Lots of fish for everyone on Cedar

Cedar Lake, Decoy, peg 11

An unusual start to this annual invitation match. The organiser, John Garner, was unable to attend following a major operation; then we found that a misunderstanding  had ended with the match being booked for Bank Holiday Monday, instead of the Sunday. So our normal Six-Island lake was booked out. However, owner Di accommodated us on Cedar Lake; we kept  the peg numbers we had for Six-Island after breakfast in the pub...and it turned out to be a really great event.

Cedar is the one Strip Lake at Decoy in which the pegs nearest the car park frequently have a slight edge – from 1 down to around 6 and opposite from 21 to 26 – but I was happy just to be fishing. However, it was a bad start for me – Kevin Lee on my left on peg 12 had a big carp on a top-two within a minute or so, while Tim Bates on my right followed up within five minutes with a carp taken shallow. Both then kept catching fish, quickly, while I struggled, taking a only couple of fish at five sections on corn and a couple on cat meat close-in in the first hour – at this point I was getting a real battering.

Peg 11 on Cedar - the strips are all this width. It was head wind all day.

John Smith with a good barbel.

The head wind was quite strong and in fact kept blowing my spare tops off the roost. It also meant that presentation was difficult unless the bait was anchored to the bottom...which seemed to me to be how Kevin was fishing. However, a 10 lb carp on dead maggot from the margin on my right, which was no more than ten inches deep, started a bit of a recovery, and I settled down to fish mainly the left hand deep water with cat meat. A good couple of hours followed, the fish consisting of more carp to almost 10 lb, some F1s, and several barbel to 5 lb.

The barbel are getting bigger

Bargel are like chub – hollow. They always look as if they should weigh more than they do. But I’m pretty sure that the best ones landed today – and I had about three – were all 5 lb or more. I was surprised, at the end, to see how many barbel most anglers had caught. The anglers who had fished farther out most of the time – including Tim, next to me – had more carp and fewer barbel. The barbel love to feed along the bottom of the near shelf. Cedar and Elm seem to hold more than Oak and Yew.

Me with barbel and new hat.

When the wind dropped for a moment I invariably caught a fish, so I had changed to a 2 gm rig with cat meat which steadied the rig a little. Odd fish came off, and I foulhooked just one – a 5 lb carp hooked in the tail!! You can imagine how long it took to get that one in. Kevin went for a third net about half-past-one and I followed 25 minutes later. Within half-an-hour Kevin had gone for a fourth, and about 45 minutes after that, following an incredible spell when he landed several carp around 8-10 lb one after the other, he went for a fifth net! I estimated I’d still got just 26 lb in that third net of mine...

I have to admit I made a complete mess of my swim – I had one cast close in with a new rig and corn on the hook and promptly hooked a 5 lb barbel. Then, stupidly, I laid that to one side and went back on my original rig and cat meat hoping for carp. I should have kept on putting fish in the net of course. And actually the longer swim nearly always produced a fish on corn when I swapped to it. I am afraid I became a little too pre-occupied with the meat close-in, where Kevin was still taking fish after fish.

Fourth net

I went for a fourth net with 25 minutes to go, folowing a quick spell of fish, and an estimated 40 lb in the third net.  But the inevitable occurred – when I returned I managed just one 2 lb F1 and a lost fish at a time when I had confidently expected anything up to 2 lb for a grandstand finish. Strange how often that happens... That lost fish, which felt 4 lb-upwards, would have raised me three places.

The weigh-in

Peg 1 saw Les Bedford take 85 lb. For me he was Man of the Match. Les now has to fish while taking oxygen all the time – his oxygen canister is beside him. A real inspiration. He always gets a peg close to the car, and wife Wendy always has the next peg,so she can help if necessary, and today she took 65 lb on a feeder. That’s what club fishing should be about, of course. His big brother Joe, aged well into his 80s, was fishing, I think, for the first time since his wife died, and almost hit the ‘ton’ with 95 lb 9 oz, and he was over the 50 lb mark in one net.

 

Kevin Beavis - in third spot.

Alan - now a Russian spy!

After Les came a string of good weights from the early pegs, and I weighed 128 lb 12 oz, for 9^th out of the 18  – beaten by 1 oz by current club champion Dave Garner (who broke his rod on a barbel. Well it was a barbel rod! 

Kevin weighed in an awesome 222 lb 12 oz to win (and he was over in at least one net). On the opposite bank in the high numbers Dick Warriner beat his best-ever match weight to take runners-up spot with 180 lb 11 oz. Third was Fenland Rods secretary John Smith, who has made a great start to the season, with  178 lb 15 oz, with fourth place going to Kevin Beavis, a former member of the Fenland Rods, with 158 lb 1 oz.

You can see from the results what a great match this was – we’re all club anglers invited by John Garner, each year, and it’s good to meet up again with those of us who do not fish with Fenland Rods. Eleven weights over 100 lb, with 56 lb the lowest. That’s some club match!

Mick like singing while he fishes!

 

Dave Garner - beat me by 1 oz!

For myself I admit I should have done better. A bad start and a bad finish didn’t help, but there were still spells of several minutes in the match when I couldn’t buy a bite. I suspect I may not have fed enough to keep those big fish rummaging around.Three tins of corn, a tin of meat and half a big tin of hemp plus some pellets is a lot by my standards, but I’m sure more would have done no harm.  I should  probably have concentrated a bit more on the tiny shallow swim to my right – no more than a foot square and ten inches deep, where I had a couple of fish. I kept putting a little bait in and having a look, but had no more.  A big load of bait dumped in might have brought waving tails and I could have been ready with the shallow rig.

