A match I did my best to throw away - Elm, Decoy

Elm Lake, Decoy, peg 17

Fifteen of us fished this Fenland Rods match and with the very strong wind from the South-West I fancied the pegs towards the Northern end – say 8 to the corner 12, and from 13 back to 17. So I was happy with 17, roughly opposite peg 9, which last Winter produced some really big winning weights in the local Winter Leagues.

Elm is deep, and I had well over four feet next to the bank on my left and around six feet in the deepest water about ten feet from the bank; to my right there was shallow water where the bank has fallen in, but most of it was bumpy. Before the match started I had a wander round to the far bank, where the wind was slightly over their back, and was surprised at the difference – it looked as though it was easy to fish up to 14 metres if necessary, whereas on my bank eight metres was maximum in the wind, which never relented all day and was probably up to Force Six - a day when you had to lay your spare top kits on the grass as they would have blown off a roost.

 

Peg 17, towards the windy end of the lake, looking towards pegs
 11 and 12. The deep water is only a top-two out from the bank..

My first mistake

I kept to some sort of plan – casting a Method feeder with hair-rigged corn along the bank on the deep water while I loose-fed some pellets and corn. This brought no response so it was out a third of the way across with the feeder. First cast brought a thumping take which was obviously from a big fish, which steamed away while I tried desperately to follow it...only to realise that the anti-reverse was on and the clutch tightened down. A second later ‘Bang’, the hooklength broke. Error Number One.

Meanwhile John Smith, opposite, had a big carp in the net very early on and two more, which looked about 5 lb each, soon afterwards. And James, in the corner, was catching – he told me afterwards he had four or five carp up to around 8 lb to 10 lb in the first hour! I couldn’t see what anyone on my bank was catching because of bushes.

John made a cracking start. This fish was 14 lb 4 oz.

The next half-hour brought me two small F1s to the Method and a 2 lb barbel from the deep water on pole and meat; but the next hour brought absolutely nothing anywhere, though at one point I managed to hook a 1 lb F1 in the dorsal fin on The Method (how can you do that?) and after going round and round my landing net about six times it came off. So annoying. Two hours gone and I had about 5 lb. Neither margin had produced anything, and I quickly dismissed them for the moment.

Desperate

It seemed I would have to pole fish farther out, so cast a Method feeder about eight metres out, where I had another F1. Out with the pole to eight metres, and although I felt I managed to present a pellet reasonably well in the wind, I never had a touch. Desperate to make something happen I put in dead maggots with a bait dropper, on the deep-water line fishable on a top two, and immediately had a 3 lb barbel on a bunch of five dead reds.

For the next hour I carried on here, taking another five or six barbel to 4 lb, plus one F1, feeding after every fish,  but no ‘proper’ carp. The barbel were taking a very long time to land – I fancy the wind was putting so much oxygen into the water that they ended up turbo-charged, like mini Ferraris. My arm was aching by this time.

Then I remembered

Then I remembered I had two pints of nine-day-old casters, bought the Friday of the previous week from Tackle and Bates at Rookery Farm, Pidley, and not used. I poured them into a maggot tin of water, floated off the few floaters...and they were perfect!!! No burns, because they were wrapped in brown paper.

I put in two bait-droppers of casters and hemp. I know barbel love this combination, but I hoped the casters might attract the carp...and it worked! For the next hour I had barbel, and carp to 10 lb, on dead reds, some on a bunch of casters, and then on a small lump of cat meat, feeding casters and corn (for the carp) after every fish.

James was first to get a net.

The last 90 minutes of the match saw me take several carp from 5 lb to 12 lb, with the occasional barbel, and I went for another net with 75 minutes to go. Tony Nisbet and James Garner had already been for a third net, and soon after I returned Kevin Lee,  who I rated as possibly favourite on peg 14, also walked past me to get his third. The wind caused me to change my Preston Hollo 13 elastic for a stronger solid, and I got on better with this landing the bigger carp.

