I'm glad it's over -Elm, Decoy

 Peg 4
It's been some years since I was as glad to see the end of a match as this 20-entry Spratts event. yet it started off quite well - the North-Easterly wind was into our faces, from the left, on our bank 1 to 12, but when the sun was out it was pleasant; and the water was warm. So warm that I was confident I would catch well, and put in three nets.

But literally, LITERALLY, within 60 seconds of the match starting the wind doubled it strength and became several degrees colder. I could still fish at 8 metres, but it became more and more difficult, with no bites on expander. A long look into the left margin brought three small perch on maggot, and a look in the right margin brought a rudd on sweetcorn.

A nice gentle breeze before the start...but it soon altered.

I saw John Smith on the opposite bank take three fish, presumably barbel, from beside his platform, so I took out one of my nets and tried it for myself. But with the wind blowing into me I was never confident that the fish would be under our bank, and I never had a bite.

Narry a bite on a leger
The next couple of hours saw me fishless and eventually go back to the van for my leger rods when Bob, next door, said that Trevor on peg 8, had fish on a feeder. Bob eventually a carp on his feeder, but my straight lead brought not a knock. I think that if there were feeding fish in front of me I would have had at least a knock, before perhaps changing to something like a banjo. 

Down on peg 8 Trevor Cousins was making hay with a feeder.

The wind was now penetrating, and I concentrated on my right margin, which produced a 1 lb bream, eventually going out another couple of feet into the deep water where Peter on peg 2 had taken a barbel.

Worm gets me a barbel!
I had put in dead maggot and hemp with a bait dropper, as cupping them in would have meant that they could have swirled anywhere in that wind, and I had several missed bites which I initially put down to roach (I landed one of 1 oz). But some bites were just determined dives under the surface, and I wondered whether they could have been liners from barbel. So I put on a worm and maggot and this did produce a 5 lb barbel. 

It took another hour to get another 5 lb barbel, on a bunch of dead maggots, which was followed by a 2 lb bream and, five minutes before the end, a foulhooked 1 lb F1. That convinced me that I had managed to attract fish into the swim, but that they did not want to feed, which was the one bright spot of the day. I would have liked to try the left margin again, but couldn't face the idea of turning and facing into the biting wind. So I wimped out and stayed facing to the right.

Mick Ramm has fun with a 10 lb carp after the match has ended.

The match having ended, I looked up to see Mick Ramm on 3 still playing a fish. He had four bites all day, landing three carp, including this double-figure, and he weighed 25 lb 9 oz.

The result
The four corner pegs were left out, but on 2 Peter Spriggs, as always, managed to catch a few on his home-made paste, the recipe for which is somewhere locked up in Forth Knox. My ten fish weighed 15 lb 10 oz, and as we went along the bank it became obvious that the fish at the far, Northern, end had been more willing to feed.

Steve Engledow, on of our newest
members, with two fish for 16 lb 13 oz.

Trevor won with 102 lb 6 oz, all taken on a small Method feeder loaded with micros, with a 5mm yellow Washter pellet. On the opposite bank Peter Harrison took advantage of a little shelter to pole-fish his way to second, managing to find fish in the shallow margins as well as in front of him in the deep water. In the afternoon the sun would have shone onto his bank, perhaps warming those margins a little.

Mick Rawson on 9 ended third, fishing a maggot feeder with various baits - his best-ever placing in a Spratts match. Well done, Mick, especially in those conditions.

That match was the nearest I've experienced recently to an old-style Winter League, when the Winters in the 1960s meant that there was no respite from the cold from start to finish, and we all used to  question our sanity in committing ourselves to the league in the first place.

Wendy Bedford found some fish on a feeder.

Peter Harrison, on peg 14, prepares to weigh in his second-placed catch...

...and here is part of it, all taken on a pole.

So the best two anglers in the club took the top two places, which is how it should be...

The peg-for peg result. Corner pegs 1, 12, 13 and 24 were left out. The best weights came from the Northern end, farthest from the car park.

My next match is on Oak on Saturday, and our secretary was hoping to be able to allow us to fish the Eastern bank rather than the Western bank, so we had the wind on our backs. However that nice Carol Kirkwood has just told me that the winds from now on will decrease in strength. So, stupidly, I'm now full of optimism. But can you trust these smiling weather forecasters?

There's life in the old dogs still - Cedar, Decoy

Peg 15
Eleven of us fished this Fenland Rods match - it would have been 12, but Bob Allen blew a gasket on the way there. Actually there were 14 who would have fished, but as were are allowed only 13 pegs on this lake (14 to 26, the length of one bank) we have arranged to operate a draw the previous week if we are over-subscribed, to see who will be allowed to fish - and since Wendy and her brother-in-law Joe travel together they have opted out of all the matches where we are limited. It's s great pity.

