At last...blessed rain, which apart from one tiny night shower was the first for weeks. It was raining as we arrived for this Spratts draw, but stopped by the time we had driven to the bank. Hopefully it would freshen the water a little.
The wind had changed (yet again) to North West, which used to be the prevailing wind, of course, before the North-Easterlies took over, but somehow it was managing to ripple only the first three or four pegs near the car park. I was happy with my swim, however, which was in the area three-quarters of the way down which often has an edge on the four strip lakes, and put out four nets, just in case!
Fourteen of us were fishing, so we were staked on both sides. John Smith was on corner peg 24, at the car park end, and I walked up to him before the match and said that with the warm wind blowing straight in there, I fancied his peg, which has the end reeds to fish to. My swim had rather nice cut-outs both sides, but it was possible to fish the deep margins as well. To my left, Trevor Cousins was on corner peg 12 at the other end, which can be a flier, and with the surface so calm at our end I expected him to go mugging carp, which could be seen when the sun came out.
 |
| The rain had cleared and we had some pleasant weather all day - some sun and some cloud. |
I had intended to start on a feeder, but decided to immediately flick out casters, as the wind was slightly backish, and fish a banded caster shallow. So off I went, and was a bit surprised not to get bites immediately, as the conditions, with alternating sun and cloud, and the warm breeze, felt right. It took about 15 minutes to get a fish - an 8 lb mirror, and I was away. Errr, I wasn't, actually, because although I fished on for about another 30 minutes, and got plenty of bites, they were from roach, and I hooked two. No carp at all.
Opposite, Peter Harrison on 15, and the Golden Peg, now started to find fish out long on a pole, probably 13 metres, and Trevor on 12 was also catching good fish, as I could see the splashes when he landed them. But I had seen signs of fish in the shallow water of the righthand cut-off, and put I dead maggots there, a little bit out from the bank, into about four feet of water. Fishing with ten dead maggots on a size 12 (the maximum allowed on Decoy) I soon had a 6 lb mirror, and started getting liners.
It was very frustrating - the fish were obviously there, knocking the bait as it fell. Fishing off the bottom brought more liners and eventually I had to have a look long, at 13 metres, with an 8mm expander pellet. Peter was still catching fish, and it seemed that every time I looked up his elastic was stretching out, although I did see him lose one or two. I tried mugging some passing fish with the caster, and also with a grain of corn, but never had an offer. Perhaps they needed a bigger plop from the bait as it went in.
I had absolutely nothing after a long spell out, but had three more carp to my right, and by 1 o'clock, when I rang my Dearly Beloved to let her know I was still alive (she does worry, you know!) I had just five carp and those two roach, which was way behind Peter and Trevor. With John in that windy peg 24 I was seriously imaging myself finishing somewhere down the bottom.
 |
| I could see Peter Harrison, opposite on 15, consistently catching fish early on. This one was around 10 lb - not as big as some in nearby Oak and Yew, but pretty spectacular when compared with the fish we used to catch on the Fenland drains! |
A brief further spell shallow with caster saw that even the roach had gone off to watch TV, so I concentrated on the left deep margin with corn, and the right shallow cut-off with meat and, later, mussel. Gradually the left margin started to produce bites, which included three bream around 3 lb each, one of which thought it was a trout and must have jumped a good metre out of the water when hooked, ending with a mighty belly flop. That made Peter look up quickly.
Some small F1s, to 3 lb, also came from this swim, and those pesky F1s fought three times as hard as the carp which were two or three times their size!
Back to the cut-off, and some slivers of meat from a sachet brought an 8 lb carp, at which point I decided to change to mussel. This has the advantage of fluttering a little as it sinks, and I have more confidence on moving it around that I do cat meat. Now the fish started to respond, and after each one in went hemp, micros, and just a few grains of corn.
