Gary's day

After the heavy rain of Saturday we were hoping for a dry day, although rain was threatened for the end of the match. With the water level still well down we were all fishing off the platforms today with peg 19 for me. An end peg but not the corner of the lake I fancied with Darren having drawn that. With a breezy day forecast I left the whip in the rod bag and set up a lightly shotted pole rig at 6 sections in about 7ft and a heavier rig for 13m in about 11ft. The last rig was a cage feeder for further out in the deeps.

Rob and Mark got off to a quick start with a couple of nice rudd/roach whilst I was still feeding my swims. I had decided to be give them a good feed to start with hoping to pull in some of the bream or carp. Whist these settled I started on my short swim just fishing maggots and there were signs straight away. An extra shot on the rig made the world of difference and I could see the bites much clearer. I was getting a steady run of small rudd and roach of about 1-2 ounces but Mark and Rob were still getting quality fishing further out but not as quickly.

Tony to my right was having a slow start with lots of small fish plaguing his long line. And John was struggling to get bites over on the other bank. Darren then netted his first decent fish, a 2lb hybrid, which wiped out mine in one go.

A try on the long line and feeder produced bites but the fish were now bigger than on the short line. Rob started to get a few chublets a couple of hours in which pushed his weight up and Mark was still catching the odd nice rudd/roach. I was still ticking over with the small fish. Lots of bites but was I being a busy fool as Darren landed a feisty carp and I slipped further behind him?

This became a familiar pattern. I was catching steadily but Darren was creeping ahead landing another 2 carp before the end. A couple of chublets and what might have been a small ide were my bonus fish for the day - I did manage a few carp but none of them went over a couple of ounces with most much smaller than that (I was in the nursery swim). Mark and Rob ended up struggling towards the end with the fish seeming to have moved away from them.

With Darren managing to land 3 of the crazy Wickham Hall carp there was only going to be one winner and so it proved as Darren strolled home with just over 18lbs. 2nd was not so clear cut. I thought I had been catching pretty steady most of the day but small fish tend to look a lot smaller in the keepnet at the end of the day and Mark's and Rob's fish looked to be a better stamp. Rob was ahead of Mark with 5lbs to 4lbs and then it was my turn and I was very surprised when Tony called out 12lbs - I was thinking more 7-8lbs. Photo today is Darren's winning net.