This free maths lesson over, I drew Peg 15 - at the opposite end to where I would have chosen. Cedar tends to fish best towards the car park end, and anywhere from 20 to 26 would have suited me. In the event Pegs 20 and 26 were not drawn, but Dave Garner, our current champion, was on 25, and it was very likely that he would do well there. A very cold North-easterly wind blew over our backs, and there was not much sun.

Nice to start with but the sun went in,  and the wind blew colder as the match went on.

A good start
I started by putting in some dead maggots and hemp in the deep margin to my right, but fishing out at 8.5 metres feeding 4mm and 6mm expanders mixed, with a 6mm on the hook. Within a couple of minutes Mel on my right on the corner, on 14, had hit a fish on a feeder. but any thought of an immediate change of tactics were dispelled when my 0.5gm Tuff Eye sunk slowly beneath the ripple and a testosterone-fuelled 6 lb carp pulled out my 18-20 elastic. These fish have really put on a display the last couple of weeks, and I've never known fish fight like it.

The theory is that a light elastic lets them run out of the swim and that they then don't fight as hard. but when you're fishing on every peg the chances are that they would charge through the next swim - not a chance I am prepared to take. Anyway, the next fish came off  after I had played it for some time, then two more came in before I had a look in the maggot swim, to rest the long swim. This produced three roach, and I eventually went back.

Mel Lukin, on my right, had several fish around double figures.

Slow but steady
The rest of the morning saw me hit occasional fish in that long swim on expander, perhaps once every 15 minutes, with the odd quick look down in the margins, where nothing came except that when I dropped right in against my lefthand keepnet, in about two feet of water, a grain of corn saw a take immediately from a 10 lb mirror. But nothing else there. 

Meanwhile Peter Spriggs on my left had started hitting what looked like good fish - 6 lb-plus - from a swim also at about 8.5 metres, on a lump of something that was either catmeat or paste.

I was still catching the odd fish by continually adjusting my depth by the odd quarter of an inch, to get the  pellet to just touch bottom, when a slight lift of the pole would allow the float to drift to the right, against the wind, for an inch or two. That was when the bites came,. Corn produced just one foulhooked  fish, which I landed, but the corn was too heavy to allow the float to drift properly. Two or three bream also muscled in, the first one leaping out like a trout when hooked. Biggest was easily 3 lb.

I find a nice flat shelf
I feared I was getting behind, especially when, in the afternoon, Mel on my other side started hitting good fish on what looked like paste. Then John Smith from peg 18 walked past to spend a penny (actually one pee) and he said he was struggling, with 37 lb on his clicker, while I had 75 lb on mine. No sooner had he gone than I went to a little flat shelf, perhaps two feet square, on the edge of the reeds, about four feet deep. Just beyond that the bottom dropped off again to about five feet, but I stayed on the shelf.

Alan Golightly won our first match in a snowstorm. It wasn't
 as cold as that today, but we still needed thick jackets.

First drop with a grain of corn saw a 5 lb barbel come in, and a change to cat meat found some big F1s. If I didn't get a bite I got a liner, showing me that the fish were still there - you need that sort of information to keep fishing hard, I find. At this point I expected both Peter and Mel to put out their third nets, but I couldn't see them. I then put out my third net.

A good last half-hour
The last half hour was my best spell, and another barbel (foulhooked) and some carp to about 8 lb came in. With two minutes to go I landed another six-pounder, dropped back, and missed two good bites, which annoyed me as I was sure they were from carp. Then the match ended.

I had lost just two fish - the second one I hooked, and another which broke the hooklength. I have always preferred to fish straight through in summer, but the Guru ready-tied Kaizans and other patterns are so good I've used them rcently on several rigs, though not the cat meat rigs, on which I still use Kamasan Animal hooks, size 12, tied direct. It's the first time I've had a Guru hooklength break.

Next to me Peter Spriggs, who I thought had well over 100 lb, admitted to just 70 lb, while Mel said he had 80 lb.  I thought I had nets I had clicked at  39 lb, 40 lb and 35 lb for about 110 lb, but I tend to underestimate.

Peter 'I've only got 70 lb' Spriggs weighed in 94 lb 10 oz.

The weigh-in
Pleased to report that I wasn't too far behind everybody else packing up - I had five rigs to put away - and I met the scales at peg 22, to be told that Callum, who totalled 100 lb, had been a total of 23 lb overweight in his nets! Dave Garner was leading at this point with 118 lb, taken on his usual waggler gear well out. I wheeled the trolley back to the van and trudged back, camera in hand, so see the fun.

Kevin Lee had weighed 94 lb 7 oz, and it was then to the oldest competitor Dennis Sambridge who at 80 (I believe) still frames regularly, often using his favourite worm tipped with maggot. Today he had four nets in!