Another mistake

 Interestingly I had to wait a couple of minutes after dropping in my rig to get the bite. I didn’t get a single bite when the bait was still - it had to drift in to a small ridge, or I had to lift it, to get a fish. One 2 lb bream gave a superb lift bite which I struck at more in hope than expectation, imagining it might be a liner, but the bream was hooked in the mouth. Four or five of the other fish were hooked in the side of the mouth, so I am assuming that they were still only half-heartedly feeding. 

At the end I estimated there was 34 lb in my last net...but with seven minutes to go I had  hooked another big fish which came off after a couple of minutes. The hook had pulled off the line, and left a little pig’s tail of nylon on the end. I had already landed several big fish on this rig, so it must have frayed at some time.  I whipped on another, but it wasn’t right, so I had to cut this off and whipped it on again. That cost me a couple of minutes.

 

Tony - still wearing his artist's smock!

Afterwards I told several people I had lost a second carp before dropping back for the last time, but later realised I had simply re-whipped it. Anyway, with a size 12 whipped back on and a minute to go I fed, dropped back with meat, hooked a big fish...and it happened again!!! The hook came off. No idea what I had done wrong. There was no whirly line at the end so I can only assume the line cut at the spade.

No time to have another go, and I felt that I had probably cost myself at least a place, as the fish had been lining up at the end. Apart from those two I remember losing only one other fish on the pole. I’d not spent much time looking across the lake, but had seen all of them taking fish towards the end. After that bad start I decided I would be happy to finish in the top half, because it was possible those to my left had also been for nets, but I could not see them.

The weigh-in – my worst mistake of all

I started to pack uo, staked my nets out with a couple of banksticks, and went across to see what pistures I might take. John was about to wigh in, so I snapped that.  Interestingly Dick, who weighed in 97 lb, told me he caught his first fish at 1 o’clock, three hours after starting; so I then realised I wasn’t the only one to find it difficult at the start.

John weighed in over 100lb, as did Tony, James and Kevin, and I estimated  I had 39 lb in one net (giving me the option of putting more fish in if they came fast at the end), with 40 lb in the second, and 34 lb in the last – totalling 113 lb, which would not be enough to trouble Kevin on 14, who had 128 lb 10 oz.

Kev's best carp - 14 lb 10 oz.

My weigh-in – mistake Number Three

We got back to my peg and I was horrified to see only two keepnets. One, plus the bankstick it was resting on, was missing. This happened to Dick last year, and the feeling is one of absolute dismay. That was 34 lb gone. The bankstick was fairly firm when I left it, but the wind must have blown into the net so it acted like a sail and loosened everything.

What a beauty, and the fish is nice...

I quickly took my special landing net handle with hook attached out of the holdall – thankfully I hadn’t taken any tackle back to the car because had I wanted a few pictures, so the holdall was still lying on the bank. A quick dip into the margin found the net, I  lifted it a little, and thought I could see the bottom ring appear. So I dropped it, came back towards me, scooped from the other end and, amazingly, found it had hooked into the top ring. A very quick lift followed...and there were still fish there.

With some trepidation the net was emptied into the weight bag, and the scales went round to 38 lb. I do believe I had not lost a single fish!!!  The ‘39 lb net’ went 45 lb 2 oz and the  ‘40 lb net’  went 47 lb 5 oz – total 130 lb 7 oz, for the narrow win, because the anglers to my left couldn’t make 100 lb. Rarely was a win so undeserved.

 

The carp were all in great condition. Neil
showed us two commons, before he had to
dash back to his meeting of the Mafia!

A great match despite the wind.

So because I take so long to pack up – I had six rigs to put away, plus the feeder rod, and an assortment of baits to sort out, plus taking the accessories off my box, including the back – I had been able to whip out my hook and save the day. I won’t be repeating that, but I will sort something out to hold my nets securely in future.

Treatment

No more mid-week matches for at least a month as I have to attend Addenbrooke’s for daily radiation of the prostate cancer. But I hope I will be OK at weekends...assuming the following treatment for the lung cancer allows it.