With over an hour to go I made a bad mistake. I had been alternating the swims, and generally catching at least one in each before bites slowed up, at which point I would change. But now I didn't bother to put bait into the deep margin because I was catching better in the cut-out. And with about 40 minutes to go, when I went to the deep swim, there wasn't a fish there!
 |
| Wendy with one of her smaller fish, all taken on a feeder. The big fish can be so difficult to hold, as the weigh-ins typically take only 30 seconds, and the fish are full of life. |
That last 40 minutes, when I might have expected to have a purple patch, was a disaster. I think I had one fish from the cut-out when the deep swim didn't produce even a liner and then a terrible spell when I hit four fish to the right, and each one came off after about one second. The elastic would stretch out about a metre and then go slack...and that happened four times in a row. I'm certain the fish were not foulhooked - you can usually tell by the way the fish feels in that first second.
I had foulhooked just one fish earlier - there was a big bump and for a second the fish didn't move, before starting to make a powerful run. I knew instantly what had happened; these four were must softer on the strike. Anyway, whatever happened they all came off.
Then two minutes before the end I did manage to hook and land a fish about 6 lb, on mussel, which went into my third net to bring it up to 40 lb on my clicker. No time to rebait and the match was over.
I was certain that Trevor and Peter had pulverised me, though Peter had slowed up towards the end. I still thought he must have 200 lb, though. I estimated I had 35 lb in each of the other two nets, total probably around 110 lb, perhaps a little more.
 |
| Dave Hobbs weighing in. He ended with 98 lb 7 oz. |
Dave Hobbs, on peg five, had three nets in, for 98 lb 7 oz, and he led the weights down to me. My third net was first out to the scales, and I watched horrified as the digital scales clicked round to 54 lb 6 oz, which was knocked back to 50 lb. How had that happened? Next one was, mercifully, 47 lb-ish, and the last one 42 lb, giving me 139 lb 4 oz, but if I had been better at estimating it would have been 143 lb 10 oz. 😒
 |
| Trevor Cousins - winner with 189 lb 1 oz. |
Then it was Peter Harrison's turn, and I was astonished when he ended with 'only' 128 lb 3 oz. Afterwards, having seen his fish, I realised that many weren't as big as mine, and he probably lost several foulhooked.
Next door Peter Spriggs, always so consistent, said he had had a terrible day - all 85 lb 2 oz of it. Strange to think that in my earlier match days on the Middle Level system I would almost always frame if I had caught 1 lb per hour! I doubt if I ever had anything near 85 lb in a whole season of Wisbech Association matches, when we used to fish six matches a year...
 |
| Bob Barrett - that big fish was way into double figures. |
On peg 22 Bob Barrett fished a feeder, as he always does, for 95 lb 7 oz. A lot of the time he just fishes in the margins. I keep meaning to have one set up specifically for that, when bites fall away and I feel I need to rest a swim. I really must have it ready this Sunday. Bob finished in sixth place.
From then on the weights varied up to John Smith, last to weigh on 24. He had, naturally, concentrated on fishing to the end bank reeds to his left, only to not get a bite there to begin with. John then had a look to his right, a liitle bit out from the bank, not really expecting the fish to be there, only to get a bite within seconds. He had several there before going into a small cut-out to his left, where he had his best spell. by the end he had managed just three fish from the corner reeds in his final total; of 145 lb 5 oz, leaving him in second spot.
 |
| Last to weigh, on a peg not normally favoured - John Smith included this cracking mirror in his second-placed 145 lb 5 oz. |
So my going over in one net hadn't affected the result. However John told me afterwards that as he was bringing a double-figure fish to the net his line unexpectedly broke. The fish thrashed its tail...and headed straight into the net John was still holding! How lucky was that?
So I ended third, and admit that I didn't fish particularly well. The fact that I lost only one fish, which was foulhooked, (plus those strange four at the end) helped. Our Fenland Rods match, due to be on Cedar on Sunday, has been moved to Elm. I have no plan, and no favourite swim, though I would like to have a piece of Raspberry Ripple.
THE RESULT
East bank West bank
22 Bob Barrett 95 lb 7 oz 3 Mick Ramm 40 lb 14 oz
20 Mike Rawson 26 lb 2 oz 5 Dave Hobbs 98 lb 7 oz
18 John Garner 81 lb 7 Bob Allen 69 lb 4 oz
16 Peter Spriggs 85 lb 2 oz 8 Wendy Bedford 25 lb 14 oz
No comments:
Post a Comment