How about that for a result? Eleven weights over 100 lb and three over 90 lb!

My next match should be on Elm lake at the end of this week. I’m due an injection this week, and keeping  my fingers crossed it doesn’t have too much of an adverse effect.

Lots of fish for me!

Kingsland Small Carp Lake, Coates, Cambs

This was a midweek club match and I drew the noted swim, the one on its own on the end bank. It doesn’t always win, but it tends to produce more big catches than any other; it also tends to be where more fish are lost in the reeds than on any other.

The wind was Northerly, over my left shouder, which meant that this part of the lake was absolutely calm all day, while some of the swims on the right-hand bank had ripple, and it was there that Trevor sat, fishing floating expanders and, as usual, bagging up.

I had made up my mind to fish a simple match – basically cat meat over sweetcorn and pellet, in the margins, which usually produce for me fairly early on. However, within minutes of my starting it was obvious that small carp – around 2 oz each – were going to be a problem. There were millions of them, hitting the line, smashing onto the float, and nibbling away at cat meat. At the end everyone who didn't fish on the surface said they had the same problem.

My swim - in the calm part of the lake, but there were fish there.

A good start

Actually my first drop-in was at four sections out, with sweetcorn, in case fish were not yet close in, and it produced a fish of 8 lb, followed by one of 2 lb. I’d put bait into the margins – a little cat meat one side and sweetcorn on the other, and a switch to these found the tiny carp. But occasionally a bigger carp muscled in on the lefthand swim, and I took two more.

Back out, and another couple of three-pounders came in. I found that using my normal Xitan 12 with puller certainly landed them more quickly than I had on the previous visit using my margin pole with no puller. But I couldn’t get more than two or three fish from a swim before having to move to another swim. After a couple of hours I managed a fish from my righthand margin, and the rest of the match I swung back and forward between the three swims.

I couldn’t see much else being caught, but Trevor stuck at his surface fishing – he was holding his pole well above the surface – so I guessed he was catching well. On the bank to my left they appeared to be struggling in the calm water.

My fish now were mainly between 2 lb and 4 lb, and I kept hoping for a double-figure fish. Dozens were swimming around under the surface, but floating expanders failed to interest more than the odd one – and as soon as I tried to mug a surface fish it turned tail and vanished. The sun was out by now and I had to give up all attenpts at nicking these big fish.

Sweetcorn was best

I was now using sweetcorn, as it seemed the tiny carp were not quite so interested as they were in the meat, and I found it best to leave a swim for at least 20 minutes after baiting it – putting the bait in just attracted the 2oz fish. However I kept snicking the odd fish out. It was challenging – there was no pattern and each fish had to be really worked for, mainly by twitching the bait no more than half an inch, either by pulling it sideways or lifting it.

With a little over an hour to go I went for a third net. Peter and Trevor and Mick were already on their third nets, so I guessed I was not going to win! Oh, the shame of it – in the favourite swim as well!! Terry very kindly made the point as we weighed in, later.

Then, with one minute to go, from the righthand margin, I hit the fish I had been waiting for! It felt large and lumbering, barely moving, though I was sure I hadn’t foulhooked it. I should immediately have pushed on a fourth section, and perhaps a fifth, but I left it on three sections and it drifted towards the side rushes, slowly putting such a strain on the pole I couldn’t easily add another section. Before I knew it the fish was in the reeds and I felt the scraping as it buried itself. You all know the feeling...

Stupid boy!

A determined pull and it started to come out...then went solid. I went to my holdall for my extra-long landing net with hook on the end. More often then not this enables me to hook the line, pull it straight out from the reeds, and the fish comes out. At the very least I can get back my float. But I then discovered that I hadn’t got it with me. I’d put it in my other pole holdall a week ago! Stupid me.

So I was forced to pull the elastic by hand at an angle and the inevitable happened – it broke. Meanhwile the shout had gone to end the match and I’d lost the biggest fish I’d hooked all day. My fault of course, but it was the only one that I’d had trouble with.

Mick Linnell topped the 'ton.'

Peter Spriggs took his fish on paste.

Peter B in the corner had very few fish, but they were big, and he weighed 41 lb. Peter S next door fished his usual paste well oput and took 129 lb 13 oz, which I knew I couldn’t beat. But I was surprised how difficult it had been down the rest of this bank, in the calm, with one angler weighing 11 lb and another 15 lb.

My first net, which I had registered 40 lb on my clicker, was almost 52 lb, knocked back to 50 lb;  I know I tend to understimate weights, but I must have forgotten to click one or two. Next was 46 lb 7 oz and the final one 22 lb 3 oz – total 118 lb 10 oz. Trevor, inevitably, won with 160 lb 8 oz; he is a real all-rounder and would do really well on the Open circuit if he chose to go there.

The result, showing how difficult it was in some swims.

Winner Trevor Cousins.

Bob Allen couldn't fish but came to add
up,  and write down, the weights

I manage third place

I was third, and should have stayed fishing farther out from the bank, where the small carp were less of a nuisance. But I’d had a really interesting day trying to get the carp to take the bait – a lot of the time the bites were quite delicate, rather than the tearaway pulls that I often get here. So all-round a good day for me and I lost only four fish all day, the other three of which came adrift within seconds of my hooking them.

