The problems started after I had taken my gear to my swim, when I had to drive back to the toilet. But no problem - I felt fit as a Stradivarius violin as I walked back to my peg, only to realise I had left my lovely big Nu-Fish side tray behind. That really was inconvenient - because I was on a platform I had to place my various bait boxes either behind me on my holdall (which meant I couldn't easily open it) or on the platform (which meant if I hadn't already kicked it in, I had to get off my box and bend down every time I needed some bait).
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| Peg 3 - the right end of the lake, but not much in the way of long margins. |
Those three fish seemed to me to be a reasonable start as the only other person I had seen land anything was Bob Barrett, opposite, who had one or two on feeder down the margin. Peter Spriggs on 26 (my favourite swim on the lake) didn't seem to have had anything at his usual 2+2 with cat meat or paste. But fish were moving under the surface, so I guessed Trevor on 7 would probably have mugged a few. I couldn't see him from my swim.
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| Wendy Bedford, smiling after the rain, on Peg 12 in the corner. Behind her is her brother-in-law Joe, aged 93, who still fishes all our matches. |
Half an hour later the sun went in and - ah! Blessed rain, just a sprinkle, so light that no-one even put on their jackets. Only the second lot of rain I have seen for a couple of months. My garden at home certainly needed it. Actually when I got home my wife said we hadn't had a drop!
Then I had a carp or two on cat meat in the right margin, potting in just two chunks of cat meat each time, where I had earlier put in a couple of big pots of dead maggot, hoping for barbel, but catching just tiny perch. Then the rain picked up a little, and I put on a my jacket. Then, almost imperceptibly the rain came down a little harder, and some put up their umbrellas. Then flashes suddenly made me realise we were actually sitting in a thunderstorm, my trousers were soaking wet under my old waterproofs (which I had been meaning to change for weeks) and my umbrella was in the van.
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| Joe Bedford - 42 lb 10 oz -and still as dry as a bone. |
Back to the van, where I changed my soaking shoes for boots. Incidentally I saw the Duke of Wellington the other day.
And bugga me, that was when the fish decided to start biting. Three or four came in, including a 3 lb barbel, and cor it was a job landing them - I had to lay the pole horizontally, and wait until the fish came to the surface, because I couldn't get it high enough because of the umbrella. And those fish really did fight, but at least I didn't lose any. And it was a real pain bending down to pick up bait from boxes no full to the brim with water. Then the rain stopped and it became quite hot.
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| Alan Porter with 74 lb 2 oz. I guess they were taken on a feeder, as Alan is a whizz using that method. |
Umbrella down and suddenly the cat meat stopped working but corn took another barbel in the same swim - the deep margin under the branch of a small bush. Then the heavy rain came down again, and up went the umbrella. The lightning flashes were so bright they hurt my eyes, even though I was cooped up under the umbrella, though mercifully the thunderclaps came several seconds later, so the lightning wasn't directly overhead.
I ended with an estimated 26 lb in the second net for a total of 66 lb-ish. But I had seen Peter Spriggs catching well in his right margin, and made him favourite to win. Although I hadn't noticed it in the storm, a bedraggled John Smith had already packed up and gone home from Peg 16, where he had had four bites and three fish.
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| Trevor - so sophisticated he always combs his hair before I take his picture. |
Next to me on Peg 5 I had half expected Peter Harrison to have had a lot more than me, but when he totalled 79 lb 12 oz I realised things must have been more difficult than I had expected. But not for Trevor, who had had a blank first hour before mugging about 90 lb on pellet (how does he do it?) and then adding another 70 lb on the bottom. He ended with 161 lb 13 oz.
The weights then became much lower than I had anticipated, right round to Bob Barrett on 24, and I was still lying second at that point. Not for long - Bob had winkled out 95 lb 14 oz. He was followed by the last person to weigh in, Peter on 26, who had a magnificent 194 lb 13 oz, all from that deep margin to his right on cat meat; and he hadn't put up his umbrella all day. A great job; well done, Mate.
So I ended fourth 😁 and last frame place but I know a drier, better-prepared angler in that swim would have caught more. And next day I bought an new Goretex bib and brace, so I can again sit out in the rain if I need to. The old bib and brace will do for those days when I just need to protect my trousers when unhooking fish. I think it was the cat meat slarred on the knees and the hard use (kneeling down and crawling about in mud time after time), which rendered them no longer waterproof, even though I had tried to re-proof them exactly as instructed. The material is actually wearing quite thin, and I have worn and abused them literally hundreds of times.
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