A nice peg on Elm, Decoy, but the fish were on strike! And the Open result.

Peg 12, Sunday, Feb 12
Sunday dawned dull, but at least there hadn't been an overnight frost, so my hopes were high of a good day ahead...but then "Road Closed Ahead" signs appeared before Ramsey St Mary. Now I've seen them before, and driven past all of them on an open road, because I know that sometimes they are put out the day before work starts. AND they didn't say where the road was closed. Which road? How far ahead? Where, exactly? And is it REALLY closed?

So I sailed past the first sign; and the second. Road Closed; Ahead Road Closed; Diversion; Road Closed Ahead - I drove past about eight of them, four or five miles, right up to Pondersbridge where - guess what? The bloody road was closed! A glance at my watch showed me that I was unusually-early, and I had nearly half an hour to get to Decoy before the JV club draw.

Nothing for it but to take the diversion through Ramsey Mereside. Then it was left towards Benwick, rocking and rolling like a roller coaster, on partially-subsided roads; through the Okavango desert; past hamlets the missionaries haven't yet discovered; through Benwick and out on more suspension-wrecking highways that make the road from the main road up to Decoy look like a Motorway. Then to the first signs of civilisation in the form of Eastrea, and finally to Decoy, with just five minutes to spare...fuming.

A present!
And at the draw a smiling Steve Tilsley had a present for me. He'd read my last blog, about daffodils and snowdrops putting a smile on my face, and presented me with a pot of flowering snowdrops he had dug up from his garden. I was really pleased, but also amazed  - that someone had read the blog! Bless you, Steve. 

Calm water all day - and those yellow reeds on the left are about 30 metres away.

The draw

So to the draw, with the HQ heaving, as 60 had entered for the Open, and there were ten of us club anglers on Elm. With pegs on both banks. I wanted from 7 round to 18, and was happy with corner peg 12, where I have won more than one match in the past, in the Summer. However, Chris Saunders pointed out that Ron Cuthbert had had peg 12 recently and hadn't caught much. When I got to the peg I could see why - I had visions of dobbing bread to reeds along the end bank, to my left. But there were no reeds - only two bushes which threw their branches out well into the lake.

I asked Lee Kendall, when we were ready, how he would fish it, and he promptly did a fair imitation of Alan Titchmarsh, taking a long-handled pair of loppers from his holdall and  proceeding to spend almost 15 minutes, perched precariously on a branch over the water, to take out the offended branches. That really was over and above what you might expect a mate to do. Thanks, Lee.

The match
The water was flat calm all day in my swim, though the others to the right did occasionally get a little ripple. I started on bomb and bread, and landed a 4 lb common about ten minutes after the start. Lee, on my right, and John Savage, opposite, also had a fish on the bomb. No more for me on the bomb, so I tried dobbing bread in among the bushes, but without result. So it was out to 13 metres on maggot, towards the end bank, which brought a 3 lb F1. meanwhile Lee had about two carp on the long pole.

Our club organiser John Savage AKA as Yammers,
(although he can't remember why) was
opposite me on peg 14.

Then followed about two hours when I couldn't get a bite, and I didn't see much else caught, either. The light was not good - no sunshine (although Steve reckoned we had some, so one of us must have fallen asleep) and the float was fairly difficult to see at distance, even with a black top. Going out to 14.5 metres didn't get a take, either.

I tried a bit closer, at 11 metres, and lo and behold, a 2 lb bream came in, on three red maggots and a flouro pinkie. Soon afterwards I hit a big fish that threatened to get to the end bank. It might have actually have done so - my pole tip was in the water and there was a suddenly thump, and the rig came back minus the hooklength. Almost certainly foulhooked.

A fish hooks itself

Another long pause and I tried putting a piece of sweetcorn on the bottom next to the bushes and a double-figure carp nearly tore the pole from my hands. After a long, difficult fight, it ended in my net, when I saw it had been hooked in the snout - the worst possible place to hook them as they are absolutely uncontrollable. I suspected the fish had seen the corn, taken fright (as they do), and thrashed its tail to get away, bringing the hook up onto its nose. Otherwise how could it have hooked itself?

Lee Kendall on Peg 10 was top on our bank with 51 lb 6 oz.

A good spell for Lee and Roy
John, opposite, then had two or three on the pole, and I went back out in front of me at 13 metres, and took about four more bream to 2 lb. With about an hour left it started to get quite cold, and I put my padded Imax jacket on - a real life-saver in the Winter. 

 In the last half hour Lee took several more big carp, fishing 14 metres to his right, towards peg 9, where he told me found another 18 inches of depth. That could explain why that area tends to fish well in the Winter. Opposite him Roy Whincup also had a good last half-hour, taking barbel in the deep margin. 

Roy Whincup's best fish weighed 15 lb 13 oz!

I expected to start getting bites  towards the end of the match, but it never happened. Interestingly Lee and And Bull on 18, both had barbel on bread. I hadn't tried bread on the bottom in the margins, and probably should have done - anything a little out of the ordinary can sometimes work. Would they have taken mussel? Towards the end a strange oily scum appeared n the margins, and I had a job to get the rig through it. I have no idea what could have caused it.

The weigh in
Lee was way ahead on our bank with 51 b 6 oz, and the other four, including me, were all in the 20s. I had 25 lb 2 oz - about eight fish and so far as I know I never missed a bite. But the winner was Roy Whincup  on 16, who had two early fish on the bomb and the rest on pole, for 66 lb 10 oz.  At least it didn't rain.

OUR RESULT

Elm

The Open
The Open, held on several lakes, was won by Andy Rayment on Six-Island peg 8, with 239 lb 11 oz. He told me he fished 14 metres with maggot, and that the water in that end of the lake was a different colour to the rest - presumably feeding fish stirred it up. Second was opposite him, on peg 11, with 216 lb 10 oz. Best of the rest was Ben Townsend on Horseshoe 5 who had to use the waggler, cast as close to the far-bank reeds as he could, after his pole lines dried up. He ended with 149 lb 3 oz.

Karen at the fishery is doing a really great job there, and is putting the full results on the Decoy Facebook page. But I'll put them here anyway.

My next match

My next match looks like being my first visit to the Pidley Pensioners on Wednesday, on Jay and Raven (my bogey lake). Jay has been very patchy lately, though we all know it's full of fish, and it will probably all depend on whether the wind allows you to fish at 14 metres across to the far bank.

OPEN RESULTS

Six-Island

Cedar

Damson

Horseshoe

Willows