Gary's day

At last a warm, dry and sunny day - maybe not the best conditions for the Stort but a lot better for me. Out of the draw peg came peg 12, one off the corner peg 13 but not a bad peg for a few small fish. With a low and clear river everyone was gearing up for a few roach on bread punch and then praying for a few big perch amongst the boats and hopefully not too many pike making an appearance.

With a couple of small fishing topping whilst setting up it looked like I would get a few more bites than last weekend (given I only had 1 bite it would not take much). A quick look over for perch did not produce any bites so it was time to concentrate down the middle on bread punch. There were plenty of fish there but not the quality hoped for with a lot of small dace and roach that must have been 3 to the ounce. Fred above me on peg 13 was having similar problem - lots of bites and a few fish but not much by way of weight. After an hour or so it was decision time - sit it out for perch or try to catch small fish as fast as I could. As the bankside rumour was it was fishing hard and the perch not showing and being a sucker for getting bites it was the small fish route for me and it was time to set up a whip along with maggots to try and get the micro roach and dace in as fast as I could.

It was a very busy 5 hours with a bite a chuck but lots missed as the fish must have been tiny given what I was actually managing to hook. I soon lost count of the fish but had well over a 100 and finished with 3lbs 15oz and a surprise win.

1st Gary Pickard 3lbs 15oz, a close second with 3lbs 12oz was Terry Moranda who sat it out for some good perch and joint 3rd Phil Whitmill and John Todd (with a rare skimmer) on 2lbs 12oz just pipping it from a chasing pack of another 3 anglers.

Today's photo is Steve Foster plumbing up before the off complete with sunken boat for added perchy cover (Phil just in shot)