Gary's day

Another mild if a little windy week saw us at Home Farm. Despite the sun it was colder than I was expecting in the wind and I was glad to find a hat tucked in my coat pocket.

Out of the draw bag came peg 8 which I was pretty happy with as there was no one to my left. Just the pole came out of the bag today with a light and heavier rig for long (it was going to be another breezy day) and a random shallow rig I could use for dobbing along the reed lined edge.

Kicking off with micros and expanders was slow going and when the float did go under it was only roach. Time for trying maggots. Again still just roach but a bit quicker. At about an hour in it was hard going all round but then the carp started feeding with Mark, over at the top of the lake, hooking 2 and landing 1 in quick succession. The roach I was catching were just not going to cut it despite a few around the half pound mark.

Finally, a bit after the half way point, a couple of small carp showed up for me fishing to my left. I had been ignoring this area as seeing the float was a nightmare amongst the shadows, however, after the quick flurry, it was back to the roach.

At this stage Mark was still catching carp as was Peter now on peg 1 and Phil over on peg 5 opposite Mark. Time for a gamble along the left margin which was about the deepest part of my swim. Finally the bites started coming with a few carp getting to the net but with a number of foulhooked fish coming off. At the weigh in I had 30lbs including 6lbs of roach with the lost fish proving costly. Runaway winner on the day was Mark.

1st Mark Halverson 44lbs 12oz, 2nd Peter Green 32lbs 7oz and 3rd Gary Pickard 30lbs 12oz

Today's photo is me being too slow for a catch shot of Mark's winning net - think of it more as a release shot.