Differing fortunes on Elm and Willows, Decoy

 Tuesday, Sept 20

My left margin had fallen in - great in summer when the fish will
feed there, but not today.

Peg 20, Elm Lake
Firstly, apologies to the army of readers of this blog for its lateness - I was away for several days, but am now back, refreshed. 😀 We were greeted by green algae on Elm Lake, for this Spratts match, while Cedar Lake, next door, was a beautiful brown colour. But I have fished in water like that before, and it doesn't seem to affect the fish, though the sticky scum at the far end did affect John Smith for the first four hours, before the wind changed and blew it all in front of Martin Parker, fishing opposite. On the way home I passed the Forty Foot drain it was absolutely covered in the stuff, from bank to bank, so it was probably as a result of some sort of weather change.

In fact the fishing for most of us was hard. I started on a pole at five sections, with no result, while to my left Dick Warrener had a good early carp at about four sections, and to his left Peter Harrison had  a fish very early. 

The right margin looked great for barbel, but I never saw one.

The margins

A move to the various margin swims produced nothing for me, except two tiny perch on maggot in what I had hoped would be a barbel hole, while Dick added another. On the far bank Trevor Cousins had been trying to mug fish, with no success, until he hit a huge fish which played him for a long time. Trevor actually had it almost in the net at one point - close enough to see it was hooked in a barbule.

Eventually that fish came off, and Trevor reverted to fishing the margins with paste, and started to find fish. Meanwhile Dick had hooked another two fish, with one from the shallow margin, though one of those two was lost, and I had foulhooked a four-pounder on the long swim, before trying small pieces of cat meat, from a sachet, in the deep right margin. At last a fish of around 10 lb picked up the bait there, and after three hours I had just those two carp, with Trevor landing more.

Dick, to my left, left me standing in the first couple of hours, with three fish on meat to my nil.

Where were the barbel?
My margins were really dodgy - the bank had fallen in to the left and I never had a bite in the shallow water, nor the deep drop-off. To the right was a bush and a tree, where I had expected barbel, so I concentrated there, still using the small pieces of cat meat. Two fish came off, foulhooked, but in the next two hours I managed two more, both 6 lb-plus. Hemp was causing fish to come into the swim very quickly, with big patches of tiny bubbles giving them away.

Joe Bedford had a good last hour on the feeder.

Those tiny bubbles are caused by fish expelling air from the gills when they become excited. I've seen chub do the same thing on the Upper Welland, where I used to live. It's very rarely that you can hook the fish when they do this, though. But suddenly, with less than an hour left, I started getting what looked like proper bites. The first fish came in fine, about 8 lb, on cat meat. But after that, disaster - I hooked six in a row and landed just one. I think some of the others were probably foulhooked, but one was probably hooked properly, and I let it kite into a reed bed to my right, at which point I felt a click and the hook pulled out. When the match finished I felt that given a few more minutes theose pesky carp would probably have started to feed properly.

Should I have tried a feeder?

Dick, though, had sat there all afternoon with not another bite. To my right was Peter Spriggs - Pete The Meat - but the tree between us meant I had no idea whether he had caught. Opposite, 92-year-old Joe Bedford had caught a couple of carp on a feeder early on, but had a better spell towards the end, and I saw him land three or four more. I should probably have put a feeder out, as I had one ready. But I guessed I would end as a 'Thanks For Coming.'

Alan Porter - second on the  bank.

The weigh-in

Predictably Trevor, second to weigh, won with 93 lb 11 oz. His swim offered a bank of reeds which he could fish alongside, while on our bank, which faces the prevailing Westerlies, the reed beds are broken up by areas where the bank has collapsed. Whether that made a difference I have no idea, but I would have liked to have been able to fish alongside the reed bed to my left, but could only fish on the corner.

Next, Alan Porter on 4 had feedered for 57 lb 13 while on 6 Joe weighed 44 lb 5 oz for third top weight on that bank. On our bank John Smith, in corner peg 13, had had real problems with the scum until it moved across, but after taking some barbel early on next to his platform, he was able, in the last two hours, to contact enough carp to take him to third spot with 71 lb 3 oz, Next to him Shaun Buddle was runner-up with 81 lb 5 oz, with Peter Harrison, on end peg 23, was fourth with 64 lb 12 oz.

John Smith found the carp when the scum moved. This one was well into double figures.

Last man to weigh, Peter Harrison, ended in fourth place.

The winner - Trevor Cousins. He always combs his hair before
I take his picture!