My next match is a weekend visit to Six-Islands on Decoy, where I think the wind direction will determine where the fish will feed best. At the moment a warm North-Easterly is forecast - an unusual combination for the UK. An Easterly is so often the kiss of death in Winter and Summer alike, but we've had it for several days now so perhaps the fish have got used to it. A lot of the lake will be sheltered from this wind, so it's anybody's guess where the best pegs might be.

Hot and frustrated!

Snake Lake, Head Fen, nr Ely, peg 24

Only ten club members were available to fish, on a water I love. It’s an average of 14 metres wide, and only about three feet deep, but recently-cut grass and reeds were floating up and down in the light Northerly wind. I don’t mind this inconvenience as the fish use the floating weeds as cover. In fact I had no lillies or other feature in my margin, so I stuck a piece of forked twig into the water and scooped out some of the floating weed and lodged it in place, creating, by the end of the match, a small mat of cover on the surface.

Appointments at hospital had curtailed my fishing recently, so I took the opportunity for a few hours on the lake the previous day, settling on peg 17 and winkling out nine or ten carp, best 10 lb,  in three hours, mainly from the margin. Match day had similar weather – very hot with hardly a cloud in the sky – but the carp had decided to spawn and it was little short of a disaster all round.

What happened there?

To cut a long, sad, hot, story short I managed to drop my pellet beside two cruising carp after about three hours. The pellet sank, one fish dropped down as it prepared to suck it in, I peered intently to to see whether the fish gave any indication of moving the float...and the next thing I knew was the pole almost wrenched from my hand as the elastic flew across the lake, and up one of the channels that link the winding body of the snake. I gritted my teeth, and the line snapped. It all happened so quickly it took me a few seconds to realise what had happened. I said something like: “Oh dear.”

Kevin, to my left had hooked one fish which he lost - probably foulhooked - and so far that was the only other action near me, though when I looked across the lake to peg 18 I had seen Tony land a couple of carp. A quick wander round to see the other lads told me that fish were in short supply, with Tony ahead.

The next hour was spent biteless, until I changed to maggots fished down the track, and managed about 25 small perch. I kept hoping that the carp would muscle in on the perch, but they were more interested in other matters. Several times I tried bread hung about a foot deep over the far side, but the floating weed prevented me getting close to the bank and, unusually, I didn’t get even a liner.

Talk about last-minute!

Twenty minutes from the end Mike, on my right, who had about five little perch in his net, hooked a carp on maggot in the margins and landed it. I changed immediately to maggot under my little raft of cover, and within ten minutes Mike had another. Then, five minutes before the match ended, the unbelievable...a thought I had a bite, lifted the pole, and a near-6 lb carp stretched the elastic. This time I was perpared, caught it off balance, curbed its first run, and managed to scoop it out. One more drop in, and after 15 seconds the shout went up to end the match.

The sad result on a carp-filled commercial. But how
 boring  it would be if we always caught loads!

The weigh-in didn’t take long: Tony won and Mel on permananet peg 15 was second after losing some fish. John, on 17, which I had fished the previous day, had wandered round to us halfway through the match, fishless, gone back, and started hooking carp. Unfortunately every one had hurtled round the corner to his left and buried themselves in the lillies. His total at the end was half an ounce (one tiny perch). He told me he had easily lost enough fish to win the match probably several times over.  That was surprising, because he fishes really strong gear, so the fish must have been charged up with testosterone, or the fishy equivalent.

Kevin, our club champion more times than anyone else, was a DNW, I weighed 7 lb and Mike, on my right, snatched third place from me by 4 oz! So much for those who say that fishing carp-filled commercials is like hooking ducks at the Fair! Two weeks ago a match was won here with 190 lb.

Next match should be on Kingsland Small Carp Lake, the scene of my 200 lb catch a couple of weeks ago. But the incessant heat and bright sun doesn’t bode well – I hope we get a strong wind. I’m inclined to fish cat meat unless conditions are perfect for surface fishing with floating expanders. It’s usually best to fish to your strengths.

A difficult day on Beastie

Beastie Lake, Decoy, Peg 15

This was a midweek Open, with 16 fishing, and in a cool Northerly wind (which turned North-Easterly later) my peg and the one on my right, 17, had back wind. Our margins were flat calm, contrasting with most of the other swims which had a big wave on, and unfortunately the sun shone brightly most of the day and. So I didn’t expect a big catch, but I had a job to do.

In these circumstances all I ask is that I don’t make a fool of myself - these Open Match anglers are so good it’s frightening.  I set my targets today at: 1) catch some fish and 2) don’t come last. And it didn’t start well when the angler on 17 took two carp around 5 lb each with his first two casts on a Method feeder, put out to within a foot of the island some 40-plus yards away. Even with a line clip I’ve never been able to cast like that every time – awesome to watch.

I started 10 metres out, where there was a tiny piece of ripple, and eventually caught a small bream on a 4mm expander, and then a 4 lb carp. My righthand neighbour had now gone several casts without a fish, and when he saw my carp on he changed to a pole. But another 15 minutes saw no more fish for either of us, and I had a look in the margin, where it was about four feet deep.