I'm on Cedar the weekend after next, where peg 26 would be nice, or at least one near the car park end – 1 to 3 or 24 to 26, though I know I will have a good day, as in 65 years of fishing I’ve never yet had a ‘bad’ day. Days when I have not caught anything, yes, but how can fishing not be good?

The fishing on Cedar is similar to that on Elm. But I am toying with the idea of using an eyed hook tied with a Palomar knot rather than a spade end, and I will be checking my fixed-spool reel clutch before I start. I won’t get away with making those mistakes again.

A good last hour – Horseshoe, Decoy

Horseshoe, Decoy, peg 12

This was a Spratts club match, with 12 of us taking part. There was a real overnight temperature dip, and at 6 am there was not a cloud in the sky; by the time I left at 7.45 am the outside temperature was still only 7 Centigrade. And at the fishery the wind was a stiff breeze which wasn’t bitingly cold, but definitely cool, so I fancied my pre-match plan of fishing shallow was probably out of the window.

Peg 12 stuck to my fingers – not a peg I would have picked as the margins here are quite deep and the pegs 10 to 13 were open to the South-Westerly breeze, which was basically in our faces much of the time. I started putting in a little pot of hemp and pellet at 8 metres and had a look inside, with no result. Half-an-hour on the longer line brought a small bream and a roach. By this time Trevor, on 8, had two big carp in his net on a feeder, and Peter Harrison, next to me, had already had some F1s on his Method.

My swim. My margin fish all came from the right, almost under the tree.

A change to a banded pellet on Method brought a single F1 and after two hours that was all I had – 3 lb., while I estimated Peter next to me on peg 11 had 15 lb to 20 lb, and his catch rate started to increase. On my left Peter Barnes had just one carp, though soon he had another big fish on and as I had nothing better to do I took a few pictures of him landing it!

This one took Peter about ten minutes to land...and I wasn't catching anything anyway!

Two good-uns for Peter.
Note to self: Do not shoot
into the sun....

The fish is there somewhere (camera operator error?)

Meanwhile Trevor had switched to a pellet feeder and then to a pole shallow and then to a full-depth pole rig, so I guessed he had slowed. But I was quite downhearted, and was sure I was probably last, and could easily end bottom. So I started switching swims and methods to try to find at least one fish! The far-bank swim was weedy, and I had to cast about ten feet short with my feeder to avoid the rubbish, but as I was getting liners I kept going over there. At one point Peter next to me tried shallow, but never had a bite, so that made my mind up on that tactic.

I fall a long way behind

In the next three hours I managed another three on corn on the Method after I had spotted that Peter was using corn.All were around 2 lb to 3 lb, and a quick switch to the margin with a pole had  brought four hooked barbel in four casts on dead reds...only one of which I landed. Two snagged me (one in my keepnet) and one came off. But I had persisted in that area, moving out to the slightly deeper water to my right six feet from the bank, and three or four 3 lb carp and a couple of better ones on reds and on corn. So with an hour left I had only an estimated 40 lb, and was really getting hammered by Peter Harrison on 11 and John Garner on 10 who seemed to be playing a carp on pole every time I looked up. At this point I started on my second net.

Peter Harrison on the next peg to me caught steadily all day on The Method.

Suddenly things start
looking up

This one was around double figures.

I concentrated on corn, reasoning that Peter was catching on this, and suddenly I started getting bites close in to the side, in about four feet of water. Peter also caught there, dropping his Method feeder in almost under his rod tip. That last hour saw me, in fact, add 40 lb to my catch, all carp around 5 lb, and putting some feed in before each fish – if I didn’t do that I didn’t get a bite. I lost just one, in the last five minutes, and was playing a fish when the match ended.

I hadn’t bothered to click these last-hour fish as I hadn’t imagined they would keep feeding. But in the end  everything was OK, and I finished third with 81 lb 12 oz behind Peter Harrison on 113 lb 11 oz and John Garner, who had 100 lb. I was happy with that, after having been convinced I would finish way down the list.

Runner-up John Garner.

