Commercial Matchman: Happy with a few fish from Magpie, Rookery Waters.

Peg 14 on Magpie, Wednesday, Feb 15

Off for my first Pidley Pensioners match at Rookery Waters for nearly a year - and the breakfast in the fishery cafe is the stuff of legends. Hardly a week goes by without someone posting a picture of it on Facebook. But so far I have resisted the temptation to order one - the bacon and beans would be fine, but sausages contain gluten, as does bread, and unfortunately I am, like thousands of others, gluten-intolerant (gluten affects the stomach's ability to digest foods properly).

So I made do, on this occasion, with a steaming mug of tea, and sat myself down like Alice in Wonderland, uninvited, at the Mad Anglers' table - Chris Saunders and Roy Whincup. Chris said he had drawn 36, which even I know is the absolute flier, though a win is certainly not guaranteed. However, catching a few fish is almost guaranteed, and Chris can catch fish!

Among the general conversation which followed, both Roy and Chris agreed that the other pegs on Magpie they would rate on this day were 1 and 8, while Chris said that 33 seemed to be holding a lot of fish at the moment. Time would tell whether those were good prophecies.

Peg 14 - with trees behind, sheltering the swim from the sun.

A sheltered swim

My peg 14 would give me shelter from the wind, but the trees behind the peg shield the angler from the sun. Anyway, I walked out happy enough, but not before telling Mike Rawson I didn't fancy his peg 13 on Raven, as the low sun in your eyes there can be a nightmare. I know how to cheer someone up...

My peg 14 was flat calm all day, which I feel is rarely ideal, and it's in open water, though with a man-made floating island about18 metres in front. I'd had to scrape ice from the windscreen, so the water was obviously very cold. Opposite I could see Brian Yorke on 34 and, to his left, Roger Gowler on 32. I didn't see a single fish move until about an hour from the end, when one crashed on the surface several pegs round the bend to my left.

One early fish on bread
I started on bread and bomb, cast to the floating island. Five minutes later Allan Golightly, on 11 to my right, had a 5 lb carp also on bread and bomb, cast to the reeds on the island opposite him. On my third cast a 2 lb F1 nearly pulled the rod off my rest. At least I could now weigh in.

Opposite me Brian, who had started by dobbing bread, and Roger, had just the odd fish on long poles - 16 metres I guess - and eventually I out out the pole, to 13 metres, in about six fet of water. I had the 14.5 metre section with me, but I like to leave using it until later, as fish drop back. The 16-metre section I had accidentally left at home, though I have a bad shoulder and wouldn't have been looking forward to using it. And it certainly wouldn't have extended to the island.

I had been throwing maggots out in front of me, in about four feet of water, but decided to leave that swim until later. In the next hour a 4 lb common and a 3 lb mirror took double red in the swim to my right. I fed half-a-dozen maggots at a time, some with a catapult, and others via a pot.

Brian and Roger had another fish or two, but sport was very slow. In the next two hours I had about two more carp, and went out to 14.5 metres in the lefthand swim where, to my surprise, I had two F1s in two drops. But, as I half expected, no more came, so I swapped back and forth between the two swims for another couple of fish..

Nothing close in
After another hour two fish had come adrift, and I had had only about one more. so I looked at the short maggot swim, but never had a touch; I also had a look in the deep margin eight metres to my left, with cloud groundbait and a few maggots, in three feet, but if there had been fish there I am sure I would have had a liner of some sort. Nothing! I look enviously at the pegs on the main island, which had a little ripple for some of the time.

Allan Golightly, on my right, had a good first half of the match,
but a bad second half - a bit like Arsenal!

With an hour to go, and with Roger having had the occasional fish all day on 32, I tried a piece of sweetcorn. Amazingly I had a 4 lb carp first cast, but then another came off. Three more followed which I landed. They gave the tiniest of bites, and every one took either within 20 seconds of the corn slowly falling to the bottom, or as I inched the bait along.

Calamity Mac

Then a bit of a calamity - I hooked what I am sure was a very big fish, not foulhooked, at 14.5 metres. But I couldn't break the pole down. I tried taking off the largest section, which would have enabled me to roll the pole back to section three, but it was firmly stuck. As was the next one, and the next, and the next.

None of them up, to section four, would come apart, and after a very long two minutes, with the fish hammering away, just as I prepared to lift the pole bodily over the bank behind me, the fish came off. Of course the sections then came apart with no problem!

Later I wondered why I hadn't extended the legs of the big back roller, which would have allowed me to push it back over the bank behind me. Twenty minutes to go, and that fish must have spooked the others, as I never had another bite. Ron Clark on 5 had two fish for 15 lb, so the bigger fish were on the move, and mine could have been in that category.

The weigh in
Vic German on 1 had weighed 44 lb 6 oz, beaten by Mark Waring on 8, who had most of his 45 lb 14 oz on a feeder or bomb cast to the island. Allan Golightly had a bad second half and weighed 16 lb, while I finished with about 11 fish for 31 lb 12 oz, which turned out to be fifth on the lake, won by Chris Saunders on 34 with 64 lb 14 oz. Put a good angler on a good peg and...

I was happy - a reasonable day weatherwise and as Chris and Roy had suggested, 1 and 8 had indeed held fish, while Roger on 32 was third with 43 lb 4 oz. They must have crystal balls in their holdalls. If I had landed those four fish which pulled off I might have framed - so I felt I had at least given myself a chance.

Raven was won on 17 by Rob Heath, who must have had the sun in his eyes for a lot of the time, with Alan Owen second and Steve Tilsley third.

My next match is Sunday on Beastie, Decoy, where peg 3 has been dominating.