Brought down to earth on Raven, Pidley

 Peg 25, Wednesday, Feb 2
After some decent results I was fairly confident of a good catch in the 37-entry Over 60s on Raven and Magpie, especially when Raven 25 was drawn for me. It's in the middle of a length which tends to produce consistent catches all year. Of course Life had other plans, and I (and others) were dropped down with a bump. My swim had just half-a-dozen solitary reeds within easy reaching distance, at 13 metres, with a bigger clump to the right. The wind for two days had been mild, and we all hoped it had warmed the water.

Peg 25 - my two carp came from the trees to the left at 14.5 metres. The wind was a 
little from the right and made it difficult to fish hard against the reeds to the right.

I spent the first 45 minutes dobbing bread in about two feet of water (as did most others) with just a couple of tiny liners. A switch to maggot (one red and a flouro pinkie, as recommended by Peter Carter) brought a few more liners, but halfway though the match, having also looked in the deep margins opposite, the nearside margin, the edge of the reed clump, and the deep water, I was fishless. I knew that the angler on Peg 1, behind me, had had several fish early on.

A 4-dram perch causes excitement

Ron Clark, on my right on 26, found a fish of about 1 lb on the nearside shelf, but that was all he had had. A perch of about a quarter-of-an-ounce then took my maggot bait, but then the excitement died until about an hour from the end when I added a section, giving me 14.5 metres, and tried a most-unlikely-looking swim about four feet from the bank between two trees on the opposite bank, to my left. 

Peter Carter on 22 always catches fish - he weighed 23 lb 12 oz
but was beaten to the section by Shaun Buddle on Peg 19.

There were obviously lots of snags in that swim, but amazingly first drop I had an indication which eventually turned into a proper bite, and a 4 lb mirror ended in my landing net. Three or four liners later a three-pounder followed, and then a lost fish. In that time Ron, fishing to the end of a clump of reeds, had three more fish which looked to be around 2 lb. That was the end of the match, held in quite nice conditions, with the head wind shielded by the high bank opposite us.

The weigh in
I galloped (well lolloped) over to Peg 1 with my phone at the ready, and sure enough the angler there, Mark Waring had a good catch - 64 lb 2 oz,, which was top on Raven and won the match overall. Well done indeed, Mark. I was then quite surprised to see some more reasonable catches right round the lake, even from unfancied pegs, until the scales came to the angler on my left, who had had two small carp and did not weigh.

A superb win from Mark Waring with 64 lb 2 oz on unfancied Peg 1. He
had a fish first drop on maggot on the far bank and several more early in the match.

I had 7 lb 4 oz, Ron weighed 8 lb 14 oz, and the next two weights at the end of the strip, were also reasonable - 12 lb and 22 lb. However, most weights were lower than might be expected in those mild conditions. I got the impression that the fish were hugging the reed beds and that the bare-bank swims were not as productive.

Magpie's weights were similar, headed by Will Hadley on favoured peg 36, with 59 lb 2 oz. Will has a fantastic record in these matches, and can take advantage of any edge he is given in the  form of a flier!

THE RESULTS

Raven 1-22

Raven 23-29

Magpie 1-22

Magpie 23-36

My next match in Sunday on Decoy, and I will miss Wednesday's Over 60s as I have a bowls match in the evening and it's not fair on my partner to play when I am knackered. On that subject, my doctor has found out that I am severely anaemic, and had prescribed tablets which will, hopefully, in the fullness of time, transform me into Superman, so I will not have to have a two-minute sit-down every two minutes when I pack away my tackle. One can but dream...