Back to Beastie with a Bang

 Peg 18, Thursday, Oct 13
That session with Ben Townsend on Sunday, learning how to play fish more quickly, came in handy on Thursday when I found myself in the one swim on Decoy where it is essential to get the fish under control quickly. Peg 18 is next to the bridge on Beastie, and it has proved to be the graveyard of many a matchman who failed to prevent big carp from diving under the bridge and breaking their pole. I know 'cos it has happened to me in the past.

YES! A peg I really fancied - an unusual state of affairs for me lately.

Peg 18 is only about 30 yards from Peg 16, where I was pegged the previous Saturday, but the differences in the two swims could hardly be greater. You have a typical margin swim to the right on 18, with overhanging reeds, but turn to the left and the bridge is literally six feet from the platform, and often that's the area where the fish hang out. No matter - I like the swim, and it can hold a lot of fish on occasions. 

BUT frankly I didn't fancy my chances of winning - out of the 13 of us fishing this Spratts match, Trevor Cousins was on famous peg 30, and Peter Harrison, who has been having some really big catches lately, was on 4. It's probably not as good as 5, but Peter was quite capable of winning from it from there. 

I draw a good 'un...
ALSO Bob Allen had asked me to draw out a peg for Peter Spriggs, who also can't stop winning. Bob's argument (which I strongly refute) was that since I reckon every peg I draw, or have drawn for me, is rubbish, perhaps I could do the same for Peter.

Well, that theory went up in smoke when I drew out Peg 2, where Callum Judge had won on Saturday with over 180 lb! I rate that peg highly as well, and everybody knows that. So a groan went up, in anticipation of Peter winning, and as I surveyed my swim 18 on this lovely calm Autumn morning I reckoned that with the pegs those three anglers had drawn I would probably be fishing for fourth place.

Peg 18 - lots of features! No Raspberry Ripple, but that didn't matter as it was a lovely, windless day. A lot of the fish, mainly F1s, came from next to the scaffold pole, on corn. The white bag I always have holds a bottle of water, which I take everywhere as my saliva glands have been damaged by radiation.

The start

I left the rods in the van because on a flat-calm day like this I fancied a day on the pole - in the Fens such calm days are a rarity. I had five different tops made up because the depth varies so much in this swim. Plumbing around in front of me I found a hard bottom in five  feet, on four sections, and started there with banded hard pellet. To my left Shaun Buddle on 17 and Dick Warrener on 15 were both into fish inside the first half-hour, while I had just one F1 of 1 lb. I had one or two liners, and felt that the fish were coming to the feed, but I didn't want to waste a lot of time there.

My best-ever match catch came from this swim, fishing to the right margin, so that is where I next came. But after 45 minutes fishing corn I had had just one more small F1, a 2 lb bream, and a carp of 5 lb. I was chuffed to get that into the net within about 20 seconds - much more quickly than I would normally.

Great to see bream. This net, by Dick Warrener, weighed 38 lb.

The bridge swim
Next it was round to the bridge, and I started right next to the scaffold poles nearest to me. In the next half-hour two or three more F1s came to corn, best well over 4 lb, then out of the blue, a mirror of almost 10 lb took the bait. I had that in front of me within 30 seconds and a minute later it lay in the landing net. But that swim seemed to dry up and I went a little deeper, and found fish, mainly F1s.

The channel under the bridge is much shallow right next to the bridge - perhaps three feet, and it deepened by about 18 inches as you came away from it. From that moment onwards I had to drop in all over the area, with the different rigs, as I couldn't get any number of fish from the same spot. And I couldn't decide how they wanted the bait presented - just touching bottom or laying hard on. Several fell to my special method, which can be deadly, but even that wouldn't work all the time.

How to recognise an F1
Now that F1s are becoming so big  they can easily  be confused with commons. Someone asked me recently how to easily tell the difference. The easiest way is: F1s have no barbules by the side of their mouth. Commons and mirrors have one each side.

My long top put to the test
Mostly I was fishing my normal-length Browning top two, which can't bring the fish under control quite as quickly as the shorter tops I bought recently. So when I dropped in right next to the bridge and another big mirror was hooked, it really tested the top two. The fish went under the bridge, but dipping the pole top right under the surface, and hanging on (and gritting my teeth) saw the fish turn and come back into open water. That also ended in my net.

