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.