Sixteen of us were spread from peg 1 on Willows, Decoy, round to the well-known flier, 25, which went to Bob Allen...who then had his name drawn out as Golden Peg. Talk about luck. But...no - Bob actually said he'd happily swap with me if it were allowed. Gotta take that with a lorry-load of salt!
So down to Peg 20, but not until Peter Chilton had showed me the MAP trolley he has motorised. And I've got to say it is mightily impressive, with two batteries that have an 11-mile range, so it would need, he said, charging only once a year. It also has a reverse gear, and was so powerful that he needed only one hand to guide it up the bank on the Willows. He's going to accept orders, with the price probably £600 to £700. I have a motor on my Preston trolley, but felt this one was far sturdier.
So down, at last, to peg 20, where the lovely margins are, at the moment, out of bounds thanks to the lush bank of overhanging reeds. But I was happy with the swim, which had a light left-to-right, warm wind., and the island opposite at about 20 yards, so I had a feeder rod ready (though I never used it). Dave Hobbs was to my right for the second match in a row - he's a good angler so I could keep an eye on him. I could also see Bob Allen on 25, but jealousy meant that I didn't look at him all day, for fear of getting an inferiority complex when I saw him, inevitably, landing fish after fish after fish. 😟
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| Peg 20, opposite the main island, with a gentle wind from the left. The famous peg 25 is on the protruding corner (in shadow) on the right. The lighter ground behind that is a small island. |
Again I started with banded hard 6mm pellet, which I have a lot more confidence in after fishing last year with Ben Townsend. After about 45 minutes, with half-a-dozen small F1s in the net I tried banded caster, as I had been catapulting them out. That immediately brought some more F1s, up to almost 3lb. Then one of these somehow snagged me right in front of me, about two metres from the side. I assume it must have been a branch down there. I had to use the long hook to break the hooklength and when I had put on another hook I found the fish seemed to have vanished.
To my right Dave Hobbs was now fishing with, I think, pellet shallow, and also catching a few fish. But his fish suddenly seemed to vanish as well. I went back out on the banded pellet line, and although a few more F1s took the bait they weren't very fast, and I had to lay on several inches to get the best bites. Then another snagged me in the same place as before. I wiggled about on the bottom with the hook and the fish came free, but came off a few seconds later. When no more fish came on that line I had a look in the margins.
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| Dave Hobbs was two swims away to my right. You can see how high and lush the reeds are at the moment. |
Five minutes later I was netting a 5 lb mirror. How Does She Do That? I found another one or two by dragging the bait right into the reeds in the right margin, and then tried the left margin, where I had to fish beyond the reeds. That was much deeper and produced only one 2 lb F1, and that was foulhooked!
Back to the right margin and slowly I built up a rhythm, though I had to put in bait after every fish, and sometimes they took a long time to come back into the swim. My best spell was when I used my special method, which resulted in some nice carp over 5 lb on mussel. One of these, a beautiful common, stripped the 16-18 Matrix elastic out do far that the fish surfaced and splashed almost in front of a very surprised Dave, who was two swims away! But I talked to it nicely and it ended in my keepnet.
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| The left margin - platform 19 is hidden there somewhere, but I could have fished there with a little difficulty. |
Again I found that not putting in mainly hemp, 6mm pellets and some halves of mussel, and no more than a couple of grains of corn, kept the roach bites down to a minimum, though some F1s snaffled the mussel. The last fish came out about two minutes before the end and by this time I was getting bites quite quickly, so hoped to have another before the end. BUT the hook had gone through the lip somehow, and had caught in the landing net mesh.
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| Mike Rawson included bream and a good barbel on peg 13. |
I couldn't see exactly where the hook was, so tried to turn the fish over, only to feel the hook prick my hand. It was somewhere underneath the fish, which I just couldn't turn over without risking my hand being hooked. So I had no option but to cut the line (the hook was tied direct), put the fish in the net, and extract the hook from the mesh. Then I needed to tie on another hook.
Out came the size 12 Drennan Wide-gape Specialist hook, which I whipped on quickly, though it took me several seconds longer than usual because my hands were wet, and when I finally dropped the mussel bait back there were only seconds before the match ended. An opportunity missed, I felt. Would it be important?
Thinking about it, I had another similar rig behind me and should have just picked that up, of course.
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| Sean Buddle on 11, like most of the anglers in the early pegs, could find only small F1s most of the time. |
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| Dick Warrener - 59 lb 8 oz from peg 24. Very frustrating when you have to watch the angler next to you bagging all day! |
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| Weighing in Bob Allen's winning catch on peg 25 - a lovely-looking swim. Bob is in the yellow, and has eyes in the back of his head. |
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