Musical chairs on Crow, Pidley

 Peg 24, Crow, Pidley, Wednesday, Jan 5
Thirty-two fished this Over 60s on Crow and Raven, and Tim Bates drew Crow 24 for me in the shop: "End Peg," he said. So I tootled off to the end peg on Crow -  a lovely-looking swim with reeds to my left on the end bank. I had a maggot feeder, and made up three pole rigs - one for the open water in front of me at 13 metres, another in the deep water at the bottom of the shelf to my left, and a third for a shallower swim at the end of a drainage pipe on the end bank.  I was all set and ready to go.

Three minutes before the start Chris Saunders came up. "I thought you said you were Peg 24," he said.

"Yes."

"Well, this is Peg 25."

"Is it?"

The numbers are fixed to the side of the concrete, and to see them you have to walk a few yards to the side. You can't see them while standing at the swim itself. Sure enough mine was 25. I had to move. Obviously when Tim said 'End Peg' he meant end peg in the match. So I slowly and painfully moved all my gear to the swim on the right, Peg 24.

The sun shone all day and it was pleasant until the late afternoon, when it turned cold.

A slow start
Twenty minutes after the match started I was again ready to go, having no idea whether the angler on my right had had any fish. Silly me - I should have checked. And for 40 minutes I was fishless, fishing a maggot feeder right across, and mulling over how I could have been so stupid. Then a thought struck me!

I wandered up to Chris Saunders, two swims to my right: "You told me in the cafe you had Peg 21." I said. "But this is 22."

Chris sat there, stunned, for a few seconds, then rang the shop to check his peg number - 21. Instantly we realised what had happened - he drove along past me as I was setting up on peg 25, to turn his car round. "What number are you," he asked."24" I answered. So he took the swim three pegs away, which happened to be empty and which was actually 22. 

Inevitably  Chris had to move, and as I felt partly responsible I took a few bits and pieces to his new swim before leaving him to move the heavy stuff. Back in my own swim I soon had a bite on the maggot feeder cast right across to the far side, and a 2 lb common came in, hooked on double maggot on a small size 16 hook. At least the day wasn't going to be a complete washout.

Chris Saunders caught on pole, waggler and 
feeder for fourth on Crow lake.

Fish come slowly
To my right Cliff Bellevue had had one carp that looked to be about 5 lb, also on a maggot feeder; and for the next two-and-a-half hours we both had occasional fish, say one every15 or 20 minutes. At one time Cliff somehow managed to break his line above the feeder and set up with a much bigger one. That seemed to be just as good as the smaller one, and perhaps even better. The splash certainly didn't put off the fish.

I could see Chris Saunders (now on 21) catching odd fish on feeder, pole and waggler, so I tried a pole swim in the deep water where I had been catapulting maggots, but never had a touch.

My best fish on the Preston ICS maggot feeder was around 7 lb, but most were 3 lb, and I had an inkling that three maggots got a bite more quickly than double. Generally I had to wait for at least ten minutes for a bite, which made it difficult to work out the best place to cast to - ie the distance from the far bank. The best tactic was to cast about three feet from the far bank and immediately tighten up so the feeder rolled down a few inches.

A terrible last hour, until...
With an hour to go Cliff and I were pretty much even. I had hopes that the last hour, when the light started to fade, would be better for me. But it didn't, and it wasn't! In that hour Cliff hooked six fish, landing five of them, and I had absolutely nothing. He had clearly drawn ahead of me.

Cliff Bellevue, overall winner with 56 lb 5 oz.

Then, with three minutes left the tip drew slowly round, bounced back, and started juddering. I struck into what was obviously another good fish and a few minutes after the match finished I successfully drew a beautiful-looking common of about 8 lb over the landing net.

The weigh in
I was first to weigh - 44 lb. I watched Cliff weigh, and took a picture. He totalled 56 lb 5 oz, while Chris, who had taken one fish on the waggler (also losing one), and two good fish on the pole in the last hour to add to the fish taken on a maggot feeder, weighed 37 lb 10 oz. Who knows what he might have had if he hadn't lost time, like me, playing musical chairs?

A surprise
Packing up was a nightmare for me, as my back really played up. But eventually everything was ensconsed in the van and I drove back to the shop for a photo of the full results.  "Third" said Tim as I came up to the counter and handed over a brown bag with notes in it. He was obviously talking to me. "Third on the lake?" I queried? "No - Third overall, Continental payout!"

So Cliff had won the lake, and the overall match, and I was second on Crow. The better pegs, I am told, are usually towards the high numbers, where I was, but before Christmas I won an Over 60s here from peg 8, so I thought that someone there might well have beaten us. Still, I'm not complaining. There were four DNWs on Crow.

Raven fished harder - half would have had a head wind and would probably have finished very cold indeed. It was won on peg 7 with 41 lb 4 oz but there were seven DNWs.

The first weighing sheet for Crow.

Second weighing sheet for Crow.

Raven's first sheet

Raven's second sheet

My next match is on Horseshoe, Decoy, on Sunday - a second lake will be used if there is a biggish entry. But with the massive overnight frost we've just had I don't expect much to be caught. Then next Wednesday the Over 60s on Magpie, with Jay also if the entry is big. Don't fancy that much, either, unless I can draw a flier on Magpie like 36.