Dick's carp - this 34 lb consisted mainly of four big ones.

Shaun and Dick seemed to be catching slowly but steadily, and I assumed that they were probably beating me. I guessed that several of their fish were bream, as they came in quickly, but looked a good size. You can amass a big weight of bream fairly quickly if they keep coming, and run to 3 lb, which they do in Beastie.

Hardly a good bite all day

I lost about six fish, which all came off within two seconds of being hooked, so I must assume they were foulhooked. All day the carp, and mainly F1s, played about with the bait for ages, and I hardly had one good bite where it dived straight down. The bites looked like roach, but I had only three roach, on corn, plus one gudgeon (on mussel), all day. It was very frustrating.

Cat meat fished on my special method took a good carp in the deeper water in the centre of the channel, where I have had fish in the past, but it seemed to me that the fish were being spooked every time one was hooked, as it was rare to get two in two drops in the same place, and cat meat in the channel didn't tempt any more.

Change to mussel
In the last 90 minutes I changed to mussel, which worked slightly better (but that could have been because it was later in the day) and took some more, including another around 8 lb, but the fish played about with the mussels as well. I put a third net in when I reckoned I had about 80 lb and the first fish in was the best, at around 11 lb. A little before the end I went back to corn, and fished it a few inches off  bottom, which did bring three more F1s.

I felt I had not fished it well, particularly that I hadn't changed bait enough times, because sometimes that can bring an instant result. Also I hadn't gone back to the long swim in front of me, where there had been fish earlier (even though I couldn't catch them).

The fish come in to tease me
All day, in the flat calm water, I had fed sparingly, mainly with just the small pole pot. At the end I threw in the remaining handful of corn, the tiny amount of hemp I had not used, and a handful of micros, down beside the platform in about a foot of water, which I had not fished. 

Less than five minutes later fish had come in and big swirls of mud were coming up! I'm sure they know when a match finishes!!! But should I have fed more heavily?

Callum Judge - runner-up on 23 with 97 lb 6 oz
taken on mussels fished mainly off bottom.

The weigh in
By the time I had packed away the rigs and got the trolley into the van the scales were round to me. Peter Spriggs was leading, but I was surprised that he his weight was only 78 lb 14 oz, and I thought I had more than that. Someone told me that Callum on 23 had had a good day. Those pegs from 21 to 25 have a good reputation, and they often dominate the Opens, though I have never done particularly well from them. So I though Callum could have continued his good run and had a really big catch, which he is capable of doing.

Both Dick and Shaun had in the 70s, and my three nets totalled 118 lb 10 oz, which was leading - one net was about 2 lb over the limit and I wondered whether that would cost me a frame place. Callum had fished mussel all day, off bottom being best, and he ended with 97 lb 6 oz.

On 30 Trevor Cousins had mainly just a few large carp, one on the feeder and the rest he had mugged. He said that the fish had been just under the surface almost all day in front of Joe on 29 (who at the age of 92 was never likely to fish a long pole shallow) and that with the sun behind him he (Trevor) had been able to see the occasional fish drift into his swim. But as his weight was just 61 lb I ended as the winner, with Callum runner-up.

Most of Joe's 18 lb catch was this 11-pounder.

Last to weigh - our organiser Trevor with 61 lb, mainly taken mugging. These two weighed over 24 lb. 
Thanks for everything you do, Trev.

Next match Friday on Six-Island (which has five islands, honestly). Normally I would be fishing at the weekend, but a Special Birthday falls then, and the family have ordered me to stand by for a surprise. To refuse would be highly dangerous to my health...

THE RESULT

2 Peter Spriggs           78 lb 14 oz        3rd
3 Peter Barnes            44 lb 3 oz
4 Peter Harrison         75 lb 7 oz
5 Bob Allen                45 lb 14 oz
15 Dick Warrener       72 lb 15 oz
17 Shaun Buddle        76 lb 7 oz            4th
18 Mac Campbell     118 lb 10 oz          1st
22 Bob Barrett            25 lb 14 oz
23 Callum Judge        97 lb 67 oz          2nd
24 Mike Rawson             DNW
26 Martin Parker        73 lb 11 oz
29 Joe Bedford           18 lb 14 oz
30 Trevor Cousins       61 lb