He told me he'd again used worm tipped with maggot, and had also caught on pellet, and like many others had caught his fish away from the margins. His four nets went 150 lb 11 oz for the well-deserved win. No-one else had four nets, so the result was now a foregone conclusion (we fish to a 50 lb net maximum).

My hard-won 136 lb 13 oz was enough for second spot.

I must consult a dictionary
At this point I must consult a dictionary to check a spelling. Dick Warriner on next peg 19 packed up early, following a visit to the toilet with an hour to go. The problem was...diarrhoea. Not funny. And it was good to see him feeling much better after weighing. He had 58 lb 7 oz. John Smith had had a very good last hour after his brief visit to my peg, and ended with 81 lb 6 oz.

Now to Peter Spriggs, who had more than his 70 lb estimate - 94 lb 10 oz! And my nets in fact went (from memory) 49 lb , 45 lb and 42 lb, plus some ounces, for 136 lb 13 oz and second spot, with Mel in the corner on 82 lb 13 oz - much less than I had envisaged. We weighed one of his barbel out of interest; estimates varied from 3 lb 8 oz to 4 lb 8 oz...it weighed 5 lb 7 oz! They have really packed on weight.

Dennis Sambridge - worthy winner with 150 lb 11 oz from peg 21.

So the two oldest anglers came first and second. Very satisfactory.

The final result.

My next match is on Elm on Wednesday, and then to Oak next Saturday, pegs 1 to 15. Pegs 10 or 11 would suit me nicely - though the match on Oak fished at the same time as our match on Cedar, was won on 15, fishing the near deep margins to a reed bed on the right right and long to the deep margin beside the lefthand bank.

I stage a late comeback - Yew, Decoy

Peg 30 
Yew is the strip lake that holds the biggest carp, and fewer barbel, than Elm and Cedar, which is strange because Peter Band, who was at Decoy when the strip lakes were stocked, told me that the stocking for all four strips was the same. Anyway, I was hoping for fish approaching double-figures, and would have preferred 16, in the far corner, or 20 to 23, which have form.

BUT the thing about Decoy is that any match can be won from any peg - there's not a duff swim in the complex. And before the 18-entry Spratts match started Mick Linnell - former Peterborough, Fletton Ex-Service, and Oundle star - reminded me that a huge weight had been taken from Peg 30 (end peg next to the car park) sometime not long ago. I couldn't remember the details, but it rang a bell.

Cool water, bright sun, and not a ripple - hardly ideal but Decoy never fails to produce.

So as always I sat there, in the sun with hardly a breath of wind, full of hope,when the match started, and I was still sitting there full of hope 90 minutes later with an empty net. I'd started on a feeder, then spent half an hour fishing shallow, and tried mugging a few fish as they came past, but never had a take. Opposite, Peter The Paste had landed what looked like a double-figure fish in the first few minutes, fishing about three pole sections out. Soon afterwards Peter landed another munter.

Fish on! Fish off...
I then concentrated on the deep margin to my right with juts a liner or two, probably from fish swimming about just below the surface, as there were several of those. After that 90 fishless minutes I turned to my left, emptied in a good pot of pellets, hemp and corn, and stuck corn on the hook. The swim was quite deep - approaching five feet, which seemed deep compared to Peter's  rig, which looked to be 18 inches shorter. But right against the reeds was a shallower spot a foot less, and I dropped in there. Within a minute or two I was attached to a fish.

Because I was using corn I assumed the fish was a carp, but it obviously wasn't. It made a beeline for my keepnets, and my top three, even with a strong 20-22 elastic, wasn't long enough to stop it diving in and snagging the net. Barbel 1 - Me 0.

John Smith shows a typical Yew carp in perfect condition.

This one sticks
Half an hour later a 10 lb carp ended up in my net from the slightly deeper area to the left, and then a switch to the right margin brought one of about 5lb on corn. Nearly half the match gone and as I had to get off my box I wandered up to Mick on Peg 28. He said he had five decent fish. And I knew that Peter had had some more. I was not doing well.

The next hour saw me go out to 8.5 metres with corn and manage two carp about 7 lb, both of which fought as if they had had huge injections of testosterone, and one more from the left margin, also on corn. I was confident that mussel would tempt one of those big carp that were swirling occasionally in my swim, but it didn't happen, though I did get one bite which I missed, and found the bait gone.

I land a barbel!
Ninety minutes left and I potted in a big pot of dead maggots to my left margin and a big bunch tempted one more barbel, about 5 lb, which I managed to persuade to stay out in open water.

