Gary's day

It was Home Farm's small lake for us today after a chilly and wet week. Out of the bag came peg 5 which put me near one corner of the lake with a great view of carp swimming under a large tree out of range.

A try out short on hard pellets got me an early carp so I was off the mark. That was it though, just the one bite. The rest of the lake was also taking a while to liven up with just the odd silver being caught. It was time to try longer towards the tree where I had been pinging 4mms. No signs on pellets but a swap to paste found me one more carp. Again that was it. With the day warming up the carp had started cruising about so it was time to try shallow. I had a couple of enjoyable hours mugging carp. It was hard work spotting the fish but exciting when I saw them turn for the bait and the float shoot under.

Slowly the margins started to come to life and I could hear Rob on peg 3 starting to get a few along with the pegs opposite me. Time for my go. I wasted a lot of time to the left where the fish really did not want to come away from the tree. They were swirling there all day in. After deciding to stick to the right for the last 40 mins I finally started to get a few bites feeding micros and groundbait and fishing with worm on the hook. I could still hear Rob catching well although everyone else was still struggling with a lot of fish being lost.

1st Gary Pickard 75lbs 7oz, 2nd Rob Calderon 61lbs 13oz and 3rd Tony Cruci 40lbs 5oz. Pic today is Rob with part of his catch.

As to who won the Stone Cup I suspect Tony is keeping this one under wraps until the presentation evening in May.