Covid had hit one of our members, and Peter never turned up - we suspect he had forgotten this match was on a Saturday - so just nine of us competed in a cool South-Easterly for the Fenland Rods' Handicap medals. Now I have always found that if there's any East in a wind then things are likely to be difficult in a lot of swims; the poem about West is Best has a genuine foundation.
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| Our draw system - Mel makes the draw for the peg and drops each one of his balls into Allan Golightly's hands. |
Down to the swim and the wind was a little from the left into our bank, with my swim to the left sheltered by a high bank, making it almost flat some of the time. The rest had ripple, and I opted to start in the margins because I reasoned I'd probably end up there fairly quickly anyway, as this is so often a margin lake, and on this bank the margins are a nice two to three feet deep..
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| The cool South-Easterly wind was in my face, but it was never strong enough to make fishing difficult. The side bank to my left, which I had strongly fancied before the match, produced only one fish properly hooked. |
Within minutes of the match starting Allan Golightly on 10, opposite me, had a fish in his net that looked to be about 12 lb, taken at about 10 metres, and I wondered whether I should come away from the margins. But I had had a liner or two on cat meat to my right, in about three feet of water a foot from the bank, and two minutes later a 1 lb F1 took it. I changed immediately to corn and had another quickly. Then a 7 lb common on corn from the same swim.
As as happened so many times this year, with the water clear, that swim dried up, though I lost a couple obviously foulhooked, and I went out to the 2+3 swim with corn, intending to leave the left margin until later. Nothing there so I eventually went out to the left bank. First drop I pole-potted a few 4mm expanders in, with one on the hook, and before the float had settled it shot away and I was playing a 5 lb mirror.
I had 10/12 hollow elastic in, trying out lighter elastics than I usually use, and indeed although the fish was able to swim farther away from me after the striker I did like the way the elastic felt when the fish came closer to me. I never felt I was in danger of pulling out of the fish once I had had it on for a minute, although it took me longer to land them than it does on stronger elastic.
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| Callum Judge, on 6 with 30 lb 1 oz, has the neatest writing of any weight recorder I have ever seen. |
I eventually mugged one of those passing fish on sweetcorn and later wondered why I hadn't got a shallow rig ready for that purpose. After the match Martin Parker told me he had had margin fish on maggot -- I should have tried that and used the rig baited with maggot to try mugging others. But my brain must have slipped out of gear!
From that point on I got lots of liners in the margins, and I could just see dark shapes moving through the swim, so these liners were not fish at the bait. I just had to ignore them. Back out to the end bank and I had three more fish on, all of which came off, almost certainly foulhooked. So it was back to the margins for the last two hours.
The left margin about two feet from the bank brought another three or four fish on meat and corn, and I had a good look on mussel in the right margin, but never had a touch. Peter Maskell is apparently catching lots of fish on the strips here on mussel, so I will have it with me for the forseeable future.
I also changed my elastic from 10/12 hollow to a stronger orange solid, probably around 18, as one of the earlier fish had dived under my platform and snagged a small branch, and it was impossible to do anything with the light elastic except hang on and pray. My float was right under the platform at one point. Unbelievably my prayers were answered, and the fish, all 8 lb of it, eventually ended up in my landing net. Frankly it was a bit of a miracle. That never happened after I had changed elastics.
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| Martin Parker, in his first year in the club, had a fish or two on a feeder, which made me momentarily wonder whether I should have tried it. |
Around this time I had a problem with my landing net - the end ferrule broke off as I was lifting a fish. The same thing happened to my newest 4-metre landing net three weeks ago, and I hadn't got that back from Will Hadley, who was mending it for me, so I was using a spare, strong one (strong as I thought). When that broke I was forced to use an extending bank stick to land my last three fish, which was awkward because it was only about five feet long, and it meant I had to get the fish in very close; but somehow I managed it without losing any.
While packing away I told John Smith, when he came along, that I had between 70 lb and 80 lb, but both Kevin Lee and Mike Rawson next door asked why I had used only two nets, thinking I had over 100 lb and should have started a third. I was sure they were wrong...but it leaves doubt in your mind, doesn't it? Soon I would find out.
Catches were not huge - that cool wind must have affected the fish, Mel on 4 had 45 lb 15 oz and Martin on 62 lb 4 oz, though his fish looked to me to be weighing light and I began to wonder if I had over-estimated my weight.
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| Kevin on 11 was overall second and the Handicap winner by ounces. PS. Can you spot the minor error I made on taking the picture? |
Mike on 8 had three fish for 20 lb 5 oz and mine totalled 77 lb 12 oz - my estimate had been OK. But I knew Kevin Lee had fish, and after his two weighings Mel said I was still ahead - Kevin had 71 lb 1 oz including a fish which John said later was weighed at 11 lb, while I thought they shouted out 13 lb! One of us has suspect hearing...but it was a good-un whatever it weighed.
The last two, Dick and John couldn't match my weight so I ended as the winner. BUT this was a handicap match with our weights for that altered according to our position in the 2021 Club Championship, and the top three today being awarded medals. The pools were also being handed out on the result of the handicap result.
I won the Club Championship last year so I was fishing from scratch, while Kevin, who was second, was added 10%. That went down the line - an extra 10% added to each succeeding position (though newest member Martin Parker also had to fish from scratch this year). And it quickly became clear that the winner was between myself and Kevin.
I had to double-check, which left me declaring that the winner - by a matter of ounces after having 10% added - was Kevin, I was second, and Mel (on +60%) third about 4 lb behind. So I had a first and a second, as did Kev!
THE RESULT
for the Handicap medals only, the weights were adjusted.
I had to miss the first match this year because of Covid, and I know I have to miss another later this Summer (we're going to see the best Rock 'N Roll band in the world, the Bluejays); and because every match is taken into account, and some anglers hardly miss a match, I'm probably almost out of the running for this years Championship.
No matter - it's a good start for me as I get full points by winning this match. But miracles do happen...and if they don't then seeing the Bluejays again will make up for it.
Next two matches are on Yew, which can be very frustrating, but I MUST have a mugging rig handy.
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