Finally I went out to 8.5 metres again, fishing with a 6mm expander on a size 14 Kaizan hook over 4mm hard pellet, some hemp, and a few loosed-fed expanders. This brought my best spell of the match, with three more fish approaching 8 lb each. But every one had to be teased into feeding by lifting a mere fraction or by dragging the rig to one side inch by inch. Yet again I had to feed after every fish and then also drip a few expanders in when I dropped the rig in.

Peter had again started hitting fish, but he told me afterwards that he had put in a third net with an hour to go, hooked five good fish...and lost every one!

Trevor lifts his net. Spratts club operate a 50 lb
maximum net limit. Any more than that and a lot of
us old codgers can't lift it...

The weigh-in
I was close to my van, but playing the last few fish had really played havoc with my back, and I felt a bit groggy for a short time. The problem may have been in the placing of my back rest - I think it may have been too high, rather than in the small of my back. Nevertheless I was able to get a picture or two of some of the anglers in the early pegs, including Trevor Cousins, who had mugged about 80 lb of his 92 lb 12 oz. He now led from Peter The Paste who had weighed 84 lb 3 oz.

Interestingly Trevor told me that if he mugged a single fish on its own the fish tended to shy away after inspecting the bait; but if he saw two or three together one would often take the bait. I assume it's the competitive instinct that kicks in. Worth remembering in future.

...and this was one of the fish in that net. Probably 14 lb.

Farmer Peter shows the way again
Local farmer Peter Harrison topped Trevor's weight with 115 lb 12 oz from Peg 21, and Bob Allen on 23 continued his run of good catches with 71 lb 11 oz, which was fourth at that point. 

I hoped I MIGHT beat that, but my first five fish weighed 38 lb, and my last four 29 lb 3 oz for a total of 67 lb 3 oz and fifth place. That lost barbel might have cost me a place, and the annoying thing was that it was my fault I lost it! I think my swim was a little deeper than a lot of others - perhaps something to do with the aerator being nearby, and at the moment I suspect fish are tending to gravitate towards the shallower, warmer areas.

TWO MICKS....

Mick Raby, now with impressive moustache.

                

Mick Ramm - we went to junior school together.

                                                                                                                ...AND A SEAN

Sean Buddle - his first season with us.
His father, Ellis, was a great inspiration to me personally.

Next match Sunday on Cedar, pegs 14 to 26. I like that bank. and though Peg 26 would be my pick I'm confident if I fish hard and scrap around if things are difficult, I will catch fish from any peg. Decoy is like that - it rewards the  hard worker.

Result:
1    Peter Spriggs        84 lb 3 oz    3rd
3    Joe Bedford          42 lb 11 oz
5    John Garner         61 lb 5 oz
7    Martin Parker      31 lb
8    John Smith          48 lb 9 oz

10  Bob Barrett         20 lb 14 oz

11  Peter Barnes       29 lb 2 oz

13  Trevor Cousins    92 lb 12 oz    2nd

15 S Engledow           23 lb 10 oz.

16 Sean Buddle        38 lb 8 oz

18  Alan Porter        50 lb 14 oz

20 Mick Ramm        54 lb 13 oz

21 Peter Harrison    115 lb 12 oz    1st

23 Bob Allen            71 lb 11 oz    4th

24 Mick Raby         57 lb 2 oz

26 Wendy Bedford 17 lb 10 oz

28 Mick Linnell        42 lb 12 oz

30 Mac Campbell    67 lb 3 oz        

The sun had got his hat on - Elm, Decoy

Peg 10
What a marvellous feeling to have the sun on our faces, and to be able to leave the boots and umbrella in the car. But that didn't mean the fish went crazy on Elm; in fact the 11 anglers who fished this Fenland Rods match all struggled in the middle of the match.

It was a good start - Peg 10 for me, in the area we all fancied, though a friend had told me that a few days earlier he'd had an estimated 150 lb minimum from Peg 2, at the car park end. but with the surface very flat. a gentle North-Easterly, cold water and blazing sun I should have realised that conditions were not ideal. In my experience any wind with East in it can be a downer. No matter - the sun was shining!

Hot and almost windless. The right margin gave me a good finish on Peg 10.

A 12 lb fish first cast for Kevin
The hooter went (even I can hear that) and apparently literally seconds later Kevin Lee on peg 4 was playing a 12-pounder. Dave Garner, on Peg 1, wasn't far behind hitting his first fish. but at our end things were dire. I had five rigs ready - one for the deep margins (both were the same depth), one for a long swim, one for the shallow margin next to me, another for the shallow spot near the reeds to me left, and a heavy rig for cat meat. 

That 12-pounder gave Kevin Lee a fantastic start to
this match, and he ended up with a winning 109 lb 12 oz.

It must have been half an hour fishing expander over loose-fed expanders (hoping for F1s) before I eventually got a bite, on maggot over maggot and hemp right in the deep margin to my left. That was a 6 lb carp, and in the next 90 minutes I added two bream to 3 lb and a small F1.