John Smith with friend (I have to take his picture
sometimes as I go to his house for a quick cup
of tea and a biscuit, if I am lucky, on the way home!!)

The result (note Mick on peg 2 did not sit on Ted's knee
on another peg 2 - Mick was actually on 1).
Another trip to Specsavers is on the cards!!

Next match is this Sunday on Elm, at Decoy. The forecast is for warmer weather, so perhaps the barbel will be out in force. It’s impossible, at this time of year, to pre-plan with any real confidence, but I have made up a 4.2 lb, 0.12 mm rig with a size 16 hook as a nod to the fact that the fish will start becoming more finicky any time now. I prefer to use a 4.2 lb rig straight through rather than adding hooklengths to a stronger rig, as it’s stronger than a hooklength rig (only the hook whipping as a weak spot), though of course more liable to degrade along its length. However I will use hooklengths in the Winter, which enables me to make a quick change to a lighter business end if the water is cold.

A difficult match at Northview

Northview, Gedney.

Overnight the temperature dropped, and a cold wind welcomed the 14 of us in this Fenland Rods match. My peg (13 on the day) was the second one in from the entrance – it would have been in the corner of the original lake, before the extra bit was added a year or two ago.

I would have preferred the wind blowing into me – pegs 15, 14 and from 1 to 6, because on that opposite bank the margins are deeper than on the roadside, and in the cold wind I fancied the fish might want to find the deeper water, at least until the temperature warmed.

The wind was cold but at least it was over my back. I plumbed up
next to the island at 13 metres but never tried it.

However, I had fancied trying shallow with caster, and my back wind was ideal for this. I started on the bottom in about four feet of water to my left ten feet from the bank with a 6mm Sonubaits sinking expander. One carp and another lost foulhooked was my catch in the first 45 minutes, and I tried out at three sections. Here I took three or four bream to about 2 lb, and tried throwing caster out and fishing shallow.

A grim first two hours

Carp were turning under the surface, but all I got were two roach. Going down I suddenly managed to hook, and land, two more carp about 3 lb on pellet. So after a little over two hours I had three carp and John Garner, to my left had one. He also said that Kevin Lee, to his left, wasn’t catching much. Then I knew that it was likely to be hard.

On the opposite bank they must have been very cold. I could see they were all muffled up against the wind, with hoods over their heads. And I didn’t see much caught there, either. I couldn’t see beyond peg 3, though. The wind veered slightly to the left now, causing me to rule out going over to the island at 13 metres, where I would have had trouble presenting the bait properly.

John, on my left, struggled all day
as I did. But this golden
carp raised his spirits just a little.

I now started foulhooking fish, virtually all of which came off. I wasn’t the only one – all those to my left had the same problem. I also lost five 2 lb bream which hurtled out of the water when hooked and threw the hook! I looked for deeper water than four feet, but couldn’t find any within 11 metres, so concentrated on the little dips I could find – the bottom here is very bumpy.

Dead reds sort of worked

The rest of the match was spent mainly at three sections and at five sections, and when I put some hemp and dead maggots in by baitdropper it kicked the swims into life – though not a lot! However it did bring occasional carp, plus some more foulhooked which came off, all on a bunch of dead reds. It was the only way I could get fish. Just one, my best at 7 lb,  came from deep margin swim near the reeds to my left, where it was almost three feet deep. My best hour was the last, when I landed about six carp, the best that seven-pounder.

All day I had tiny indications that fish were playing with the bait, or hitting the line somewhere just above it. I put it down to the sudden drop in temperature. My pellet felt like ice when retrieved.

To my right and in front of me the margin was no more than ten inches deep six feet from the bank, and from time to time fish would come in here and kick up clouds of mud and wave their tails at me. Of course I tried to catch them, but they wouldn’t look at a bait, and I foulhooked just one, on cat meat, a bait which I kept trying but on which I never had a bite. Those margin fish seemed to be just enjoying themselves, like they did at Kingsland earlier in the week.

