I had hardly set foot on the Decoy car park before Fenland Rods angler Bob Allen assailed me: “Has Di rung you?”
“No.”
“She should
have done.”
“Why.”
“To tell you
that we’ve caught the oldest fish in the complex.”
“How would she
know that?”
“It was
wearing a hearing aid!”
Pleased with my draw
And so on to the 12 members who fished our annual handicap match on the strip lake Elm, in a cold, blustery Northerly wind. The handicaps are set according to the positions in last season’s Club Championship, with Tony Nisbet scratch, as he won, and the rest of us added percentages of our weight in this match.
I wrote earlier that I fancied Peg 9, as it has Winter form, and although it’s not yet winter proper I would have expected the fish to start shoaling up a little. This was born out by the previous Thursday’s match on Beastie, when weights ranged from 135 lb to 8 lb. In the absence of Peg 9 being allotted to me then 10, 11 or 12 would be fine, I wrote.
 |
| The step down to the platform slowed me up a lot when setting up and packing up, but the fishing made up for it. There wasn't much sun, and it became quite cold because the sun hardly shone all day. |
Pleased with my draw
Anyway, Peg 9 went early to Mel Lutkin, who has a very good record in this particular match, and 12, in the corner, went to Kev Lee, who I made one of the favourites, because I expected it to be sheltered, being at the North end behind a big bank. But when Peg 10 came out for me I was pretty pleased.
A very strange state of affairs
Strangely, when we got to our pegs Kev pointed out to me that the first half-dozen pegs were in the North wind, with ripple blowing left to right, as you would expect. But at our end the ripple was right to left; and in the middle it was fairly calm.
I don’t think we’d ever seen anything quite like that before. Something to do with the local geography, no doubt. I was more handicapped by the 18-inch drop-down to the platform, which meant endless scrabbling about getting things down and climbing back up and then having to stand (not easy as you get older). But for a change I was ready for the start.
The match
I decided to start with a bomb and pop-up, to see if any ‘mug’ fish could be tempted, so I cast about a third out, the opposite bank being occupied by another match. After 15 minutes I’d not had a bite, so moved on to my main plan – expander well out. I went to 13 metres, and could fish reasonably well in the wind, but although the float looked perfect, and I could move it either way if necessary, 20 minutes went by without a bite. Then the wind started getting a bit too gusty, and the pole was being blown almost out of my hands.
A very strange state of affairs
Strangely, when we got to our pegs Kev pointed out to me that the first half-dozen pegs were in the North wind, with ripple blowing left to right, as you would expect. But at our end the ripple was right to left; and in the middle it was fairly calm.
I don’t think we’d ever seen anything quite like that before. Something to do with the local geography, no doubt. I was more handicapped by the 18-inch drop-down to the platform, which meant endless scrabbling about getting things down and climbing back up and then having to stand (not easy as you get older). But for a change I was ready for the start.
The match
I decided to start with a bomb and pop-up, to see if any ‘mug’ fish could be tempted, so I cast about a third out, the opposite bank being occupied by another match. After 15 minutes I’d not had a bite, so moved on to my main plan – expander well out. I went to 13 metres, and could fish reasonably well in the wind, but although the float looked perfect, and I could move it either way if necessary, 20 minutes went by without a bite. Then the wind started getting a bit too gusty, and the pole was being blown almost out of my hands.
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| The left margin. I ignored the three-foot deep swim right against the bank, but only two carp came from the deeper water next to the bush. |
I’d put maggots down in the left deep margin, so had a look there. Several tentative bites came, and eventually a small roach came in. I hoped bigger fish would come, but after a good 40 minutes still nothing had happened except the odd missed twitch. Not even a single maggot would tempt any more roach. However, by this time Mel, on my right, had had a couple of good fish on cat meat. I thought he was using a bomb, but in fact he was using a waggler, about 7 or 8 metres out – I couldn’t see it because of reeds.
