A bad start, and a bad finish on Beastie - plus where's the cup?

Peg 16, Saturday, Oct 8
I love Beastie lake - every swim is different. Even so everybody knows I like certain pegs more than others - 2 and 18 in the main lake and 9 and 13 at the back of the spit; but these latter two were left out because not everyone likes those pegs. We had been allocated 2 to 18, and that meant that of the rest, only peg 7 was left out, with the rest round to 18 on the bridge. The wind was cool, but it soon warmed a little and overall conditions were fine, with no rain.

The sun was right in front of us, so I shot this facing left, where
Dave Garner's platform was only about eight yards away.

Unfortunately I didn't get 2 or 18, but my peg 16 had the option of casting to the island and it has nice margins. My plan was to start on the feeder, but when I plumbed up at 2+1 on the pole I found a small depression and a fish hit the line, so I decided to start on the pole. On my left Dave Garner fished his usual waggler with cat meat and had a good first hour, with four or five carp. 

I had one or two  indications, with just a small F1 and a roach taking my corn, and after almost two hours I estimated Dave had 30 lb and I had 1 lb! Of course I should have gone onto the feeder, especially since Mel Lutkin, on 17 to my right, also had some carp, on a feeder. But having dripped corn into the swim for some time I was reluctant to come away, in case it suddenly came to life.

Lots of action in the first hour...but unfortunately not in my swim!

I change elastics, and then...
Then the pole swim came to life, with a carp around 9 lb which stretched the 13 hollow elastic far too much for my liking, almost into Dave's swim, then almost into Mel's swim. With that in the net I switched the rig onto a stronger orange bungee elastic...and Sod's Law decreed that my next ten fish were bream! They stretched that elastic about six inches (!), but at least none came off. They weighed from 2 lb to 3 lb.

Dave had slowed down a little, and when my swim slowed down I had a look in the margins, which I thought would produce, as the wind was blowing into them from the front right; soon the sun was in front of us, and neither Dave nor I could fish where we had been, and now the left margin was fishable as the sun had moved round.

But that lovely-looking left margin didn't produce, while the right one gave me a couple of F1s and a few roach. Disaaaaster was looming...

When this was in Dave's landing net it looked to be at least
20 lb to me. But when we weighed it, the scales showed 15 lb.

Scrapping around
I scrapped around on corn for another bream or two, in a new, shorter swim in front of the keepnets, and eventually thought I'd try cat meat in the lefthand margin. A Miracle...a carp of 5 lb. Two or three more followed, and a change to mussel brought even quicker bites from another two or three. Thirty minutes to go, and I was steaming!

Then a real disaster - I played a fish well over 10 lb for some minutes, and had it almost in the net, but it eventually came off. Next drop a smaller carp came in, followed by a foulhooker which played me for a long time before waving goodbye. Meanwhile Dave's swim had come alive and was was netting them quickly.

Five minutes to go and another big fish was on my pole...and that was possibly also foulhooked. It lumbered around and felt huge, and I thought that if it was hooked properly it would take me absolutely ages to net, so I took my time as the match was almost finished. Then that one, too, came off. A terrible end just when m swim had perked up. Mel didn't catch much in the afternopon, and I guessed that I had perhaps beaten him. I had clicked 60 lb, which I guessed was well behind Dave, who had landed a fish which looked to me, from a distance, to weigh 20 lb.

I needed only one carp for third place.

The weigh-in
On Peg 2 Callum had had his catch of a lifetime - a brilliant personal best of 183 lb 9 oz, which won. Very well done, mate. On 5 Kevin Lee was fishless after three-and-a-quarter hours, but then found carp in his margins and hammered them to the tune of 159 lb 7 oz, which took second place.

No-one else could challenge those catches, but the next weights were bunched - Peter Spriggs 81 lb 14 oz; Dave Garner 81 lb 5 oz; Dave Hobbs 79 lb 11 oz, and me with 78 lb 10 oz which left me in sixth place. Just one of those lost fish would have boosted me to third. Ce'st la vie. (That's French for It's A Bugga).

Next day I was due to met Ben Townsend for a tuition session (see below), hopefully on how to land carp more quickly - as I know I take longer than most others.

