OK. Let's cut to the chase - I blew out in this JV match on Elm in a strong, bitterly-cold North-Easterly. But I had a soupcon of satisfaction by forecasting, in my previous blog, where the best weights might be. I said I would like 15, 16 or 17; on the day the lake was won on 15, second was on 16, and 17 wasn't pegged. I finished last.
Thankfully Yammers pegged us on all with backwind on Elm, and Cedar (over our right shoulders) - some Ramsey anglers on Yew were facing the wind and must have been stiff with cold by lunch time. My peg 21 had a nice-looking right margin, where the water dropped to five feet right on the edge of two tufts of reed and the strong undertow was taking the water down that way. But facing that way meant turning into the wind, and when I fished there my hands were very soon aching with cold.
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| Two nice tufts of old reeds were to my right. I didn't need the umbrella, but it was mighty cold. |
However I had promised myself I would be positive, and put in some cat meat and pellets in that margin, with micros in the left margin. But I then started, as did Steve Pell on my left on 22, on a feeder and corn. He had a 12-pounder first cast and a smaller fish three casts later; I had only two liners in an hour.
After an hour we both came in on the pole. Cat meat failed to get a sniff, but I had a bite on corn on the right margin, which turned out to be a foulhooked barbel about 2 lb. That convinced me that there must be others there and I put in maggots and stayed there for the next hour, getting just three tiny dips of the float and no fish.
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| Steve Pell, to my left, plays a good carp, hooked on maggot. |
Steve Pell now found some bigger fish - bream, barbel and what looked like better carp, so I also went out on the longer pole, about eight metres, with maggot. A few small roach came in, and some dropped off, so I changed down to an 8/10 elastic. Soon I changed to spread-out shot to give a longer fall, and this was better for roach. Then some better bream took the bait - fish up to 3 lb. But they were few and far between.
At one point, still trying to be positive, I put some mussel into the right margin, fishing with half a mussel, but that didn't produce even a liner. Halfway through the match Steve Pell had a nice spell with two or three good carp quickly and a run of bream and barbel. He told me afterwards that putting in dead maggots and pellet stopped his bites, which came back when he threw out live maggots. I was also putting in live maggots, but bites were a long time coming.
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| Sloane Kane included several barbel on peg 14. |
We started at the far end, corner peg 13, where Barry Webb had just two carp in his 43 lb 5 oz catch, the rest being mainly barbel taken from the end bank. Weights then got better, the winner being Peter Harrison, who just can't stop catching fish, on 15. He had fish on a feeder and wafter at the start, then on a long pole and also some in the margins. But his best spell came in the last hour or two on bomb and bread, giving him 140 lb 8 oz of mainly carp to 10 lb.
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| Dave Parsons was second on Elm with 121 lb 9 oz. |
Next door, Dave Parson was second, most of his 121 lb 9 oz being taken on a long pole. Steve, on my right, hidden by a bush, had had a better second half, finishing with carp for 62 lb 6 oz, while on my left Steve Pell totalled 70 lb 2 oz,. My bream, one barbel, one F1 and small roach went 25 lb 12 oz. On to corner peg 24, where Peter Molesworth pole-fished to the end bank all day with corn for 116 lb which was third, of which more than half was barbel.
Behind us Chris Saunders went on to a waggler for four good carp which helped him to first spot on Cedar with 88 lb 12 oz. He said that hard pellet was his best bait.
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| Overall winner Peter Harrison watches one of his three nets being weighed in. |
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| Steve Pell had carp, barbel and bream... |
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| John Molesworth's 116 lb catch was mainly barbel, from peg 24. |
I don't know why I didn't catch carp or barbel among my roach and bream. I had intended to fish hard pellet, but never tried it. Perhaps I needed to go out farther on the pole. Like Steve I ended up feeding two pints of maggots. But sometimes, particularly on Elm lake, it can fish as if there is a brick wall between some swims. Not worth worrying about - I caught fish and had a decent day in that horrible wind.
My catch comes into perspective when I think of the interview did about 25 years ago with Billy Hughes, winner of the National on the Welland in the 1950s with about 22 lb, and a man who devastated the North-Western match scene in partnership with Benny Ashurst. They were the team who first found the effectiveness of casters, and for their pains they used to have to pay tax on their winnings (I saw the tax form).
Well, in over 70 years match fishing at the highest levels, Billy's best-ever weight was 26 lb of roach from the Cam! Makes you realise how lucky we are...
Last Sunday I left my keepnet bar on Beastie, peg 20. On Tuesday, before the Spratts match I went to the peg but it had gone; so on Wednesday I bought another from Alex Bates at Pidley. Actually on my phone was a text, which I hadn't yet read, from Roy Whincup, who said it had been handed to him at the Over 60s match at Pidley that morning by one of the Ramsey anglers.
So many thanks to that angler, and to Roy. I now have a second keepnet bar which I think I can place with a deserving angler who probably hasn't got one. I have someone in mind...one good turn deserves another.
Next match Wednesday on Six-Island, The wind is currently forecast to be South-Westerly, so I would like pegs 7 to 9, please!
THE RESULT
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ELM CEDAR |
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