 At one point I tried a 6mm expander dropped down near the platform, into about three feet depth, and hooked a very big fish which came off. I'm sure it was not foulhooked.

I've cracked it!
On my left on 11 Dennis Sambridge had a fish or two on a feeder at the start and then some on a top two plus one, but was starting to struggle, as was Alan Golightly on 9. In the next hour I managed to winkle a couple of F1s from the right margin, before starting a new swim out at 10 metres. That produced seven or eight carp around 4 lb or 5 lb. After the match Dennis said: "I thought you'd cracked it!" To be honest so did I, but...

A terrible mistake.
I got into the routine of putting out a pot of corn, 4mm hard pellet and hemp, taking a fish on corn at dead depth, and then re-baiting. So I thought it would probably work in the margins, where the fish were likely to be bigger. Accordingly I left the 10 metre swim and started inside. BIG mistake! I should have stayed out.

The margins did produce - but nothing like as fast as the longer swim, and the biggest fish was about 7 lb, and I lost several, of which I think only one was foulhooked.  Two or three were, I am sure, around double-figures, and one I played for a good five minutes and thought I was defintelt going to get it in before th hook pulled out. I had just one barbel, on a bunch of maggots. I didn't even have a bite on cat meat. 

Then came an hour without a fish and, desperate to make something happen, I tried a bait I'd been told about but never used - mussel. I've taken fish on cockles before, and a friend had told me he'd been catching at Decoy on mussel, so I bought some from Tesco.

Callum Judge totalled  81 lb 8 oz from Peg 8, two to my right.

Mussel works for me
More in hope than expectation I put on half a mussel, and fed the other half into the righthand margin, dropping the baited rig into the left margin, and leaving the other half time to sink. But I didn't get a bite. So I switched to the right margin, with the bait just touching bottom...and 20 seconds later was playing a 5 lb mirror.

That really gave me confidence, and in the next hour I took about six more on mussel from the right margin, all from 3 lb to 6 lb.  The bites were quite slow, and I missed some, and sometimes the bait was gone. I have to assume the fish were just picking the bait up and holding it. 

The last 20 minutes saw me get a few bites, but I missed them all. Then the match finished.

Alan on my right had had a terrible last half of the match, but I'd heard a lot of splashing from Bob Allen on peg 12. I estimated I had 36 lb in each net.

Kevin Lee took my picture and made me look almost human!
This was my first net - just 2 oz under the 50 lb limit...

The weigh in
I was packed away in time to see Kevin Lee weigh in 109 1b 12 oz, taken mainly on paste or cat meat. Dave Garner on 1 had weighed in 97 lb, and it looked as if I would be way down the list, especially when Mel Lutkin on 5 totalled 99 lb 3 oz. He'd taken several fish on a feeder, but I had promised myself a nice, easy day on the pole; clearly I should have had a feeder ready, and I intend to do so for the Spratts match Tuesday on Yew.

I'm lucky
Down to me, and I was quite unable to lift out my first net - it looked as if I might have gone over the 50 lb club limit. In fact I was lucky - 49 lb 14 oz! The second net weighed 40 lb - total 89 lb 14 oz. Then Rob Allen on 12 beat me with 98 lb 4 oz, almost all taken in his left margin. That left me in fifth spot.

Afterwards I realised I probably could have won. Just two of those several lost fish could have been the difference, and I should have tried a feeder during the blank spells. Then there was the problem of those annoying missed bites, and I thought that perhaps I should have waited another couple of seconds before striking. I'll certainly have mussel with me on Tuesday.

A very tight finish, with three weights between 99 lb 3 oz and 97 lb 6 oz.

First frame of the year - Beastie, Decoy

The day after the miniature blizzard saw a very heavy frost, and the fields were white as I drove to Whittlesey for this 14-entry Spratts match, with at least three deciding not to turn up after the previous day's debacle. The wind was much lighter that the previous day,with a fair amount of sunshine. But the wind was still cold, and my peg 29 saw it almost directly in my face. 

So while those on pegs 22 to 26 had the sun on their faces and a backish wind, Alan Porter on Peg 30, and myself, had to don our thick overjackets and put up our hoods. Not that anyone could complain about Pegs 29 and 30, as they are two of the best on the complex. But I doubted, in my mind, whether the fish would come into the margins with that cold wind on their backs.

My two favourite pegs on Beastie are 2 and 18, but they went to Peter Harrison and Martin Parker respectively.

HERE SHOULD BE A PHOTO OF MY SWIM, BUT I FORGOT TO TAKE IT!

Phil Ringer once described peg 29 as the best feeder peg on the whole complex, so I started on the feeder cast over towards the aerator, about 60 yards away. It took 45 minutes before I had a fish, which wrapped the rod round just as I poured out a cup of hot soup. Never fails, does it? That fish was about 5 lb, but another half-hour saw no more bites, so it was out with the pole at 11.5 metres.

