A day to forget

Magpie Lake, Pidley, peg 1

This was an Over 60s Open,with 21 entered,  and I was happy with peg 1 as it’s got a bit of form, and I won the very first Over 60s match I ever fished there from it. I’ve fished it one more time in a club match and I know I framed. But an overnight frost and  the very cold wind today spoiled it – a Southerly blowing into my end peg from the left front, making decent presentation almost impossible at 13 metres, on the edge of the underwater lily roots.

My swim - peg 1. The cold wind was blowing into the end bank to my right.

It wasn’t a lot better at 10 metres, where I remembered there being a gentle slope up to the end bank to my right. I got nothing on a feeder towards the bridge over to the island, and ended with  six roach and a single rudd on maggot on a top three, angled downwind  near the bank, and one scale, which fought like a madman for 30 seconds before finally coming fluttering back in the wind. I weighed a miserable 2 lb 5 oz.

To my left Dennis Sambridge also took six roach, but added a carp 90 minutes before the end, to weigh 6 lb 11 oz. Pegs 1 to about 11 all suffered with the wind, and the top weights all came from anglers who had a bit of a back wind. Top was Will Hadley on 19 (the old peg 20), with nine carp and a few roach for  a total of 29 lb 15 oz. This peg has a sort of feature in the shape of an overhanging bush, which doesn’t look much, but it has done quite well this Winter.

The result - best weights came from pegs with a backish wind.

Give a good angler a peg with a slight edge and he’ll always be in with a chance. Well done, Will. Nine carp on a day like that is good going. I think he would have had a back/side wind. Ken Gammon on Peg 36 (the old 38) came second – he had a back wind.

MY EXPERIMENT

After losing a two Quickstops in the first four fish on Tuesday, when the quickstops caught in the landing net and the nylon broke,  I said I’d experiment with Maxima. And it appears to have worked!

 

Eyed hook (left) and spade end with Quickstops
attacked on loops of Maxima 6 lb nylon.

The photographs show a Quickstop tied with 6 lb Maxima to an eyed hook and a spade end. Then the hooklength, in normal nylon, is added by whipping as usual. It took me a few goes to get it right. Basically the Quickstop is tied in a small loop, but on several inches of nylon. Then a whipping is done as normal, but taking the quickstop round the shank, and down through the loop. All you have to do is to get the length correct by allowing for the line shortening as it goes round the shank.  Then what would normally be the hooklength end is cut off at the whipping. I intend to add a dab of superglue as a precaution.

The knots are horrible-looking, and bulky, but I imagine the fish will take them for weed.