I draw the Golden Peg, but...

Cedar Lake, Decoy, peg 20

This was the first Fenland Rods club match of the year, fished by 16. There’s water lying everywhere on the fields, and the water level was well up, leaving the platform on peg 22 (which has been one of the hot pegs during the Winter, partially underwater, so it wasn’t pegged. However, from the results it looks as if the fish have spread out, so 22 and the peg opposite, Number 6, probably won’t necessarily be better than the rest from now on. My swim was almost eight feet deep – showing how much extra water is in the lakes after this incredibly wet spell we’ve had.

The weather was really uncomfortable – a cold North-Easterly (not the mild weather forecast) and persistent rain from start to finish (hence no pictures) – not heavy, but enough to soak everything and to make my hands cold. By the end I was shivering, even though the wind on our bank was from behind. But I was, at least, on the £100 Golden Peg!

Fish first cast!

I started on a Method feeder with a pop-up and hit a carp of 3 lb first cast, followed immediately by one of 6 lb. A third cast brought nothing so I had a quick look in the deep-water margin swim, which was just as deep, where I had been throwing maggots. A 4 lb barbel was the first fish – foulhooked. This was followed by another, smaller fish, and after a blank ten minutes I decided to have a look at 13 metres, which was where I imagined my main swim would be, putting in about ten grains of corn and a few micros with each drop-in.

Again, first cast produced a carp, of about 4 lb, to corn, but it never produced fish regularly. I could see liners coming every minute or two, but didn’t strike until it looked like a bite, and they came only at intervals of about 10 minutes. A couple were foulhooked so I looked up in the water at various depths, but never had a bite! Back on the bottom came another bite or two, and another fish foulhooked.

Barbel in the side

So it was back, for the moment, to the side swim, where another couple of barbel came, and then the swim died. The float kept dipping but not turning into a bite, and I am convinced these were barbel snuffling around the bait but not taking it. I’ve noticed this before when barbel are in the swim.  Back to 13 metres with corn and another couple of fish foulhooked. At one point about 90 minutes before the end I foulhooked four fish in four casts at 13 metres, landing the first three. Among those I had lost I’m convinced there were some over 4 lb - although foulhooked, they felt like sacks of potatoes, rather than dashing around everywhere.

From what I could see not a lot of fish were being caught, so I thought that perhaps I might frame, but was annoyed I had foulhooked (and lost) so many fish. Afterwards I found that a lot of anglers had the same problem, and an angler on Oak Lake, behind me, told me the same thing. Of course, landing foulhooked fish is partially down to luck – there’s no standard way of playing and landing them that I know of. The worst, I have found, are those hooked in the tail, and those hooked in the nose.

A short spell on cat meat down the side, which produced just one 2 lb bream. In the last half-hour, with about 50 lb in the net, I put in two bait-droppers of maggots into the side swim, hoping this would keep the roach away, and took three more barbel to 4 lb, two hooked on the outside of the lip, which further convinced me they were taking the bait only half-heartedly.

The (rather wet) results sheet.

To my right Tony Nisbet fished at 6 metres, after taking a few fish down the side, and took fish regularly on a 6mm expander, to win with 85 lb 4 oz, and I was second with 64 lb 4 oz. But the weights were spread around pretty evenly, and I was impressed that on such a difficult day my mates caught as many as they did. It was the sort of day when, because of the cold and wet,  I just could not bring myself to get up and start adding extra sections, or putting on different rigs. 

The one thing I should have done was to follow Tony’s lead and start a new swim at six metres, which would have been much easier to fish. But I didn’t actually realise he was catching so many fish. Mike Rawson took almost all barbel down the side on a maggot feeder - something I believe I should try more often. But you can't do everything.

Dave Garner, last season's Club Champion,. took third place - it's astounding how he catches on cat meat whatever the conditions, using just rod and line! 

So a pretty good result for me...but no £100 to put in my back pocket.  I know that a good angler would have found a way of avoiding those foulhooked fish. However, hats off to Tony. My next match is in two weeks time, on Elm. Hopefully it will be a little warmer.