Bah - humbug

Magpie Lake, Pidley, peg 24

Not much Christmas cheer forthcoming from the carp in this match. To be fair, it fished pretty much as most of us thought it would, with everyone fishing for a bite, and almost half of us failing even that! Of the 20 who fished, 11 caught a fish. I was not one of them!

The previous evening was the first for 10 days which had not seen frost, so any ice that had been left would have thawed and dropped the water temperature even further. The surface was flat calm with no wind, and didn't look inviting.  However, around pegs 1 and 2, where there are lillies, anglers reported that the water was black with carp. And Alan Owen on 2 kept up his extraordinary run of performances here at Rookery Fishery by winning with 51 lb 1 oz. From where I sat I saw him catch a five-pounder and some smaller ones fairly early on, but the fish obviously slowed down.  Opposite me John Belshaw sat the first half of the match on peg 36 (the old 38) with not a fish, but then hit three fairly quickly, of which one weeded him and came off.

Then a couple of spurts, including four fish in the last hour, saw him take another six or seven on bread punch fished two feet deep - the method that caught the majority of carp, and the one that is likely to win here while the water stays cold. I was in open water and never had a bite on pinkie, bread or a pop-up on leger. You needed to be near an underwater feature to get a bite - so the lillies near the entrance dominated the match.

My peg 24. The winner is in red - in the far distance across the bridge, on peg 2. Second was on 36, just out of picture,
 to the right of the bridge, facing the blue aerator.

I had to fish with my 12-metre Browning Sting because two sections of my 16-metre Browning Z12 were being renovated by Will Hadley, who brought them to the match for me to pick up, but who advised me not to use them on the day as the resin would not have completely dried. And although I fished long on this same peg last Winter to come second in an Open I don't think it made any difference on this day - the fish were hanging around lillies and wouldn't move away.

Chris Saunders, 3rd with 20 lb 7 oz.

John Belshaw, 2nd with 36 lb 5 oz.

We had all brought as prize, and afterwards we retired to the cafe for a drink and food, but the winner didn’t get his pick of the prizes – he had to pick a ticket from the bucket stating which prize he had won. I was, obviously, one of the last to pick...and I finished with a bottle of whisky, one of the best prizes there. I like this system!

The result.

My next match is probably the Christmas Open on Sat, Dec 23, and after another couple of mild days with no frost at night, and hopefully given a warmish wind, it should fish much better. The match is on Magpie and Jay, and I will have my 16-metre pole ready for action – it will almost certainly be needed on Jay.