A good result for me – Six-Island, Decoy

Six-Island, peg 24

There were 16 of us in this Fenland Rods Saturday match  – should have been 17 but Mick thought the match was on Sunday! And a cool North-Westerly was blowing, which meant I fancied drawing anywhere from 10 to 14, facing North, which I expected to have a bit of ripple. In the event my corner peg 24 was one of the few (perhaps the only one) to have no ripple all day because it’s sheltered from the wind which was over my right shoulder. Even when the wind turned a little more to the West the high bank on my right still sheltered the swim. However, it always produces fish, and I was not unhappy.

Two interesting comments: after the draw Bob Allan said he was mighty pleased with his peg 14, which he really fancied, facing some wind, and said that my peg 24 wasn’t ideal because of the wind direction. Then, as we were waiting for the opening whistle Kev Lee walked round and when I said I didn’t really fancy the peg at the moment, because of the calm surface and the shade produced by the tree on my left, said: “Perhaps the margins will fish when they’ve had a bit of sun on them.”

Both those observations were sensible, giving the lie to those snobby ‘Natural Water’ anglers who reckon that commercials are always easy and require no watercraft to fish. It’s good to be able to point out that anglers on commercials have to put as much thought into their fishing as anglers on any river.

 

My swim in the corner. The island is at about 14 metres. Note that
positioning the third net (the green one) in front of the others still
allows me to fish down by the platform if necessary.
My right margin swim was next to the tuft of reeds.

Slow start

My plan was to fish a Method feeder at the start if things looked like being slow. But after putting a few grains of corn onto my right margin swim, next to a bunch of reeds, and a pot of pellets, hemp and corn out to about 8 metres, I decided to try shallow away to my right where fish were swirling around the aerator. If I’d hooked one it would probably have taken me round the post and broken me, but at least it would tell me if they were willing to take a bait. So I fished a bunch of reds a foot deep, then two feet deep, for about ten minutes with nothing to show. That plan went on the back burner.

Back to Plan A and I swung the Method feeder out underarm to the island about 14 metres in front of me. Just a liner on the first cast, so I pulled it in after ten minutes and re-baited the 8-metre swim. I also had a quick look in the right margin, to check that the rig fished OK. Not even a liner there, so it was back on the Method.

In the next hour I landed three fish of 2 lb, 3 lb and 4 lb, while Wendy over to my left on peg 2 had six or seven. I looked like being thrashed. Another quick look down the side still brought no response, so I went out to the 8-metre swim, which I had baited after every cast, and thankfully this brought about five fish in the next hour, best around 5 lb, with a couple lost foulhooked. But every fish gave the tiniest of bites, which didn’t surprise me as the overnight temperature had dropped to single figures. Bait was corn for four of them, and a 4mm Sonubait sinking expander for one. I like these as you don’t have to pump them.

Understand that although the wind was cool, it wasn’t bitingly cold, which was why I had fancied a peg where it blew into my face. Anyway, the only way I could get a bit was to fish about half an inch overdepth with a tiny amount of float showing, and let the rig drift with the wind. Occasionally it went under, either with a fish, or a liner, or dragging bottom.

Now in his late Eighties, Joe still enjoys
matches as much as he ever did. But
asking him to kneel down for a picture
would be cruel - he can get down...it's
getting back up that's difficult!
PS. I really did not fancy his swim.

With almost half the match gone I could see Joe, on 22, struggling, while Wendy’s fish seemed to have deserted her, and I hadn’t seem her husband Les, on peg 1, catch anything. So I though I might be doing all right. He told me afterwards he didn’t get a bite until 1.30 pm, three-and-a-half hours after we started.

The sun perks things up

With the sun having moved round in front of me, and the temperature having risen,  I had a really good look down the margin, in about two-and-a-half feet of water, but it took me a good 20 minutes before I actually caught anything – a 5 lb carp. For the next hour I concentrated here, using corn over pellets and hemp, and added three or four more fish, the best 8 lb. A handfull of dead maggots brought carp in, and they snuffled around the shallow edges (as they do), but try as I might I managed only one from this really shallow area of the swim, and that was foulhooked! The fish wanted to feed only in the deeper margin swim. The only fish to take dead maggot there was a tiny perch.

