A good match for me, but a big setback after the match - Six-Islands, Decoy

Peg 4

Sixteen of us fished the second Spratts match of the season, and I was not unhappy with Peg 4. It has an island in front at about 12 metres, and can produce good weights. I've always done well off it, and in addition I remembered that it had won the lake in the Winter League final – Andy Geldart fished it, I believe. On that day the pegs from 4 round to the corner definitely had the edge over those at the car park end (1 to 3 and 18 to 24). Today the strong wind was blowing almost straight into my bank, which did make me wonder whether it would be too cold to catch much, as at the start the wind was quite cool.

Peg 4 - the strong wind was almost straight into the bank all day.

Indeed the wind made fishing a bit difficult – I had to lay my pole tops on the ground, and the wind kept blowing the pole sections around as I lay them down before assembling it. So I decided to start on a maggot feeder, which produced just a couple of tiny liners but no fish. I would have liked to cast it to the edge of the island, but strands of nylon hanging there told me that the bushes were overhanging, so that was out.

Terry Tribe on Golden peg was on 6, to my left, but I fancied Peter Harrison on 17, on the bank opposite on my right to do well – there are several options in that swim – to the island, or to the gap towards me. I have noticed that it always seems to produce a good weight, and the only time I fished it I won off it. It has nice margins, particularly to the left.

A fish for Peter from the margin

Then I saw Peter Chilton, opposite on 13 net a fish, and watched as he went bank into his margin. If fish were prepared to feed in the margins, then that was going to be my next move. I expected barbel in the margin to my right – it’s deeper here than in the open water – so I potted in 50 or so maggots and followed it up with a half-gram Drennan Tuff-Eye float with two white maggots. Very quickly I had a bite, which turned out to be a 2 lb F1 foulhooked in the tail, so I shallowed up by six inches and dropped in again.

Mick Linnell shows his best fish - several
10 lb-plus fish were taken during the day.

A quick bite saw a 3 lb F1 in the net, but then nothing for several minutes. So I added a section, spread the shot, and laid in the rig flat on the surface. Within three seconds I had a bite from a big fish. I was on 13 Hollo elastic, and it stretched to the island but eventually came in – a mirror of about 11 lb.

I spent the next couple of hours fishing off bottom, continually adjusting the depth and shotting, and added another double-figure fish foulhooked in the pectoral fin, and two or three more F1s and a 7 lb mirror. Peter Harrison on 17 was catching occasional fish on paste, having moved to his left margin from down the track, so I wondered whether I should go down that route and try paste, but decided for the moment to carry on with maggot. I was putting in several dozen at a time in a big pot, which seemed better than trickle feeding.

In the lulls I tried over to the island at 11.5 metres, for a single perch, but nothing else, and I couldn’t see much else being caught, so tried at four sections, slightly to my right, with a 1 gram Tuff-Eye. in water that was still six inches shallower than the margin, with maggot, and then corn, over hemp and pellet, but nothing! In addition with the wind coming in almost straight, it was blowing the float right underneath my pole, and I couldn't switch to my left because of the sun glinting off the water.

Suddenly fish from the left margin

Peter The Paste struggled on Peg 25 but
included these three mirrors in his 29 lb 5 oz.

A drop into the left margin brought a fish first cast, and a couple more F1s, all off bottom, plus a big fish foulhooked and lost on corn (the only time I tried it) , and another double-figure fish which I had almost in the net once before it pulled off the size 18 hook.

With two hours to go I put in a second net, with about 45 lb in the first. The fishery rule is three nets split equally, but Spratts have a rule that we aim for 50 lb maximum, but will allow up to 60 lb absolute maximum, and the fishery seem happy with that.

The wind get cooler

At that point, with two hours to go, the wind which had been a little warmer for a time, suddenly became colder, and bites stopped. In desperation I dropped in the open water swim, laying on several inches (to try something different) and had a 5 lb carp first drop, but nothing else. Then with 45 minutes left I had two fish in two casts from the left margin on maggot, and one more from the right, on three maggots, all off bottom.

I had been using live maggots, having forgotten to take the dead ones out of the freezer, and suspect that dead ones, which sink more slowly than live ones, might have been better.

A late last-hour flurry in the margins helped Terry Tribe, on
Peg 6, to   left, to a total weight of 38 lb 10 oz, and third place.

The weigh in

I was second to weigh and my nets went around 48 lb and 17 lb for a final total of 65 lb 10 oz. The consensus was that I had probably won. But Terry on my left had had a late burst and I thought he may have overtaken me. However he must have struggled during the main part of the match as he weighed 38 lb 10 oz. It seemed everybody had struggled, and with Peter Harrison on 45 lb 8 oz for second spot I ended as the winner, with Terry third.

The pegs at the car park end had not fished well at all, with Martin Parker on 24 (which tends to be a good peg) having just one carp while Ted on his right, also DNWd.

The result. As in the Winter League final the far end fished best.

Like an iced lolly?

During the match Wendy Bedford, who fishes most of our matches, had a walk round with Joe Bedford, brother of Wendy’s husband who died 18 months ago, and as they walked past she said: “Like an iced lolly?” I knew she couldn’t have said that, so asked her twice what she had said. It was: “Looks a nice trolley!”

Indeed it is (was) – a motorised Preston which saves me a lot of work as I can push it into my new van up a ramp without having to unload it after a match.

UNFORTUNATELY I have completely knackered it (I think that’s the correct engineering term) by not switching the motor off when I put it into the van after this match. The trolley was loaded so the wheels would not turn, but the motor kept trying. Three hours later when I went to take it out there was a smell of burning and the motor is burnt out, and the control box appears to be kaput. Ruined.