Dave Hoare
(A34)
Peg 24 - 83lb

  "Warm Breeze, Sunshine, Fish topping everywhere and weights down on last week! "

Following a few days of unseasonably high temperatures, the match anglers at the draw would have been forgiven for thinking they were in for a exceptional days fishing. However, with the fishing Gods smiling in a different direction, most struggled to put together more than 3 or 4 good Carp, myself included. Drawn on Peg 28, I 'pinged' in pellet from the of and fished red maggot at half depth. A foul hooked fish in the first half hour gave a false dawn as I waited nearly 4 more hours for sight of another Carp. With 2 hours gone there was only 1 or 2 Carp banked on Pegs 23 to 28 - which were helped without a break in the pegging. In contrast, the Motorway bank pegs had responded well from the off, and a few fish had been shared by pegs 14 to 18..

Dave Hoare had foul hooked a few fish on 24 and responded by coming off the bottom on the shallowing bar at 15m. Fishing hard pellet on the hook, bites developed into a steady stream of Hydro-Elastic leaving his pole and once again Peg 24 stormed into an uncontestable lead. Pete Wedgbrow had a steadier day on Peg 8 and plugged away for 69lb on pellet and corn. Russell Alexander, now of Ton Up Baits, produced an impressive late run of fish to finish well with 67lb. Mike Stimson took the early pole position from peg 9 but struggled to keep pace in the last hour. Mike finished with an impressive 60lb to maintain the good of Pegs 9 and 10.

Going into the festival, the Carp have started to colour up the water and I expect Sunday's weights to double today's. The 'little' lake is solid with Roach with 30lb possible from most pegs - the trouble is that 50lb will be a good out-and-out Carp weight for those that put the blinkers on! Should be a good festival.