WHY YOU NEED RIPPLE

With the sun up and no ripple I had four feet of line between my pole tip and float, so I could lay my pole parallel along the edge of the bank when fishing the margin swim, where the deep water was about four feet from the bank. Whenever I needed to lift the float to induce a bite I had, of course, to lift the pole out over the rig...and several times when I did that the shallow water next to the bank erupted as fish (which I couldn’t see) swirled and shot out.

It wasn’t the shadow that frightened them, as the sun wasn’t high enough to put the shadow directly under the pole - it was obviously the movement of the pole. That’s why, particularly when the sun is out, you need that ripple.

Some kind soul adjusted Alan Golightly 's hat
and sunglasses just before I took the picture!

Eventually I simply had to try cat meat, and while a small piece brought taps which could have been liners or roach, a bigger piece had an immediate effect. I was now on my second net, with the first three fish here weighing about 19 lb. At that point I saw Dick Warriner and James Garner walking up to drive round for another net. A little later Dave Garner followed, and then Bob Allan. With an estimated 34 lb in my second net I landed the best fish, a mirror of about 12 lb, and went for a net myself. There was just an hour to go, and I was clearly way behind.

Neil Garner. His last three fish, here
weighed over 20 lb. Really solid carp.

Good last hour

Half-an-hour earlier I had started on the left margin, and had taken two or three fish there on corn before going back to the right margin with meat. Now I came back with the net which I placed out in front of the other two, rather than putting it to one side, so as not to spook the margin fish. I’ve done this several times this season, giving me the option of catching down by the platform, though today I didn’t need to do that. However, there were fish there as I saw the clouds of mud.

I now carried on alternating the swims – corn to the left, meat to the right - and had a really good run with fish from 6 lb to almost 8 lb. A minute or two before we were due to pack up I was playing a 6 lb fish, looked up, and saw the three anglers nearest me packing up. Wondering whether I had missed the end of the match I peered down to Mat on peg 18, and it seemed as if he was still fishing, so carried on, though it’s always unsettling when that happens.

Anyway, seconds later I heard a definite shout, shouted “Fish On” myself, and took my time landing this hard-fighting common. It seems to me that commons tends to fight harder than mirrors – I don’t know whether anyone else has that feeling.

Dave Garner - the clear winner. Dave
always fishes only rod and line.

The weigh-in

After the first few pegs had been weighed James was a clear leader with 126 lb 15 oz. I considered that a very good performance as he had back wind most of the day. But James has a terrific record in this club – a pity he doesn’t fish many matches.

Opposite on 11 I was astonished to see his father Dave Garner, our current champion, with five nets. I’d been so absorbed in my own swim I hadn’t seen him walk past to get two of them. Fishing in the same spot all day, to his left in the margin, Dave said he was cold in the wind, but had fish from the off. He weighed 190 lb 5 oz, all on waggler (he doesn’t own a pole) and deservedly ended as a clear winner. The last time we fished on this lake Ken Wade from Peterborough told me that peg 11 was the one he would have liked to draw as some big weights have been taken from the margins.

Round on 18, which has a good record, Mat Lutkin also had a lot of shelter, and did well to weigh in 109 lb 15 oz, mainly from down the track in the deep water of this narrow swim.

Mat Lutkin,. third on peg 18.

Next man, on peg 21 was Neil Garner (same family as the others), who also has a brilliant track record. But his 66 lb 5 oz for 11^th place confirmed to me that you really needed wind and ripple today. If Neil couldn’t catch them they weren’t going to be caught! Next peg was Joe, now in his late Eighties  – great to see him in his first club match since his wife died in the Winter. But he struggled, as I had guessed he would on that peg. I’ve drawn it a few times over the years and nearly always done badly.

Dick - I took his picture because
he always helps with the weighing in.
And he's good looking...

I was last to weigh, and thought I might challenge Mat, with 38 lb estimated for my first net, 42 lb in the second, and perhaps 25 lb in the last (I didn’t click this as I didn’t think I couold possibly exceed 50 lb in that last 50 minutes). So I admitted to 100 lb to 110 lb, not wanting to under-estimate by a lot. When fish get big it’s difficult to decide whether they are 9 lb or 12 lb.

The result. 

My first net went 44 lb 5 oz, second (with the best fish put in last) went 51 lb 15 oz (cut back to 50 lb) which was a real surprise; and the final net, started at 3.10 pm, weighed 39 lb 15 oz (!). So the fish weighed more than I had judged. And they gave me second spot. Pleased with that.

Me with my two best double-figure fish.