Five hours for one bite - Cedar, Decoy

 Peg 8, Sunday Nov 28

In 63 years of match fishing I've packed up and gone home before the end of a match just once. And if I had been sitting on the opposite bank of Cedar in this match it would probably have been the second time.

Thirteen of us  fished this JV AC match, so we were able to all be pegged on the 13-swim Western bank, with the wind  from the left but slightly over our backs, and for the first hour or two it was quite comfortable. But then the wind swung round, more from our backs, but with an extra bite to it. And soon we must have all felt very cold, and mighty pleased we were not facing it.

Clear skies had resulted in a heavy frost, but at the start the sun gave us a little warmth.
Soon, however, the cloud came over, the wind grew colder, and frankly it was horrible.

It was obvious before we started that the heavy overnight frost would have hit catches. In fact the highlight of the first hour was Smug, on my right on 7, telling me that someone to his right had landed a fish! Then someone to our left hit a fish on pole, and we could see his yellow elastic streaming out. It was Chris Saunders, and he landed that fish and a little later hit another, which came off.

About that time Smug had a bite of his maggot feeder from a small barbel. The excitement! I had not had a bite on the maggot feeder, nor on the 13-metre pole, but Smug had a walk and found out that Lee Kendall, on Peg 2, had a 2 lb bream.

Steve Tilsley had a bite, and this 7 lb carp won him his section.

A blur of shivering
The next couple of hours passed in a blur of shivering, until Steve Tilsley, two to my left, landed a carp, with Chris Saunders catching another fish.  We had no idea whether anyone else had anything. Then, with 25 minutes to go, Roy Whincup in corner peg 13, who was already packing his pole away, saw his top move round, grabbed hold of the rod and landed a 3 lb 3 oz carp. 

A minute later my own top jumped back and a 2 lb bream came in. Five minutes later, Lee Kendall told me, his single dead maggot on a feeder was taken by just his second fish - a 12 lb carp.

Put out of our misery
I had just drained the last of my soup when, mercifully, we were put out of our misery by the shout to end the match. In fact eight had caught fish, with Lee Kendall's two totalling 14 lb 6 oz for second, and Chris Saunders bringing three fish to the scales. We weighed his biggest carp at 14 lb 14 oz, and he won with 24 lb 11 oz, all taken at 12 metres on pinkies. Very well done, Chris in those conditions.

Chris Saunders fished the long pole all day for four bites - one fish which came off, a barbel,
 and two carp, best 14 lb 14 oz, He ended as a worthy (but cold) winner with 24 lb 11 oz.

Smug's 2 lb 6 oz barbel was the only bite he had, and it won my section, with my bream at 2 lb coming eighth overall, and winning nothing (!), while five did not have a single fish. We were glad to go into the cafe for the presentation - with some welcome Christmas cake free provided by the owners. Very acceptable, and many thanks. 😀

Heated underwear - who knew?
The first video I happened to watch after getting home was Jamie Hughes and Andy May singing the praises of Vulcan heated underwear. The heating runs off a small rechargeable battery which sits in a special pocket. Christmas is coming up, you know. Will Santa have seen the same video before he slides down my chimney?

Next match not until Sunday, on Willlows at Decoy, which has not been fishing well, but someone has to win. I had thought about fishing the Wednesday Over 60s at Pidley, but the wind is forecast to be WNW which will give a strong sidewind on most pegs. That wouldn't normally worry me, except that the default technique on Jay lake in this weather is to fish 14 metres across, dobbing bread into the far bank shallows, which I don't fancy in a strong sidewind.