Gary's day

It was Home Farm's small lake for us this weekend after yet another very wet but still pretty mild week. The water though was cold after all the rain. Out of the bag came peg 8 which I was happy with as it is usually a good winter peg with a long, deep margin.

It was quite a slow start with the odd roach until I finally had a small carp on the long pole (well 6 sections as it was gusty) on expander. Mark opposite on peg 3 also had a carp about the same time and then a couple more before it then went even quieter with even the roach proving very tricky. The rest of the lake was fishing hard too with just the odd roach and, at one point, the far bank were all out on the feeder which shows how slow it was. Mark had a couple more decent carp and I was falling behind. Things started to improve about 1 but it was a case of wading through the small fish and rotating swims for the odd better fish including a couple of 1lb+ perch and occassional carp.

The long edge failed me today with very few bites even from roach. Perhaps the wind blowing into it was a bit too cold. On the far side though Mark had a golden last hour when the carp rocked up in his quite shallow, but sheltered, margin and they were a better quality than the fish I had.

At the weigh in Mark had 50lbs to my 35lbs with Phil snagging a couple of late carp for 13lbs and third. Today's pic is a very calm looking view towards the far bank, the wind started just after the whistle went - of course.