Gary's day

Today found us at Home Farm's small lake after a reshuffle from last week as it was frozen over. A couple of surprise frosts before Sunday was not good news.

Out of the bag came peg 7 for me; in the middle and with the 2 end pegs on either bank next to me. Not where I wanted to draw. It was going to be day of fishing maggots long on the pole for anything swimming and maybe something in the edge later where I had a bush either side.

Mark got off to a flying start with a carp in the first 10 mins. It was then though a long wait for us all bar Fred who was getting a few roach on peg 3. An hour in things improved with a few roach coming out and Fred starting to get a few carp. For me it was roach only until I found a small carp half way through down the edge on bread punch. But it was on its own. Some of the roach were nudging 6oz and worth catching but too few and too slowly to match the carp.

As the day warmed up Mark, Rob on 5 on the other bank's end peg and Fred kept ticking over with the odd carp. Just the 1 more carp for me and the rest of my bank was painfully slow with Phil and Tony having a tough day. At the weigh in it was all down to quality with the 3 having around 6 carp each with Mark having a couple more carp but of a much better stamp. 1st Halverson 39lbs 1oz, 2nd Fred Hunt 20lbs 9oz and 3rd Rob Calderon 19lbs 6oz. Picture today is the lake - nice and clam before the off - Fred's peg to the left and Rob's to the right.