Gary's day

Today was officially the first day of winter and it was a trip to Beggars Hall. After a cooler week it was back to a mild but wet weekend. Today's peg for me was the new peg 19 between the old 18 and 19 - a great looking summer peg!

With the wind picking up a bit and the day set to be wet the pole stayed in the bag with just the feeder/bomb rods being set up. With no features apart from at my feet in the edges it was going to be the case of trying to find a fish in front of me. The first hour passed without a sign for me or Tony on 20. Mark though on 18 was killing it with 1 carp within seconds of his first cast and 5 fish, including a bream of just under 5lbs, after the hour mark.

Time to try a maggot feeder just to get something in the net. Not a sign after 30 mins and things were not looking good. Time for being more patient on a hybrid feeder. Finally I had a bite 2 1/2 hours in and a nice looking common carp of about 9lbs was in the net. The blank was saved.

The bites had also slowed for Mark and the rumour mill had Rob on 17 with at least 2 carp and Phil on 16 a big carp of 16-18lbs.

The rest of the match was slow and very wet but I managed 2 more bites and 2 more carp and I had 24lbs on the clicker - I was a bit off. But it was 3 more bites than Tony who had a shocker and I only needed a couple more fish given the size of those feeding.

It was a close finish with it all down to making sure fish hooked were landed with the carp averaging around 10lb today. 1st Rob Calderon 55lbs 10oz, 2nd Mark Halverson 54lbs 14oz and 3rd Phil Whitmill 39lbs 12oz. Today's picture is Rob with a crowd behind wondering why he was bothering setting up a pole.