A Winter warmer for me - Magpie Lake, Pidley

Peg 16, Wednesday, Dec 29
Well, I now know that this blog has at least one reader - Father Christmas! I recently wrote about having seen heated underwear worn by some of the top anglers...and Lo and Behold, Christmas brought me a heated vest. I've tried it out (I reckon you could roast potatoes on it) but didn't need it for the latest Over 60s match on Magpie at Pidley because although we had rain for a couple of hours, the wind was warm.

First set-back
Peg 16 has the longest walk, and within a few yards of getting on the bank I realised the motor on my trolley was not working. Again it was the battery connection, which meant I had to unload the whole trolley before adjusting the connection. Never had a problem with the old one, but like almost everything else nowadays the modern battery has been designed with cheapness in mind. At least Alan Golightly and I got it working.

My home for the day - the big Flat-Back umbrella was able to keep all the rain
off me. The angler in the back ground is Will Hadley, on the island Peg 34.
 Rob Heath, on Peg 14 to my left, fished right across to the dead reeds
 at about 16 metres.  I positioned my gear to the extreme right
of the the swim, but found the floating island too far out to fish to.

Peg 16 has one feature - a floating island slightly to the right, which is about 16 metres from the bank, but I had accidentally left my 14.5 and 16-metre sections at home, so decided to concentrate on a good presentation in open water rather than struggle to reach the island. At least the walk round wasn't muddy, thanks to the artificial turf laid all round the lake, from Manchester United's old training ground.

First cast - a fish hooked, and...
First drop in at 13 metres with an 8mm expander pellet saw a bite and a fish briefly hooked. Presumably foulhooked. Next cast the same thing happened, and I changed to bread fished from shallow down almost to the bottom, but never had a knock. On peg 34, in front of me, on the main island, I could see Will Hadley fishing bread at 16 metres, and I don't think he had a fish in the first hour.

I had started in an 8mm expander on a size 16 hook in the hope that with all the warm weather the fish might have been ready to have a proper feed, but like almost everyone else I had maggot as a back-up.

Eventually a switch back to expander saw a 3 lb carp come in, and next cast a four-pounder foulhooked, which after a long fight ended in my net. But I immediately switched to maggot, as clearly the fish weren't ready to feed properly. This produced two F1s about 2 lb each in the next hour, though I had a lot of liners, some of which I struck at because they looked like proper bites.

Jay Richardson with 24 lb 3 oz. Had he landed a big
double-figure carp which came off the size 18 hook
he could have framed. Jay took his fish mainly
 on corn fished down the track on Peg 21.

More liners
I'd been flicking maggots into a swim to my left, but two tries here didn't see even a liner. So with two hours to go I switched to this lighter rig with a size 18 hook on a light hooklength, in the 13-metre swim. Catapulting half-a-dozen maggots out every minute or two produced about four more F1s to a single maggot, and lots more liners. On the island Will started to land a few fish which looked to be up to 5 lb, and beyond him on Peg 32 Malcolm Roberts, who had had a fish or two on a pole started hitting fish on a waggler cast to the island in front of him, and he had a good last hour.

I had a pop-up om a bomb ready to cast to the island but never tried it. I probably should have done so while having a cup of delicious mushroom soup from my flask. Three more fish came adrift during that two hours, and I must assume all were foulhooked - Will had the same problem.

The weigh in
There were four DNWs altogether, and two of those were the two anglers to my right, so I was happy to be able to weigh in 16 lb 6 oz, which was at least a respectable weight. For the third Over 60s match in a row Rob Heath was on my immediate left, and he was able to fish across to vegetation, though it looked as if it might have been 16 metres, so it must have been hard work. He weighed 37 lb 13 oz for fifth out of the 26 anglers. But I forgot to take his photograph...

The first results sheet.

The second, out-of-focus, results sheet Pegs 28 to 36 are on the main island.

Well done, Vic

Winner was Vic German on 36, who fished long to his left and right with bread, altering the depth to find the fish. His weight was a magnificent 133 lb 14 oz, with Malcolm Roberts on second with 61 lb 13 oz. I was seventeenth, which I was happy with from that peg. Ideally you need a feature to fish to at the moment. That the fishing is difficult was shown by Chris Saunders, who has been winning a lot recently, weighing in just 3 lb 5 oz from Peg 8.

My next natch is Sunday on Damson at Decoy - though Gus Gausden will probably move it if there's a large entry, as the pegs from about 18 to 24 necessitate taking your gear down several steps to fish (and back up afterwards), which I wouldn't even attempt, and I doubt I'm the only one. Then Wednesday sees the Over 60s on Crow and Raven, at Rookery Farm Fishery, Pidley, where you can drive to every peg.

What will the new year bring? If I can still compete, that's all I ask.