Difficult fishing, but I'm happy - Oak, Decoy

 Peg 9, Saturday, August 21

Some welcome news
On the home front, my consultant at Addenbrookes has said that following an "Almost Undetectable" PSA reading I can stop the three-monthly injections, to combat my prostate cancer, which have been causing me problems. The side-effects are well-known: hot flushes (which I get every two hours) and severe loss of muscle strength. It may take a year or more before they stop, but it's something to look forward to...and he has promised me a scan on my lungs, to see how much the metastases have increased, within six months. I believe this is known as Stage 4 Cancer, but they've caught it fairly early.

A little more good news
My mate Mike Rawson, who uses Drennan Tuff Eye floats, like me, had confirmation that Drennan have stopped making them. Sure enough I made a visit to Benwick Sports' website and there they were: Gone! A quick call to the shop and they confirmed they still had some on the shelves, so within an hour I was on my way there. Sure enough they still had some, so I cleaned them out of 0.5 gm, added one or two more smaller and a couple of 1 gm models, and came away with about 15 - A Happy Bunny.

The reason I needed more is that when I lose a fish at extreme distance and the rig flies back, sometimes the tip of the float breaks off where it is inserted into the body (there are four different-coloured tips for each float) and I have found it impossible to drill out the remaining piece.

The match
Now the important bit - 30 of us were on Oak Lake for the Ellis Buddle Memorial organised by his son Shaun, with the medals donated by Di and John at the fishery. It's a 30-peg lake so every swim was taken except for 27, where there's currently no platform, so Bob Allen, who drew it, sat on Cedar 26.

My left margin - looks really nice but it didn't produce.

The field was split into six teams of five with pegs 1, 7, 13, 19 and 25 in one team etc. The day was overcast all day with torrential rain and thunderstorms forecast, so I set up my umbrella holder on the rear right leg of my box ready to combat the storms. In fact, although there was a little rain halfway through, which saw umbrellas sprouting up like mushrooms all along the bank, the heavy stuff didn't come until we were packing up, and even then it was not torrential. I didn't need to put it up.

A strange day
But it was a strange, muggy, day - fish were showing all over the lake, jumping, humping like whales, and swirling, and they often came though my swim - but going so fast there wasn't any time to try to mug them, even if I had tried (which I didn't). My left margin looked lovely - with ten inches in the side, then a shelf at two feet, then dropping down to four feet.

My right margin - the fish were under the overhanging blades.

The right margin was dodgy - a lump of coarse grass stuff about two feet from the platform, but I kept flicking a few grains of corn down through the strands which lay across the surface, hoping that the cover they offered might eventually hold a fish or two.

Opposite, the angler on 23 spent the first part of the match slapping, and I saw him hook three or four, though at least one came off. So they obviously would take a bait, but it must have been hard work. On 21, also opposite, Philip Allen, in the same team as myself, also had a good start, taking several fish on paste at about top-two-plus-two. I started at the same distance, using expander or corn, but had only tiny liners.

Richard Chase with one of the few barbel taken. 

An unexpected fish
After about half an hour I adjusted the shot on my float and I thought one had pinged off, so I dropped the rig out in front of me to check the shotting. Before it had even started to cock, the float shot away. I struck, and hit a big fish. The red elastic I had in (probably about a 12) shot out, kept going,  and eventually turned just under the surface way past Peter Harrison, who was on my right. Luckily he was fishing farther out and slowly the fish came back under his pole, alongside my bank.

I played that fish for at least ten minutes, and gradually realised that although it wasn't fighting like a foulhooker it must have been. Then it drifted into the grass to my right and I could clearly see it just under the surface - at least 10 lb. I had almost guided my net underneath it and was preparing to lift when it suddenly shot out in a semi-circle and shot straight under the platform, where it snagged me, and the rig came back minus the hook.

Rod Melnyk, third with 76 lb 11 oz.  

Fish on Peg 8
Soon after this, Peter Harrison on my right on Peg 8 hit a fish, fishing about six sections out In the next hour or two he added about three more; meanwhile the lad on my left also hit a couple of good fish. I was still fishless after two hours.

Then I noticed that Peter was fishing a worm, so I put one on. Sure enough in the next couple of hours I landed three fish on the worm, about 8 lb, 8 lb amd 6 lb, but the elastic was stretching so far and I was taking too long to get back to my top two. I also foulhooked one which pulled off in seconds.

Bad mistake
So I changed to a purple Hydro elastic - big mistake. I had deliberately tightened this elastic down to deal with barbel hooked close-in, near snags. I had a bite within a minute on five sections, struck, and was horrified to see the elastic hardly came out from the tip There wasn't time to add any sections, and the fish pulled off.

Immediately I changed to a 17 yellow Preston hollow, which I knew would be reasonable, but never had another bite in that swim. I had some quick looks in the left margin, but in my experience if there are fish in the shallower water you're going to get some indications very quickly, and I had none.

