Still casting around with casters...on Beastie, Decoy

Peg 30, Wed, June 21
Happy with peg 30 in this 11-entry Spratts match, entry down because of holidays. I'd read a bit by Carp attack in the Maggot Drowners forum, who kindly messaged me about how he won last Sunday on 30 with 237 lb...and then Trevor Cousins draws it for me! My only reservation was that now the wind has turned around to roughly South-Westerly, pegs 26, 29 and 30 were pretty calm and, apart from a short shower, the sun was bright almost all day.

But it was very pleasant - not too hot, and I never put up the feeder rods. I started in the right margin, which is five feet or more deep, with corn and quickly took a 1 lb F1 and two carp of 3 lb and 4 lb. But inevitably bites tailed off, so I put in a little hemp and micros in the left margin, just in front of the grassy point, and immediately a 2 lb bream came to cat meat, but then no more. One of the anglers from the Telford Festival said that the previous day the angler on this peg had had only 42 lb, but he hadn't fished his right margin, which is deeper, at all. I've always found here that the left produces, usually, late on, so went back to the right.

The SW wind meant that on pegs 29 and 30 (and poor Joe on 26) we didn't have much ripple

The occasional fish was showing on the surface, but they were swimming quite fast, and all but two ignored my attempt at mugging them - and one of those, about 8 lb, was foulhooked!

Tom Edwards' video
I remember seeing a video by Tom Edwards on this peg, catching shallow in the right margin, so I had a go with banded caster, and indeed some F1s came in, but never fast enough. I think the surface was just too calm, and they took fright too easily when one was hooked. So after  quick look back in the left margin I went out to five sections with caster, hoping to catch a little ripple, fished shallow. At this point John Garner on 29 said he had 26 lb and I said I had about 35 lb. 

Casters to the rescue
Now I started to really enjoy banded caster fished shallow, as I had a fish first drop, and kept nicking others - including several bream, fishing 18 inches deep, to 3 lb. A couple of carp of around 3 lb came in, but it was mainly bream and F1s. Again I managed to be fairly accurate using the catapult in my left hand. 

With two hours to go I should probably have had another look down to the left, but I was enjoying it so much I stayed out until bites tailed off a little, and I reckon I had around 40 lb in my best hour. I was surprised to catch so well, because there was ripple for just a few minutes when the wind swung round to Westerly, but the rest of the time it was almost flat calm.

John Garner on my left was hidden behind a bush, but I kept seeing
his landing net emerge, and brought back with something splashing in it.

I got on better when I reduced the lash from three feet to about a foot, which seemed to somehow give me an inkling when a better fish was on the bait. Even so, for every ten bites I missed (mainly roach and rudd) I would hit just one carp or F1. The trick was go get the bait right in the middle of eight or ten loose-fed casters. Then the carp would have a go.

Back to the left margin

With 50 minutes left I tore myself away from the shallow swim, and dropped in meat to the left margin, on a top two. A carp about 7 lb came in first drop, but the bites here were never really quick. Mussel produced two or three more, as did double corn, and with ten minutes to go I had added about six fish. Then when I thought I should really start nagging everything went belly up, and no more bites came for five minutes. Then - a bite and I hooked a big fish, which came off just before the match ended. I seem to make a habit of losing my last fish recently...😞

Bob Barrett took all his 69 ln 9 oz on a feeder on peg 5.

I have only five short tops, and the last rig, for the left margin, was on a normal two-section top. The difference in how you play the fish was astounding - the short tops really do seem to scare the fish less, because they don't bend, and I was able to land the bigger fish on these in about a third of the time it took on the longer, bendier tops.

The weigh in
Joe was first to weigh, just 23 lb 7 oz, and when I saw his swim later I really felt for him - like a mill pond! John Garner had had a good last hour with better fish in his right margin, and weighed in 91 lb 14 oz. I thought I probably had 110 lb from my clickers - 35 lb, 35 lb and 40 lb.. 

When my first net was pulled from the water Trevor told me, as he looked at it, that Peter Harrison had had a net disqualified from the previous match because it had gone over 60 lb, and he sounded very stern. Not a good omen, and some thought this net would also go over.

Peter Harrison - second with123 lb 15 oz, also on a feeder.

What do they know? It weighed a little under 55 lb, knocked back to 50 lb, but at least it counted. Next net was also over, but by less than 2 lb. And the last net, started about an hour before the end, went 46 lb 4 oz - total (even I could add that lot up) was 146 lb 4 oz. And that stayed in the lead up to Peter Harrison on 4, who had had a good day casting a feeder to the island, and ending up using three nets. But his 123 lb 15 oz didn't beat me, and we went round to the other side, where the pegs were in the 20s.

Here Trevor Cousins had stuck to his shallow rigs all day - on a pellet waggler over a little feed well out, and on a pole with no feed, for mugging fish, when they came close in. He's so good at that. He's also a lot better at estimating his weight than I am, and never went over in any of his three nets, totalling 96 lb 4 oz.  So I ended as the winner. A good peg, but the secret of match fishing (like poker) is to make the best of any luck that comes your way.

Trevor Cousins' best fish. He has, of course, an advantage over us -
he brings his wife to every match. Looks like she's keeping her eye on him here!

Next match Sunday on Yew, which holds mainly biggish carp. I will be taking my trusty casters with me, but suspect that the wind will decide where most fish are caught. I don't really mind where I draw, so long as there's a raspberry ripple!

FINALLY, for my mates who ask about my health, I've had some good news, and some bad. The good news is that the nasty-looking black place in my mouth discovered by my dentist appears to have vanished. The consultant at Addebrookes can't offer an explanation, but he says there's just nothing there now!

However, an examination, also at Addenbrookes, on the previous day, has revealed a large amount of calcium in the bladder, around the prostate, and because I have only one kidney the consultant immediately asked for an urgent operation. In fact the pre-assessment appointment was on my computer by the time I had arrived home from the hospital. I had a similar operation (a TURPS) 20 years ago, but this one looks as if it will be a bit more complicated.

More good news is that the anemia, probably caused by coeliac disease (the reason I have had to go non-gluten) seems to have righted itself. That's my own conclusion, from the results of the complicated blood tests, which my consultant will hopefully verify when I speak to him in August.

THE RESULT

2 Mike Rawson             18 lb 10 oz
3 Bob Allen                   28 lb 12 oz
4 Peter Harrison          123 lb 15 oz        2nd
5 Bob Barrett                69 lb 8 oz
21 Mick Ramm            34 lb 2 oz
22 Peter Spriggs           73 lb 4 oz
23 Dave Hobbs            55 lb 6 oz
24 Trevor Cousins       96 lb 4 oz          3rd
26 Joe Bedford            23 lb 7 oz
29 John Garner            91 lb 14 oz        4th
30 Mac Campbell      145 lb 4 oz          1st