Satisfied with my section on Cedar, Decoy

Peg 7, Sunday, Jan 23
I look forward to Sunday mornings, especially the couple of hours before I set off to fish. Up at 5.30 am, take my pills, then I have to wait before I eat anything, so I turn on the Telly for Peppa Pig and the pre-recorded Match Of The Day. 

Peppa Pig I can understand; footballers I cannot - how can a defender find himself running full pelt back TOWARDS his own goal ready to accidentally hoof a cross by the opposition straight past his own goalkeeper? The title 'defender' has clearly passed them by (but what do I know about the offside trap?). And this Sunday as I watched while eating my porridge I was so frustrated I got up and left without my phone. But fear not - Steve Tilsley photographed the result and sent it to me. 

A nice start
So on to the JV match with ten on Cedar and ten on Damson and Peg 7 Cedar was my home for the day. There were five on each bank - Pegs 1, 4, 7, 10 and 13 on our bank, and five opposite and there was a tiny bit more colour in the water than there has been lately. A warm morning greeted us, though gradually the South-Westerly breeze got stronger and colder and by the end those on pegs 14 to 26 must have been frozen. I guess nearly everyone used maggots almost all day - as I did. And I was probably the first to catch a fish - a 2 lb bream after about eight minutes, on the 12-metre line. 

Fish in the margin!

I started flicking maggots down to my left margin, where there was a bit of a hole, right from the start. And after the next hour without another fish on the long pole line I looked down to see a huge cloud of mud welling up in that left margin, caused by a fish snuffling around the bank somewhere up near the surface. Immediately I put in  a bait, and as I did so more mud came up from the deep area I had baited. I fished hard for half an hour, expecting barbel, but with just one tiny tap on the float to show for my efforts, and no more mud clouds.

Next I put out a maggot feeder - Ron Cuthbert opposite on 20 had had a carp earlier, and I had seen Roy Whincup to my right on 4 also take one. I had just a couple of tiny  liners, so it was back to the long pole, with the float dotted down to a mere pimple. I  could see Ron opposite fishing the same way. Half an hour later a 7 lb common came in, which I played gently on the size 16 hook and 13 elastic. The bite was the tiniest shiver of that pimple. It took another hour for another good carp to come in, and soon after that, a 3 lb common, all giving the tiniest bites imaginable.

A good finish
On the far bank and to my right on Peg 23 someone had been taking a lot more fish than me - not frantic sport, but steady, and they included a couple that looked to me to be in double figures. I expected that Roy Whincup, opposite him, had probably also got some good fish, as he always seems able to put a weight together.

The last two hours I tried maggot feeder again, had another look in the margin, and kept feeding a few maggots on the long pole line, all without even a liner. Then, as I was on scales, I folded up the feeder rod with 15 minutes to go (resting the swim, you understand) and went out on the long pole again. In that last ten minutes I had two more bites and  in came a 3 lb bream, followed by another 3 lb common!

The weigh in
On Peg 1 Grandad (not mine) had just one fish - a really fat, silvery common carp that weighed 10 lb 13 oz. Next to weigh was Roy Whincup, whose 25 lb 8 oz included one that must have been 13 lb. So I had been wrong in assuming Roy would have a big weight. My six fish went 27 lb 9 oz, and past me Jim Reagan weighed in 37 lb 2 oz also taken on the long pole. In the corner, the last peg on our bank, Ian Frith pole-fished his usual two lines of one long against the end bank and one in open water for a magnificent 99 lb 12 oz. 

Cedar result - my section A was at the car park end of the lake.

On the far bank the highlights were the last two pegs - 105 lb 4 oz by Ernie Lowbridge on 23 taken feeding maggots via a very small  pole pot at about 13 metres, and 135 lb 8 oz on Peg 26 in the corner. Here Perry Briggs had dobbed maggots at 14.5 metres to the end bank, and had not fed a single maggot all day. The weights on Damson were smaller, but more consistent.

A surprise
Gus handed out the winnings and I was taken aback when he said I'd won my section by default, and handed me £25. The sections on Cedar had been allocated at each end (which is fairer than each bank) and the top two had been in my section, leaving me top of the other three (which were on my bank). Had the section been the first two on our bank and the first three on the far bank I would not have won anything - lucky Peppa Pig came up trumps after all!

Damson - won on Peg 13 in the first corner.

My next match is Wednesday on Raven and Jay at Pidley, where it will be mainly 13 metre or 14.5 metre dobbing to the far bank, wind permitting. I shall be offering up a prayer to Peppa Pig before I leave, and promising to watch him next Sunday morning. Anything to give me an edge.