A barbel obliges

In went a little cat meat and some corn and within a couple of minutes a 4 lb barbel obliged. From then on I concentrated on this lefthand margin swim with meat, hoping for more barbel, which prefer meat to corn or pellet (though they will take both) and in the next three hours managed about ten bream around 2 lb, three or four F1s, two 3 lb carp, and a 2 lb tench. But there was no pattern – I’d take two fish quickly, then wait 20 minutes without a bite. No 17 also seemed to be struggling – I saw him back on the feeder (one one retrieve I could see his bait was bright red so I assume he was fishing a pop-up). He also put out a pellet waggler to the island with uneering accuracy to within two feet of the grass, time and time again, but without any result.

Like me he eventually concentrated on the margins, cupping feed up to the platform between us. I didn’t feed there, but if I had seen him catch a fish I am confident that fishing my side of the platform, without having put any bait in, would have produced fish taking cover there. In the event I didn’t see him take anything there, though he took several fish, mainly to his right, from the margins. I had to pull the bait slowly to get a bite; leaving it stationary produced only a couple of fish all day.

Sport was slow, though I could hear the angler behind me on peg 12, which was in my 5-peg section, landing occasional fish. He had a head wind, but I would have preferred that to our flat calm in the sunshine. With an hour to go I estimated I’d 40 lb, and had noticed that the bream seemed to prefer the slightly deeper water away from the reeds. So I decided to start a new swim, a metre to my right, level with the front of the platform, where the water was just a few inches over four feet.

Immediate success

Immediately a 4 lb bream came in, and in an effort to attract a bigger carp I opened a tin of original Coshida I had in a cool bag – this had bigger lumps than the new Tesco cat food, which has been re-branded and has smaller lumps than it used to. But I’ve got only a few tins of original Coshida left so I’ve got to look for another brand that has big lumps. Anyway, unbelievably, first drop-in with the Coshida saw a 10 lb carp take my bait and it was in the net in little more than 30 seconds! Every fish, including the bream, either came in very easily or out up a really hectic fight.

Keep the pole tip down

I nearly always plunge the tip well under water as soon as I can, and if you can get it down far enough, below the fish, the fish tends to come to the surface – just as if you lift the pole the fish tends to fight against it and go down. It’s logical, really. And once the fish is on the surtface it’s sometimes possible to hold it there and let the elastic draw the fish over the landing net. It worked with the ten-pounder.

Two or three more bream came from that swim, and a final look to my left margin again saw an 8 lb mirror come in just before the whistle. That took much longer to land than the bigger one. A good last hour for me, and I estimated 60 lb total. 

Rob Goodson, one of the Decoy regulars, and a cracking angler, weighing in
from peg 9. Peg 8 is in the background, and the angler there  had a lot of calm
water in front of him in the North-Easterly wind.

Packing up

My righthand neighbour took one net out of the water and laid it on the bank – so I knew I had beaten him as the net maximum is 50 lb. Then he tipped back the rest of his fish, packed up, and was gone.

I’m not in favour of going home without weighing in. It seems to me to be a bit of an insult to the anglers who have worked so hard to beat you – and it doesn’t give a complete picture of how the lake has fished. The only time I’ve not weighed in has been when it’s raining, to save the scalesmen bother. I note that some weights lower than mine weighed in, even though they must have realised they could not win anything. Good for them. 

Kevin's take on DNWs

There were two DNWs in my section – I’ve no idea about the other one; perhaps he had beaten me. But I just love the comment made to me by Kevin Ashurst in Ireland many years ago: In his broad Lanashire accent, with a smile on his face, he uttered the immortal words: "If you haven't weighed you haven't catched!"

Peg 12 behind me, won the section, and the angler on 18 beat me by 1 lb 2 oz. But this was the lowest-weight section. I lost four big fish, partly because I was caught unawares and couldn’t always get an extra section on in time. Funnily enough the fish that stretched my elastic farther than any of them was a turbocharged 3 lb F1! The others could have been foulhooked, though I suspect not. Fish were swimming around under the surface, so they could have fouled the line, but they were moving so fast I couldn’t pick up a mugging kit in time – and hanging a bait in the water is banned here; you have to allow the bait to sink naturally.

The result

 

Andy Stepney admires that near-15 lb
common from peg 29.

Conclusion

My two nets went 69 lb 10 oz, and I was actually very happy. I thought I fished a fair match, and didn’t disgrace myself. When the angler next door caught on a feeder early I was half inclined to pick up my rod, which was ready and waiting, but decided to keep fishing to my strengths, which is precise presentation on the pole, while keeping an eye on him! I have much less confidence in the feeder than I do in the pole, even though my biggest weights on natural waters almost all came to leger or feeder.The best weights today came from the main lake in the wind, with Andy Stepney on 29, which had a really strong head wind, taking second weight from the margins including a fish which must have neared 15 lb. I note that peg 8, which is a lovely peg in the corner, also struggled – but he also had a sheltered swim and calm margins. Rob Goodson, on 9, had predicted that the low numbers – 3, 4 and 5, would be favourite, and in fact 4 won it with 175 lb.

My next match, hopefully, is on Snake Lake at Head Fen, near Ely. I am about to start my treatment for prostate cancer, so fingers crossed that doesn’t affect me too much. At some point that will have to be suspended, or hopefully quickly completed, to start treatment on the touch of cancer on both lungs. I’m optimistic, but wish me luck.