Difficult to land

The water was so muddy that it was impossible to see fish to net them until they were right on the surface. So trying to scoop them out as they came bast just under the surface was impossible. Consequently they took a long time to land – nearly all were in beautiful condition, solid and fit.

Wendy Bedford with husband Les' fish
as he was in the car on oxygen. Just
look at the quality - fin and scale-perfect.

A complaint!!

One or two of us had asked, at the draw, if the start and finish could be made more obvious – shouting is the usual method. So, unbeknown to me, Kevin, who is official timekeeper, crept up behind me at the start and roared “START” in my ear. I jumped a foot in the air, but immediately saw the funny side, and had a good laugh. At the end he did it again, taking me by surprise, a split second after I hooked my last fish, a four-pounder foulhooked in the tail.

That fish took me several minutes to land, and consequently I missed the first few being weighed. I estimated I had about 55 lb of carp and 10 lb of silvers, and in fact that wasn’t far out as they totalled 70 lb 3 oz.

The winner

Over on the far side Dick Warriner and James Garner found fish in the deep water, with Dick telling me he had at least six feet. It was a clever decision to go out there early in the match, as I suspect most of the rest of us opted to try closer, and with the wind in his face he must have found it quite difficult at times. Dick took fish steadily all day, his winning 133 lb 14 oz coming on cat meat  – something which didn’t work for me. A very good win on a difficult day...Dick is now one of the anglers you expect to probably frame in almost every match.

 I was on 13, next to John Garner, while John Smith was
opposite me on 1. The weighers-in 
clearly should have gone to Specsavers!

I ended seventh, though only 4 lb behind the fourth man, so just one of those 20 or so lost carp could have given me several more club points.

Such a pity that this water is going to be closed to matches in the next year or so, the owner concentrating on pleasure anglers, with unhooking mats being currently required on the other two lakes, and I imagine the same rule will apply here.

My errors

I made two mistakes, I think. I should have tried a Method feeder over to the island, and I should have fished positively for a time with cat meat on a proper strong rig in another spot somewhere, possibly to my right, instead of just putting cat meat on my pellet rigs. Not sure whether it would have worked, but I should have tried. Then I realised I was top of the six pegs at my end of the lake, so perhaps I did OK after all.

Next match Thursday on Horseshoe, Decoy. I have casters for those lovely F1s, and will try shallow for them if I can. But the fluctuating temperatures may spike that plan!

Happy with second place – Kingsland Silver

 Kingsland Silver, peg 5 (not permanently pegged).

On to Kingsland Silver Lake, which used to be called Silver Fish Lake, but it appears the silver fish nearly all died. It was a minor tragedy because it was very popular and gave tremendous sport for several years  – crucians, bream, tench, chub – they all appeared to be thriving. But fish die, and it was probably a hot summer that did it – you need only  a freak meterological incident to hasten the event. That’s why so many fishery owners stick with carp.

 

Overcast to start with. With the water low the reeds are no longer a problem.

Anyway just eight of us turned up, the weather was cloudy at the start, but the sun came out, and there was just a little Northerly wind (from our left).  I was halfway along the roadside bank. The water level was down several feet, as the water  has been used for irrigation on the farm; but the platforms have been moved down and it gave us no problems. Trevor was red-hot favorite as he has surface fishing off to a fine art.

Starting on The Method

I started on the Method, intending to stick with it for a while to give me confidence (feedering is not something I am good at), and I soon had a couple of carp for about 5 lb in the net on banded 8mm Red Robin pellet. But splashing from the next swim (Trevor) tempted me to have a go on the surface. I caught about three and lost five in the next hour or so, on floating 6mm expander, but it was frustrating. So I tried bottom fishing, as I could clearly see big carp coming into the side and swirling in just 10 inches of water several feet from the bank.

 

Peter had lots of small carp in his
net, but he had a good day's sport.

The better carp wouldn’t look at a bottom bait, but the small ones – 2 oz apiece – hit every bait almost as soon as it dropped into the water. So after two hours, with about 15 lb in the net, I walked up to Trevor...who said he had 80 lb on his clicker! To be honest I wasn’t surprised, so went back determined to enjoy myself. The next three hours I spent surface fishing on just a top two, and gradually got into the zone using expanders and then bread – which worked for me better than the pellets.

