Another nightmare on Elm lake

 Peg 3, Elm, Sunday, Nov 13
A day I'd prefer to forget - the ultimate "He Could Have Done Better" report from the headmaster, and I had plenty of those!

The weather was perfect for the first JV Club match of my Winter Campaign, with 18 of us fishing on Elm and Cedar, at Decoy  - a light South-Easterly breeze with no sun, and not cold. I started on a maggot feeder which gave several bites, one small lost fish, but nothing in the net. Half an hour later I went out to 13 metres with a banded 6mm pellet and in the next 45 minutes the result was one 1 lb F1 (and I didn't know that was on).

Great conditions - overcast, mild and with a light wind.

Barbel in the margin

So into the margins, where I had been flicking corn. They were deep margins - well over six feet, and with a bush either side they screamed barbel. Sure enough, after about 30 minutes I hit a big fish from the right side. The hollow 17 elastic was set really tight - but the fish hung on for a couple of minutes, staying resolutely on the bottom, before the hook pulled. Obviously a barbel.

The elastic hadn't felt right, so I put the rig on a solid 13 and tried again in the right margin. Soon another big fish was on, and after a minute or so, even though I had attached a third section, it made a dash for my platform which I couldn't stop, and snagged me there. Hook gone.

Another change to a solid 17 and this time, even with a third section attached, a big fish was under that platform within half a second of being hooked. The power was incredible; obviously another barbel. I stayed in the right margin, but halfway through the match the score was: Barbel 5 - Me 0. The next two had pulled out. But the elastic felt as good as I could get, so I kept that on.

So powerful
The second half of the match was similar - one barbel took me to the platform to my left and broke me. Others pulled out, but I did land one of 2 lb and another of 4 lb on a bunch of maggots, which also brought a couple of small perch. I know the barbel here are big, and I suspect  all the ones I lost were well over that four-pounder's weight.

I don't recall barbel ever being quite as powerful as that (and I have caught them from the Severn)  But with the recent rain the water must be saturated with oxygen, and last year I saw one weighed at 7 lb 12 oz, so I am fairly sure they were big buggas!

Chris Saunders, a JV regular, with 64 lb 14 oz from Cedar 1.

Nine now lost
A quick re-look at the 13-metre line brought nothing, but when I came back, into the left deep margin, a 3 lb carp obliged, By now I had lost nine  fish, including one foulhooked. I knew they were almost all barbel by the way I was getting liners, and by the way they gave the bite - the occasional slow pull just an inch down, occasionally followed by a proper screamer of a bite. But it's possible even some of those were not proper bites, and that the fish were hooked outside the lips.

Forty minutes to go, and corn in the left margin brought a big fish that was obviously a carp - when I lay the pole tip under the surface and held it, the fish came to the top. Barbel don't do that. 

Anyway, that fish ended in my net and was well over 10 lb. I then had a brilliant idea - try mussel. Sure enough this brought another big fish which was obviously a foulhooked  barbel as I came back with a small scale.

Next drop with mussel and a big fish was hooked, which plodded around, deep, in a strange way - not quick enough for a barbel, so perhaps a carp foulhooked. No - it was another 10 lb-plus carp, hooked in the mouth, and it ended in my net. Fifteen minutes left and immediately another fish took the mussel. 

I have a watch on my side tray, so I know I played that fish for ten minutes, without it ever getting off the bottom. Then the hook pulled, and I sighed (as you can imagine)!!!!  That was my last excitement for the day. I assumed I would be last on the lake. And I still don't know what I did wrong to lose all those fish.

Lee Kendall had some big ole carp in his winning 199 lb 8 oz weight. 

The weigh in
In fact I wasn't last with my six fish for 34 lb 8 oz - top on the lake was Ernie Lowbridge on peg 20, to my left, with 70 lb 14 oz. If the nine fish lost but probably properly hooked had ended in my net, at an average of only 4 lb (and I think some were much bigger), I could have won the lake. So I didn't disgrace myself after all. Like Manchester United I made the chances but...

On Cedar, behind me, Lee Kendall had an incredible last hour, taking 83 lb in that time and ending with 199 lb 8 oz on Peg 7, fishing a 6mm expander on the hook over 4mm hard pellets under the bush to his right. The weights were a bit better on Cedar than on Elm. My next match is on Cedar on Wednesday.

One big blister and one small one, which has now grown.

Bites I didn't miss!
One unusual problem I had before the match was looking after two blisters which had formed on my foot on Thursday, with another on my knee - the result of some sort of bite. 

I lanced the feet blisters Saturday night so I could get my boot on (covering them with a plaster), and also the one on the knee. But while I was moving about fishing, the plaster on the knee was moved away from the blister. I tried to adjust it several times, but it always rode up.  I was worried the fishing trousers would be dirty and infect the bite, but afterwards the blister seemed to be OK, and had dried up fairly well. 

I once had a similar bite in Tenerife which the doctor thought might have been a spider. But how can a spider bite me three times while I was playing indoor bowls???

THE RESULTS

Camera operator error on this Elm result!

Cedar