I come from behind!

Elm Lake, Decoy, peg  5

Another cloudless day with bright sun on this strip lake, and it started with a very light Southerly wind, from the car park end, putting a light ripple on the far end swims – from about  5 down to 12 (in the corner) and from the other corner 13, back up to 20. The far end swims tend to be favoured in Summer anyway, and with the ripple they were obviously going to be favourite. But I had a job to do on 5. Sun cream liberally applied in the heat, and I was ready to go.

By the start of the match the wind had swung slowly towards the West, giving my bank a slight back wind, but losing the ripple for a few metres out from the bank for those of us in the low numbers. Fish were spawning in a few places among the marginal reeds, luckily not right beside my platform, but with five feet of water beside the reeds to my left (which was facing away from the sun) I hoped that fish would still be willing to feed at the bottom of the shelf. To my right there was a small area only four feet deep and although it was into the wind and facing the sun,  I started there, with an expander fished just off bottom.

 

By the end of the match there was a very faint ripple on my swim!

Fish first cast!

Within seconds of dropping the rig in I had a 3 lb carp on. And two minutes later, one of about 2 lb came in. A bonanza day loomed! But then...nothing! Zilch! Not even a bite. I plugged away to the right, had a look down on pellet to the left margin, tried a little farther out in the deep run, and eventually went out to 10 metres with corn and pellet, still without the sign of a bite. Then I tried shallow for 20 minutes, over my 10-metre swim. Nothing. Big fish, though, were swimming slowly around at times, but they ignored every bait dropped nearby.

Meanwhile Rob, on peg 3 to my right, had caught four or five carp from the margin. I looked as he landed one, and he was fishing no more than two feet deep; but I had no area of any size that shallow in my swim, except a tiny spot beside the platform next to the bank, which was about 12 inches deep and clearly could not be regarded as anything other than holding the occasional  wandering fish.

Clever me - I foulhook a barbel

Desperate, I put on a cat meat rig and held it close to the reeds on my left and suddenly got a big bite...which turned out to be a 2 lb barbel foulhooked. That cheered me up a bit, knowing that barbel were nearby, and I put in a bait dropper of frozen pinkies, left over from my Winter trips. Barbel prefer meat to pellet and corn, so I put on five dead pinkies...but nothing! I tried fishing shallow over the baited area, and got bites – dozens of them. But they were obviously tiny fry and I never hit a single bite.

Now it was 1 o’clock, and half the match had gone by and I had three fish for about 7 lb. And Rob was still getting the odd fish. But I could see that the anglers opposite were struggling, with Peter Barnes signalling that he had not yet had a single fish! “I was tearing my hair out” he told me afterwards – which was a bit optimistic considering he is as bald as an egg!

Some fish at last

Then, out of the blue, a 6 lb carp took my cat meat bait – almost doubling my weight. Two more fish came in the next ten minutes from the lefthand swim, and I went into Match Mode, putting some bait out into the right hand swim, taking one from the left, baiting there, and looking to my right. Suddenly everything dropped into place...but within a short time Bob Barrett on the opposite bank went for a third net. In the next hour four more went for third nets, all from my left – the water rule, and the one the club fishes to, is 50 lb max.

 The wind had freshened but still I, and those to my right (Bob, and Ted in the corner peg 1), had a flat calm. However my catch rate slowly went up, and I found the shallower swim best – if I pulled the cat meat I could encourage a bite almost every drop in. But I had to keep the bait moving.

I also found that, using the Browning Z12 with purple Hydro, and the other rig with Middly Blue 18 I was definitely landing fish more quickly than I had the previous match using my margin pole. Lesson learned! So I managed to steadily catch carp to 6 lb, with occasional F1s to almost 4 lb, all on cat meat, until I was ready for a third net. I went for this at 3.25, and resumed fishing at just gone 3.30 with 30 minutes left.

Bob Barrett has a quick final look
at a beautiful golden mirror before
returning his fourth placed  122 lb 9 oz.

Best fish of the match to Peter, who got his
first fish at 10 minutes to 3! He ended
with just three for 22 lb 2 oz..

Last-ditch spurt

One fish came quickly, then there was a five-minute gap with nothing, at which point Trevor went up for a fourth net and I thought I had had my chips. Then things picked up and I started putting in a little meat and some corn and then hooking a fish within seconds of dropping in the rig, with cat meat. The wind was now quite strong, and there was the faintest ripple on my swim, which may have helped...though I claim it was my magnificent technique! 

 When the shout went up to end the match I was playing a three-pounder and made that lovel call: “Fish On,” which is always advisable in case someone thinks you have hooked it after the match finished. It ended in my landing net. I remember once when I proudly called “Fish On” in an Open on Beastie Lake, and seconds later had to shamefacedly call: “Fish Off.” Not a happy moment.

No more foulhookers

I managed to lose just two fish all day, when they pulled off, not foulhooked I think. I was using my Special Method, which largely avoids foulhooking fish, which definitely helped my catch rate, as Mick on the other bank, told me he had lost a lot of fish, probably foulhooked. On a day like today, when fish were swimming aimlessly about all over the lake, it is a definite advantage.

I have noticed, however, that barbel will foulhook themselves – ie literally pulling the pole tip down with a bang - far more often than carp. They nearly always seem to be hooked under the pectoral fin, which leads me to believe that they are actually interested in the bait but miss it with their underslung mouths and foul the line in the same way each time. If the rig shows sign of interest from a fish for two or three seconds and then dives down, more often than not I have found it’s a properly hooked barbel. They seem to need a bit more time than carp.

