Three matches in five days (Tom's, and two on Yew).

 Peg 11, Captain Tom's, Friday, Apr 28, Float Fish Farm, Peterborough
Friday morning, and I am surrounded by policemen, as a guest of the Cambridgeshire Police National team. I met the team first in 1999, when I covered the Police National on the Cam, and was invited to sit with them for a meal when the results were announced. They came well up, and bettered that in 2005, when they won! I've met some of them since then, at Decoy, and my mate Mike Rawson was kind enough to invite me along as the only guest in a points match at Float Fish Farm, on Captain Tom's Lake, for this year's team. Eight of us fished, in a cold L to R wind.

The lake is named after local man Captain Tom Moore, who allegedly raided £35m for the NHS. I say 'allegedly' because I've never seen an exact amount, not seen what it was spent on, and my guess is that a bank statement showing an amount of money raised is laying in a tray somewhere in Whitehall, where it will lie until one of the WFH snivel servants decides to get off their backside, go into the office, and deal with it...

Everybody else had four slabs...in situ (that means in place).

I've caught it off Steve

If you've read Steve Tilsley's entries in Fishing News on Facebook you will have realised that something always goes wrong before he starts a match. Today he knocked his bait all over while dipping his nets., but scooped enough up to take with him to Peg 2. I must have stood too close, 'cos whatever it is he's got, I caught...

When I got to my swim, yes, it was the only one that had a problem with the paving slabs - the front two were on the bank beside me, and I had to rest my front feet (that's my box's front feet) on sand, Luckily this proved to be stable and I was away.

But my little old Matrix box rose to the occasion, and I could settle in comfortably.

First fish was on, on a bomb and sweetcorn cast to the other side about 16 metres away, and I realised I hadn't set up my landing net - the handle was still in the holdall! How many times have I been fishing and ALWAYS set the landing net up first? Obligingly the fish, a 2 lb mirror, hung on until I had it all erected. Next cast another two-pounder, but then...nothing. Not even a liner, so it was out to 14 metres, and then  13, at the far bank, in water down to about five feet, but that was 30 minutes wasted.

Mark Cross was to my left on Peg 9 and had 23 lb.

I find fish in 7 ft of water
Next I went out to 2+2, where there was about seven feet of water. I love using luncheon meat, which is banned on Decoy, and decided to concentrate on that, put in with hemp. And it worked for me, letting the strong tow slowly tighten the line, at which point the float would (occasionally) just jab under, with carp from 1 lb to 2 lb, and a solitary crucian.

Sport was very slow, but I'd take two or three, switch to a corn swim nearby (which never yielded even a bite), or the margins, where I had an ide and a roach, then rebait the 2+2, and find that the fish were back.

A surprise at the end
The anglers either side didn't seem to be catching much, so I kept putting the odd fish into the net, and the last three were all mirrors around 3 lb, boosting my weight to 55 lb 12 oz, which to my surprise won the match, with Steve second on 43 lb. My thanks to all for the welcome, and it was good to meet several who I'd seen before, especially Stuart, who informed me that I am henceforth banned, cos it's not the done thing to win first time. 

Stu, it was Beginner's luck, honestly!

Alun Bradshaw with his hard-won 18 lb 3 oz.

                                    THE RESULT

1 Tony                22 lb 14 oz             4th

3 Steve               43 lb                       2nd

5 Alun                18 lb 3 oz               7th

7 Micky              21 lb 6 oz               6th

9 Mark                23 lb                      5th

11 Mac (guest)   55 lb 12 oz             1st

13 Bob                16 lb 6 oz              8th

15 Stu                   28 lb                    3rd

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Peg 16, Yew, Sunday, Apr 30, Decoy
I was hoist by my own petard, when I said I'd like peg 16...and got it. However, for the record I also said that in my opinion pegs 20 and 21 are the most consistent pegs on this strip lake. But I wanted 16, in the corner, because some big weights have been taken there and I have fished it twice and not done very well. I wanted the challenge!

Peg 16, with the wind blowing into that corner. That wind brought debris
in during the match, which stayed there. But I didn't do the swim justice!

The wind was a beautiful South-Westerly into that corner, and I had Shaun Buddle on my left. It was all set up to be a great day. But most of the 12 of us started slowly, Shaun started long on a pole and didn't catch anything for some time; I started on 2+2 and never had a bite there. However, Bob and Callum, on 20 and 19, were getting fish on a feeder. That's when both Shaun and I should have changed.

But we didn't.

On to the pole with meat
Instead, we stayed on the pole. I went into the deep water towards the corner, because I remembered that Peter Spriggs had had a huge weight fishing there a year or two ago. The close margins were not really fishable because loads of reeds stems were being blown through the swim and forming a thatch along the side and in the corner. No matter - it was good cover for carp. In fact there was no shallow water in the swim and water levels are now so high - five feet was the shallowest I could find out to my left right against some reeds.

In the deep water near the corner cat meat produced a 2 lb ide, and soon afterwards my orange bungee elastic stretched halfway across the lake, with an angry 12 lb mirror on the end, hooked in the pectoral fin. Ten minutes and an aching back later it was cooling down in my keepnet. Shaun had, by now, had one fish long, but I think that was his only fish at that time.