Peter Harrison with part of his 104 lb 7 oz from Peg 2.

That long line didn't produce either, and after about two hours I walked up to Alan, next door, who also had just one fish. Mick Ramm on 25 had had a good carp in the first few minutes, so I thought that perhaps the carp would be willing to follow the wind down to our end of the lake after all. But not so far!

The bream show

Back to my swim and I continued to pot in some expanders and corn, and eventually a 1 lb bream obliged. For the next 90 minutes I took the occasional F1 and more bream, the best at 2 lb, which had spawning barnacles all overs its head and back! Considering how cold the water is, I was very surprised.

A change was called for and when I saw Alan take another fish on feeder I followed, and quickly hit a 6 lb common. Then a switch to fishing under the overhanging bush on my left saw a bite missed first drop in with maggot, and another missed next drop. But on the third a 3 lb F1 obliged. So I concentrated on this swim, but when roach started to take the maggot bait I changed to corn and immediately had some more F1s and two carp around 8 lb, fishing dead depth. But the rig had to be in one particular spot, just on the edge of a small drop-off.

When bites dried up I went back out to 11.5 metres but the bream seemed to have disappeared, though I did get a bite on worm which I pricked. The only way here to get a bite had been to fish about an inch overdepth and to let the bait drag over the bottom very slowly.

Terry Tribe was top of the five pegs on the West bank with 45 lb 5 oz.

 

A good finish

The last half-hour, though still cold, saw some more F1s from the bush swim, best over 3 lb, then a final 4 lb mirror. The match ended and I took the pole holdall back to the van, in time to photograph the first weigh, which was Peter Harrison with 104 lb 7 oz on a pole, for second place. I still had a lot of packing to do onto the trolley, so went back - missing Trevor Cousins' magnificent 149 lb 11 oz, taken on feeder, and on  pole a few feet from the bank, which is very snaggy here. So I missed taking his photo - but he wins so many I am bound to get him later in the season. Between them was Mick Raby, third with 62 lb 2 oz.

I was surprised that the weights round to me were not particularly large, and my 53 lb 4 oz was enough for fourth, which I was chuffed with as I felt I had winkled out as many fish I could in that cold wind. Alan on 30 had about half my weight. Some of the anglers reported catching on big lumps cat meat, so I will have to bear that in mind for my next match on Sunday on Elm lake, as there are lots of barbel there.

But yet again my fish were smaller than those landed by most of the others, Trevor estimated his biggest fish at well over 16 lb, and I saw Peter's catchm which contained a lot of fish approaching 10 lb or more.

My back still played up, slowing me down after the match (but not during it) and it looks as if I will have to accept that I will be last to get everything away in future. But it's a small price to pay if I can keep fishing matches.

Result in peg number order:

2    Peter Harrison        104 lb 7 oz    2nd

3    John Garner            12 lb 12 oz

4    Mick Raby              62 lb 2 oz        3rd

5    Trevor Cousins       149 lb 11 oz    1st

14    Bob Barrett           22 lb 14 oz

16    Sean Buddle          DNW

18    Martin Parker        34 lb 4 oz

22    Mick Linnell         42 lb 11 oz

23    Terry Tribe            45 lb 5 oz

24    Bob Allen               8 lb 11 oz

25    Peter Barnes           8 lb 14 oz

26    Mick Ramm          19 lb 4 oz   

29    Mac Campbell       53 lb 5 oz    4th

30    Alan Porter            26 lb 9 oz

 

I pick a good peg - but don't draw it. Six-island, Decoy

 Following complaints about how some of the matches were pegged, the Fenland Rods eventually decided that each competitor would pick a peg from those available, and those would be the ones we fished. It seems to work very well. We used the system for our first match of the season, the Club Cup.

The draw - Callum draws a name, with Mel preparing to draw a swim from his little black bag.

With a cold Northerly wind blowing across Six-Island lake at Decoy I picked out peg 9 to put into the hat. For some years peg 9 was missed out because one angler had complained it was shallow; well in the left margin it is shallow, but in my book that simply gives the angler more options. I don't think I've ever fished a match on 9 and not won. And today it would have a back wind. A few minutes later, with Peter Spriggs not yet on site, I picked one for him - 17.

Peg 4 - about 11.5 metres to the island but I never went as far as that.

Peg 17 is opposite the island in front of 4, and I've fished it only once, when I won. But I have noticed that is consistently seems to produce fish. And so to the draw...

Gave Garner, our club champion, had 9 drawn for him - a good angler on a good peg. Then 17 went to Dennis Sambridge. Ditto. Perhaps I would get 24 or 25, both back wind. Nope - Peg 4 was drawn for me. I was not unhappy - in Summer it can be very good, especially in the margin.