Next for me was a look with corn in the deep right margin next to the reeds, but that didn’t produce a bite either. So after another quick look at 13 metres I came in to a new top-two-plus-two swim. First drop in with an expander and a 3 lb carp came in. Eureka! I concentrated on that swim, but no more came, so I switched to feeding maggot, baiting with a bunch of four live ones and a dead one to keep them on.
It must have taken 45 minutes for the next carp – about 8 lb. But by this time Mel had five or six good fish. I was well behind. However I plodded on with maggot and got a quick couple of carp some time later. There were now less than three hours to go, and I estimated Mel had 10 fish, and I had four.
To my left Dave Garner was struggling on a waggler, and he had only about two fish.
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| The right margin. It looked really fishy, but I never had a single fish from it. |
Quick bursts of fish
Suddenly I had three fish one after the other, and noticed that Mel was also catching in quick bursts of two or three at a time. I kept adjusting the depth and shotting and found the best arrangement was to have about one inch over depth, so the wind could drag the bait along. Then I would stop it for a moment, and often it went when the float started moving again. Putting a grain of corn on didn’t work, as the wind wouldn’t drag the bait, and the float just dragged under. So I stuck to maggot, feeding hard pellet and live maggots as they are heavier than dead ones.
I didn’t want to use the bait dropper to put in the bait, as I felt that it would concentrate the fish in too small a space, and with the strong wind, which kept changing direction, it wasn’t always easy to hold the rig in exactly the right spot, especially when it suddenly turned to blow into our faces. One fish was a barbel, the rest carp, of which one was the most beautiful shimmering golden mirror you have ever seen (well, you would if you had seen it, but there’s no photograph – see below for the reason).
A quick look with a cat meat rig, baited with cat meat, did bring one mirror – the biggest of the day at about 12 lb. But no more. A couple of quick bursts of fish around 6 lb on maggot saw me with about 60 lb with 40 minutes to go, and bites had dried up. I’d lost two big fish, possibly foulhooked – but then, one I hooked, which I landed, I had been convinced was foulhooked – and it wasn’t.
I try the margin again
On the opposite bank anglers were catching in their margins, and I felt I had to try there. In went 6mm hard pellets, corn, a few maggots, and half-a-dozen lumps of cat meat into the left margin, and two fish came quite quickly – about 5 lb each. At the same time Mel had another quick brace.
Every bite I had – even on the meat – was very slow and tentative; not a single sharp pull down. With ten minutes left and no more on the meat I went out to the 2+2 swim again, put in a load of maggots, corn and pellet, and was rewarded with an eight-pounder, which I had just landed when the horn went to end the match.
Yes, we have a loud horn which even John Smith would be able to hear (at least if he was wearing his hearing aids. You know what they are like – here today, hearing aid gone tomorrow!)
Suddenly I had three fish one after the other, and noticed that Mel was also catching in quick bursts of two or three at a time. I kept adjusting the depth and shotting and found the best arrangement was to have about one inch over depth, so the wind could drag the bait along. Then I would stop it for a moment, and often it went when the float started moving again. Putting a grain of corn on didn’t work, as the wind wouldn’t drag the bait, and the float just dragged under. So I stuck to maggot, feeding hard pellet and live maggots as they are heavier than dead ones.
I didn’t want to use the bait dropper to put in the bait, as I felt that it would concentrate the fish in too small a space, and with the strong wind, which kept changing direction, it wasn’t always easy to hold the rig in exactly the right spot, especially when it suddenly turned to blow into our faces. One fish was a barbel, the rest carp, of which one was the most beautiful shimmering golden mirror you have ever seen (well, you would if you had seen it, but there’s no photograph – see below for the reason).
A quick look with a cat meat rig, baited with cat meat, did bring one mirror – the biggest of the day at about 12 lb. But no more. A couple of quick bursts of fish around 6 lb on maggot saw me with about 60 lb with 40 minutes to go, and bites had dried up. I’d lost two big fish, possibly foulhooked – but then, one I hooked, which I landed, I had been convinced was foulhooked – and it wasn’t.
