Where have all the mussels gone? (Long time searching) - Crow, Pidley

Peg 5, Saturday, Aug 20
What have I done? Last season I revealed a special secret to the special followers of my blog - the power of mussels. I revealed that Tescos sold them cooked, and frozen, for a few quid a packet, and I explained how to hook them - through the little round piece of gristle.

Now what happens? I go to my local Tescos last week, only to find not a mussel on their shelves. There were prawns - hundreds of packets, from Canada, Greenland, the Pacific, the Atlantic, in fact from all over the world. There were frozen calamari squid, shrimps, haddock, cod, crab sticks, octopus, huge tiger prawns...but no mussels. And trips to Iceland, Morrisons, Sainsbury and M&S were also fruitless - prawns by the million, but there's not a mussel to be had within a hundred miles of Huntingdon. And my fellow-anglers are doubtless sitting smugly at home with their freezers full of them. Mates indeed!

Peg 5 - the white line is on the artificial turf, taken from Man U's training ground.
(Perhaps that could explain some things!)

I did have a few from previous trips which had been thawed and re-frozen, and I hoped one or two might still be firm enough to hook...but the stupid thing is that I forgot I had them in my cool bag so I didn't try them anyway! Wot a Wally. So on to the 15-entry Fenland Rods club match.

Feeder first
My peg 5, was at the Western end of Crow Lake, and there was a strong Westerly wind, so the pegs everyone fancied were at the Eastern end (where Pete The meat was drawn, the man who can't stop winning). I was told that the wind was so fierce down there that the anglers were in danger of being blown off their boxes and over the fields to Chatteris. Some hope. But yes, the wind was quite fierce.

Mike Rawson got off to a great start on my right. Great to have
him back on the bank following a stroke.

I started as advised by those who know the lake, on a hybrid feeder cast 40 yards to the far margins. It took a few minutes to catch a carp, about 2 lb, on a banded 8mm pellet. A change to dead maggot brought another of 1 lb, and after nearly 90 minutes, and two fish which unaccountably came off as I was about to net them, that was all I had, while Mike Rawson, on my right, had eight or ten fish on a feeder, including one common that looked to be 6 lb-plus. 

The power of luncheon meat
Mike was using luncheon meat. Why hadn't I brought any? There's plenty, ready-cubed, in my freezer. I thought I'd keep things simple, for a change, but I really should have brought some - it's such a versatile bait. You can feed 4mm cubes, and bait with 6mm or 12mm cubes, varying the size of bait. And the fry can't nibble at luncheon meat like they can at cat meat. Roach have been the bane of lots of anglers' lives this year on Decoy, where cat meat is allowed but luncheon meat is banned. I always take luncheon meat to Pidley...except when I don't. Wally Mark 2, that's me.

My fishing van (plus Mike with his fish).

Fish on a pole

I felt I simply had to come in on a pole line, in the deeper water at five sections, though I needed a long lash because of the wind. And there I soon found a fish or two, all around the 1 lb 8 oz mark - plump F1s on corn that fought like tigers on my 13 hollow elastic. Most bites came when the wind dropped for a few seconds and I could hold the bait steady.

 I had an hour there, just potting in half-a-dozen grains at a time, before putting in a little hemp and corn on a shorter line in slightly shallower water at 2+1. To my left Shaun Buddle had had a few fish on a pole, but didn't seem to be emptying the lake, and beyond him I kept seeing rods bending and elastics stretching.

Shaun retires hurt
I had a steady three hours or more on that shorter line, taking a fish every few minutes, but with the biggest fish only between 2 lb and 3 lb. Then Shaun Buddle came up to me, saying he had about 30 lb but was going to pack up as he had done something to his back, which was really painful. He said he didn't need any help, so took his time packing away. I rang next day and his back was a bit better, so I assume he hasn't pulled a disc.

There were a few spots of rain, but not enough to make anybody put on a jacket, and the wind picked up, at one time threatening to blow the top of my side tray off, but manfully I held on to it. I should have been given a medal for that - Wally In The Wind, perhaps.

My shallow left margin - fish came in but wouldn't feed.

Fish in the margins

Towards the last hour I put cat meat and hemp and some groundbait  in the near margins, which were only nine inches deep, because I been told that fish will come in close - and they did! Swirls and mud clouds there saw me dropping in a piece of cat meat and getting four sail-aways, none of which were hit. Obviously liners. I should perhaps have gone out to the deeper water at about two feet, but instead decided to go back to 2+1, where I carried on hitting fish on corn.

The carp seemed to be knocking the bait as it fell, but I had to wait until the float gave a definite indication before striking, and even then I hit only about half of the obvious bites. But it was steady sport. 

I watch a local legend

I spent 15 minutes watching Peter (Dutch) Holland in the Over 60s Open on Magpie 8 on Wednesday, and he was fishing just as he had in a recent match on Decoy, when he was next to me, and won.

He explained to me after that match just how important accuracy had been - and here he was, again, dropping a very small amount of bait with each cast into exactly the same spot, on a top two, and fishing his bait right on it. Simple - and as I fish much of the time - and he won that match as well, I am told, with over 200 lb. Anyway, that was how I fished this match from beginning to end being as accurate as I could with my placement, (except for the bait dumped in the margins). And it was working fairly well for me.

Four come unstuck
But then something strange happened - in the last half hour four good fish, all probably over 3 lb, came adrift near the net - the only ones I lost on the pole. I could see them clearly. However I did land three or four smaller ones round 1 lb. I had no idea how much the other anglers had caught, but I had had a really enjoyable day. To my right Mike seemed to have slowed up a lot, and I hoped I had at least beaten him.

Matt Lutkin included several fish around 5 lb.

Callum retrieves a net from the windswept lake.

The weigh in

I was astonished to see that Matt Lutkin on end peg 2 had several fish of 4 lb-plus in his 61 lb 12 oz catch; I had seen no fish of that size all day. I thought I might have 60 lb, but we fished to the fishery rules - three nets with the catch split, so no clicker was needed and I really wasn't sure of my weight. I love that you don't have to worry about going over 50 lb, though of course I have extra nets with me if I feel that I am approaching that weight in any one net.

As I thought, Mike had slowed up after that good start, and totalled 47 lb 3 oz, and my nets weighed around 35 lb, 25 lb and 27 lb for a total of 87 lb 1 oz. And unbelievably that led right down to the last two - Peter and Mel - who had been "catching all day" according to the nearby anglers. Everybody on the bank  seemed to have good fish around 5 lb in their nets, except me. 😢😢

Kev Lee with friend (bigger than any
of mine!)

Callum with 81 lb 13 oz.

                                                                                                                         


                                  
                 

Peter had come in late to that 18-inch line, about six feet from the near bank (as I should have done), and picked up some proper cat meat fish, and totalled 99 lb 4 oz for the win, with Mel on the end Peg 23 finishing with 74 lb 6 oz. So I ended as runner-up to Pete The Meat, who recently had a run of nine match wins in a row, in various club matches and Opens. Well done, Peter (again).

Pete The Meat, winner with 99 lb 4 oz in difficult conditions.

Memories

Next match on Six-Island on Decoy, where the wind direction will almost certainly affect the weights. But it's full of fish, so you know there's always one within a yard or two of your bait. 

How different to the Fen Drains, where I started my matchfishing in the 1950s, where (especially in the 1970s after the introduction of zander) you could fish all day and not see a fish, and where to all intents and purposes there hadn't been any in your swim all day. One match I remember on the Low Level saw five sections of 12, in a line, in reasonable weather conditions, with not a single fish caught! 

This truly is the golden era of fishing for me.

THE RESULT