Peg16 on Yew - the sort of peg I dream about. Tucked in the corner at the Northern end of the lake, it's produced a lot of big catches in its time, including 180 lb to Peter Spriggs last year in a Fenland Rods match. And it was drawn for me in this Spratts match! The gods smileth upon me...
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| My swim - like glass in the heat. |
But walking down to the swim I slowly became loaded down with foreboding. I walked past swims with a beautiful ripple, down to the end, where the water was like glass, reflecting the burning rays of an early-Spring sun melting down from a cloudless sky. The gods had played a trick on me. The wind was from the North-East, with the high end bank, and bushes, protecting these end swims.
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| The early swims to our left, which we walked past had a welcoming Raspberry Ripple on them. |
To be fair, there were four of us in that predicament - Peter to my left and John Garner and Bob Barrett opposite. But I had a decent start - a 3 lb common on my first cast with a hybrid feeder and a yellow washter, while on unfancied peg 3 John Smith had an even better start - a double-figure fish from his margin first drop. Even so I think we all realised things were going to be difficult, with fish mooning about in pairs under the surface clearly hoping to start spawning at sometime in the future.
Opposite, John Garner had an early fish or two, while I managed to land an eight-pounder foulhooked on corn on four sections of pole. I kept looking towards the corner, and managed to foulhook a fish at 11 metres near a cut-out in the end reeds, which came off. But never had a bite anywhere else until I put some dead reds into the deep water some three metres out from the bank and landed a 3 lb tench. When the tench show it's likely to mean that carp are off the menu.
Peter Maskell, who was pleasure fishing, came round for some mussels as his had gone mushy. I gave him half of mine, but in fact I never tried putting one on the hook today. Then Terry Tribe, who has been poorly sick all Winter, came round for a chat, but had to move on because of the heat. Good to see him raring to start fishing again.
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| John Garner, opposite on 15, used some sort of magic to winkle out fish like this on cat meat. |
So halfway through, after three hours, I had three fish. John opposite was struggling, and Peter on my left had about the same number of fish I think. The sun was incessant and I had to liberally smear more suncream on my face; and still no welcoming Raspberry Ripple on our swims, while Trevor in the ripple was managing to mug the occasional big fish, with others taken fishing shallow.
Another tench showed in the deep swim but after another 90 minutes fishless and just over an hour to go I moved away from the righthand swim and had a look to the left. Should have done it earlier - a 3 lb F1 came on cat meat so I changed to corn, expecting possibly another F1. Nope - a 10 lb mirror took it. John opposite now had a good spell (he said later he took all his fish on cat meat), then two fish quickly on corn left me, with 20 minutes to go, with eight fish in my nets, and hoping for another big one or two. But no - that was my day finished, while I sat and watched Peter land another couple of good fish to end his match.
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| Best fish of the match, at 17 lb 6 oz, fell to John Smith. |
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| A switch to feeder did wonders for Alan Porter. |
Peter told me later that when he had his big catch the wind was blowing into that corner, as it would with any West or South in it. But I kept hoping the fish would be around the end reeds, and clearly they weren't. I wonder if that was because the fish were intending to spawn there?
I tried mugging a few fish on bunches of maggot, but although they didn't seem to be scared by it, they never took the bait. I should have concentrated on the deeper water away from the corner, I think, but in that heat you tend to think that the fish will move into the bank at some time. Even so my weight wasn't last in the match.
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| The winner, with 106 lb 14 oz Trevor Cousins, with a yet another big'un which we weighed at 15 lb 3 oz.. |
My eight fish went 49 lb 13 oz, which was more than I thought and, I judged, a respectable weight on the day. Peter next door beat me with 57 lb 7 oz - only the equivalent of one fish. But on peg 22 Trevor Cousins had worked so hard for his 106 lb 14 oz, which won, and deservedly so. Just past him Shaun Buddle came third with 82 lb 4 oz, taken mainly on 2+1, with his best fish taken from the margins on a bunch of ten maggots.
So I ended halfway, but with my next match again on Yew, on Sunday (pegs 1-15), and with North-Easterlies forecast for the next ten days, I think I would plump for a swim in the ripple rather than towards the higher numbers, which would normally be favourite.
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| Shaun Buddle, with 82 lb 14 oz, was just pipped for second place by Alan Porter. |
THE RESULT
East bank West bank
26 Dick Warrener 28 lb 13 oz 3 John Smith 63 lb 10 oz
24 Shaun Buddle 82 lb 4 oz 3rd 5 Alan Porter 83 lb 15 oz 2nd
22 Trevor Cousins 106 lb 14 oz 1st 7 Martin Parker 27 lb 8 oz
20 Peter Harrison 22 lb 12 oz 9 Joe Bedford 17 lb 2 oz
18 Peter Spriggs 57 lb 7 oz 11 Mike Rawson DNW
16 Mac Campbell 49 lb 13 oz 13 Bob Barrett 58 lb 13 oz
15 John Garner 73 lb 6 oz 4th
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| Last to weigh, but with the biggest smile, Dick Warrener with 28 lb 13 oz |
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