The weigh-in – a  nice surprise

Ted in the flat-calm corner had managed just five fish, for 24 lb, while Rob’s great early start had petered out, and he weighed 55 lb. My first net went 49 lb 15 oz (!), the second was around 47 lb, and the last one – which I had started with no more than 30 minutes to go, weighed 32 lb 14 oz! That’s some going, even on a good day. I wish I could average 65 lb an hour more often!

Terry Tribe, former Division  4 National
Champion on the Nene.

 

Martin Parker, second from corner
peg 13 with 144 lb 5 oz.

The result

Trevor, on the Golden Peg, won yet again, with 162 lb 15 oz taken on corn on peg 9, with Martin Parker, former owner of Webbs Tackle in Peterborough, and former Vets National Champion (won on the Grand Union Canal), second on 144 lb 5 oz from corner peg 13, and he was about 7 lb over in one net, so was running Trevor very close.

I was delighted to finish third, depite the fact that I had been the sixth up to fetch a third net – a surprise result thanks to that last half-hour purple patch and losing only two fish all day. When I walked round to watch the weigh-in, the opposite bank seemed like a different world – breeze into your face, which was most refreshing after stewing in the sun all day – and a really good wave on the water by the end of the match.

So I was chuffed with my result from that peg in the calm, after that terrible start.

Peter Harrison - in his first year
with Spratts club, almost hit 100 lb.

PHOTOGRAPHING FISH

You will see, on a lot of my pictures, big fish on the grass rather than being held.  That’s largely down to the fact that we refuse to wait a long time until a fish is stationary and easy to hold. Our priority is getting them back into the water. Anyone who tries to hold a big carp straight from the weigh-in bag, will know how difficult it is.

The fish in our matches are weighed on digital scales, which will stop on a figure for a second – much quicker to read that spring scales, allowing fish to be returned as quickly as is reasonable possible. The final readings are never absolutely exact, but it’s a price we are prepared to pay for the pleasure of catching these magnificent fish.

And the reason some anglers are not kneeling on both knees is that a lot of us (ie like me, over 75) can get down... but we have the greatest trouble getting back up! Don’t laugh – it will happen to you!

The result. Peg 1 is at the car park end, down to 12, with
13 back to 24 on the opposite bank.

My best-ever match weight

Kingsland Small Carp Lake, Coates, nr Whittlesey, Cambs

This was a 12-entry club match. Bad health kept three or four away, while our secretary was on holiday. The lake – originally an irrigation reservoir -  is noted for its big numbers of  carp, which run mainly from 3 lb up to 15 lb-plus, with some fish around 20 lb showing themselves in the bright sunshine – we never saw a cloud all day and the temperature in my garden hit 30 Centigrade. There was much splashing in the reeds near me, showing the fish are hoping to spawn any day.

Luckily I had re-read my previous posts on this lake, and even more luckily I drew the same corner swim I had last time, when I had framed in fourth. So I had an idea of what had worked before – fish close in on the right.  But things looked bad when Tony Nisbet drew the favoured peg near the road, which is all on its own on that bank – he’d lost a lot of fish last time in the reeds, and I fully expected he would not repeat the same mistakes. Meanwhile Kevin Lee, who has won our club championship more times than anyone else,  was a few pegs to my left, in an area I like, where there is an underwater reed bed a few feet from the bank which is not yet visible.

Plan C

I had some soaked (but not pumped) expanders ready to target fish on the surface, as this is allowed here and can produce huge weights. But when I saw the conditions – flat calm and bright sun – I doubted whether they would work. So I threw out a few pellets to about six metres, intending to start there, as I had read that Kevin Lee had caught out around that length all day last time. I also threw out a few floaters; but I started looking inside, with cat meat, in four feet of water, a few feet from the reeds to my left, as although there were odd  fish in these reeds, the righthand swim was positively alive with them.

Unexpectedly I started getting liners to the left immediately and in fact I stayed here for the first two hours, and never went farther out. A slowish start saw me take a 5 lb mirror a few minutes after the start, by which time Dennis, on my left  had hooked and lost three or four fish which I suspected had been foulhooked – he told me later that was the case.

My corner swim - the fish were splashing in the reeds to my right all day.

A special method

I fish a ‘special’ method which, when conditions allow, allows me to almost entirely eliminate foulhooking fish. I call it ‘special’ because the only other person I know who has fished like this is ‘Fatha’ Dennis White. When I can fish it, I expect to do well – though a better angler than I would do better of course. Anyway, while Dennis on my left – and many others – were foulhooking fish on and off all day I managed to foulhook just three that I know of all day,  and two of those came off in two seconds. The other one stuck.

I stayed on cat meat almost all day, firstly on a rig consisting of 6 lb Maxima straight through, and getting fish steadily, the best two around 15 lb, with a couple of others  in double figures. After a couple of hours, to rest the lefthand swim, I dropped in a foot from the righthand side of the platform, with my spare rig, with 6 lb Match Team straight through, and took a run of about ten fish to 10 lb there, before switching  back and forth between the two swims. Both rigs had size 12 Kamasan Animal hooks – they don’t straighten!