I plead guilty

I ended with 43 lb 2 oz for nowhere, beaten by only ounces by Pete The Meat, with poor old Dick languishing in last place, his three carp weighing 18 lb 11 oz. But I plead guilty to no trying other baits when I knew there were fish in the swim - I had paste, worm, corn and maggots available which I should have tried in that last hour. I put on a mussel and immediately foulhooked a fish, then never tried it again. Sometimes, I am sure, certain fish refuse to take certain baits, but will be tempted to take something a little out of the ordinary.  

Could have done better...😕

My report would have read (not for the first time): Could Have Done Better. Next match a rover on Willows pegs 1-15, with the two end pegs definitely favourite.

THE RESULT

East bank                                                                        West bank                                                           23 Peter Harrison            64 lb 12 oz    4th       1 Peter Barnes          24 lb 5 oz
21 Dick Warrener            18 lb 11 oz                3 Trevor Cousins      93 lb 11 oz        1st    
20 Mac Campbell            43 lb 2 oz                  4 Alan Porter            57 lb 13 oz       5th
18 Peter Spriggs              43 lb 10 oz                6 Joe Bedford           44 lb 5 oz
17 Bob Barrett                 19 lb 10 oz               7 Bob Allen              37 lb 2 oz
15 Shaun Buddle             81 lb 5 oz     2nd      9 Wendy Bedford     30 lb 2 oz
13 John Smith                 71 lb 3 oz      3rd     10 Mick Linnell        41 lb 12 oz
                                                                         12 Martin Parker       25 lb 11 oz

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Sunday, Sept 25

Peg 11, Willows

This Fenland Rods match, fished by 12, was a rover, and the first name out of the tin, who had first choice of pegs, was Kevin Lee, who predictably chose Peg 1, which we all wanted, but the groans from the rest of us were taken in good spirit by Kev. Then second out was his son, Jason, who was fishing as a guest, and he chose the other swim we all wanted, 15 - and by that time we were all too traumatised to even let out a groan.

As I hoped, Peg 11 gave me some lovely Raspberry Ripple at times. Peg 1 was just behind those willows opposite, out of sight.

I was fourth out, I think, and opted for Peg 11 because I reckoned that it would have the North-West wind on it, giving me my Raspberry Ripple, and because I had in the back of my mind that Peter Harrison had been on Peg 11 and come second when I had won from 1, and that he had later won on 11.Or is my memory playing tricks? Anyway, John Smith chose 12, next to me, because he also expected some wind on it.

Finally my name came out for the Golden Peg, to the inevitable whispers of "Roll-Over!". I heard you, lads!!

Yippee! I have a platform to fish to

So down to the bank, and to my delight I had a spare platform to my left, while beyond that was Peter Spriggs, who couldn't fish properly to that platform because of intervening reeds. But I started on the feeder, cast a metre or two from the far bank reeds, which were overhanging. That gave me some liners so I cast a little shorter next time, and that resulted in a 2 lb F1 which took the 6mm yellow washter on micros. A good start, as I hadn't seen anyone else catch, but within a minute of my re-casting Peter Spriggs to my left was playing a carp, and soon after both Jason on 15 and Dave Hobbs on 13 were also into fish.

Dave Hobbs, guesting for the season before joining next year, was soon in action on Peg 13, to my right.

That made me swap over to pole, and after a short while at five sections, in about four feet of water, another F1 and a 2 lb bream took my expander just touching bottom. Then bites slowed and I had a look in a deepish hole right in front of me on a top two, convinced I would catch there, as I had been flicking out sweetcorn. But I got not a jot or a tittle - nothing. So it was back out, also for no more fish, and I had a look towards the platform.

Plumbing up

When I plumbed up on the long line I could feel my plummet being sucked as I pulled it up, and I assumed there was silt on the bottom - inevitable on waters where carp are dominant, because whatever they eat comes out of the other end! Now normally I plumb up so the float bristle shows just above the surface, then I know I have to add about an inch, to allow for the bend in the line when using a light bait. Then the bait is JUST touching bottom, which I can tell from the way the bristle stands.

But today I had to slide the float down the line to allow for the soft bottom. I have read that on many commercial waters dominated by carp the fish tend to want to feed off bottom a lot of the time, because stirring up the muck on the bottom puts them off feeding. That's why I like to just touch bottom if it feels soft.

The platform swim

I had already plumbed up carefully, and found that about a metre my side of the platform the water was several inches deeper. So I started there, just out from the corner post, but of course I was allowed only to fish up to the platform - not in front of it. I toss-potted about four grains at a time in, plus a pinch of hemp - no big handfuls, as the weather is a little cooler and the fish are always finicky when that happens.

Dave Hobbs' fish came in assorted sizes.

