Peg 25
For years Peg 25 on Willows was probably the best-known swim
on the whole Decoy complex – a definite favourite to win on Willows. However,
in the past few years it has not been as dominant as it used to be; indeed I
struggle to remember any match I’ve fished on there recently which has been won
on Peg 25.
That’s not an excuse for my not winning the latest 15-entry Spratts
club match, which fished comparatively poorly, with the water very cold indeed
thanks to cold temperatures overnight. I had Martin Parker, former Vets
National Champion, next to me on 24, which has almost as good a reputation as
25, so I could monitor how I was doing, However, leaves from the willows on the
island opposite were blowing onto the surface, and with only light winds most of
the match they tended to hang about, making float fishing difficult.
 |
| Peg 25, with the main island opposite and a smaller one to the right easily reached with six metres of pole, and a channel to the right. It gives lots of options. But leaves were a nuisance as they blew off the willow trees opposite. |
Bob Barrett, to my right on 27, found float fishing was
virtually impossible thanks to the leaves and had to feeder all day, casting a
small Method feeder up the gap between the islands, and baiting with a soft
pellet. I decided to start on pole, next to the island on my right at about 8.5
metres. Within a few minutes Martin had a small carp on a feeder cast across to
the island, but as he didn’t keep catching on feeder I persevered with pole and
had a 2 lb common on a 4mm expander after about 20 minutes.
From then on I concentrated on that one swim close to the
island, had a couple more small carp, and then changed to a 6m expander, to
finally hit a very big fish. It lumbered around for ages, and I thought it was
foulhooked until I eventually got it into the net – all 14 lb of it...hooked in
the mouth!
Soon after. I hooked another big fish which took off,
probably foulhooked, and broke my hooklength. I don’t like using hooklengths,
preferring to fish straight-through, but as the water cools I feel I have to compromise,
using the new Guru ready-tied hooks, which are whipped better than I could do
it myself.
 |
| Bob Barret took a lot of smaller carp for fourth place from Peg 27 facing a gap between two small islands. |
Tiny adjustments were so important
Fishing with the 0.5
Tuff-Eye float dotted down to an absolute pimple, and adjusting the depth by a
quarter of an inch at a time to have it just touching bottom, and dragging the
bait to induce a bite, I caught perhaps one small carp every half-hour, with a
couple of bonus bream and a 3 lb foulhooked barbel. Towards the end I tried the
channel to my right, as I could see big carp drifting along under the surface,
but all I had there was a couple of tiny perch on dead maggots.
I fed only about eight 4mm expanders at a time, and I felt
this was better than feeding larger amounts. Two fish came from another, deeper
swim in front of me, but there was no pattern to the bites. Sometimes we are
pretty sure a bite is coming, when we get everything dead right, but today it
seemed that a bite would come out of the blue, with no exact spot guaranteeing
fish. Part of the problem was that the bottom was very snaggy, and sometimes
the float didn’t cock properly, or the bait seemed to hang on an obstruction
off the bottom. Several times I came back with twigs, and once a fish snagged
me, though eventually it came out. But at this time of year, in the absence of
a ripple, that’s probably where the fish
feel safest.
 |
| Peter Spriggs was top weight in "The Bay", from 16 to 22, with 30 lb 13 oz. |
When the wind blew, the leaves skated past my float nicely,
but when it dropped, and they started drifting slowly back, it was a nightmare,
as when they came within an inch of the float they gravitated towards it, and
stuck there...
 |
John Garner's best fish was more than
half of his total of 16 lb. |
Martin struggled all day, changing to a feeder
and back again to pole and I thought I had probably done OK, as the anglers I
could see to my left didn’t seem to be bagging. I estimated I had 38 lb at the end.
The weigh-in
Mick Raby on 11 had done very well with 59 lb 13 oz. I don’t
know what he caught, but I heard he also had to move the bait to get a bite.
Terry Tribe on the rated Peg 15 had 43 lb 6 oz, of which about 20 lb was bream,
on a pole down the track or nearer. The pegs in the bay produced mainly in the
20s, and Martin next to me weighed just 12 lb 5 oz. For once I had
overestimated my weight, and they went
35 lb 12 oz for fourth place. Bob’s feeder-caught fish beat me – 43 lb, a
very good performance on the day.
 |
| The changing colours of Autumn partially made up for the difficult day's fishing. Here's our organiser Trevor Cousins with 32 lb 8 oz from Peg 33. It put him in sixth spot. |
Really sorry, mate!
Then round the back of the lake, where the
nearest weight to me was my mate Mike Rawson, who was disappointed to be just 7
oz behind me with 35 lb 7 oz, all on maggot from Peg 34. I told him I was
really sorry to beat him!!
 |
| Mike Rawson finished just 7 oz behind me for last framing place. He had bigger fish than most of the rest of us. |
The lower-numbered pegs would have had a ripple when the wind blew, I think, which possibly encouraged fish to feed, whereas Martin and I and those in the bay had only the occasional ripple. However Bob would have had none, so he must have fished very well. There is a depression in the island reeds opposite my platform that I could have reached with a feeder, but hardly anything moved there, and in the conditions I fancied catching on the pole...just shows how much I know! I should have tried the feeder.
My next matches
Next two matches are on Damson, Decoy, which I am looking forwards to, no matter how hard they fish, after fishing the waggler match last Sunday. Apparently the previous day a match on Damson was won with 28 lb - I'd like to see some of the anglers who refuse to fish commercials because "anyone can catch 200 lb on them" come and show us how it is done!
I will be geared up with short pole rigs, deep-water pole rigs, and a waggler just in case the fish are beyond the length I can fish a pole.
 |
| The result. I was pleased in the end, to come fourth. |
No comments:
Post a Comment