A few bream show in the sun on Beastie, Decoy

 Peg 20, Beastie, Sunday, Mar 20.
I always leave home on a Sunday morning with a chuckle in my throat and a smile on my face after watching Match Of The Day, followed by ten minutes of Peppa Pig. Whatever the pig family does, they always end lying on their back, feet in the air, and laughing fit to bust. It's infectious.

But the smile was wiped away on Sunday when I discovered that my windscreen was covered in ice YET AGAIN. And things didn't get any better when I drew Peg 20 in the JV match. It's a sort of in-between peg, set back with 19 in a bay, and so often it can't compete with 18, and the pegs to the right, 21 to 25. 

The sun had his hat on at the draw! Andy Gausden puts Ian Frith's name on the scales sheet.

Bad memories!
I remember a Supercup match some years ago, fishing for Grebe AC, when my section was 18, 19 and 20, and I drew 20. Peg 18, which can be a real flier, won the match I think, and 19 beat me by ounces, so I came last in the section, which did my already-shaky reputation no good at all! It was the dodgiest section in the match, though I didn't expect any of the others to believe it...

Peg 20 - down five steps. Smug was sitting on 22, on the point on the right of the picture.

Sun!

On this occasion we had some sun with the North-Easterly wind, though that made it impossible to fish a little to my right, with the wind, when the match had started, because of its reflection on the water.

When 20 minutes on the feeder with a wafter produced not even a shiver on the tip, and seeing Andy Gausden on 21 get a fish on the pole, I went out to 13 metres, into the wind (cos it's easier than fishing sideways to it) and eventually, after nearly an hour, I hit a good fish on corn. After three or four minutes it came into the side and promptly snagged me on the roots of a cut-down bush just to my left.

Andy Gausden, to my right, overtook me in the last hour
and weighed 39 lb 3 oz of mainly bream.

I prodded about with my landing net, and just as I was prepared to give up, the fish came free, and ended in my net - an 8 lb carp. That was followed by a 2 lb F1, and another two fish which came off halfway in. Then a big bream which I had hooked leaped clear of the water and promptly shed the hook.

Bream on maggot
A swim at 2+3 into the wind didn't produce, but when I lay the rig out towards the right. where I had not put any bait at all, an F1 took the corn on the drop. A bream followed, and I changed to maggot, laid on the bottom about four inches, which produced another five or six bream in the next 90 minutes, and a big fish hooked on worm which also came adrift.. Andy seemed to be struggling, but as we approached an hour to go he started to catch fish.

Smug Whiting, third overall with 52 lb 6 oz on Peg 22.

A quick look in the margin with cat meat brought two liners and then a 3 lb F1, but nothing more. That was followed by another bream in the righthand swim, and with ten minutes to go I tried one drop in the margin with cat meat, and a drop with corn which produced the best bream of the day at 3 lb. Meanwhile Andy had had a good hour, and had certainly overtaken me. 

The weigh in
Our scales started at 18 where I was surprised to see that Barry Webb weighed only 26 lb 6 oz. I had 31 lb 11 oz, which came nowhere, but if a couple of the better fish had stuck I might have snatched the section. Andy Gausden on 21 won my four-peg section by default with 39 lb 3 oz, because Smug Whiting next door was third overall with 52 lb 6 oz, taken on a pole. On 24 Ian Frith fished at 13 metres with a pole all day, and corn,  for 69 lb 10 oz and second spot.

The winner was Lee Kendall on 17, who took about 45 lb of bream in the first four-and-a-half hours, before coming into the margins for the last hour and landing four lumps. He totalled 86 lb 7 oz, all taken on maggot. On peg 5 Chris Saunders fished cat meat all day on a medium-length pole, for 44 lb 12 oz of mainly F1s for fourth, and a section win.

THE RESULT

Pegs 1-17.

Pegs 18-31.

My next match is likely to be on Wednesday at Pidley, where I would like a peg on Magpie, and the water must be warming up a little by now, and I fancy the weights may be better on Magpie, which is shallower than Raven.