I try the margin again
On the opposite bank anglers were catching in their margins, and I felt I had to try there. In went 6mm hard pellets, corn, a few maggots, and half-a-dozen lumps of cat meat into the left margin, and two fish came quite quickly – about 5 lb each. At the same time Mel had another quick brace.
Every bite I had – even on the meat – was very slow and tentative; not a single sharp pull down. With ten minutes left and no more on the meat I went out to the 2+2 swim again, put in a load of maggots, corn and pellet, and was rewarded with an eight-pounder, which I had just landed when the horn went to end the match.
Yes, we have a loud horn which even John Smith would be able to hear (at least if he was wearing his hearing aids. You know what they are like – here today, hearing aid gone tomorrow!)
The weigh-in and an apology
I started to pack up, but halfway through, as the weigh-in started, I had to go back to the van to get the handicap match folder, as I am responsible for working out the weights. To my astonishment the weighers-in (Kev and Dick) were racing along the line, and by the time I caught them up they were almost down to my swim. Things weren’t made any better by the fact that in scrambling back, while packing up, I had cramp in the back of one of my thighs and, unable to stand, had to spend a couple of minutes rubbing it and then managing to stand without it starting again, which was lucky, as I had thought I would have to shout for help.
The reason the weighers-in were going so fast was that there weren’t many fish to weigh. Top weight in the first six pegs was 24 lb 15 oz, to reigning Club Champion Tony Nisbet. I started to make a note of the weights and work out the final handicap positions, which is why there are no photographs of handsome fish and even handsomer catchers-of-fish.
Bob Allen and Joe Bedford had only one fish each, which shows how hard it was at that end.
I am beaten
After the first six weighs weights started to get better, as the results show. I knew I could beat the two 50 lb-plus weights on 7 and 8, but when Mel weighed 92 lb 13 I knew I was beaten. My fish weighed 83 lb 11 oz, which was enough to beat Dave Garner, who had just six bites and four fish for 28 lb 5 oz, and Kev in the corner. He had had a bad first half, but when he switched to fishing long to the end bank, into a little cut-out, he found barbel willing to feed, and weighed 57 lb 13 oz for fourth on the day. So I ended as runner-up.
Handicap results
I work everything out in decimals, as it’s easier, and convert the ounces to decimals of a pound (I have a list) before adding the percentages. I needed to work out the top four for the payout, though only three get medals, at our annual presentation (if there is one this year).
Stupid Boy!
The low eights in the early numbers meant they were well out of the running, but I had to do a double check on Allan Golightly and Dick Warriner, as their final weights were only a couple of pounds apart. My check showed that Allan was ahead, and I had him down as second behind Mel, only to realise I’d forgotten my own weight, which put me ahead of him.
So after finishing second in the match I also finished second in the final Handicap result, meaning I will have to present myself with a medal, and hang it round my own neck. How embarrassing.
I didn’t take a picture of the results, either, so here they are:
Peg Pos H’cap pos
1 Wendy Bedford 15 lb 6 oz
2 Bob Allen 3 lb
3 Callum Judge 8 lb 15 oz
4 John Smith 15 lb 10 oz
5 Tony Nisbet 24 lb 15 oz
6 Joe Bedford 3 lb 3 oz
7 Allan Golightly 57 lb 14 oz 3 3
8 Dick Warriner 53 lb 13 oz 4
9 Mel Lutkin 92 lb 13 oz 1 1
10 Mac Campbell 83 lb 11 oz 2 2
11 Dave Garner 28 lb 5 oz
12 Kevin Lee 57 lb 13 oz 4
We’re back
on Elm on Friday, but with warmer breezes forecast I doubt if it will be as
poor at the top end as it was Sunday. They seemed to be catching a lot more on
the opposite bank close-in, and we will probably have anglers on the bank. But
I still fancy 9, and opposite on 16.
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