I get my raspberry ripple in Spades on Elm, Decoy

 Peg 18, Elm, Sunday, July 2
Well, I asked for a ripple and Boy, did I get one in this Fenland Rods match! This was probably the nastiest wind I've fished in for many years - a howling, cold Westerly which was into our faces on this bank, while the six anglers opposite sat benignly happy, back to the wind, basking in the sun. But it wasn't the strength which was the only problem - it was the fact that it kept changing direction. So if I baited a swim to the left, with the wind from the right, I would get the presentation just correct, and the howling wind would suddenly whip round from the left.

The match had been changed, apparently, some time ago from Cedar, the lake next door. But I was happy enough with that - plenty of fish in both. And in fact when we got to the lake the wind wasn't too bad, and I decided on hard pellet fished five sections out. By the time the match started I had downgraded my expectations to fishing three sections out, with a three-inch lash to keep it in position, and immediately started to get indications, so the fish were off bottom.

This was an hour before the match started, when the wind wasn't too bad...

A few early fish

Coming off bottom with my bait didn't produce a single bite, so I quickly adjusted the shotting to give a slow fall to the bottom, and a 6 lb common obliged. Not long after that a three-pounder came in, and then one about 4 lb. But for no apparent reason, while I still got liners, I had no proper bites, and half an hour later I came into the side on a top two, still with hard 6mm pellet.

That produced a couple of F1s, and then another after a long pause. The match was now nearly half over and I had just six fish. I then walked up to Dick Warrener, on 16 to my right, and he was so frustrated with the wind that he was thinking of packing up - I've never known Dick to pack up. But I sympathised, because I just wasn't enjoying it myself.

I lose the pot!
What made things worse was that a little earlier I had got up to have a pee, and the wind had knocked my off balance, and my leg flicked against something. I looked round to see the end of my cupping kit slowly slipping through the grass on the bank, and before I could grab it, it had disappeared beneath the waves. I tried to feel it with my landing net, and took out a keepnet so I could prod around with my long hook down the side of the bank where it had gone in, hoping to at least feel the cup on the end. Nope, I spent ages, but never contacted anything, and eventually had to give up.

That really knocked my confidence, as my next move was to come into the margins, which I should have done earlier, as that was the only way I could get good (but never perfect) presentation. and I would need to put a fair amount of bait in at a time. I had seen John Smith, opposite, catching fish, and my fish were really warm to the touch, even though the wind was cold and I had put on a sweat shirt and a fleece, so I knew that a big catch was on the cards.

The left margin looked nice, but I never found a really shallow area. The bush stopped
 me fishing along to the next platform. Most fish came from that littler reed patch.

I had no shallow margins, so put in some dead maggots with a bait dropper to my right near the bush and put on a 1.5 gm rig. That felt good - very stable in the wind, but I caught only a few tiny perch. 

A deep margin 😢
 To my left there was a slightly shallower area before a drop-off, though it was well over four feet (much deeper than I would have liked) and I had a look there with corn, and at least started to catch reasonably well.  Most of the fish were around 4 lb, and I've never known fish fight like they did - it must have been the increased oxygen in the water. I would get them just under the surface within a minute, and prepare to bring them that extra foot up, but suddenly they would charge off. Bright sunlight didn't help.

Normally I would put in half a big pot of hemp and micros, but now I had lost the big pot I had to use a cad pot on the pole about six times to get at least a little bait in, to keep the bigger fish in the area. A change to mussel brought one or two better fish to about 7 lb, and I plodded on, helped by the wind now occasionally dropping back to just gale force.

Dave Garner, fishing wagglers on peg 14, also
suffered a lot of tangles in the extreme  Westerly wind.

Lost fish

One fish just wouldn't come up and kept trying to get between the nets - a 3 lb barbel on corn, but I landed that one. Another managed to free itself under the platform, and a 5 lb carp did the same thing by threatening to get there but suddenly changing its mind and charging under my landing net and snagging the line and breaking it. Then a fish, which must have been foulhooked, charged off to my right; I managed to get five pole sections on but the elastic kept stretching and it all came back to me with that horrible click, followed by the elastic snaking back into the pole top.

As has happened so many times recently, with 30 minutes left the fish vanished, and came back just in time for me to hook a six-pounder, which I landed after the final hooter. So ended a match I know I should have done better in.  Had I had back wind it wouldn't have been too bad throwing corn and pellets in, but against the wind accuracy definitely went out of the window where hemp was concerned. I had clicked 100 lb, with the last four fish in my third net.

Martin Parker was late..and now realises it's probably
a good idea to charge the battery on his trolley occasionally.

Packing up - a surprise
So I was packing up, and putting my pole into my new Ogdens Shooting Supplies - previously GTI Matchman - holdall (the best, probably, in the land) when I espied something under the bush to my right. It was a pole cup - mine! Attached was about 18 inches of carbon - I must have snagged the cupping top against the roost, with the top having cartwheeled one way and the bottom half sliding into the lake. Had I realised that the cup was there I could have found a way of utilising it, which I am certain would have increased my catch. I was not a happy bunny.

The weigh in
Dave Hobbs was first to weigh - 112 lb 5 oz from peg 2, followed by Peter Spriggs, who had found fish, on peg 4, on cat meat in a shallow margin, and who weighed in 201 lb 11 oz. Next was John Smith, whose fish went off in the afternoon, but he had 144 lb 13 oz, making it three  weights over 100 lb in a row. Allan Golightly, from my village, had 114 lb 14 oz.

Callum Judge on corner peg 12 had a flying start
with 70 lb in the first 50 minutes!

On corner peg 12 Callum Judge must have thought he was going to beat every record standing when, after 50 minutes, he estimated he had 70 lb in his net! Of course he couldn't keep that up, but alternating between a swim out and to his left, and under the bush to his right, using just mussel, he ended with 174 lb 5 oz.

On our bank Dave Garner, fishing wagglers, had somehow managed to come up with 109 lb 3 oz on peg 14, and Dick had found a few fish in the second half to bring 64 lb 14 oz to the scales. My catch went 114 lb 4 oz, which had been pipped by Allan Golightly by 10 oz. And on 22 Kevin Lee, as I had expected, had fished a shallow margin for 177 lb 6 oz and beaten Callum to the runner-up spot.

The winner with 177 lb 6 oz, Kevin Lee, who found fish in a two-foot deep margin, using mussel.

Callum's best fish - 16 lb 4 oz. There are lots like that in
Yew lake, where we are fishing next Sunday.

In a match in which eight of the 12 had 100 lb-plus  I finished sixth, and my only consolation was that I'd kept myself in the mix despite fishing badly. What would I have had if I'd made my change to the margin sooner? And had a big pole pot?

Next match Yew on Friday, though there's the chance that I will be called into Addenbrookes for an urgent operation and given just a day's notice. If not, I will be geared up for some big big carp.

THE RESULT