A last-minute rescue act on Jay Lake, Pidley.

Peg 46, Jay, Pidley, Wednesday, Feb 2
Light rain was forecast all day, but still 32 turned up for this Over 60s match on Magpie and Jay Lakes. I paid a brief homage to my lucky mascot, Peppa Pig, before leaving home (Peppa appears at 7.25 actually), anticipating a nice, sheltered peg on Magpie with the South-East wind over my back. Somewhere between pegs 6 and 12 would be nice...

Nope; peg 46 on Jay came out, but I wasn't unhappy as the bridge peg 47 wasn't in. However, there were two slight downsides - I know that this stretch from 39 to 47 needs a full 14.5 metres to get to the other side, while a lot of other pegs can be reached with 13 metres; and the wind would definitely be sideways, from our right.

End peg, with the bridge 20 yards away to my left.

Rain all day

I decided against putting the umbrella up, though I did see one angler who had done so, and while the rain wasn't a great hindrance by the end of the match anything left out was soaked as the rain never stopped. I kept things simple - a shallow rig for the far side, a deep 1 gram one for down the track, and a lighter one in case I had a look in the margins.

 I know 1 gram is very heavy for most people, but Bryan Lakey convinced me of the advantages of using a heavy rig, which can be just as sensitive as a lighter one. Although he was known as a bream angler/leger specialist he actually made his name winning match after match on the Fen drains catching roach with huge peacock quills to defeat the wind.

A great start
First drop on the far side, using 13 metres and a half-butt with punch bread, saw the float disappear and a 4 lb carp come in. I then fancied I saw a few twitches of the float, without it ever going right under, so I knew that were still fish there, and in fact lost two a few seconds after hooking them, possibly foulhooked. But another hour on the bread produced nothing. A switch to three maggots immediately brought a six-pounder hooked in the nose, which gave me a real run-around, and then a bigger fish around 8 lb. In the next hour I unaccountably lost two more halfway in, then landed another four-pounder.

I was trying out a Matrix hollow 10/12 elastic, which is really stretchy, but this allowed me to get the pole back on the rollers quickly. Using a stronger elastic, such as I tend to use on Decoy, where the fish can be much bigger, causes problems in that department, but it has the advantage of not allowing huge fish to run straight through the next swim. In any case, on this occasion I had no-one on 47 to my left, and no-one on 45 and 44 to my right.

Down the track
Then the wind got up, threatening to break my pole, and I decided I had to have a look down the track with maggot. Before the match Steve Tilsley had told me had had about 17 lb from my peg a few weeks ago, with nothing from the far side, but that down the track had given him a few fish. The key advice was that he thought that groundbait had attracted fish in, and he had also lost some foulhooked. So he assumed the groundbait had at least made the fish curious enough to come into the swim.

I had started the match by putting some Sweet F1 groundbait in the deepest area I could find, five sections of pole towards the bridge, with my back to the wind. So now I dropped in here and soon missed a bite, then hooked a carp of about 1 lb. But fishing this swim meant the reflections were very awkward, so I made the Executive decision to start another swim more in front of me at four sections, which allowed me to let the rig drift a couple of feet to the left, after which I slowly pulled it back into the wind. This brought some small perch. one 3 lb common, and some very small touches on the float.

Fish from the margins

Another look right across was fruitless so, with 90 minutes left, I had a look in the margins. First drop into about four feet of water brought a chunky 1 lb carp, then two more came off. I know the elastic was a bit tight -the result of snipping off a few inches now and again at the connector end. So I changed it for a slightly looser elastic, but two more came off before I came really close to the bank (which meant turning right round on my box), where I managed to land four or five more about 1 lb.

Lucky Old Me with lots of fishies.

With 30 minutes left I went to the track swim and yes, there were fish there. A rudd, then carp of 2 lb and 4 lb graced my landing net before I hit another big one. Thirty seconds later the match ended and I shouted "Fish On" to Ray Myring, on my right. The elastic on this rig was Preston 13 Hollo, which was also rather too tight - the four-pounder took only about six feet from the pole. But this last fish bettered that...

Definitely foulhooked

Seconds after I had shouted to Ray, with the pole tip underwater I was horrified to see my fish splash the OTHER side of peg 47, almost under the bridge 20 yards away. I couldn't believe that the 16 hook would hold under that pressure, but it did! Clearly the fish was foulhooked.

Ten or 15 anxious minutes later a tail appeared about ten yards away, and my hook was definitely in it. I had visions of Alex, having weighed everyone in, standing behind me with the scales urging me to hurry up, or - worse- telling me the fish would be disqualified. But he never appeared.

At least five minutes after that, with my heart in my mouth I managed to manoeuvre the fish to my right by pulling lots of elastic via the puller bung, push the net in front of it with my left hand, and persuade it to dive down into the landing net. You must all know the procedure, which needs luck to succeed. So the fish was mine - all 10 lb of it! Lucky, I know, but you've still got to get 'em in! And the hook fell out in the net...

The weigh in
Mick Cox on 2 came over while I was packing away and said he had had just four fish for 22 lb, and that Steve Tilsley on 5 had weighed only 12 lb. That was a surprise to me as that stretch had fished really well when I was on 8 a few weeks ago.

Jay 1-24. Steve Tilsley fished peg 5 but obviously had a doppleganger on Peg 20!!!

Alex soon came round with the scales, and said something about 44 lb. My hearing aids are playing up (the rain always affects them anyway) and I didn't hear him properly. But later I realised he must have said I needed 44 lb, as top weight to me was 43 lb 14 oz. Good old Alex tipped my first net into the weigh bag and, without my asking, pulled out the second net and did the honours. Thanks, mate. Anyway, they all weighed 47 lb, which was top weight on the lake and second overall to a 50 lb on Magpie which surprisingly, considering the fact that the weather was not cold, fished very hard. I was a happy, but damp, bunny.

Jay 1-47. I was placed second overall under the Continental System.

My next match is on Sunday on Six-Island at Decoy. The wind direction will probably determine where the best area is. A nice warm Westerly and my favourite Peg 9 will do me nicely. And of course I will watch Peppa Pg before I leave home.

Magpie 1-22. Weights here were much better than on the other half of the lake.

Magpie 23-36.