had a rig in the water. I soon had a bite and a small carp on pellets and then a chunky roach but that was it for the long swim for the rest of the day.

Apart from Rob, who was still getting bites, everyone else seemed to be struggling although Fred and Phil on 3 and 4 were tucked around the corner so I could not see them.

I had some luncheon from the bottom of the freezer so gave this a go a bit shorter on the pole and finally had a few bites. A lot were from off small roach but the odd carp and F1 was also feeding. By the midway point though it was not going well. Rob was still catching the odd fish and Fred and Phil were strangely quiet suggesting they were doing well.

A change to paste near a tree to my left had the float wobbling all over as it was mobbed by small fish but then it flew under and I was into. .... a bulrush root. This was not the only bite of the day to end in a stick or lump of reed. A quick try on the right margin with meat got me one small carp but too many small fish were an issue.

Back to the left margin I finally found a couple of carp before a foulhooked carp killed the swim for a bit. A try elsewhere to rest the left swim produced nothing but a bumped fish. The last hour to the left was like fishing in a new lake with the paste not hitting the bottom a couple of times before a fish was on. A hectic finish but Rob was also catching a few fish too despite getting impaled in the finger by a pole float.w

With Phil admitting to 30lb and Fred having "had a few" it was going to be down to the scales as I could not see what they had been catching. The last 45 mins made all the difference and got me over the winning line with 68lbs 7oz to Phil's 56lbs 6oz and Fred's 47lbs 1oz. Today's photo is Fred with a pretty little Koi - it was a lot more orange in real life.