Gary's day

Today was a very hot day at MBL with the temperature climbing to around 30C by the end. We were going to be pretty well spread around the lake and I ended up on peg 3. A good peg but with a horrible high bank behind which makes shipping a pole hard work.

The main plan was to fish to the lilies in front for tench on the pole and to the left of the lilies with a waggler for small fish. I also set up a pellet waggler rod in case the carp decided to feed.

I had a good view of Mark over on peg 18 and he was going to be my gauge as to how well the lake was fishing. Rob was to my right on peg 2 - a hit and miss peg.

The start was encouraging with a few roach and rudd on the waggler with maggots but they were quite small. After about 45 mins I tried the lillies but could not get the bait to bottom for small fish. Back to the waggler for a few small fish but the bites were tailing off and the fish were hanging out closer and closer to the cover of the lillies as the sun got higher.

On the rest of the lake Mark was getting a few small fish but Rob was struggling and so was Tony on 28.

With some bubbling coming from near the pads it was time to try for a bonus fish again. Whole worms still caught roach so I gave an expander a go and the float slid under and I was into a better fish and a 4lb tench was soon in the net.

It was a frustrating day with lots of bubbling near the pads each time I dropped in some groundbait but bites were hard to come by. It was still just the odd roach until I had a brief encounter with a carp about 12.30. I managed 1 more tench at about 2 just after Mark lost a good fish over on 18. After that it was a slow finish - even the bubbling stopped in the last hour with just the odd roach going in the net. Rob also lost a decent fish towards the end, however, it had been a tough day on peg 2.

It proved to be a hard day with bonus fish making all the difference. 1st Gary Pickard 9lbs 6oz, 2nd Mark Halverson 3lbs 9oz and 3rd Tony Cruci 1lb 10oz. Picture today is me with my best tench and a curious neighbour in the background.