I demonstrate my Degree in Stupidity on Willows, Decoy

Peg 4, Willows, Wed, May 10

A West wind with heavy rain later was forecast for this 14-entry Spratts match on Willows, Decoy, and both were wrong! What little wind there was certainly started sort of West, then turned Northerly, and ended from the South. But with bright sun for the first few hours fishing in the almost-flat-calm was difficult.

Bright sun and calm water - but look at that lovely ripple in the distance!

Peter Harrison picked the favourite peg 1, but I fancied my peg 4, because of a lovely tree stump in my left margin, which screamed 'fish.' I had read my blog for the last time I fished Willows in warm weather, when I had had an early fish or two on a feeder, so that's how I started, and while I waited for bites I constantly catapulted out casters, hoping to catch shallow later. A fish took the yellow banded wafter on a hybrid with micros first cast - a 2 lb bream. Another followed, and a small F1, until I felt I simply has to try the tree stump.

That tree stump looked such an attractive spot...

First cast to the stump
First drop there with corn took another 2 lb bream, but then no more bites, which seemed very strange. A look in the right margin didn't produce, and although the water in this part of the lake was flat calm I felt I had to have a look shallow with banded caster. So I went out on 13 metres, and although the float kept going under, and I varied the depth from 12 to 24 inches, I took just one 10 oz ide. Most of the bites must have been roach, I think. To my right Peter Spriggs wasn't faring much better.

Another spell on the feeder for one fish meant that halfway through the match I had about 10 lb. I flicked a grain of corn at some carp which were cruising around near the bank, and as soon as the corn hit the water the fish usually scarpered. So I reluctantly abandoned the 'shallow with casters' plan and turned to a banded pellet fished on the bottom at 10 metres. Cupping in about eight 6mm pellets at a time brought F1s from 1 lb to 2 lb, steadily but not fast.

I'd forgotten to charge my phone, so I switched it off,
and by the time I'd started it up and was ready to
get Peter in action it was all over!

With about 25 lb in the net I switched to corn in the same swim, and probably shouldn't have done, because the bites were a little longer coming; but I was still catching the occasional fish. A short shower came in, but soon went and the sun did go in for short periods, but we never had much of a ripple along this bank until the last hour or so.

Into the right margin
I had put some hemp and corn in the right margin, in a cut-out close to the platform, and eventually saw some whirls in the surface there. So with about 25 minutes left, and with Peter now connecting with better carp in the margin, I staked everything on getting some bigger fish.

The first few drops with cat meat and corn produced just some annoying dips of the float which looked like roach, but I was sure they were better fish. Then, at last, I hit a really  big fish on corn. It stretched the orange 20 elastic well out, and I was confident of landing it, until I realised it was slowly battling its way towards that stump on my left. Stupidly I hadn't got the next section ready to put on, and the fish was pulling so hard I couldn't reach for it.

Disaster
Horrified, I watched the elastic turn towards the bank and everything went solid. I put on as much pressure as I dared and I felt the fish coming back out, but something was rasping against the line. It came a long way out, but the snag must have been a branch well out in the water, because the rig just wouldn't come free. Then it broke!

Four minutes left and I picked up one of the other rigs I'd used and put on a piece of cat meat from the tin I had kept in a cool bag, with an ice pack, until I had opened it. I dropped back into the swim and threw in a few cubes of that cat meat...only to see it float! My piece was sinking, thanks to the weight of the hook, but very slowly, and I now had no confidence in it. So I swapped it for a piece of mussel, as I knew that would sink normally. The other half of that mussel followed my bait in.

We all watch the weighing, by which time, thankfully,
 the late shower at the end of the match had stopped. 

...and again
Seconds later the float shot down and I was attached to another big fish. Now if there was a category on Eggheads for Stupidity I reckon I would get all the questions correct, as I have a degree in it. AGAIN I had not got my extra sections ready, and for 30 seconds I held on, with teeth gritted, hoping the fish would go out in front of me so I could jam the top two (short top and Number three) into the three sections lying on the rollers behind me. It never happened...

'Crack', the line, which I had realised was only about 6 lb, instead of my more usual 10 lb margin line, broke, and my last chance of beating Peter went with it. End of match.

I made the right choice to come into the margins for the last half-hour (probably should have done it a little earlier), but quite simply I cocked it up.

Peter Harrison, the winner with 122 lb 1 oz from Peg 1.

The weigh in
Peter Harrison was top from peg 1 with 122 lb 1 oz, with Trevor Cousins second with 105 lb 9 oz from peg 20, half of which was taken mugging. Trevor is so good at that, though he did say that there was a lot of floating rubbish around, which may, perhaps, have made the carp less suspicious. Either way, that was a very good performance in my book. I wish I could do it.

I admitted to 40 lb, which turned out to be 51 lb 4 oz for eighth spot, with Peter next door weighing in 63 lb 9 oz, about 15 lb of which was taken in the last 30 minutes or so. The floating cat meat was a surprise, as it was Vitacat meat - I never buy fish because it so often floats. Looks like I will have to check the tins before I leave the house.

Biggest fish was probably this one, to Wendy Bedford.
Joe, her brother-in-law, watches in the background.

Second man Trevor mugged half his fish.

Next match Saturday on Crow, at Pidley, when the wind is forecast to be NNE, blowing into the low numbers. The favoured pegs tend to be from about 16 to 25; but I am really looking forward to it wherever I get pegged, as Rookery Farm Fishery is always a pleasure to fish - great, safe platforms on the bank, and a brilliant tackle shop and cafe.

                            THE RESULT

1 Peter Harrison          122 lb 1 oz            1st
2 Mike Rawson                DNW 
4 Mac Campbell           51 lb 4 oz
5 Peter Spriggs             63 lb 9 oz
7 Bob Barrett                    DNW

8 Dave Hobbs               73 lb 4 oz              4th 

10 John Garner             58 lb 14 oz

11 Wendy Bedford        26 lb 8 oz

13 Joe Bedford             12 lb 9 oz

15 Bob Allen                68 lb 7 oz 

16 Mick Ramm            17 lb 10 oz

18 Shaun Buddle         31 lb 13 oz

20 Trevor Cousins     105 lb 9 oz            2nd

22 Neil Paas                73 lb 15 oz           3rd

The weigh sheet, with an important announcement from the recorder Bob Allen!