Finding fish on the surface

I found the fish took the floating stuff better if they were almost in the reeds, so hooked a lot there, but never lost one in the reeds. It was good fun, and I experimented with the methods of playing the fish, eventually getting them in in what I thought was a reasonable time. The best was about 6 lb and I lost just one more when I was really a bit heavy-handed.

Ending on the bottom

The winner, Trevor, with 263 lb and seven nets.

With an hour to go I fancied the fish would drop down, so decided to try cat meat. At the same time I put in a third net. In that hour, fishing no morer than 10 inches deep still on a top two, I managed to land 55 lb. Unfortunately they all went into the same net (!) which I estimated at 39 lb...

                                                    I'm overweight again!

Peter Harrison prepares to
weigh in. The platforms are
moved up and down as the
water level alters. At normal
level Peter would be underwater!

So not for the first time I lost weight – 5 lb in that net, almost 2 lb in another, and weighed in 147 lb 12 oz for second. As we all expected Trevor won – he had seven nets and totalled 263 lb 7 oz, which is not even his best weight at Kingsland! I was second, which for me was almost like winning, as I know the others are capable of good weights. And I thoroughly enjoyed myself, which is the main aim.

The result. 

I catch 200 lb of fish...but - Decoy, Cedar

Cedar Lake, Decoy, peg 18

No doubt about where I wanted to draw in this Fenland Rods club match – preferably peg 26 (from which I have won at least twice), or towards  at the car park end – 1 to 6 or 20 to 26. In the event Kevin Lee draw 26 – a good angler on a good peg and I suspected the rest of us would be fishing for second spot.In an earliert match I fished on Cedar the two weights went to the end two on 24 and 26.

Peg 18 is past the halfway mark on the Eastern bank. It has shallow areas about seven metres to the left and nine metres to the right, where the bank has fallen in. But you have to fish over the tops of reeds and grass to reach them. I plumbed both and found  small spots close in about 18 inches deep, dropping down to a nice flat area about three feet deep before sloping down to the maximum depth of almost six feet.

My peg 18, looking towards 13 in the far corner.
 Note all my paraphner...parfaer...paraferna...all my rubbish.

My plan goes out of the window

My plan was to fish the Method for the first 30 minutes while dripping in feed on my pole lines. But that plan went out of the window within a few minutes, as Mat on 20, to my left, netted two good carp on pole at four sections while I was still on my first cast. I was already about 6 lb or 7 lb behind, and felt I could not afford to give Mat any more of a lead. So I put in a pot of pellet and corn in the deep water on a top two (adding a third section for insurance).

This produced a 5 lb carp within a minute on cat meat, and for the next three hours  I rarely fished any other swim. Fish were coming every few minutes, but Dave Garner, two pegs to my right on 16, was already into carp on his waggler. I was clearly behind him after half an hour, with about 12 lb in the net.

A quick look in both shallow swims to rest the top-two swim saw just a single roach on corn, and I concentrated on the main swim. Gradually the rate of bites speeded up, with every fish a carp. Then, after a slow spell, I put in some cat meat, and the result was barbel, up to 4 lb. These take so long to land I put in just pellet and corm beside the reeds only four feet from my platform, hoping to avoid the barbel. First drop in with a 6mm expander brought a 2 lb F1, but that was the only one as the rest of the fish were ‘proper’ carp or barbel, whichavidly  took corn, so I decided I might as well use cat meat most of the time.

Dave Garner on peg 16 had fish on waggler.

Kevin is way out in front

From then on I alternated between the two swims,taking carp and barbel,  and at 1.30 pm went for a third net (50 lb max), surprised to see Kevin already  had FOUR in front of him. John Smith came for a net at the same time. But the fish seemed to have slowed up when I got back, and it was about 3 o’clock by the time I had put 35 lb on the clicker. The next fish was 10 lb, so I went for a fourth net at 3.10 pm...only to see Kevin with FIVE.

