Hartleylands Farm Fishery. Nick’s Lake. April 10th, 2004.

I had arranged to meet Dave the Fish at Hartleylands today, with a view to having a practice for the forthcoming Intersite match. To say that it was a dull, grey, wet, windy, and thoroughly miserable day would be an understatement!

Some of the Total-Fishing lads had come down for a practice and after a brief chat they set off to fish Peartree while Dave and I set up on Nicks.

Vince appeared to give us a pep talk, but things at the start were a shade slow, so Vince was dispatched to the Bakery at the farm shop for the pies. With these consumed Vince bid us farewell as he had to collect some people from Gatwick.

Dave and I redoubled our efforts ringing the changes to get an idea of what would and wouldn’t work. At times the drizzle seemed to be falling horizontally instead of vertically, but we ploughed on for the good of the team, putting together bags including Tench, Skimmers, Carp and Barbel until about 3·30pm when Dave's joints decided they had had enough of the cold and wet. As a taster these are a few pictures of some of the stock in Nick's………

GHOSTIES

KOI

BARBEL

All in all a worthwhile day, with some methods sorted and filed away for use on the day, and the promise of more to come before the big day.