Five hours for seven fish on Damson, Decoy.

 Life never ceases to surprise me. On one hand there are protesters glueing themselves to roads hoping that someone being held up in a vehicle will die, giving them publicity without the chance of any single one being found guilty of causing the death. And on the other hand there’s Kwik Fit at Huntingdon; bear with me.

My brother was recently over from his home in Africa, and while driving from London to see us his front wheels started shaking at 60 mph. A trip to my local Kwik Fit saw the mechanics there put the car on a ramp and check all the wheels. They didn’t need balancing, they said – the problem was a loose joint in the steering, which should be looked at but which was not dangerous. While the car was there they noticed a nail in a tyre, so took the wheel off and changed it for the spare.

The cost of this hour’s work? “No Charge”. Oh that fish were as obliging as that!

Peg 6, Damson, Monday. Nov 8
This Spratts club match was the  most recent occasion on which fish had their chance to humiliate me...and they did it in Spades. Nothing the matter with Peg 6 - Shaun Buddle had been third on it the previous week, and before this latest match he was showing me an amazing video he had taken there the previous Friday, on a practice session.

Warm and flat calm - a memorable Autumn day (for all the wrong reasons)

This video showed a pod of perhaps 30 carp to about 4 lb right in front of the platform, playing on the surface. It stayed there, he told me, all day. After a short, boring session catching them (it was so easy) he decided to time himself catching 50 of them. It took him just 90 minutes...

Then, just before our match, it happened again - a dozen or so good fish started playing in the margin of my Peg 6, oblivious to us watching them. Just before the match started they drifted off to Peg 7, where Trevor Cousins waited, in trembling anticipation, to start the match.

The fish didn't stay long
It took just minutes for the pod to melt away completely when we started, but Trevor made hay in that time, catching four or five quickly on a banded pellet. What happened to me? Sure enough as soon as my rig hit the surface fish appeared...and tried to eat my float! They ignored the expander, giving me lots of bites which were obviously liners. But I caught not a single fish in that first 30 minutes.

Trevor Cousins was into action within seconds of the match starting.

Deflated was not the word, because Shaun on Peg 5 to my left was also hitting fish, in the deeps, on a very soft paste. I went out to the deep water on a 2+1 with corn and eventually took one about 1 lb. Trevor was still catching odd fish in the shallow margins - perhaps one every ten minutes, so I came back and managed two on cat meat.

Royally hammered
Then over an hour passed in which I was royally hammered both side and I never had a fish. I really did try. Honest. One more came on soft paste in the deeps, where Shaun was still catching fish every few minutes. Then another in the margins on a small piece of meat, at which time several fish from 4 lb to 6 lb started feeding in the shallow water to my right. It seemed impossible that I wouldn't catch there.

So I went overdepth, laying line on the bottom, and sure enough big fish came in...and ignored my bait. Then a bite - and I foulhooked a four-pounder which literally must have been asleep because it came in sideways, my hook in its dorsal fin, and was in my net in six seconds flat. Trevor was not impressed!

Shaun Buddle, on my left, was using a very soft paste, put into the deep water using a paste cup.

Then mussel hooked me a fish, which promptly came off. That left an hour in the match, in which time I lost another on paste, and took two more about 1 lb on cat meat in the margins, and another of 4 lb. Five hours...seven fish. I was convinced I would be last.

Martin Parker, former NFA Veterans National Champion,
struggled to 25 lb 15 oz on Peg 3.

The weigh in

On Peg 1, the one we all wanted,  Bob Barret had fished his usual feeder for 39 lb 2 oz, followed by Alan Porter, who had also had some on a feeder, with 44 lb 14 oz.. Shaun on Peg 5 said he had 46 carp, and they weighed 82 lb 4 oz. That was less than I had assumed, because they were smaller than the ones I had. My pitiful seven fish went 21 lb 5 oz, which was a lot more than I had estimated.

Trevor to my right weighed 50 lb 2 oz, having taken a couple of fish in the deeps, with all the rest from the margins to his left, where a few floating reeds came a sparse amount of cover for the fish. Then more weights followed, all a bit above mine, until we came to Peter Spriggs on 13, who had hammered out 119 lb 2 oz, mainly on cat meat, towards the corner. Give him a half-decent swim and he will make full use of it. 

Very well done, Peter - the latest in a succession of big weights which have blown the rest of us away.

Shaun Buddle led the field right the way down to the last Peg 13.

Plenty to smile at. Peter Spriggs wins yet again. Henceforth he will be known as End Peg Peter.

I was tenth, and it was frankly it was probably the worst club match I've fished for years - I can't remember the last time I was beaten both sides. I later realised I could have tried potting in maggots for those big margin fish, and I wondered if I had put in loads of bait whether that would have worked - but both sides of me used hardly any loosefeed at all. It's a funny old game...

My next match will be my first with JVAC at Decoy. No idea which lake they are fishing. There are very good anglers in the club, so I look forward to another roasting. 😉