Gary's day

Today we were back at Wickham Hall and getting the better quality fish was going to be key. This time around we opted for trying the swims along another bank to see how they fished. I was pretty happy pulling out a corner peg but a quick cast around showed it to be weedier than hoped. It was going to be a very simple day: one feeder line into a count of 9 or so / 20 ft; and a pole line into around 9 feet. This place is rather deep!

After feeding both lines I started on a cage feeder. I was getting signs straightway but only small fish. Mark over on the other corner had a quick carp which reinforced you would need the better quality fish today. After getting nothing but small rudd on the feeder it was time for a go on the pole. I soon swapped to using corn as anything else was getting mobbed by small fish. This helped find a few better rudd but still only 2-3 oz and then a small skimmer. Had the bream arrived? Sadly no and it was back to the small rudd.

Mark was still getting a few fish including some smaller bream and now Phil to my right started catching. It was a frustrating match, all I could find was small rudd with lots of them whilst the feeder was falling through 20 feet of water. A small carp near the end after sitting it out on a rudd proof method feeder helped but I was well and truly battered by Phil who caught carp and bream steadily.

1st Phil Whitmill 19lbs 9oz, 2nd Mark Halverson 16lbs 11oz and 3rd Gary Pickard 7lbs 4oz. Today's picture is Mark's nice mixed net of bream and small carp.