Shaun Buddle had a good fish early on but then, like me, struggled.

Another nice carp came in, also on cat meat, but that was all I had after almost three hours,. though I had been getting absolutely dozens of gentle liners, which were obviously fish messing about with, or near, the bait, which I dare not strike at, and had lost about three obviously foulhooked. I tried away from that swim, and never had even a liner, and towards the reeds on the end bank, for nothing. 

A miracle!
At that point both Shaun and I decided we had nothing to lose by swapping to the rod - him with a bomb and me with a small hybrid feeder and hair-rigged sweetcorn in micros. The effect was miraculous...

I cast right across to the far bank (peg 15), went to put the rod on the rest and noticed that the tip rings weren't aligned with the rest of the rod. So I flicked the bale arm open, pulled the rod back, and twisted the tip. Bale arm back, I went to lay the rod on the rest and tighten up, and it jagged forward in a bite. That carp was around 9 lb, and again my back was aching.

I had several visits from a newly-hatched family of duckling no bigger than a chicken's
egg, watched over all the time by their mother.

Kev Lee, who came fourth,,  shows the size of the
typical carp now found in Yew Lake.

So I decided to cast out, have a cup of coffee, and ring the wife, as I normally do around 1 pm, to tell her not to bother to look out the life insurances as I was still alive. I had a quick coffee, cast out to the far bank, put the rod on the rest, picked up the phone and rang SWMBO. The conversation went: "Hi, it's me, Hang on I've got a fish." It was that quick! That was a carp about 6 lb.

Within a few minutes I had added two carassio about 2 lb each, and a little later a 4 lb carp. Another couple of good fish came after fairly long intervals, and I decided to change back to pole after playing a fish on the rod for about 15 minutes, never to even see the fish, only for the hook to pull out with a scale on it! Possibly foulhooked?

The last hour was so frustrating - liner after liner; about six lost; two landed, the last one on mussel. Sweetcorn didn't produce even a liner, and I never had a bite in the five-foot swim.

The weigh in and conclusions

First to weigh was Mike Rawson, who took almost every fish in his 53 lb 14 oz in the last hour. Next to him Peter Spriggs never had a fish until 12 o'clock, when he put on a 4mm expander and promptly hit, and landed, an 18 ln 10 oz mirror. He totalled 104 lb 1 oz for second place.

Callum Judge, third with 80 lb 3 oz, sat next to winner
Bob Allen, who doesn't like his photograph being taken.

On 24 Kevin Lee was almost fishless with an hour to go but ended with 73 lb 2 oz. But the winner was Bob Allen, on 20. His catch was all taken on a cage feeder cast right across, with a 12-inch hooklength baited with two grains of hair-rigged sweetcorn - apart from his first fish, which was a tench on paste on the feeder. Next to him Callum Judge, after also having that good start on the feeder, had a bad afternoon but finished with 80 lb 3oz.

I ended with 72 lb 6 oz, for fifth spot, beating Shaun by 7 lb. I am considering getting badges made headlining: "I beat Shaun Buddle". On the serious side, I should have tried a bunch of maggots on the hook, which can sometimes prove irresistible to carp. And I probably didn't persevere with trying to get close to the bask because of the debris floating there.

Peter Spriggs with his best carp, which we weighed at 18 lb 10 oz.

THE RESULT

The wind
The wind in the Fens has been Northerly for weeks, and I suspected that the fish didn't like the sudden change. But afterwards Peter Spriggs and I agreed that if it stays Southerly for the next two days, until our next Spratts match on the same lake, on Tuesday, it could fish its proverbial nuts off. Then, bugga me, I see on Tuesday the wind is forecast to have turned back to the North!

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Peg 23, Yew, Decoy, Tues, May 2

Back on Yew with the Spratts club, and before the draw we had a sombre minute's silence, remembering Alan Porter, a club member for two years, who died a few days earlier.

       Alan Porter, in happier times.       

Last season it was noticeable that after a match had finished Alan was very tired, and assistance was always forthcoming. On one occasion, when he admitted he was suffering, and that he knew he was not in good shape, I took his holdalls back to the car but he insisted on wheeling his trolley back. However, he needed help loading up gear. I realised then that he was quite ill.

We all understand that if you can get to your peg and fish like all your mates, for a time, at least, life seems normal. After that you battle through to the next outing. Alan was no different - his body was weak, but his heart was strong. I hope that by our just fishing alongside him we gave him that little extra strength and desire to turn up the next week.

He was a great inspiration and we will certainly miss him. I have no funeral arrangements yet.

Down to the bank, and blow me, the wind was now Easterly - the third different direction in three days - and not much of it, so for most of this match the water, certainly on our side, was calm. Peg 23 gives a back wind, sheltered by the high bank behind us on the Eastern bank. Sixteen fished, which meant using both banks so it wasn't possible to cast right across.

The platform on 23 is set back, was eighth with 38 lb in Sunday's match. and offered some shallow water about four feet deep close in, with seven feet depth out on a 2+1. But I decided, after Sunday's result, to start on a hybrid feeder with hair-rigged sweetcorn. However, after ten minutes I started to feel that this wasn't right, so I came in on the pole at 13 metres right on the edge of what little ripple there was. 

