A very good practise

Went today to practise playing fish, as I feel I don't land them as quickly as I could in matches. I went to Magpie, as it's only 15 minutes from my house. I took just a tin of corn, a tin of cat meat, some 4mm and 6mm feed pellets and assorted expanders.


Will Hadley was on peg 28 and I had a long chat before deciding to sit opposite him on peg 25. I then realised this is the swim which produced a lot of framing places in Winter Opens, and I came second on it myself; and Roy won on Wednesday with 184 lb on it. As always I kept strictly to my plan, which was not to just catch fish. The weather was warm, with not much wind, and sunny.

Easy
I fed the deep margin with corn to my left against the reeds, but started in the deep water about four feet beyond that, with 4mm expander over a few potted-in hard pellets, and immediately hit a 4 lb carp on my Preston Green 13 hollow elastic. I let it run for 30 seconds and as soon as the elastic started to retract I kept on a harder pressure than I would normally, did not use the puller, kept the pole low until the fish came close to the surface, then lifted the pole and really refused to give ground.

To my delight the fish came was netted in half the time I would normally take. And so was the next one, at 3 lb. Then a couple came off, but for the rest of the two hours or so I lost no more. A red elastic, also around 13, was on the margin rig and I took several on this using corn; then black Hydro on a close-in swim with just a size 16 PR478 hook also using corn. I had to grit my teeth a couple of times but these fish also came in more quickly than has been the case lately, The cat meat stayed in the tin!

A six-pounder was almost in the net in 30 seconds flat, but somehow it swam away and it took another five minutes to land. However I feel that there will be some fish that don't come in as planned.

Mission accomplished
Before fishing I had a word with Alex Bates in the shop and he told me what I already knew - that telling someone how to play a fish is impossible: it's a matter of feel. And with no match at stake I felt I took chances with the fish today, and overall, despite losing two, it paid off for me.

I can't afford to use 13 H on all the waters I fish - at Kingsland, where a 15-pounder can come out of the blue, and where the marginal reeds are very thick, it could be suicidal. But I now have a feel for the extra pressure I can apply. Because I fish matches almost exclusively I have not felt able to experiment. Today's effort really paid off.

For the record I suppose in something under three hours I had around 60 lb, and had it been a match I would certainly have doubled that, as I walked back and chatted to Will for several minutes, took my long-handled landing net with hook when he was snagged in the lillies ten metres out, managed to wind the hook round his elastic, and get the whole rig back after much pulling.Unfortunately at some point as we grabbed the elastic the end 12 inches of his top section broke. But at least he got it back...and he is the local pole-mender anyway!

Also I changed my swims around several times when I was catching fish, at the end taking fish in two feet of water with my float touching the grass. So as well as testing the elastics I also have a feel for peg 25 on Magpie. Let's hope I draw it again one day!