Damson, Decoy, Peg 10
Just nine of us in this Spratts mid-weeker, and we were
greeted by a stiff breeze into our faces – not particularly cold, and nothing
we couldn’t handle. I had sort of decided to fish the deep water – seven feet
at the end of a top two – but there are always fish to be caught shallow to start
with, so I tried that. The average here is around 1 lb to 2 lb, with odd bigger
one mainly in the first three pegs, which we did not use.
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| A stiff breeze at the start, almost in our faces turned to a nasty, blustery day. |
Trevor, on my left, set off like an express train, shallow
on a top two out in front. But in the first hour or so, also fishing a banded
pellet, I managed about eight fish for 6 lb while he must have had at least 30
lb! I was determined to catch shallow, but in the end I had to give up – so I
had virtually wasted an hour. Next I looked down the side, feeding a few very
old casters and baiting with them, and immediately I found fish to 2 lb. I
fancied that they were a little larger than Trevor was catching; and he was
still flying.
I spent the rest of the match fishing the margins, up to
about three feet deep – then it drops down almost vertically to seven feet. I
had a rig ready for this, but stupidly never used it. Fish came steadily for
the next two or three hours, by which time the wind had increased and became
colder, and the fish seemed to be moving about, from a few inches deep out to
the edge of the drop. Caster was good, and maggot brought mainly small roach so
I quickly gave that up. Half a dozen barbel to 2 lb gave me real problems in
the wind on my 13 Hollo elastic, and the purple Hydro I changed to eventually,
to fish cat meat, felt much better.
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| Peter Harrison took 100 lb - he never seems to have a bad day, |
My best carp was about 4 lb, taken in less than a foot of water next to the platform on cat
meat. I had a good spell on this; then I had to try corn, which brought a quick
run of several fish. With 80 minutes to go I went for a third net (Trevor had
been for his almost an hour earlier) and when I returned I had to wait ten
minutes for a fish. I had been feeding every minute or so all day, and
obviously they had wandered off; but the cold seemed now to slow them down.
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| Winner was Peter Spriggs, with 209 lb 3 oz of small carp and barbel. |
Towards the end I tried 6mm expanders, loosefeeding some,
and that brought four or five quick fish to 1 lb 8 oz. But they wouldn’t stop
in the same place for more than a few minutes at a time. The last 15 minutes
were dire, and by this time even Trevor had had to come inside, with occasional
tries shallow, so I knew he was struggling. When the shout went up to end the
match the wind suddenly increased again, and became colder, I think we were all
ready to pack up.
The weigh in
Peter Spriggs had five nets, fishing cat meat and paste on his
top twoin front of him in the deep water. I am sure I would have done better if
I had done this instead of sticking to my plan, but I didn’t...
He weighed a magnificent 209 lb 3 oz to win, and told me his
best fish was around 7 lb. Along to Trevor, who had 136 lb 10 oz, much less
than I had thought, so his fish must have been slightly smaller than mine, because I estimated he was catching two
to every one of mine all day.
I weighed 113 lb 14 oz, for third, and my final net, taken in the last 75 minutes, weighed only 20 lb - so my catch rate had really sropped towards the end. Terry Tribe was fourth on 100 lb 2 oz, and Peter Harrison, who was over in both nets, had 100 lb
taken mainly on hard pellet, with a few on feeder.
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| Terry Tribe, former National 4 Champion, beat Martin Parker, former Veterans National Champion, by 24 lb... |
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| A runaway win for Peter Spriggs. |
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| ...but he had to plead dire poverty in order to get an unimpressed Martin to pay him the golden coin they had wagered at the start. |
That first disastrous hour when I couldn’t catch shallow was
my undoing; but I still think I would have done better looking for better fish in
the deep water first. The one bit of good news is that the £100-plus Golden
Peg, drawn by Bob Barret, is still intact.
Damson is a cracking lake, and still produces in the cold
weather. A great place to take a youngster. I look forward to challenging it
again in the future.
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