My first pick-up with JV club

 Peg 2, Six-Island, Decoy, Sunday Nov 21

I'm  not superstitious, but whenever I see a pair of magpies, or one on its own, I always say: "Good Morning, Mr Magpie." It's only polite, bringing bad luck if you don't. And in the first three miles on the way to this match I said it five times. Seconds later I saw something for the first time in my life - a Parliament of magpies.

No-one knows exactly what causes them, on occasion, to get together, but there must have been at least 15 in and around a bush beside the road. Quite a sight. I mentioned it to several of the anglers when I got to Decoy, and none of them had ever seen it.

Reg Barker, the crack Wisbech matchman, would actually turn his car round if he saw a magpie on its own while he was going to a match, and look for its partner! Now that is superstition...

I also repeated a notable sighting of four policemen together (rare in most of the country except at minor traffic accidents). There's been a protest outside a research establishment near me for months, and almost every time I drive past the temporary road signs, tents, cars, campervans, distracting notices, flashing lights and portable toilets, there are policemen there, sitting in a car or standing round it, or marching down the road to keep the peace, which is not difficult when everyone is still in their tent.

The match is moved 
Then on to Decoy, where the JV match had been moved from Cedar to Six-Island. There was a cold North-Westerly blowing right into just three swims - 1, 2 and 3, Number 1 was not taken, and I was allotted number 2, with Ron Cuthbert, a long-standing angling mate, on 3, to my left. All the other 12 anglers had either a backwind, or one roughly from the side. 

At the start there was just a cool breeze, into Peg 2, but it soon picked up.
Lee Kendall on 22 is opposite, just to the right of the island.

I started on a bomb with a grain of corn, without a bite in half an hour. Then on to 13 metres to the island in front of me, facing a little to the left, where I had three quick bites on two maggots, all of which I missed. They must have been roach or liners. But then even they vanished and within a short while the wind, which was then slightly from the right, picked up and I couldn't fish at 13 metres properly.

Some big fish had rolled way over to my right, in front of Roy Whincup on 25, and he was fishing a maggot feeder in that area. I saw him  land one early fish. He had a long, 12-inch hooklength, rather than the short one so favoured now by so many, which made sense when he told me afterwards that it enables him to pull the feeder after a short while, so the hook bait then lays where the released maggots are lying. Pulling a feeder less than a foot is actually quite difficult, as most anglers will realise.

Lost fish
I put a pole rig out a little to my right on five sections, where I had plumbed up to find that a gradual slope down  meant that this area was about eight inches deeper than the track in front of me. It was also facing almost right into the wind, which made it easier to control the pole, but was a lot colder than fishing to the left. 

Lee Kendall was opposite me and took just two for 12 lb 2 oz.

Putting in no more than about eight maggots at a time, and fishing just touching bottom, with an 18 hook, brought me a 2 lb F1. Then a look out in front of me at the same distance, but with a shallower rig, brought another, foulhooked in a fin. It was the only bite there, in the shallower swim.

That gave me the idea that perhaps the fish were off bottom, so I went out to the right, off bottom, and promptly hooked a 6 lb mirror, which didn't fight an awful lot before finishing in my net. Next drop I foulhooked a big fish which left me with a scale the size of a florin. Next drop I lost another, to find that the maggots had gone, so perhaps it was hooked properly.

More fish lost
Then next drop I foulhooked yet another and lost it, and the maggots were intact. Then all bites there ceased, and I spent the next couple of hours altering the depth, in vain, and trying in the shallower water, with corn. Not a sign of a fish, but I was getting colder and colder, even with my padded Imax jacket on. Then, out of the blue, a five-pounder came in, and with an hour left I tried laying on a bit more, and that brought another fish about 6 lb. I then saw Roy landing a fish, but I'd seen Ron on my left catch only one, and Lee Kendall opposite land just two.

Trying to work out what Lee did

Lee's first fish came to the pole, and I saw him then go straight down the margin to fish next to the platform in the next swim. Soon he went out to his island, and I wondered whether he had caught the fish on the island, but rested that swim for a few minutes after catching his fish, or whether he had caught the fish in the margin, had one more quick look, and rested that swim by going out to the island. No way of telling. (Later he told me he had caught it in the margin).

Barry Webb on 18 took a 12-pounder early in the match on
Peg 18, but caught only one more in the next four hours.

Half an hour left and I was so cold that I packed away three of the four rigs I had out, because I was on scales, which warmed me up a little. I then picked up the bomb rod, baited it with two maggots, and flicked it into my pole swim. Within a couple of minutes the rod jagged round and another six-pounder lay in my landing net. Then the match finished.

What I should have done
Next day I thought I should have tried a piece of worm, which can often work in the Winter. I didn't try the mussels on a rig with a bigger hook because in these conditions I tend to think that fish will take only a small bait. But looking back, five minutes trying would not have hurt me. My excuse is that the cold freezes my brain!

The weigh in
Ron and I were appointed to weigh, but Lee Kendall came over to help, bless him, and I had managed to pack up most of my gear by the time we started. I was first to weigh - 28 lb 14 oz - to which Lee said: "Well done, Mac. I've got only two fish." Then Ron brought in his net and he also had only two, for 8 lb 12 oz.

Roy Whincup stuck to a maggot feeder all day on Peg 25, ending
with 54 lb 8 oz for second place, taken on a good-sized size 20 hook.

Round to 4 where Steve Tilsley, a former European Police Pole Champion, who I met many years ago when reporting on the Police National, had caught just six roach, and didn't weigh. But on this bank, from 4 to 9, Ron and I both remarked how much warmer it was - it felt ten degrees warmer. He there was a 45 lb 8 oz from someone I didn't recognise, down on the weigh sheet as Spalding Raver. I doubt that's his real name!!!

The winner
Opposite, Ernie Lowbridge on peg 11 won with 64 lb 1 oz, mainly taken on a top two plus two. The wind was blowing into these pegs a little from the left, but they, also, were much warmer than where we had fished, as a high bank and trees gave a bit of shelter. After weighing Ernie, with the weighing well advanced, I felt able to ask to take a picture or two. 

Round to Roy Whincup (no relation to Jon) and he had a lot more fish than I suspected. He fished the feeder all day, in the vicinity of the sunken island, and said he had three early on, then a big lull, and then a better spell towards the end. He finished with eight or nine fish for 54 lb 8 oz and second place. He must be one of the most consistent anglers locally, as so often he finishes in the frame.

THE RESULT

Happy with fourth place in  only my second match with the club. Mustn't peak too early or they could ban me!!

I ended fourth, went back to the cafe for the presentations, and with three in the main payout I won my section, bringing me my first brown envelope from this club, which I was very happy with in the circumstances, as there are some fine anglers in JVAC.

A brown envelope - always the target but never the
most important  part of the day.

My next match is the Spratts Christmas match on Oak, with the wind forecast to turn to South-Westerly on that day, and not as strong as it was for Sunday. So I wouldn't mind facing it, on pegs 16 to 20, or opposite on 11 to 15.

From now on I am likely to fish the Wednesday Pidley Over 60s matches, or the Friday Over 50s on Decoy (or both), with JV on the Sunday.