Some of the fish shot under the platform, but they all came out. These were all wild carp...well they looked very annoyed when I landed them!

Best baiting procedure

I eventually found it best to put in a few grains of corn and a few cubes of cat meat before every fish. This definitely brought bites more quickly than trying to get two fish from one baiting. The fish seemed to come in within seconds – and I emptied a pot of water over the top each time to make a noise. Amazing how that works.  By this time, although I had thrown out several floaters, hardly any fish had taken an interest and I had abandoned the idea of surface fishing completely.

Playing problems

The fish were certainly pumped up with testosterone (or the fishy equivalent) and I took longer than I would have liked playing them. Having said that, only two came off after I had played them for a while, and just one broke me in the reeds eight metres to my right, so I was pretty pleased with the landing rate.

But I was using my old, stiff, margin pole, which I have rigged up with two elasticated  tops about six feet long, which means I have to add another  section to land fish. This meant I could not use a puller even if they were equipped with them – and had I had a puller I am sure I would have saved a couple of minutes on each fish, because the fish pulled so hard there was much more elastic out than I would normally expect when using these tops. One had Middy 22-24 solid and the other 18 Latex.

I had to virtually scoop the fish out as they swam past, rather than being able to slide them into the net – they just never gave up. It was hard work and at times my right hand cramped up, while afterwards my shoulders really ached from playing and netting them.  I decided I might have done better with my normal Browning Z12 which has puller bungs, but in the past I have foulhooked huge fish here and actually lost top twos, while I havealways  felt it was only a matter of time before a fish smashed the pole.

That’s a problem I am still working on. I also had with me a Browning Sting though it’s a put-in pole, without pullers, and the tops are so thin it’s not easy to insert a puller bung, which I favour over side pullers.  But as I was landing almost every fish – eventually – I felt it better not to change.

James - Dave's son, with another -
he uses only rod and line.

 

Dave Garner with one of the many
double-figure fish taken.

Oops

Two or three of the best fish came to double corn, which I used as an occasional change bait, and I felt it worked more quickly that the cat meat – something which I will try again.

When I was on my third net I landed a 6 lb common, looked at my clicker, and was horrified to see 47 lb on it and, unsure which net to put the fish in, I put it in that net, knowing I was over. At the end it weighed 56 lb, and as our club fishes to a strict 50 lb maximum, so I lost the 6 lb.

As I weighed in my five nets (Tony, who I had not been able to see because of tall reeds,  weighed first and had 191 lb) the other anglers gritted their teeth when they saw the 56 lb register, pointing out that, like me, Kevin also had five nets, and was on the Golden Peg. Would that 6 lb stop me beating him?

Winner Kev Lee with a fish we weighed at almost 15 lb.

My best match weight

I wasn’t sure whether I could beat Tony. My previous three best match weights had been around 175 lb, though I had once caught 200 lb-plus on Head Fen, to almost certainly beat the water record,  only for nets to be disqualified so on that occasion I ended with 61 lb!

Today three nets had 40 lb-plus, the overweight one was given as 50 lb, and the last one went 30 lb – total 212 lb 2 oz, and my first-ever weight of 200 lb. Kevin in fact beat me with 224 lb 14 oz to win, so my six-pounder would have made no difference. He had again caught several feet out in front of him, coming into the margins late. I was second, and not only very happy, but when I got home Iwas – for the first time ever – pleased I was not fishing the next day because I was very tired, and my shoulders ached. I suppose at the age of 75 that’s the price you pay for enjoying yourself.

However, onwards and upwards – I’m at Decoy on Elm lake tomorrow, when it might be slightly cooler.

Dick one of our weighers-in. Sensible hat!

 

Callum with friend!

TIP

I had a small cool bag in which I placed a tin of cat meat. This tin had been in the fridge all night, and it went in with a couple of ice packs – and a small plastic bottle of drinking water. In summer it’s a boon, as when the sun becomes almost unbearable and the cat meat in my tray sets soft I can undo the spare ti, knowing that the meat inside is firm...and have a drink to cool off. Which I did !

Another tip , shown to me by Darren Cox, is to have a full bottle of orange squash, frozen overnight in a freezer. The hotter the sun the more quickly it melts when you put it beside you on the bank. That will be in my armoury tomorrow. I had forgotten how hot it can get in England – it’s been so long...while you all had your mini heatwave a couple of weeks ago  I was in Portugal, in the rain, and when the sun shone it was not as hot as this!

The result - six topped 100 lb.

My lucky Horsehoe...

Horseshoe Lake, Decoy, peg 13

This swim has form. I remember Bryan Lakey finishing second in a big Pairs match on Decoy several  years ago from this peg – I was his partner and came about fourth on Lous, but there were other lakes in my half of the draw and we finished just out of the frame. It’s produced good weights many timees since then. Amazingly, I had never managed, despite fishing 20-peg Horseshoe dozens of times, to draw this swim, which is often tackled with a feeder to the far corner.

The forecast for today was a bitingly-cold extremely strong wind, taking temperatures down to 1 centigrade, plus torrential rain, and four or five members decided not to risk it, with the result that we had just nine, pegged from 12 to 20. In the event the wind wasn’t very cold, it wasn’t as strong as forecast, and there was no rain at all...

 

My swim. In Summer there's usually an aerator opposite.