WHERE'S THE CUP?
Our chairman John Smith didn't fish the Beastie match, but asked me to ask the others to bring the cups they won last year to the next match. Of course I couldn't remember who had won them, so I consulted the blog entry for last year's match, to see who had won what.

Yes, the Club Cup went to Allan Golightly; the Bedford cup went to Peter Spriggs, and John had told me the biggest-fish cup had gone to Matthew Lutkin. I couldn't for the life of me remember who had won the Club Championship...but the blog told me. The winner was pictured there holding the cup. It was me!!!

Here's last year's winner. Now I remember!

So I looked for the cup at home. Couldn't find it. My wife said she'd not seen it for years, since I won it the first time. We hunted high and low (well mainly high actually, since it would have been displayed on the top of the china cabinet). Not there. Where was it? Had we been burgled? Had I left it somewhere after being presented with it?

The only possible answer was that I took it to be engraved and left it there, because I was given it after the last match, so it couldn't have been engraved earlier. So today, Monday, I took a trip and Yes, there it was on the engraver's shelf. It had been there almost a year.

BUT I'm not the only local idiot. Next to it stands a Challenge Cup (sport unknown) which has been there, awaiting collection, since 2019!

A DAY WITH BEN TOWNSEND
I've known for a long time that I would do better in matches if I could land my carp more quickly. Other anglers almost all land their fish more quickly than I do. I tend to play them too gently, often for several minutes, which is not only bad for the fish, but exhausting for me as well (particularly now I have a problem with my right arm and hand) and I knew that Ben could help. 

He's a class act - fifth in the World when he fished for one of the England Youth teams when he was 17, and he's been getting some huge weights in big matches, as well as putting hugely-informative videos up on You Tube, detailing matches he has been fishing. 

So on Sunday we met up at Decoy, expecting to go on to the low number on Willows, because the other lakes were all booked; but Ben found out that Cedar was unexpectedly free, and we agreed to sit there, choosing Peg 4. I wasn't out to catch a lot of fish - just to get a few in as quickly as I could.

My new gear
I've just acquired two of the Browning short tops, and after seeing one of Ben's videos I put Matrix Slik elastic 14-16 in one and 16-18 in the other, and I set one up with a 0.5 gm float and a banded pellet. Ben suggested this, which was fine with me as I don't fish banded hard pellets enough. Behind us on Elm lake the anglers in the JV match were finding sport pretty slow, but I took a picture of Chris Saunders managing to land a good carp hooked in the tail.

Chris Saunders was enjoying himself on Elm lake playing  a fish foulhooked in the tail.

It took us perhaps 20 minutes to get a bite on pellet, fishing close to an overhanging bush, where we expected barbel. Ben sat on my basket, got a bite, and within 15 seconds a 5 lb carp was in the landing net. I honestly felt that I had already had my money's worth, just watching that. He had almost tricked the carp into diving headfirst into the landing net. The rig was on 5 lb line.

Next it was my turn, and I did as instructed, and honestly, within 15 seconds of hooking on, I, too, had a 5 lb carp in the net. There was no question of pulling the fish's head off - I felt I hadn't put on any more pressure than I normally do. Then we changed to maggots, and I managed just one barbel, which took longer to land (as they do) and after that I went a bit farther out, and had a few more carp on banded pellet.

Ben also suggested how I fed, which I was happy with, and it worked. We seemed to be catching better than the anglers in the match behind us. The wind was now quite strong. I also changed the long Number Three for a short one with the short top, to see how it felt.

I guess I had probably eight carp in total, but not all came in as quickly as that first one. Ben explained that all fish fight differently (as we all know) and it wasn't always the biggest fish which caused the biggest problems. It was a matter of keeping the fish under control and trying to stop them getting up a head of steam. Sometimes you have to be a bit patient.

Halfway through the session we changed to my normal long top twos, with 17 hollow elastic, and it certainly felt different. Not all came in as quickly as the first one, but I still landed them all in a fraction of the time I would normally take. All a matter of technique.

I was very satisfied that I now had a feel for what I was doing, and we packed up after about three hours. So far as I was concerned it was Mission Completed. A brilliant day so far as I was concerned. I got more than my money's worth.