A surprise result on Six-Island, Decoy.

 Yippee. I'm becoming tech-savvy. It's taken me only a week to work out how to trim a video on my phone and upload it onto this site. You see I forgot to take a shot of my swim this week, and by the time I had remembered, the battery on my phone was dead. So instead, here's a video of Dave Garner landing a big carp last week on Yew Lake in the wind. The carp had its mouth in a funny place! Pity I can't find out how to make it  bigger on the page. Bear with me for another week!

What was most impressive to me was the rod - an 11 ft Preston CarbonActive. What a rod. I'm tempted to get one myself.

Peg 3, Six-Island Lake, Decoy, Friday, October 29.
High winds and rain were forecast, but still 14  assorted idiots, sorry,  hardy souls turned up for this Spratts match. At the draw the wind was ferocious and the rain was light, but by the time we got to the lake the rain had virtually stopped, and the wind didn't seem quite as strong. It picked up later, though.

My Peg 3 wasn't one that I would have chosen, but the wind was slightly off my back. To my right Callum was on Peg 1, where Peter Spriggs won our Fenland Rods Pairs match this Summer, and this is a nice swim, with an aerator to the right. I had an island in front of me at 11 metres, and even in the high winds I decided I would be able to fish a pole there.

Callum Judge, on my right, was catching
when I couldn't get a bite.

Plan B already
My plan had been to start on a feeder, expecting things to be difficult, but as I was making up my pole rigs I felt that there might be fish already willing to feed, and when the match started I simply dropped in with cat meat at top two plus one, the swim being about four feet deep. It's rarely that I start on cat meat, but I was so confident that I put in no loose feed at all.

Most of the bushes and trees on this lake have been trimmed right back and I started looking around to try to make out where the roots were as they are always the starting points when you go into the margins. I glanced back to the float, and for a second I thought it had vanished, so I struck, but there was nothing there. Assuming I had imagined it, I re-baited and dropped in again.

Soon there was no doubt - a definite bite! And a 5 lb mirror came to the net. Next drop another bite, but this one, the same size,  was foulhooked, though I landed it. So I put in some cat meat and hemp with a bait dropper and turned to my second swim, a little closer in to my right - fishing with the wind.

That brought a 4 lb common on corn, and I persevered there - probably too long - for another two fish in the next half-hour. I thought I had made a fair start, but that the anglers from 10 to 15, with the wind at their backs, would be able to present the bait better than I could, and that the anglers from 4 to 9, with the wind in their faces, had probably got more fish in front of them than I had. Time would tell.

John Garner found a nice perch on peg 4.

Then it was back to the meat swim, and I alternated between the two for an hour, hooking about five fish which I lost, but landing another two, at which time I had probably 30 lb. Then sport dropped right off. Time for another change.

Plan C
My next move would have been out to the island, but just as I thought about that a mighty gust of wind blew over the pole roller, slamming the three sections on it into my rod holdall and snapping the Number Six section in two. The break was too close to the female ferrule to allow it to be telescoped, and I was now snookered.

So it was round to the right margin, on four sections, which was about 18 inches deep, and I decided to drop in just away from the bank, where the water was a little over two feet. I fancied I saw the float shiver as the bait fell, so changed to a piece of frozen corn, which was lighter. In the next hour about three more fish came in, though I had a lot of definite pull-unders, and lost another two or three, probably foulhooked I thought at the time.

Almost opposite me on Peg 19 Wendy Bedford
watched as I lost fish after fish. She ended with
23 lb 2 oz on her usual feeder.

Snap again!

The most effective rig was putting most of the shot right under the float and having just a Number 10 down the line. The bait was never taken while it was still, so I used to lift the float out three or four inches, and allow the bait to drift round towards the bank, at which time it sometimes pulled under. Meanwhile Callum was steadily putting the occasional fish into his net and I guessed I was behind.

I also managed to snap the Number One section, leaning over to grab the landing net which held a fish approaching 10 lb. So I had to change the rig over to a different top Two.

Terrible spell
When bites stopped there was about 90 minutes left, and I decided to fish in slightly deeper water, to my right, putting in half-a-dozen brains of corn and dropping in on top of them. Two or three 3 lb fish, and an F1, came in, with a couple on meat, before I had the spell from Hell.

I reckon I lost ten fish on the trot!  Some were in double-figures, as they leaped out of the water at times. The high wind must have loaded them with oxygen, and it was getting stronger.

The bait that finally stopped my terrible spell of lost fish.

They didn't act as if they were foulhooked, and in fact I got down to my top two on some of them, and could see they were hooked at the front end. A couple of the earlier fish had been hooked on the outside of the mouth, and when I came back, after losing the tenth one, with the barbule of a carp on the hook I decided they were simply playing with the bait, or at least not taking it confidently.

A momentous change

There were about 25 minutes left. Now the previous day I had had a conversation with Will Hadley, who mends my broken sections, and he mentioned that it seems that fish are wisening up, even more than usual, to baits that they might have been caught on. I now changed to mussel, in which I have a lot of confidence. The change was incredible.

Alan Porter took 23 lb 7 oz on Peg 12 - this
bank fished much worse than I had expected.

I put in three or four mussels cut into about three portions each, and baited with half of one, with the hook through the small round piece of gristle. Three bites saw me hook three fish, all hooked in the mouth, and all landed. That was over 20 lb in 25 minutes, and if the match had gone on another couple of minutes I am sure I would have had another. I estimated I had about 35 lb in each of my two nets.

The weigh in
Callum was first to weigh - 56 lb. He told me he had seen me lose a load, but that he had lost some as well, including three rigs. My first net weighed 39 lb and the second 48, giving me 87 lb 13 oz.

Then round to the anglers with the wind in their faces, and they had all struggled, Peter Harrison being top with only 21 lb 12 oz. Peter is one of the best anglers in the club, so it had obviously been very hard.

Then over to Peg 10 in the corner, which everyone had fancied, and Peter Spriggs said he had about 50 lb. He should go to Specsavers, because he totalled 67 lb 8 oz! Then farther along Trevor Cousins had only one fish in his net with an hour to go, but ended with 45 lb 3 oz.

Trevor Cousins was fourth with 45 lb 3 oz, including this
gorgeous common which we didn't weigh, but
it was well into double-figures.

Pegs 16 to 23 didn't fish much better, and I ended as a surprise winner, with Peter Spriggs second. 

First out of the frame, in fifth place, was
90-year-old Joe Bedford. Watching him weighing in are his
sister-in-law Wendy and her son, Callum, who was third.

THE RESULT

1 Callum Judge        56 lb                   3rd
3 Mac Campbell        87 lb 13 oz        1st

4 John Garner            19 lb 1 oz

6 Peter Harrison        21 lb 12 oz

8 Mick Ramm            9 lb 8 oz

9 Mike Rawson        DNW

10 Peter Spriggs        67 lb 8 oz        2nd

12 Alan Porter            23 lb 7 oz

13 Trevor Cousins    45 lb 3 oz        4th

15 Shaun Buddle        DNW

17 Bob Barrett            24 lb 5 oz

18 Peter Barnes            10 lb

19 Wendy Bedford        23 lb 7 oz

22 Joe Bedford             26 lb 9 oz       

Next match is the last Fenland Rods match of the season - the Les Bedford memorial Cup on Damson, which was Les' favourite lake. The Club Champion will also be announced. Luckily I won't need that Number Six section, as the deep water on Damson can be reached on a top two. But with more fierce winds and rain forecast it could be very uncomfortable.

Usually the early pegs 1 and 2, which are sheltered, are favourite, but after yesterday I wonder whether I might be better off towards the other end, in the wind.