So with two hours to go and not much being caught anywhere else except in Peter's swim, where I saw him play several fish, I went into the margins again. The left margin still didn't produce a sign of a fish, so I concentrated in the grassy spot on my right, using a rig also with Preston yellow 17 elastic. This allows a fish to run, but quickly powers up. Very similar to the old Middy White 22/24.

Tony Campo, three pegs to my left, with three cracking carp.

Bites!
After half an hour gentle feeding with hemp and corn I got a bite! I was on a top two and reached for the third section, but by that time the fish had bottomed me out and pulled off. I was furious with myself so I tried again, with Number Three section attached, although it was awkward fish so close with the third section attached, and eventually had another bite.

This one also shot out, taking me again by surprise, but I managed to attach the next two sections in time, and after that first mad run I was able to get back to the top two, and use the puller kit, in less than a minute. The 17 yellow was just perfect. This fish was not far short of 10 lb - a lovely pristine common And ten minutes later I had another fish on, which fought even harder - a 6 lb golden mirror.

Organiser Shaun Buddle does his impression of a 
demented leprechaun with his 38 lb catch To be fair
it was chucking it down at this point, as we weighed in.

A little later fish Number Six came in at a little over 10 lb, and it went into the second net. That was followed by a mirror about 4 lb, which took the bait as I pulled in gently along the bottom, also on corn.

The perfect landing technique (!)
This was a classic landing procedure - unlike the others. I pushed the pole tip under the surface, waited until it slackened, and gently pulled back to the top two, keeping the pole tip low. Some gentle pulls on the puller and the fish drifted along just under the surface and straight into my waiting net Why can't they all be like that?

With 40 minutes left I hit another, but when I turned round to grasp the end sections the wind had blown them to the ground, out of reach, and I lost that fish, which pulled off.

Leon, on my left, with what looks like a double-figure fish.

An Executive Decision
At that point I decided to give the right margin a rest and spend ten minutes in the left margin, returning to the right margin for the last half hour, as I was certain the fish would return when I put in hemp and corn. I had a bite in the left margin while dragging the bait along the bottom, so it appeared that the fish were still around and willing to at least consider taking a bait.

I was about to change over when the match ended, at 3.30 pm! I hadn't checked the finish time - entirely my fault - and I should have realised that collating the team results needed extra time. I'm sure it cost me a fish or two.

My estimates: I estimated I had 50 lb, that the lad on my left probably had at least that, and that Peter on my right had 70 lb to 80 lb. How wrong could I be?

The weigh in
I was astonished to see the first few typically weigh in just two or three fish. It had obviously been harder than I imagined. I said to Peter: "Have you got about 80 lb?" He looked at me like an indulgent headmaster might look at the School Idiot.

Peter "I told you I didn't have 80 lb!" Harrison.

"I've got about 40 lb" he said. I thought he was kidding me, but no - he had just one net in and weighed 39 lb 8 oz. I had seen him lose one big fish, so he must have lost some of the others. I couldn't see properly because of the high grass between us. 

I weighed 57 lb 3 oz and the lad on my left, Leon, totalled just 33 lb. So I had beaten the anglers either side, which is always nice to do, and my weight was top down to Tony Campo on 12 who had 62 lb 1 oz.

Could our team win?
I was second top weight on that bank and when I looked at the weights I thought my team would have a chance of possibly winning, as Rob Allen on the Cedar peg had 49 lb, our Peg 3 Jim Allen had 22 lb and John Garner added 15 lb. Even better, Philip Allen on 21 had 83 lb 13 oz. Total 230 lb 8 oz.

The rumour was that Mick Raby, last to weigh on 30, had a good catch. He actually needed about 78 lb to beat us and did it in style - 90 lb 8 oz, from the deep margins to his left, leaving us runners-up. 

Mick Raby, overall winner with 90 lb 8 oz. Good to see him back on the bank.

It must have been an especially happy result for Mick, who has not been on the bank for weeks because of a problem with a blocked artery which has left him believing he might never fish again. But he says he is feeling pretty good at the moment, and is keeping his fingers crossed. If I couldn't win, then I'm glad he did!

Four-fifth of the winning team - l-r: Shaun Buddle, Mick Raby, Richard Morris, Richard Della
(or those two might be the other way round). Tony Campo had to see a dog about a man.

Conclusions
I finished fifth and, looking at how difficult it was, I was actually very happy indeed. I lost that first big fish after playing it for ten minutes, and three fish which I think were properly hooked, all my own fault. But my approach has always been: First get your bites; then hook your fish, and I had obviously managed to do this, in the afternoon, when those around me were struggling. Landing them all when they are shooting off this quickly will never be easy. 

The (equally soggy) East bank sheet.

The (soggy) West bank sheet.

I look forward to meeting some of my old mates again next year in the Ellis Buddle memorial. my next match is probably not for another ten days.