I rather like this time of year, when the weather is cool enough for me to start thinking about not having to put ice packs into my bait bag, to keep the maggots and cat meat cold. And this was the first match for weeks when I was able to do that - not that the big lumps of cat meat came out much!
Fourteen of us fished this Fenland Rods match, and although fish are usually seen in the very shallow margins as we tackle up, that didn't happen today, partly because there was a big wave on. I thought that the stiff, cold Northerly wind blowing into our bank had probably put them down, and had half decided to start long - on three sections into eight feet of water - that was until I dipped by pole cup in to get water to wet my micros.
No sooner had I poured water over the top of the micros than fish suddenly appeared in the margins...so they were there after all, obviously coming to what might have been food! That meant a return to Plan A at the start - a banded pellet in the shallow margins, which could work for up to an hour. I also had a feeder ready, with a banded pellet, because I had an island in front of me, but I never actually used it.
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| Sun to start with, but it soon clouded over and the wind became stronger. |
There were three pegs on the far end bank, to my right - 14 to 16 - which I fancied to do well, and I would also have liked pegs 1 and 2; but I had a rather nice overhanging tree to my left and Shaun told me the last Over-55s Open had been won there, fishing under the tree, with cat meat and paste.
First drop with the banded pellet saw the float zoom away, but there was nothing there. Next three drops were the same, but the fourth resulted in an F1 of 1 lb-plus. I was on my way! But No...the next ten minutes didn't bring even a knock of any kind. I remembered that that had happened to me once before, but this was strange.
Shaun, on the end bank, was already catching well in his shallow margin, so I quickly made the change, leaving the tree swim for the moment because I reasoned that it was a natural holding spot, and had a look with sweetcorn over micros with about four grains in the pole cup, in my righthand margin next to the reeds. That produced almost immediately, and after an hour I had about ten fish, all between 1 lb and 2 lb. Then they slowed down and I switched to the tree swim, using a lump of cat meat.
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| Mel Lutkin, to my right, started in the deep water had had some fish around 4 lb early on. |
That lup of cat meat produced a fish immediately, but then no more, so I tried the small pieces from a Whiskas sachet, and straight away had fish. With about ten more in my net, fishing about 18 inches deep a metres from the bank, bites became 'iffy' and I missed a lot. It looked as if roach had moved in - the float twitched and dipped a lot and I missed bite after bite. Eventually I felt I simply had to leave the rig in and see if the fish were roach or carp.
Now I am a counter a lot of the time - when fishing a pole I count the bait down and keep counting, because sometimes the fish tend to take the bait after it's been there a certain amount of time. Earlier this season I had four or five big carp on Oak lake by counting just past 100, and all those fish took the bait between 90 and 105; if I left it longer I didn't get a bite. And today something similar happened - the float first started moving around 12, and striking then meant I missed every one. So I left it, and never had any more indications until past 30. The Magic Number (believe it or not) was 41. At that point I had a bite on about 50 per cent of the casts. If I left it lying there longer a bite never came.
In my mind's eye I imagined the carp watching the roach attack the bait as it hit bottom (a count of 12), then swimming a yard or two away, turning round, and coming to check that the bait was still lying there before taking it. Occasionally I would lift the bait at a count of 45 (if I hadn't had a bite) and would get a reaction instantly.
That really was almost surreal, and I must have taken 20 or more fish, mainly from 1 lb to 2 lb, but including two five-pounders, in that spell. And then another strange thing happened.
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| Dave Garner always uses a waggler...but he always catches!! |
Good fish, around 4 lb, were sometimes coming into the margin close to me and several times I dropped a bait on their nose, only to see the fish take one close look and zoom off. I assumed they must have seen the line, so when another good 'un started moseying along the bank from the tree towards me, in only a few inches of water, I quickly dropped the float in, with a big lump of cat meat which I could see in the water, leaving about a foot of line on the bottom.
That fish snuffled along the bottom right up to my lump of cat meat, took one look, and immediately turned and shot off. Now I doubt whether it could have noticed the line laying on the bottom, so surely it was the bait itself which frightened it? Yet two swims to my left Peter Spriggs was catching well on big lumps of cat meat! Could it be that some fish will refuse some baits at times? I've read that a goldfish has a memory of ten seconds, which doesn't make sense, considering what I saw.
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| My catch - afterwards I found that almost everyone had had problems keeping fish in the swim, and they had to keep switching. |
Anyway, the tree swim gradually petered out and I went back to the right margin for a few more, though the wind was now getting colder and fiercer, and I half thought that perhaps the fish didn't like the cold water on their backs in the shallow margin. Going out another foot or two into three feet brought one or two fish, but soon I had to go out into the deep water, about eight feet deep. where Mel, to my right, had had some nice fish.
That brought a 3 lb carp first drop, on corn, and 15 minutes later another on cat meat, but I couldn't get any more, so came inside for another two, before going out again, with five minutes left, with cat meat for a final flourish - and it worked! Just before the match ended I hit a good carp which felt around 5 lb, but seconds before the match ended it came off - only the second fish I had lost all day. It was a bit of a bummer.
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| Martin Parker was second to weigh in, with 115lb 7 oz - but his fish were much smaller than most of had caught. |
I estimated I had perhaps 80 lb and thought I would probably come well down the list, because at times fish had fed really well and I imagined several others being able to keep them feeding. I had visions of two or three bagging around 200 lb.
Allan Golightly on peg 1 must have been disappointed with his 27 lb because this peg can produce big weights, but the wind was right into that corner, and he said it became really rough at times. Next to him Martin Parker had fished the margins, right next to the bank, all day for 115 lb 7 oz.
Kevin Lee, who always does well here, had 78 lb next door, and I thought I might beat that, which satisfied me, whatever the result, because if you can beat Kev anywhere you have done well. Then weights got a bit topsy-turvey, with John Smith's 64 lb battering the anglers on either side. Then to Dave Garner, who first net went about 42 lb, and I imagined him bringing out another big one, but the second net went only about 21 lb.
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| It's been a long times since James Garner fished with us, and it was great to see him back. I asked him to look at the scales for this picture, but he obviously had a fit of the giggles. Anyway, his fish went 70 lb 3 oz for eighth overall. Notice how calm the water is now... |
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| Peter's best fish (on meat) must have been around 10 lb. |
Next match on Elm, where I was told 200 lb won on the day we fished on Damson. I like Peg 12, but anywhere from 9 found to16 will particularly suit me. Peg 1 has been a disaster area for me in the past.
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