Up go our umbrellas

Peg 12, to my right, had wind roughly from his right, while my peg, a little round the corner, had it over my left shoulder. But we both put up our umbrellas, expecting rain, and it actually helped keep spare pole sections from blowing around – I wedged mine between my bait bag and the umbrella pole.

The wind was a nuisance all day, and almost everyone started on a feeder. I spent 20 minutes on a pellet feeder and pop-up, while throwing corn and maggots out to about 8.5 metres, and I had a couple of liners which I suspected were fish coming to the loose feed, so I soon swapped to pole at 8.5 metres.

This quickly produced two roach and two small bream to maggot, and a change to corn brought a quick bite and a briefly-hooked fish which I suspected was a carp foulhooked. So in went a bait-dropper of corn and pellet to get some bait down, and I put some corn into a margin swim about six feet out to my left. To my right it was four feet deep, while Peter, on 12, was fishing no more than six feet away, right in the side, at seven feet, so there was obviously a big drop down there. I didn't even look in that swim, as it was so close to Peter.

...as did Bob Barrett.

 

Peter Barnes had fish to around 11 lb...

Back out onto the 8.5-metres mark (five sections) and I hooked two F1s, around 2 lb each, before starting to put in about six grains of corn each drop-in. This produced a slow run of F1s, until I had about six or seven. Then, to rest that swim, I had a look inside, with cat meat. I had a quick F1 of 3 lb, then next cast a 9 lb common. From then on I concentrated on the margin swim with cat meat, with just the odd look on the far line to rest the swim.

Big fish

The rest of the day saw two more big fish both around 9 lb or 10 lb on cat meat, plus one on corn, all from the inside swim on a top two, plus a run of F1s to 3 lb-plus. But the key was moving the bait. There was a strong tow against the wind at times, and it was essential to let the bait trip very slowly along the bottom, lifting it if necessary I got no more than a couple of fish with the bait stationary. I have a special method for moving the bait, using floats up to 2 gram, or more if necessary, and today they did the business, although it’s very hard work. I had another couple of looks on my long swim during the day, taking F1s on corn, but always came back inside hoping another  big fish would result.

Last 20 minutes

Other anglers seem to be able to bag up in the last hour, whereas my fish so often seem to dry up. So after a lean spell, with 20 minutes left, I put in bait next to the bank, in about three feet of water, and fished it with my heavy rig for five minutes. I was just about to give it up when a big F1 took the meat. Not willing to risk such a long wait again I went back to my other 1 gm rig, six feet out, and managed to snaffle another F1 there, before the shout went up to end the match.

Trevor, when he, and everybody
else thought he had won.

 

Mick Ramm - we went to
 Junior School together!

The weigh-in

Fishing had been patchy. I kew that Martin, to my left, was struggling when I saw him come off a feeder to try shallow and then start fishing another line a bit closer in. Peter Barnes, to my right, had a couple of big fish, but I knew he had had long fishless spells. So down to peg 20, first to weigh, and Peter Spriggs, who always catches lots of fish, managed just 12 lb 3 oz. This swim is at the end of one arm of the horseshoe, and I remember winning off it very late one season, when the water was cold. So it’s likely that in this changeable weather, with the water warming, the fish had just moved out.

Peter nearly always fishes his special paste (recipe closely guarded) so perhaps today was a day when the fish weren’t turned on by a staticf bait. Certainly I didn’t catch more than a couple when the bait was still, but I tend to move it every ten or 20 seconds anyway.

From there the catches were patchy. There are underwater lily beds all the way along this bank, and without being able to see where they are it’s frustrating fishing. But when we came to Trevor, who has won more Spratts matches than anyone else, the nearby anglers all agreed he would be the winner, and indeed totalled 95 lb 15 oz in his two nets. He told me afterwards he could get bites only by lifting and dropping the corn, fishing at 7 metres.

How’s that for luck?

I admitted to 40 lb-plus in each of my two nets, but the odds of my beating Trevor’s  weight were, I said, nil. In fact my first net to weigh (my second net of the day) went 49 lb 12 oz! How’s that for luck? If I’d changed over nets one fish earlier that would have been knocked back to 50 lb. And I remember that I put my second net in, caught a fish, and decided to put it back into my first net!

I was even more surprised when the other net (which I had estimated at 40 lb plus that 2 lb fish)) went 47 lb 12 oz. If I’d put one more fish in that it would probably have gone over! So I had 97 lb 8 oz, and did Trevor – who was on an £82 Golden Peg – out of first place as well as protecting the Golden Peg for another time.

The result - tight at the top but patchy.
I am not complaining, though!

I will change elastic

 I will have a look at my black Hydro elastic – one fish stretched it so far it surfaced almost on the far bank, and went briefly into Peter’s swim to my right, which in fact made immediately me decide to put the same rig on my blue Middy 18 elastic. It should never have stretched that far – it must be  too old now.  I have just one spool left of my favourite Middy white 22-24, and I think I will substitute this now that the warmer weather is here.

Choosing  an “all-round elastic” is not easy where swims are close on a commercial and double-figure fish can be hooked. It’s not fair on the angler next door if big fish consistently encroach on his swim, as inevitably happens if an angler is using one of the light elastics advocated by top anglers in the magazines. I don’t know how they get away with it. I know they use pullers (as I do) but a double-figure fish hooked at, say, ten metres, will pull out 20 yards of a light elastic before they can possibly ship the pole back to their top two, especially if it’s foulhooked.