While I was bopping away and doing the hand-jive to the Bluejays, in company with other assorted
I dread to think how many times I have, in the past, been sea fishing or trout fishing and not caught a lot only for a local to say: "You should have been here yesterday". It was like that for this match, which I missed because I wasn't feeling great after contracting a Summer Cold, which is still hanging about on my chest. Plenty of fish for all...and "I wasn't there" (as Max Boyce nearly used to say).
The result was great, but skewed - the winner was Pete The Meat (again), with a super 216 lb 3 oz, taken mainly in the very shallow margins (and he was Golden Peg). The runner-up was Kevin Lee, who went over in his nets, being eventually credited with 185 lb 13 oz, but the weighers-in added up the totals of his nets and worked out that, if he'd not gone over, he would have WON by 10 oz!! Stupid Boy!
On end peg 17 Dick Warrener spent the morning watching Kevon fill his nets, and wondered what he was doing wrong. Then, suddenly the carp turned up and Dick made hay, with 154 lb 8 oz for third. Nice One, Son. The nine of them averaged over 120 lb.
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Thursday, July 21, Elm, Decoy
I wasn't feeling 100 per cent for this Spratts match, and have been having a problem with my right shoulder and right hand, but the heatwave had passed and I decided I would just go and have a pleasant day's fishing and enjoy myself, and not bother about the result. Well, that panned out exactly right, as you will see...
Peg 4 was my home for the day - fine by me as it meant I had some Raspberry Ripple, with a cool NNE breeze into my face from the left. You can't beat a bit of Raspberry Ripple in Summer! Given a choice I would, of course, have opted for 8 or 9, which have all-year-round form. I've also done very well on 12, in the corner, but it was almost flat calm today.
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| My peg 4. The shallow margins are not easy to fish, with few flat spots. The reeds to the left looked nice, so I fished there for barbel, but never had any at all. |
So back out, and the inevitable - no more bites for 15 minutes. A change to the pole in the the deep margin to my right, with corn, also brought nothing. In the next hour I tried dead maggot in the left margin, where I had put in maggot and hemp, and got bites immediately, from tiny perch. An hour gone, and just 4 lb in the net.
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| Alan Porter, opposite me, had all his fish on a feeder with a yellow wafter. We weighed this one at 15 lb 9 oz. |
The next hour brought two F1s of 2 lb and 3 lb, which fought like the devil - I think others found the same thing, because now there was splashing in some swims, especially on 7, where Peter Spriggs was fishing. I assume that the lower temperature, plus the fact that the aerators had been on all night, had upped the oxygen content.
Two hours gone and John on my left had one fish, and I told him I thought that Bob Allen, on my right, had two. "Tell him that's two too many," said John. So I delivered the message, and found out that Bob also had just one. At least I wasn't last, though both Alan Porter and Bob Barrett, opposite, had three or four fish each on a feeder.
Another look in the longer swim brought just a liner, so I persevered in the spot I'd had the two F1s and slowly, very slowly, bites came. One or two fish came off, but on the whole I was happy with the new elastic, even though it was taking me ages to land the F1s. Then I hit a carp which was probably foulhooked and eventually broke me on the hooklength as it picked up speed in preparation for taking off and jetting over the nearby River Nene.
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| Peter Chilton had to contend with hardly any ripple in his Peg 12, in the corner. |
That decided me to change again, to a 17 hollow, which worked very well. In fact I now started landing the bigger fish over 4 lb far, far more quickly than the F1s, which were still turbo-charged. A change to cat meat brought the occasional bigger fish, best around 8 lb, which I put in my second net, but I had to wait longer for bites.
The best spell came when I re-adjusted the depth from about an inch overdepth to having the corn just touch bottom. Then a tiny lift of about a quarter of an inch brought some immediate bites from both F1s and bigger carp. I was really enjoying it, although I suspected that John, on my left, had probably caught me up as he had a lot of splashing, as there was from Peter Spriggs' swim to his left. Alan opposite had had fish on a feeder and when I looked up he was now on a pole in the margins, so I thought he was bagging. In fact he told me afterwards he never had a fish on the pole.
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| Joe Bedford celebrates his 93rd birthday on July 31st... but he can still catch 'em. This net went nearly 60 lb. |
I couldn't believe that the dead maggot swim wouldn't produce barbel, but it never did. Ten minutes to go and I had about 25 lb in the second net, with 40 lb in the first. Then a six-pounder took cat meat, which was netted really quickly with my pole tip under the surface, which brought the fish to the top, followed by an F1 on corn (I was having to wait too long for bites on meat and with so little time left I needed some quick fish).
Three minutes to go and I hooked my first barbel, about 2 lb, on corn, which left me with only seconds on the clock after I had landed it. Barbel are so annoying - you know the fish is not huge, but they will not give in. I was lucky enough to land it on the first breather it took - when they come straight up and you have about two seconds to net them before they dive down again.
Back out and only seconds later I got a bite, and the elastic came out. This was possibly bigger; then the match ended and I took my time. Indeed it was the best fish of the day at nearly 10 lb. I popped it in the keepnet a few minutes after the match finished. Probably 40 lb-plus in that net.
John Garner said he had about 80 lb, and I said I did, too. Bob Allen was the first to weigh - 95 lb 10 oz, so he had beaten us both and there was now no chance I would frame, as I was sure that John, Peter Spriggs and Alan Porter had also beaten me, and probably some others as well..
The weighing party came to my swim and John brought out my first net, accompanied by wide eyes from everybody watching, and a few smirks as they looked at me. My heart dropped - there were far more fish in the net than I had assumed.
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| Me doing a barely-passable impression of Ken Dodd. |
Trevor announced: "56 lb" and a few ounces. That would be knocked back to 50 lb. Then up came the second net...and the same thing happened! "57 lb" and a lot of ounces. Total 100 lb, and I had gifted about 14 lb to my fellow-anglers. Big-hearted, or what? Then John weighed in his 80 lb which turned out to be 92 lb. He is nearly as bad as me.
Peter Spriggs had sensibly got four nets out, and totalled 139 lb 11 oz, for his umpteenth win in a row, followed by Trevor, who had used all three nets for 105 lb 15 oz! Several near-100 lb nets followed, and it seemed to me that had all had bigger fish than I had, with far fewer F1s. Then Dick Warrener, also using his three nets, totalled 102 lb 13 oz, which also beat me. Allan opposite had, as I had thought, got over 90 lb - in fact he weighed in 94 lb 3 oz
I finished fourth, and Trevor thanked me for putting him in second place, which I should have had, and to rub it in he clipped some money to the weighing-in board as I photographed it, so I could be reminded of what I had lost. How kind.
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| Trev shows me what I should have won!! |
In fact the last time I fished the Vets National I was top on my 15-peg lake and, to be honest, a good angler with a decent pole (which I didn't have then) could have got a much bigger weight and perhaps have won the match. I'm not sure if that peg is still in as I think it was on Reptile, which has been altered.
RESULT BELOW:
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| Shaun in corner peg 13, had 99 lb 8 oz (in three nets). |
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| Peter Barnes had fish early when others were struggling, but then they disappeared. |
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| Trevor found out some real clonkers. |
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