Peg 12
Thirteen of us fished this special Christmas match, and I
was happy with Peg 12, as it’s in the last third of the lake, where you might
expect fish to be hanging out. The wind was North-Westerly to start with, but
soon swung round towards the East, giving a very cool wind into our faces.
Luckily the rain held off.
I started on a bomb with a bunch of maggots, and go an
occasional liner, but after half an hour had no fish. However, in that time Mark
Parnell to my right had two carp on a pole at about eight metres, and Martin
Parker, on his right, had one. On my left Rob Allen had a double-figure fish in
the deep margin on what I assumed would be paste, though he told me afterwards
it was cat meat.
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| Rob Allen to my left puts a big fish - about 10 lb - into his keepnet on peg 13, towards the far end of Oak Lake. |
I get one in the deep margin
I changed to fish maggot at 13 metres on the pole, but had
no bites, and then Rob started hitting fish on a feeder, with maggot, from the
far side. He had two or three quite quickly and then a long fishless spell.
While that was going on I caught a fish of around 10 lb in my deep margin on
maggot, but then had no more.
Another look out at 13 metres brought a bite from a fish
which really pulled my elastic out, and 30 seconds later I realised it was
foulhooked. Five minutes later I was certain it was hooked in the tail. And
several minutes after that, as I gingerly pulled it tail-first over the landing
net and lifted it lifted its head and squirmed over the side of the landing
net. Two minutes later I managed to net it. It was around 8 lb.
Rob now had another couple more big fish on the feeder, but
the two anglers to my right had had no more. I decided to put out a groundbait feeder
with a bunch of maggots and first cast the tip wrapped round and a nine-pounder
came in. The match was nearly half over at this point.
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| This was so big that Rob daren't try to unhook it while he sat on his box. I estimated it at at least 14 lb. |
From then to the end of the match I sat fishless and
biteless, while Bob had more big fish. As before he’d get a couple quickly and
then wait for a fair while for the next one. Towards the end he had three fish
very quickly, one of which was a barbel. With an hour to go Martin
Parker, who was pole fishing about 11 metres out, pushed his float up the line a foot and laid
all that extra on the bottom – and had four fish in 40 minutes.
The last 20 minutes Martin didn’t catch, but Mark had two
more about 8 metres out. I had certainly been thrashed to my left, and probably
to my right as well.
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| Mark Parnell had two fish in the first 30 minutes and two more in the last 30 minutes. This was his last one. |
The weigh-in
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| Martin Parker, third with five fish for 34 lb 6 oz. |
Results at the car park end were spasmodic, Ted on 1 had one
fish, while Mick Rawson and Peter Spriggs never had a bite. Peter Barnes and
John Garner each had one fish, which weighed 2 lb 11 oz (not the same fish you
understand!) But Trevor, next to Peter, had ten fish, all on feeder – eight from
the far side and two in the middle from peg 7 – for 48 lb 15 oz and runner-up position.
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| Mark Parnell fished hard for sixth spot - beaten by just 2 oz for fifth place by Bob Barrett. |
Martin was third with 34 lb 6 oz, while my three totalled 28
lb for a surprising fourth – I was fairly happy as I never do well in this
match. The undoubted winner was Rob Allen on 13 with a magnificent 91 lb 1 oz.
Thoroughly deserved – he got those fish in really quickly on his Daiwa Yank and
Bank feeder rod, and several were around the 10 lb mark.
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| Winner Rob Allen graciously condescended to let me take a picture of him with his biggest fish. |
The result
Peg 1 Ted Lloyd 7 lb 1 oz
Peg 2 Bob Barrett 24 lb 10 oz 5th
Peg 3 Mick Linnell 17 lb 4 oz
Peg 4 Mick Rawson DNW
Peg 5 Peter Harrison 20 lb 14 oz
Peg 6 Peter Spriggs DNW
Peg 7 Trevor Cousins 48 lb 15 oz 2nd
Peg 8 Peter Barnes 2 lb 11 oz
Peg 9 John Garner 2 lb 11 oz
Peg 10 Martin Parker 34 lb 6 oz 3rd
Peg 11 Mark Parnell 24 lb 8 oz 6th
Peg 12 Mac Campbell 28 lb 4th
Peg 13 Rob Allen 91 lb 1 oz 1st
The prizegiving
We pay a little extra every time we fish, which means that this
match always has prizes, and Trevor and Rob did us proud, with a great
selection. I finished with a coffee maker, while Di at the fishery provided us
with mince pies and gave us back the pegging fee for this match (not for the
first time!)
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| Highlight of the Spratts season - prizes at the Christmas match. A prize for everybody. |
Trevor was also able to hand out cash to every angler as well as
the prizes. And at the end he gave everyone except one a framed photo of
themselves with fish, taken from my blog. Mark Parnell didn’t get one because
he’s not fished with us for long and I hadn’t taken his picture. But there’s one
this week. Wendy, who didn’t fish the match, also took the trouble to come
along – that’s what makes this a smashing club.
We all thanked Trevor, who does a lot of work booking all
the matches and generally organising everything. And Di’s generosity was the icing on the cake. A memorable end to the summer season.
From now until the Spring I expect to fish at Pidley and
probably Frasers fishery, as well as the occasional match at Decoy.
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