Gary's day

It was the Stort Backwater for us today. With colour and flow and being 5c warmer than our visit a couple of weeks back (it was still -3c at the draw) signs looked good for some fish.

Out of the draw bag was peg 6 for me. A very short walk and a gap between 2 barges which looked very fishy. It was a lot deeper than I expected so a couple of bits of line needed to be added to the pole rigs: 1 for down the middle and over near the barges; and 1 for perch between the barges.

It was a fair gap to Rob on peg 10 so I was not going to know much of what was happening up the river. At the all in a ball of breadcrumb and a couple of groundbait with some rather old pinkies went in. It was a flying start with 4 reasonable roach in the first half dozen runs through. It was never going to last but gave me hopes of a good day out. The very low sun meant it was going to be a good hour before I could try between the barges as I could not see the float for all the glare.

A few more roach saw me to the hour mark and time for a first try for perch whilst I rested the breadpunch line. No signs. Back on the punch for a few roach and then time to try for perch again. This time the plan worked and 3 chunky 6oz perch were in the net.

Above me Rob was having a nightmare and could not get a bite. The rest of the pegs above were also proving hard work with mostly very small roach and dace being caught. Another go over by the boats found 1 more perch but the increased activity on the boat killed that line off.

As the sun swung round and the river was in its full glare the bites slowed down and the last hour was a real struggle with only a handful of bites even on a single pinkie on a size 20 to 0.8. I was guessing I had a bit over 3lbs so it would all be down to whether perch had shown on the upstream pegs.

1st Gary Pickard 5lbs 4oz, 2nd John Todd 1lbs 15oz and joint 3rd Mark Halverson and Phil Whitmill with 1lbs 13oz. Photo today as my view down river at the cold start of the day.