Now the fish were lining up in my swim, and I was getting a bite in both swims within 30 seconds. I lost only three fish all day, all foulhooked (two left me with a scale). I hooked one at about 8 lb in the tail...but eventually got it in. But that costs valuable time when the fish are feeding. This last hour went like a dream, and I was getting the carp in fairly quickly by keeping the pole tip low, bringing them into the side, and managing to net them first time. But of course it’s not always possible to do that.

Kevin had five nets for 250 lb.

The weigh-in

I was playing a six-pounder when the shout went up to end the match, and was well behind in packing up, so couldn;t follow the scales on the opposite bank. I estimated I had perhaps 160 lb.  Tony Nisbet on 12, on the opposite bank, was leading with 142 lb, and I was surprised to see that the first six pegs had not produced well.

 Dave Garner, next to me, was over in one net and totalled 132 lb 1 oz, and the first net I heaved out went...59 lb! That was the one which had the ten-pounder as the last fish. Next was 56 lb – so I had already had 14 lb deducted. The third was 46 lb, and the last one, all taken in the last 45 minutes, weighed 43 lb. Total  189 lb 15 oz, but I had actually caught over 200 lb, for only the third time in my life (though one other time I was heavily penalised and ended being credited with only 61 lb!)

Kevin's best fish - certainly over 10 lb. You can see
why I call this the car park end. Not far to walk!

All along the line they were weighing over 100 lb, except Mick who still had 75 lb, and it was down to John. He managed to avoid going over the 50 lb mark, but totalled 186 lb 2 oz – that last carp of mine, hooked 30 seconds before the end, had allowed me to beat him.

Mike wears his hat
at a jaunty angle!

Nine of the 15 had over 100 lb.

Then it was down to Kevin, who has won our club championship more times than anyone else. He managed to exceed the 50 lb maximum in all five of his nets! So he ended the match with 250 lb – his best-ever match weight – but had actually caught nearer 280 lb, all in the deep margin to his right on cat meat over pellet and corn. How about that for a club match?

The match I forgot! Decoy – Damson

Damson, Decoy, peg 16

I got the ‘phone call at 9.15 am: “Hi, Mac. Where are you?”

“At home, why?”

“You should be at the match.”

“What match?”

“Ellis Buddle’s memorial.”

I am afraid I said a naughty word. I hadn’t put it on the calendar. But there was only one thing for it – it was a drawn team event so I had to go late. In 15 minutes I had changed, my stuff was loaded up, and I was off.

I arrived on the bank at ten minutes past 10, and Trevor was playing a fish. “Peg 16” he said. Sod’s Law – it was the farthest walk, to the other end of the lake! But eventually I was sat sitting there, and at 10 to 11 I started. You can always catch fish shallow here, especially in the first hour, so I started, confident I would catch a few quick ones on banded pellet on top three.

Zilch. In the side, where you can ALWAYS catch. Zilch. So after 15 minutes I came inside, on the bottom, in about 18 inches of water, with corn. Three fish around 1 lb straight away. I had cracked it!

I lose more precious time

But then, a minor disaster. My mouth was a dry as the bottom of a parrot’s cage and I couldn’t find my water. Must have left it behind. I have to have liquid, as my saliva glands are a bit messed up after repeated radioactive treatment for the thyroid cancer. So I trudged back to the car, drove up to the shop on site, and Wayne opened up the shop where I bought a bottle of water.

Drove back, and after another couple of fish I felt settled. It was now 11.30 am, and I started to look at the anglers I could see, expecting them to be hauling in fish. But they seemed strangely quiet, and some were already fishing long, so I knew they were struggling, as short is the main method here for most. There was a splash from the angler on my right, but I could see he was fishing long one minute and close in the next.

Afterwards Trevor, who has a terrific record on this lake,  told me he had started his second net (50 lb max here) at 11.15, which was eventually weighed at 42 lb...and he then proceeded to catch just 10 lb during the next four-and-three-quarter hours! The same applied to almost everybody – the fish had just vanished. But, not knowing that, I had visions of ending last in the match and letting down whichever team had drawn the short straw with me.

