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?