A bit of a feeder-fest for me on Crow, Rookery Farm, Pidley

Peg 8, Crow, Pidley
This was my first Pidley Over 60s match for months (I go there when my midweek club matches have finished) and it was held on Magpie and Crow lakes, with 24 entered. Magpie has some shelter, but Crow felt the full force of the howling wind, and after reading and hearing about recent matches there I decided to fish a maggot feeder, although I did make a short pole up.

There's a rolling draw for these matches, which gave me at least half an hour before the start to sit in the back of Steve Tilsley's van and reminisce about the years of match fishing in Days Of Yore. That's one of the delights of matches - nostalgia, but also picking he brains of others. And Steve told me what I had suspected - the favoured pegs on Crow have been from about 11 onwards.

A big, cold wind greeted us on Crow. I made up a pole, but never used it.
Laying it on the bank was the only way of preventing it blowing away!

At the start of the match the wind was even blowing my side tray cover open - from the closed position! I'd already clipped my line up, after having made just one exploratory cast, which landed about a foot from the far bank; Oh that I could always do that! The wind put a huge bow in the line, but I clipped up without tightening.

Fishing a bow
Years of bream fishing on the Fens have given me confidence to fish a bomb or feeder without tightening up immediately after the cast. I can't remember the last time I plunged the rod tip down under the water and reeled in to tighten the line, because I think it often moves the bait and the feeder or bomb, and bream certainly watch the bait fall before going down and taking it in their mouths. In fact I used to have reels with Black Spider and White Spider braid on, so I could allow the wind to form a bow, and I'd watch the bow tighten when I got a bite. It was a common technique in the Fens - slacklining.

So now, when there's a wind, as there certainly was on this occasion, I put the rod on the rest and slowly tighten, inch by inch, confident it will not move the feeder, but confident I will see a bite. The swingtip does it better than a quiver tip, but I don't use a swingtip any more.

A good start on the maggot feeder

Steve Tilsley was to my right. We had a good
old chinwag before the start of the match.

My first two casts across didn't give me a bite, but the third, about eight feet from the far bank, with two maggots, saw a slow wrap-round and a 2 lb common come to the net. I carried on there and started getting a fish about every ten minutes. Two took the bait almost before I had the rod on the rest.

 I was using only a four-inch hooklength, so didn't move the feeder unless I had gone five minutes without a bite, when I twitched it as short a distance as I could, and this produced several fish, which must have been within inches of the bait. All my fish were all between 1 lb and 5 lb, but mainly 2 lb.

One time the two maggots had twizzled the hooklength, so I changed to three and this seemed better. And after that I changed absolutely nothing - I caught steadily for the full five hours, with the bites being often just a slight twitch forward. It's possible that the hooklength helped - it was 4 lb red line, given away with Angling Times some years ago and whenever I use it I seem to catch fish. You'd think that red would show up, wouldn't you? But it seems to work for me when I remember to use it(!)

Alan Owen, a regular in the Over 60s events,
was on Peg 10 to my left and found that big fish
fairly early on. he weighed 36 lb 12 oz.

The feeder emptied quickly
The maggot feeder was the large Preston ICS model, which is a bit fiddly to fill, and I have found that the maggots seem to come out very quickly - if I miscast and immediately retrieved they were almost always completely gone. That's another reason I don't want the feeder to move if I am using only a four-inch hooklength. It would be different if it was 12 inches or more.

Steve Tilsley, to my right, had a poor start but found fish around 12 o'clock on his maggot feeder, and Alan Owen to my left on 10, had fish all day, but on and off. I had managed to find the right length of cast - still on the shallow margins on the far side - and had about 30 fish (I didn't count them) which weighed 83 lb 2 oz, top on the lake. I was happy to  hear the shout to end the match, as the cold had started to penetrate, despite my six layers of clothing.

What about Magpie?
Steve and I agreed at the start that weights would be much lower in Magpie, even though it has more shelter. My mate Mike Rawson had ring me to say he was on Magpie 26, which is tucked away in a corner, with lots of lillies, and was not one of the favoured pegs. But at the end he drove up and said he had had 17 lb 2 oz, which was not bad, but that there was a 112 lb on Peg 2. That was a surprise to me. 

Steve grabbed my phone and took my picture. Thank, mate.

The captor of that 112 lb turned out to be regular Will Hadley, who had fished bread for half an hour without a bite, but had then changed to maggot on the deck at 13 metres. He said that the lillies to his left were not on the surface; but he was surprised when fish ran right through the area without once snagging him. Perhaps that lily bed has vanished.

Mike lost three big fish in his lilly pads, came fifth on the lake, and needed only 1 lb 1 oz more to have come third.

The early pegs on Crow.

The other end of Crow.

The first sheet from Magpie.

Second sheet from Magpie.

Continental payout
There's a Continental payout when more than one lake is used, so Will came first overall and I came second. Then the best second weight on either lake came third - which was Mark Waring on Crow 14, who weighed in 79 lb 2 oz, followed by the second on Magpie, Colin Walker on 34 with 25 lb 2 oz. Then the third on either lake were designated section winners by default. One of those was 91-year-old John Pratt!!

Two good weights did come from past me on Crow, on Pegs 14 and 22. And I was very happy at the end as I'd had a good day's fishing, which was more important to me than framing. And it's given me confidence to fish the feeder more often, because normally the pole is my first choice.

My next match is Sunday with JV on Lou's and Four-Island at Decoy. Four-Island is not popular with a lot of the anglers because the reeds have encroached into a lot of the swims. I haven't fished it for years, so I have no particular thoughts on it. On Lou's the dream draw is Peg 6, which offers a long chuck with a feeder to the far-bank reeds, which has produced some huge weights. But the pole also wins on this peg.  If the wind is South-West as forecast Pegs 1 to 6 will offer something of a back wind.

Then next Wednesday I am back on Pidley, with Magpie and Raven provisionally selected for the Over 60s Christmas match.