This was the Veterans National, for anglers from 65 onwards, and about 80 of us fished. My peg 1 on Snake was opposite an island - a nice-looking swim - and an angler was drawn on there; then we were on 3, 5 and 8, on the East bank, with two on the end bank, and the rest opposite us. I knew nothing about the lake, except that the angler on my right, from Kent, said he had walked round the whole complex the previous day and on this lake the anglers on the opposite bank were catching fish.
The draw, once started, went through quickly and as far as I know there were no problems with the Angling Trust organisation. I was looking forward to it as I have a reasonable record in Veterans Nationals, having been in the money several times.
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| My swim 5 - fairly featureless but there are plenty of fish in Makins. |
I started out at 11.5 metres, with pellet, and took three bream in the first hour or so, before coming in to have a look in the margins with corn. The angler on my left, on 3, also took two or three fish out, before coming back in. I had nothing for about another hour, and another foray out to 11.5 metres brought only a liner.
But then I started to get bites in my right margin, on a top two, and eventually a 5 lb carp came in. From then on I stayed mainly in the margins, where corn took about three more, with another three coming off. To my right the angler seemed to be struggling, but the angler on 5 did suddenly catch three carp very quickly, and I thought I would be on for a thrashing.
A move to the left margin saw some more bites, when, strangely, I started hooking bream which came off. I would hook a fish, and plainly see it under the surface, and then it would just come off. Once I hooked a fish very briefly, quickly pulled out, and the 3 lb bream leapt out two feet from the surface. I had put in dead maggots, which I thought the bream might prefer over corn, but after that I took only tiny perch, plus one more 5 lb carp came from that swim on cat meat before I turned back to the right margin.
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| Steve Fitzpatrick, former editor of Angling Times, and myself (the one in a filthy bib and brace). |
My fish weighed 24.475 kilos, while the angler on my right didn't weigh, and the one on my left had 11 kilos, with the angler on 1 weighing 20 kilos. Converting my 24 kilos to pounds is: 24x2 = 48; then add one tenth (4.8)= total 52.8 lb plus about 1 lb for the 425 grams.
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| The result from Snake (top) and Reptile. Pegs 9 and 11 were on the end bank of my lake. |
On the opposite bank sat Tony Watling, from St Ives, near me, and he won the lake with 57 kilos fishing in the margins. He had fished an open on the Sunday and was drawn on the same bank on this lake, and told me that all the top weights on Snake had come from his bank (pegs 13 to 23), while mine opposite had fished very badly. He said that he thought my 24 kilos was a very good weight from my bank. I'll take that as a compliment from a vastly-experienced match angler.
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It was great to see Wendy back in action, for the first time since injuring herself in February. I would have preferred a peg in the middle, rather than in the corner, but since the carp in Yew are on the large size it's always possible to get a big weight If they suddenly turn up, and you can do that from any peg. There was a little wind, though for the first half of the match I had no ripple, which was strange as what breeze there was, was blowing into my corner.
I started out trying to mug fish with a lassoed 6mm pellet, but never had a take. Down the lake Trevor Cousins started in the same way, as I expected he would, and in fact managed to take several good fish, from 8 lb upwards, before a ripple came in his swim and he could no longer see the fish.
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| The wind was blowing into my end of the lake, but there was no ripple in the corner I was fishing until the last hour.. |
After my first fruitless attempts I went out to 13 metres, fishing in a little cut-out in the reeds to my left, the end bank. But the reeds are very tall here, and leaning over, so it wasn't possible to get right into the bank without risking being tangled up in a reed. I fed, therefore, just with a small tosspot, about three feet from the bank, in between four and five feet of water, and first cast I hooked, and landed, a 9 lb common on a 4mm pellet.
In the next 90 minutes I hooked eight more fish from that swim...and lost every one!!!
One was almost certainly foulhooked, and it took me into the reeds (though I got the rig back) but the others just appeared to be big fish, which made some strong runs, but not the screeching take-offs you associate with foulhooked fish. In all cases the hook just pulled out, and I suspected that in the heat, which was now rising really high in the blazing sun, the fish were not taking the bait properly. Then I landed a fish, which took corn, but at that point the bites just stopped.
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| Joe Bedford celebrated his 93rd birthday by fishing... |
I immediately put in some dead maggots, baiting with a bunch of six dead reds, expecting more barbel, but in the next hour or two it lured three or four more carp, best about 10 lb, including one foulhooked in the pectoral fin. Unfortunately I also lost another five or six, including a huge fish foulhooked in the tail which I had almost in the net three times before we parted company. The maggots also tempted two or three tiny perch.
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| ...and he included definitely the prettiest fish caught in the match. |
Twenty minutes to go and I dropped a shallow margin rig, baited with corn, beside the reeds to my right. But the float sank farther than it should have done, so I had a re-plumb, and found that the shallow swim I had plumbed up suddenly dropped straight down to five feet.
I shouted "Fish On"...and two minutes later shouted "Fish Off" as the hook pulled out again. I had lost no fewer than 16 fish. Not my day.
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| Trevor, second on the day, brings in a net to be weighed. |
I was using 13 hollow elastic, which allowed the fish a good long first run. However, when I was using the pole at 13 metres it was impossible to tell quickly whether the fish was foulhooked because as soon as the fish was on I had to dip the pole tip under the surface to hold the fish away from the reeds. This means I couldn't see how much elastic was coming out, or how fast, until I lifted the pole up.
However, on almost every occasion, stripping the elastic back got the fish in towards the side quite quickly and I felt confident in almost every case that I had the fish under control. Generally if a fish is foulhooked it makes that screeching run and doesn't come back towards the bank very far before it is off again. That wasn't happening on this occasion - the fish just seemed to be very powerful, refusing to come to the net before the hook pulled.
I was first to weigh, and the fish went 58 lb 6 oz. I couldn't see anyone else because of the high reeds, so had no idea who had caught what. In fact Bob Allen on pegf 25 won the match with 94 lb 9 oz, including two really big fish which looked as if they were both approaching 20 lb, but we didn't weigh them separately. Trevor Cousins was runner-up with 85 lb, with Dick Warrener third on 80 lb 2 oz. I wish I could mug fish like Trevor - he nearly always uses red pellets; I wonder if that is a factor?
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| Bob Allen, winner with 94 lb 9 oz, including two 'munters.' I've never known anyone better than Bob at estimating his final weight. He's always very close, and had estimated this catch at 92 lb. |
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