Slowly I began to get a feel for the swim, dropping into the deeper water so the corn was off bottom, and letting it drift into the shallower water, when of course the rig stopped. At that point I lifted the bait no more than an inch, and often got a bite. The first two were F1s, about 3 lb, but the next was a proper carp of around 6 lb.

Now Dave Hobbs caught a good fish or two, and Jason under the tree on 15 had landed some good carp - the splashing caused me to look up several times. Peter, to my left, had also landed two or three decent fish. 

I switch to the right margin

After about four fish in 45 minutes from the platform swim it died and I tried to start a new swim in my right margin, using my special method which is very sensitive and usually tells me if there are any fish in the swim. I put only a few grains into the platform swim before I switched, as the fish were obviously coming to bait. I fished the same in the right margin - putting in about four grains at a time, plus some hemp. dropping the bait over the top, and repeating that every minute or two. 

After about 20 minutes, just as I was giving up on it, I had a knock. Next drop a 2 lb F1 came in, and then a bigger carp. I then came right into the side, in about 18 inches of water, and soon had two fish there, best 8 lb. Then the right margin dried up.

Next to me John Smith was having a torrid time, with just a couple of small fish, and he said he'd give it another half-hour. But first he walked up to Allan Golightly on peg 8 for a chat, who told him that Kevin Lee on 1 had been catching really well.  Then John did sit down again for another spell fishing, although his heart was obviously not in it.

Peter Spriggs was on my left but couldn't fish to
the platform I was catching from.

I stick with corn

Another carp or two came from my platform swim, plus one or two nice roach, and then John did pack up, about 90 minutes before the end, and I said I was about to start baiting with mussel. No sooner had John left than I started to catch better from the platform swim, on corn, at one time getting four good fish in four drops, including a bream that must have weighed 4 lb, and shot out of the water like a trout when it was hooked. Up to now I hadn't lost any fish at all, and had foulhooked only one carp, which I landed.

Several times I pulled back to find the corn missing from the hook - a sure sign, to me, that carp were still there. So I persevered with corn, with nearly every bite coming as the bait was moved, and added some more good fish, including one great big carp which I thought at first was a grass carp, but then its scales didn't look big enough. It was about 10 lb.

As I was catching I stayed with corn, getting just one more fish from the right margin, and ten minutes before the end I started a third net, and put just one four-pounder into it. I thought I had about 41 lb in each of the first two nets, so admitted to about 85 lb, and had not lost a single fish.

The weigh-in

Me with fish - Kev Lee does an excellent job taking
pictures with my camera. Thanks, Kev.

Kevin came round before he started to weigh, and when I said I had about 85 lb he said that would win. I was amazed when he said he had about 70 lb, as I had heard he was 'hammering' fish. Later he told me that first drop with paste his float had gone straight under and he thought he'd plumbed up wrongly. But when he lifted his pole there was a big carp on the end...and the same thing happened next drop, and he had several more early on, but then he had had a really bad afternoon. He actually weighed 65 lb 11 oz, to lead round to Peter Spriggs.

I had seen Peter, to my left, land about 20 lb of fish, so I assumed he probably had at least double that, as I had been concentrating hard on my own swim, and he has been having a great season, winning time after time . But no - 25 lb 5 oz was all he weighed. 

My weigh

My first '41 lb net' went 49 lb 14 oz! The 4 lb fish was next to be weighed...at 6 lb 10 oz! And the other 41 lb net went nearly 55 lb, knocked back to 50 lb!! 😒 Total 106 lb 5 oz. The other anglers all agreed that the 10 lb torpedo was, in fact, a grass carp. I wonder whether it was the same one landed by Trevor a year or two ago, also on Willows? 

Jason was fishing as a guest - pity I couldn't do
him justice by getting all his fish in the picture!

My winnings

I had seen Dave Hobbs on 13 land about 40 lb, and assumed he must have a lot more, but he didn't either - 46 lb 9 oz; and the same applied to Jason, who weighed 61 lb 4 oz when I reckoned I had seen him land 50 lb. 

So I ended as winner of the match (helped by having that platform to fish to), and the Golden Peg money of £67. I am convinced that switching swims when bites slowed was the key - the fish seemed to hang around. I thought that if I had hooked another one when they were so finicky they would perhaps have been scared right away.

I am back on Willows, with Spratts,on the low-numbered pegs, on Tuesday. I expect to feed very frugally again. After the match, when I was sitting in John Smith's home supping tea with him, he said he had probably over-fed, and yes, I think that some fish can be put off by large amounts of food going in when they are not really hungry. I assume they associate it with being caught. Who knows?