This is late, but yesterday was a bank holiday, and since I had more than 20 years of working almost every bank holiday, I thought I'd have this one off! I'm revolting in my old age...
Last time I wrote that I thought that pegs 10 to 14 on Six-Island would fish well in the SSE wind, in this JV club match. I therefore went and drew peg 10 - unfortunately on Four-Island lake, which had been added. I've not fished it much, and never in that swim, although when I got to it, the swim looked OK, with a small island at 11.5 metres. The margins, though, were not inviting, with bare bank to the right and a protrusion to the left, probably an old stump, which was surrounded by that green cotton-wool growth.
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| Peg 10 - the island looked good but I never had a fish there. That's Roy Whincup, opposite, on peg 2. |
The wind was into my face, from the right, and had blown lots of floating debris into that margin - reeds, grass, twigs...you name it. That wind - laughingly described in the media as 'warm' - was anything but, and the island gave shelter which meant I didn't have much ripple there all day. No matter - there was a job to be done. There were five on our lake and 14 on Six-Island.
After putting a little pot of micros and corn out to open water I dropped in next to the island with a 6mm expander. This brought a line bite, so I retrieved the rig, dropped it in front of me, and put in some more expanders in the cad pot. When I lifted it up there was an F1 on the end!
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| Roy Whincup plays a carp in the murk, before the sun came out. |
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| Successfully in the net... |
Obviously that was a signal, so I put it back. Within a minute or two a 3 lb carp had taken the bait and was in my net. On went cat meat on a top two and that brought a four-pounder which, on my short top, took me only seconds to land. Next a 2 lb barbel obliged. But then things slowed up, and for half an hour I never had a touch anywhere. Fish started moving about under the surface and a piece of corn flicked towards two carp together saw the fish sink slowly, perhaps towards the bait...and when I struck, assuming the fish had gone, one was attached!
This was almost 10 lb, and was hooked in the outside of the mouth, hence it took me several minutes to land. But again there was a lull. So into the left margin, but I kept hooking underwater twigs and small branches, so I came a foot away from the snags and that worked with three or four nice carp up to nearly double-figures on cat meat in the next 40 minutes.
Opposite me the cat meat legend that is Roy Whincup, had had several fish in his right margin, but now we both stopped catching; indeed I later heard that the fish went off over most of our lake and Six-Island as well
I think almost two hours went by before I got my next fish. I had seen F1s congregating in the left margin, mainly hanging with their heads in the reeds. Now the sun was out and the fish spooked when I picked up my pole, because the sun was to my right, casting a shadow to the left. I also noticed that my bait was ice-cold to the touch, so the fish were probably picking up a minor change in water temperature near the surface.
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| Roy's fish were actually a bit smaller than mine but he nearly doubled my weight. |
Then I had a brilliant out-of-the-box idea. I put the pole up to 13 metres, with a five-foot lash, and put out a light rig, just 18 inches deep, baited with mussel, farther out into the ripple towards the lefthand bank. Unbelievably (cos I don't often fish shallow) this brought bites, and in the next hour I landed five or six plump F1s and a small rudd. Now Roy started catching again, and the next F1 came off right at the net - so close that when I desperately lunged to try to scoop it up, I actually felt the fish.
Next fish came off soon after being hooked, and then bites stopped completely. So I came into the margin again hoping for a cracking last half-hour, even though it was flat calm there. I hit two fish which came off, and when I switched to the right margin, where I had put in corn, I hit a really big fish which also came off.
That meant I had lost the last five fish - a really disappointing end to the match.
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| Andy Bull - a hard-won 44 lb 3 oz from my bogey peg 22 on the main Six-Island lake. |
The two lakes were weighed in separately, with Roy obviously having won ours with his 110lb 3oz and I came third on the lake (just 2 oz ahead of Gus Gausden), which I was happy with - at least I hadn't disgraced myself.
To his left, on 8, Andy Gausden, fishing only his second match in the last four months, took some fish long on pellets but ended catching in his margins with dead reds for 146 lb 7 oz...but even he was just pipped into second by Ian Frith, opposite on 11, with 147 lb 12 oz.
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| Jim Regan took most of his 49 lb 14 oz from corner peg 24 in the final two hours. |
Peter Harrison on corner peg 9 was fourth, showing that yet again the carp are favouring that portion of the lake.
My next match is Friday on Beastie, followed by Elm lake on Sunday. For anyone that doesn't fish on Decoy, I will point out that there's an enormous difference between the two lakes. Indeed of the 11 lakes on the complex the only four that are similar are the four strips - Elm, Cedar, Oak and Yew. Beastie holds similar fish to the others, but more roach and tiny perch, so fishing with maggots can be dodgy. However, on Elm maggots can bring in the barbel, which now run to 8 lb-plus.
Temperatures are forecast to drop up to Saturday, so it could all be very difficult.
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| Four-Islands |
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| Six-Islands |
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