Gary's day

Today was the last match of the 22/23 season and we were heading to Malcolm Barker Lake. It was a lovely spring day with a bit of sun and even the wind was quite warm - a big difference to the week which saw snow and lots of rain.

We were all expecting it to be a hard match as MBL has not fished well over the winter so I was very happy to draw peg 2 - one I have been wanting to draw for a long time. Expecting it to be hard, I started off on bread punch at around 8 metres on the pole. Despite working down the punch sizes I had no signs. And the same at 11 metres with maggot. And on the waggler a bit further out. An hour in it was clear it was not going to be a great day's fishing as no-one had had a bite. Then over on peg 18 Fred had a tangle with a carp. Then all quiet again until Fred finally had a roach about 90 minutes in. Fred kept on sneaking the odd small roach out throughout the day.

At about the half way point we had a bit more excitement as Jeff tangled with a carp on light waggler gear - it was soon carp 2 anglers 0. About 3 hours in now John had a small run of little perch. Try as I might I just could not buy a bite even with little bits of worm down the edge looking for micro perch and it was my first DNW of the season.

It was a quick weigh in with just Fred and John catching - well done to Fred for sticking it out for small roach ending up with around 30 fish for 1lb and the win with John catching 6 small perch scratching for bites for 2oz and second. Today's photo has Fred over on the far bank getting ready for the all in.