Dave Garner - had a big fish on within five minutes.
He ended second with 101 lb 11 oz.

Anyway, I set up a feeder, and three pole rigs - a 1 gm to hold steady in the wind, a 0.5 gm as an alternative, and a margin rig just in case! But even before I had settled the feeder rod down on the rest Dave Garner on 9, five swims to my left, was playing a big fish. Just the start I had feared.

After half an hour I landed a 1 lb tench on the hair-rigged corn with a small banjo feeder, and ten minutes later a 2 lb F1. Then there was a lull and as Dennis Sambridge, who was on my right, at right anglers to me, had had carp in his margins I changed to pole. Now the margins on 17 are quite deep, and my swim seemed to be a bit shallower, everywhere - at 3.5 feet maximum.

Joe Bedford on Peg 6 hit some very big fish. Not bad for a 90-year old, heh?

Very strange bites
It took another hour to catch two more F1s on four sections, using corn, and a quick look in the right margin with maggot saw several quick bites which I missed - probably roach. Then corn farther to my right produced the strangest of bites. The float would sink slowly, showing a definite fish, and hold under the surface. But I missed them all. I estimate I had at least 15 bites like that all day - in that swim and the main one - and missed every one. The strangest thing was that most of the time the corn was taken! All I can suggest is that there were F1s holding the corn between their lips but never attempting to swallow it.

Joe  had 42 lb 15 oz on a feeder.

With a couple of hours to go the odd fish came on the four-section line, including mirrors of 3 lb and 5 lb, and some F1s from 1 lb to almost 3 lb. Every fish had to be teased into taking  by my lifting the float or dragging it, and the bites were miniscule. I lost one big fish which I think must have been a foulhooked barbel, lost because I shipped back to the top two too quickly and couldn't stop it diving into the marginal reeds.

Meanwhile Dennis had been steadily catching - one very big fish and the rest looked to be about 3 lb or 4 lb. He was way ahead of me. The cold now was penetrating, even though the wind was over my right shoulder. And fishing to the right was very uncomfortable for me, though I did take two F1s in two drops, but nothing else.

A miniature blizzard
Then, with an hour to go the snow came down - the biggest flakes I have ever seen - bigger than a 50p piece. And poor old Alan Golightly, on 10, and Callum Judge on 13, had it right in their face. They must have suffered.

John Smith shows the size of fish most of the other
anglers had. Mine were much smaller.

Half an hour later, with Bob Allen already packed up, the snow stopped, the wind died, and the sun came out. That produced another two or three F1s for me, plus a 4 lb common, and we were able to pack up in pretty good conditions which had looked very unlikely half an hour earlier. Ninety-year old Joe Bedford insisted on carrying my pole holdall back to the van for me!! Actually I was grateful, as my back was playing up.

Kevin Lee with friend. 

The weigh in

First to weigh was Dick Warriner with 68 lb 2 oz, and I weighed 53 lb 7 oz for seventh. To my left Joe had 42 lb 15 oz of big fish, all on a feeder, Then John Smith had big fish...as did Dave Garner. Their fish were virtually all 7 lb or 8 lb-plus. What on earth had I done wrong? My best was about 5lb.

With 101 lb 11 oz Dave Garner seemed to me to be a likely winner, but no - the anglers all said that Alan Golightly, on exposed peg 10 could have more. And he did - 109 lb 6 oz for the win. He deserved a medal for sticking it out to the end. Very well done. Fenland Rods 2021 Cup Winner. He took his fish on a banded 6mm hard pellet over 4mm feed pellets.

Kevin Lee on 25 told me that he had a last 90-minute flurry, and started his second net with 50 minutes to go. It contained five fish for 42 lb 9 oz! I can only assume that the smaller fish hung around the island which was in front of Dennis Sambridge and myself. In fact had Dennis' fish been the average size of the others he could well have won.

Thirteen fished but two vanished in the blizzard.

I was satisfied that I had fished a decent match, ending with around 18 fish. I just had to accept that the bigger fish weren't in my area. That's fishing. And I couldn't follow the scales all the way round as I hadn't packed up in time, so didn't catch the winning catch. Next time, perhaps. 

 Next day I was due to be on Beastie, but it was clear that some of today's anglers would not be thawed out!

On Damson in distress (Geddit?)

 Just thawed out after this Spratts match on Damson at Decoy. Seventeen fished in what was forecast to be a North-Westerly, and I was delighted to get drawn 17 on the North bank. The wind, which was forecast to start at -1C (-6 in the wind chill) would be over my right shoulder.