It was bright at the start, but the cloud cover later was total.

Fish on banded caster

Thirty minutes here without a bite on a 6mm expander seemed strange and suddenly I saw a reed to my left start twitching, showing that there were fish there. That left hand swim didn't produce anything when I just lowered a grain of corn down, so I tried shallow in the righthand swim, where I had been flicking casters, using banded caster. That produced one or two touches, which didn't seem like roach bites, so I went deeper, down to the bottom at four feet. Immediately I had a good bite and a 3 lb ide came splashing in.

Next came a small rudd, and then two tench of 2 lb and 3 lb, but then only liners, which I was sure were carp. That proved to be true when I hit a big fish which shot off like a bat out of hell and pulled off. But that was the end of the excitement there, so I had another look to the left, after putting in some hemp, which I hoped would get some taste-buds twitching.

That produced my first carp, which must have been 12 lb, but there was no pattern of bites. The next hour saw one more, and then a couple of mirrors came quickly.

I kept my eye on Wendy in case she started bagging on the feeder!

Best bit of the match for me

I then tried fishing shallow with caster at 13 metres, because fish were moving around, and in fact did hook one very big carp which gave a passable imitation of a leaping trout before throwing the hook.

 I was particularly pleased that I managed to feed accurately with my left hand, with the pole under my right elbow, which I've never really managed before. It was all because I used a catapult with a flexible handle - why did I never use that catapult before? Frankly that was the best thing to come out of the match, for me. I'm now really confident!

No more takes, and that was followed by two hours when I hooked another two or three in my shallow swims, on both sides, which were almost certainly foulhooked, and came off. But I was getting liners every minute or two, showing that fish were coming in.

Neil Pass, opposite me, had a good last hour.

I discount the feeder

To my right Wendy had caught, I think, only one of her three fish at that moment, feedering close in. So I discounted the possibility of going back on the feeder.

I fully expected the carp to start feeding close in with 90 minutes to go, but after one more, which took corn right against the bank, I sat fishless for over an hour while those opposite, on 7 and 8,  started catching. They seemed to be fishing about five feet deep  a matere or two out from the bank, while along this bank it's much deeper.

With 20 minutes left I finally went out to the deeper water, with no confidence at all, and hooked a beautiful golden mirror of about 10 lb on mussel, which, like all the fish hooked today, by myself and everyone else, fought like a demon - probably ultra-fit in preparation for spawning. That was my last fish, and I admit I hadn't fished that deep water properly, which probably cost me at least a frame place.

Mike Rawson with a cracking common. The 
fish all seem to be in fantastic condition.

The result

The weights on the far bank seemed a little better than those on our bank, and Bob Allen won his second match in a row fishing mainly down the margins on corner peg 15, using paste and cat meat, for 97 lb 4 oz. I had caught fish casting over to that bank on the Sunday, so I would have fancied that swim, but it was a very good performance in that company,. You've still got to catch 'em!

Peter Spriggs was second, in the swim I had fished Sunday, on our bank, opposite the winner. He fished a couple of feet closer to the bank than I had - a bad mistake by me. I think the older you get the slower you react in almost everything, and that is now applying to me. Anyway, he ended with 79 lb 1 oz.

Third and fourth were on 7 and 8, opposite to where I had been fishing, with Dave Hobbs on 18 taking the last frame place with 62 lb.

Honestly, I think it's fantastic that at 92 Joe Bedford is still
catching fish like this every week!

I weighed 57 lb 13 oz for seventh, which to be honest was only one big fish away away from fifth, so I was still in contention, and altogether I had probably hit and lost eight. I was top in that line of six pegs at the Southern end of our bank. 

John Smith on 26 took all his 54 lb 9 oz on mussel, so that's a bait I will take on very match for the next few months. I believe it's light colour and the fact that it is not as heavy as cat meat, so will waft about, makes it a good  bait to try if you've put cat meat into the swim.

Next match due to be Sunday on Kingsland small reservoir. But will I be able to sneak a few hours fishing on Saturday, when I understand the King is holding a party?

Dave Hobbs, fourth with 62 lb on a very difficult day.

THE RESULT

                    East bank                                                                            West bank

28 Shaun Buddle        44 lb 8 oz                              3 Mick Ramm           47 lb 1 oz

26 John Smith            54 lb 9 oz                               5 Mike Rawson        53 lb 6 oz

25 John Garner          29 lb 7 oz                                7 Peter Harrison       72 lb 8 oz        3rd

23 Mac Campbell      57 lb 13 oz                              8 Neil Paas               64 lb 6 oz         4th

22 Wendy Bedford     12 lb 6 oz                             10 Trevor Cousins      59 lb 6 oz

20 Steve Engledow     10 lb 6 oz                            12 Joe Bedford            27 lb 8 oz

18 Dave Hobbs           62 lb             5th                  13 Bob Barrett            50 lb 10 oz

16 Peter Spriggs        79 lb 1 oz      2nd                 15 Bob Allen               97 lb 4 oz        1st