More fish on bread (but not enough) - Jay Lake, Pidley

Peg 11

Eighteen of us fished this Pidley Pensioners match on Wednesday on Jay, and Will Hadley, who had drawn Peg 13, told me he didn’t fancy my peg 11, which was on the corner facing away from the road! Adam Playford had had it recently and struggled to 20 lb. But Will said he didn’t fancy his peg or those to its left, either.

My swim before the match. I couldn't catch across in front of me, though.

 A light breeze was coming into my face from the right, but I was able to fish at 14.5 metres. To my right on 9 was Chris Saunders, and I reckoned I would have some idea of how I was doing by keeping an eye on him, as he’s one of the best regulars on this fishery.

Will Hadley on 13 had a really good start. His fish went to around 4 lb,
and he won the 18-pegger with 48 lb 4 oz, taken on bread and maggot.

I started dobbing bread straight across at about two feet, over the shallow water,  with no result in the first 45 minutes, and eventually switched round to my left, which was a bit awkward. By this time Will, round the corner to my left, had already had several fish on bread, fishing across. He told me later that he lost several on bread early on..

Suddenly I had a bite to my left, under the far bank, and landed a carp over 2 lb. It took me the next hour to land three more to 3 lb, and I started to flick maggots in at three sections in the deep water, ready to switch if I needed to. I couldn’t get a bite right in front of me. Will was still hooking fish, and I stopped to watch how he baited up. It looked to me as if he was using two maggots now (he told me afterwards that he was).

I pull out of a good-un

So I came into the three-section swim in front of me, fishing two maggots, and managed two tiny perch. Then, suddenly, out of the blue, I hooked a much better fish. I’m not sure whether it was foulhooked, as it gave me a real run around and the hook pulled out.  

Vic German was the only one to challenge Will. He
weighed in 39 lb 10 oz from peg 32.

Brian Yorke, who has a great record here, 
third on 26 lb 4 oz from peg 19.

No more fish came there, so I went back out long on maggot, and then bread, and after about another hour I hit another fish which turned out to be a three-pounder hooked in the tail, but it ended up in my net. Chris seemed to be struggling badly, fishing long and then short and then three-quarters of the way across. But Will was still catching the occasional fish across, though not as fast as before.

With an hour to go Will seemed to stop catching completely, and I concentrated on the maggot swim at three sections, where I hooked another good fish only to see the hook ping out as it was almost in the net. However, two smaller fish around 1 lb 8 oz came to maggot before the match ended.

The weigh-in

I was sixth to weigh, and was surprised to see that my 19 lb 6 oz was top. Chris has really struggled on 9, and managed just 7 lb 8 oz. But as I had guessed, Will won handsomely with 48 lb 4 oz. He told me lost half-a-dozen on bread before switching to maggot, but his fish slowly went off, and the last hour brought very little.

The rest of the catches varied from DNW to around 26 lb, apart from Vic German on 32, who was runner-up with 39 lb 10 oz. Brian Yorke was third on 19 with 26 lb 4 oz, with Roy Whincup fourth with 25 lb 2 oz; Roy did not fish long, but his catch was boosted by an eight-pounder hooked in the tail!!

Roy Whincup had a tussle with this
eight-pounder hooked in the tail. 

The result - the early pegs did not fish very well. But
it made for a tight match.

I was eighth overall, and since all the others are regular, and I'm not,  and I was not far off fourth place, I was quite happy. Next time I would have more confidence in a maggot swim, and may concentrate on it earlier.

 Next match probably Frasers on Tuesday.