Runner-up Peter Spriggs -
AKA Peter The Paste.

I changed from the right margin to the left, where I first caught a couple of fish very close in, then found they had dropped down to the second little shelf about 2.5 feet deep. Half-a-dozen there and I changed to the right again. Every now and then a fish would take corn, but they seemed to be moving out slowly. Every single fish had to be tempted to take the bait by my lifting or dragging it.

I find fish long on corn

After three hours, with about 18 lb in the net I started a swim in seven feet of water three sections out. Hemp, pellet and corn went in and I managed about one fish every ten minutes, though the bites were very, very timid. But the best carp went 5 lb and a couple of others were 2 lb.

My weight slowly crept up and the only angler I could see catching was over to my left, who was also fishing long.  It turned out to be Peter Spriggs, who ended second. I kept alternating between the long swim and the deep margins, adding another fish every ten minutes, and with the angler on my right now having turned in desperation to using a feeder I thought I might perhaps avoid last place.

John Buckenham blitzed it - his
second win in this Memorial match.

Second net goes in

With an hour to go I started a second net as a precaution, with about 40 lb in the first. The long line was best now, and I managed a quick burst at the end, though had to put in a biggish pot of bait before each fish – they seemed to lose interest and move away after about a couple of minutes.

End of the match and John Buckenham, who won the first Ellis Buddle Memorial, stopped me as I made my first journey back to the car and asked what I had. I admitted to about 50 lb. “Mac, you’ve let me down. I thought I could rely on you!” he said. It turned out I was in his team. He then said he had three nets and 100 lb. I felt very embarassed having turned up late. But then I could see that the majority of anglers around me had only one net in the water. Strange. Damson has been consistently producing three-figure weights.

Then several anglers told me they had caught nearly all their fish in the first hour. I didn’t feel quite so bad then, and thought I had actually done quite well considering I had started late.

The result - drawn teams of three.

A surprise I didn’t deserve.

I followed the scales round and unbelievably was third up to me with 55 lb 1 oz – Trevor had ended with 52 lb 14 oz and told me he had caught just four fish after 12.15 pm, and two of them were foulhooked! John Buckenham was obviously the clear winner with 124 lb 5 oz taken close in, which, added to Barry Gibson’s 30 lb 9 oz, gave us the team win! Underserved, but I took the money!!!

It’s great to meet up with anglers I fished with for many years around Wisbech, and in fact Barry and I used to fish together when we were teenagers, in the Blacksmith’s Arms club. I remember us being taken to a match in the back of Jim Flint’s van. The back was open as we were driven along and Barry was smoking (as teenagers used to in the 1960s). He flicked his stub out of the back of the van...and it came flying back in the slipstream! Funny the little details you remember...

 

The Three Musketeers (They othrs told me I must get 'ere earlier!). L to R -
  Me, serial winner John Buckenham, and an old mate of mine Barry Gibson.

Ellis and Shaun

Shaun with his 11 lb 12 oz grass carp.

Ellis was a real inspiration, fishing for years with his oxygen tank beside him and asking only that we placed his box in position and his rod holdall where he could reach it. One day, on Kingsland, he called for help as I was walking past. He had an 18 lb carp in his landing net and hadn’t the strngth to lift it inj to unhook it. Together was managed it, and then had an awful kerfuffle gtting the fish into his keepnet because the keepnet  head was too small to get the landing net inside! Then we sat back and had a good laught at our predicament.

Shaun organises this match  each year in his memory. I was lucky enough to be in the winning team the first year, so I have happy memories of it. Shaun caught the biggest fish of the day – 11 lb 12 oz, and I took a picture.  John at the fishery identified it as a grass carp – the head shape is different to mirrors and commons, and the mouth is not as underslung.

PS. Ellis told me smoking was what affected his lungs, and eventually killed him, even though he had given it up years before.