Gary's day

Today was a visit to MBL with the hot weather and the charity match the day before meaning we were missing a few regulars. It was going to be another hot and bright day so not what you really want for bream or tench. Out of the bag came peg 17 for me which is usually a good peg. The options were pretty straightforward today: one line near the lilies to my left; and another as far out as I could get before hitting weed (about 10m). To the right was pretty much out of the question due to weed.

A quick try short on maggots whilst the groundbait on the other 2 lines settled produced a quick bite and a tench - but of just about an ounce. And that was the only bite I had there. A try by the near lilies produced a small perch but it was very quiet on what I expected to be my best line. Tony on peg 18 was getting a few small silvers on the other side of the lilies so this was very odd. Next bite I hooked into a small fish that suddenly became very big. When half a hooklength came back with frayed ends the culprit was clear I had a pike sitting where I hoped to be catching.

An hour in I was really struggling and then Fred on peg 3 had a bream shortly followed by Kevin too on peg 10. Mark and Tony were also catching a few and I was looking at the wooden spoon. A couple of small silver by the lilies had me hoping the pike had moved off until one turned into a pike again. After a couple of minutes it decided to let go of this rudd. It was clearly still hungry and I had another rustle with it again about 30 mins later when it snaffled the fish I had on.

Out long was no better with only the odd small rudd showing up. That was until I hooked something better which slowly moved off towards the weeds before breaking me. The fish just did not seem to like being anywhere near the lilies.

Fred by now had a tench and Kevin soon had another bream. With a couple of hours to go I set a float very shallow and started flicking it towards the weedy right and started to get a few small rudd of maybe 1/2 ounce. It was a long way to ship the pole for not much weight. Fred had by now managed another tench and Kevin had lost a good carp and a tench. It seemed like every decent fish hooked today was heading into the nearest patch of lilies today. Over at the far end Mark had also been having a steady day with a bream and small fish from the off.

It was a very close finish with less than a pound separating the top 3 today. Kevin's 2 bream taking him to the winner's spot with just over 9lbs; Mark with 1 bream and a good net of small silvers with just under 9lbs; and Fred's 2 tench and bream putting him in third spot. Today's photo is my peg with the pike filled lily bed to the left.