Gary's day

Today was a trip to Hall Farm's large lake as MBL is still very weedy. The weights had really tailed off in Wednesday's match and, after a few more cold and wet days, it was going to be tricky. A few fish topping before the draw was a good sign though that some fish would feed.

Out of the bag came peg 5 and not where I wanted to be; very much in the middle and flat as a snooker table after the margin shelf drop off. After 3 goes to find a second rig for the 7 1/2 foot I had I was finally ready a little after the all in. The plan was fishing long on pole or feeder and maybe trying a 2+2 line. The margins though seemed unlikely to be worth it but I set a rig up anyway along with a shallow rig - neither of which got used. Fishing long was to be with maggots and expanders with the 2+2 for hard pellets. Rob was soon into a fish on peg 2 and it looked like it was all over for the rest of us. And then Peter had a fish on a feeder on peg 7.

Then the float dipped on the short line and I was into a good fish but not for long. It was clearly foul hooked and we soon parted ways. And that was it for the short line. Out long with expanders was a waste of time but a change to maggots on the hook found a few roach, a small skimmer and a small F1. Peter was still catching on the feeder and now had about 6 in the net after a couple of hours and was well in the lead. Then the lake shut down and I could not get a bite - even trying a small maggot feeder did not help. Phil though on peg 4 was starting to catch on a small feeder and all I could do was watch.

With 90 mins to go I decided to spend the rest of the day watching a float rather than rod tip and slowly a few bites started. A good carp of 7-8lbs kicked things off and then I had a steady run of smaller F1s potting a few maggots and sitting on them for a bite. Jeff on peg 8 was also having a strong finish and his fish looked bigger. Rob too was catching again. It was going to be a tight finish.

1st Jeff Pearson 41lbs 9oz, 2nd Gary Pickard 28lbs 3oz and 3rd Phil Whitmill 22lbs 10oz. Pic today is jeff with his winning bag of fish.