So you can imagine my surprise when I got to my swim to find it coming into me from the right...yet the anglers on the East bank also had it into them from their right . Must have been something to do with the trees and banking...anyway I said "Oh Dear". Never mind - it was forecast to get to 5 degrees later, though still Zero in the wind chill. Positively balmy!

My swim at the end of the match, when the sun had moved round to the right.

Flaming sun!
In fact because the sun was shining, the first hour was not too cold, and I managed one 1 lb carp on a 6mm expander on a 1 gm rig, fished to my right, into the wind, because the sun was right in our eyes on this bank. I thought "Oh Dear" again. Meanwhile Mick Ramm on Peg 19 (he drew 7 but the platform there was dodgy) had already caught two or three decent carp on a top two, fishing about four feet deep. I hadn't got much of a margin, and had decided to start in the deep water, three sections out, where it was about seven feet deep.

Then it blew harder and colder and eventually, after another half-hour with just one more small fish from the same swim, I turned to my left. Mick was still catching carp, but nobody else seemed to be catching.

Round to the left I had put in a couple of bait-droppers of maggot, and with four deads on the hook I eventually caught a 2 lb mirror, dragging hard on the bottom. At one point I changed to a 2 gm rig, to try to keep it steady in the increasing wind, and this worked a treat...except that it didn't bring a single bite! I tried in the side - inches from the bank, in the shallowest water I could find, still with nothing.

We stick to the Covid rules, and Trevor picks out a name and 
then the peg number for us. It turned out that pegs 7 and 14
had problems so Peter Harrison and Mick Ramm moved to 18 and 19.

Three fish in 15 minutes
Next I tried on the slope at 5 feet  depth with a 0.5 gm rig baited with corn...and this brought immediate success with three fish in 15 minutes, the best around 8 lb. Then no more.

I could see Bob Barrett on the left-hand bank now catching the odd fish on a feeder, and I do believe that if I had changed to a feeder I would have done much better. But I was shivering with cold (as was everybody else), despite five layers plus the padded jacket, and I knew that Alan and and Peter to my left, and Peter Harrison to my right, were struggling, so I stayed on the pole as I didn't fancy moving off my box.

Mistake. Suddenly Alan Porter on my left took two or three fish on the feeder, and as eventually I made the definite decision to switch I had another fish on a 1 gm rig, You know how it is! Then it started to snow...so I stayed on the pole.

Another couple of fish on corn came before the wind died down a little, the snow stopped, and the sun came out again and, with 45 minutes left, I thought I might start catching. Oh Dear (again), I was wrong. But at least we could pack up in reasonable conditions.

I suffered
I took my time packing up, but the old problem of terrible back ache came again and I had to sit down a couple of times, feeling decidedly unwell. But within two or three minutes I always felt able to carry on.

The wheel comes off - literally
I have had my motorised trolley mended, and it got me back the 150 yards to the van OK, by which time the others had already started to weigh in. My new system is to disengage the drive wheels to push the trolley up my ramp, and to bring it down backwards - this was suggested to me to avoid stripping the gears again. But before I could wheel it in position to go up the ramp one of the wheels slipped off and gracefully rolled about 20 yards down the gravel track.

There wasn't anyone nearby and if I had left the trolley it would have tipped right over, so I had to wheel it on three wheels down to the offending wheel, reach down to pick it up, and while lifting the trolley with the other hand, slip it onto the axle. Real Fred Karno stuff!

Up the ramp OK, and with the other stuff packed in, and after a short rest in the van I trudged back just in time to see Peter Baker on 15 weigh in. It looked as if the weights at our end of the lake were a little less than on the Eastern bank. Bob Barret was leading with 36 lb - he told me he couldn't catch on the pole, but took all his fish on a feeder fished on the pole line.

Peter Harrison made history by coming last for the
 first time ever. For the record I finished 11th. 

I weigh 20 lb
I was pleased to weigh in 20 lb 7 oz, beating the three to my left, and also Peter Harrison to my right on 18 (his peg 14 was not fishable). Amazingly Peter, who has won lots of our matches, was last, and didn't take his first carp until more than four hours into the match.  Then the scales went on to Mick Ramm, who ended as winner with his 46 lb 14 oz - I saw him land only a couple of fish in the last two hours. Well done Mick.

A lot of the competitors took fish on a feeder - I probably should have changed. But actually I didn't fancy packing it all away - for me that's by far the worst part of the day now. I have cut down the gear I take to my peg, but it's still a problem. It looks as if it will mean a lot fewer pictures this season as I may not be able to follow the scales all the way round. But fingers crossed!!

Next match Sunday on Six-Islands at Decoy, when the forecast is for more NNE Arctic winds. That would mean that pegs 24, 25 and 1 to 9 might get some sort of back wind. I expect weights to be from poor to dire! Next day is Spratts on Beastie lake. I will look at the forecast with interest...