I entered the Over 60s at Rookery Farm Fishery, Pidley, held on Crow and Jay; I would have preferred Crow, but Jay 35 has done well lately. The day was dominated by the wind - before the match I could have fished 13 metres to the far bank, but by the time I had plumbed up the margin, the wind had increased so much that the far bank was out of the question. The margin was about 32 inches deep and the deepest part of the lake was at the front of the platform, no more than six inches deeper.
Three of us, on pegs 33, 35 and 36 were in the same boat, but to our right Steve Tilsley on 31 and Keith Rayment on 29 had some shelter, while on the corner to our left the legend that is Pete Holland on 38 had the option of turning to his left and fishing back wind to the far bank, which he did! Still, I was happy to be back among anglers I haven't seen for some time, like Ron Clarke, as my Wednesdays always seem to have been taken up by something else.
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| This was my swim after the match had finished, and the wind had just dropped! |
I had a look in the margin four sections to my left, against the reeds (which extended about a metre from the bank) and even tried caster shallow there, and in front of me, without a touch of any kind. A switch to the right marginal reeds, brought three more F1s, and by that time the match was half over. with five F1s in the net, I wandered up to Steve Tilsley, who said he had six or seven F1s and a couple of small carp, so I though that perhaps most were struggling.
Back at my swim I dropped my rig, with corn, a little nearer to the bank, in the small cut-back next to the platform. Thirty seconds later I had a bite, struck, and within half a second the reeds three or four metres along the bank were thrashing about, and I my elastic was pointing towards them. I had to get up and fetch my long hook to get at least the elastic back, and in fact eventually I got the rig back, minus the hook.
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| My right margin - there was only five feet from the platform to the reeds leaning out, at the far end of the cut-back. The better fish were hanging out near to them. |
The next hour saw me gradually tighten the elastic on that 20 until (no word of a lie) I had well over two feet pulled through the bead. In that time I'd hit about four fish around 6 lb-plus, and lost two. Next fish pulled about three inches of elastic out, but I got it in - around 7 lb, though it took some time once it was in open water. To rest that swim I went into the left cut-back, but with my 16-18 set normally, as the reeds there were in a straight line with no stragglers that the fish could get behind.
Sure enough I managed another two or three there, with small portions of cat meat a bit better than the corn, I've 'discovered' these recently - they come in a sachet covered in foreign writing, and are about the size of a grain of corn, but quite hard. The last lot I got were Vitacat. They are much easier to use than the big lumps, and don't need a baiting needle to get them on the hook - hook them like corn.
At one point I decided that mussel would probably tempt these carp to take the bait more confidently, because I was waiting for ten or 15 minutes between fish. Cliff Bellvue had seen me hook (and lose) fish in the side and was now catching fish there himself. So I thought about where I had put the mussels, only to realise I hadn't! I'd left them in the freezer...
To be honest I don't know whether they would have been any better, though sometimes a big bait works better than a small one when the fish are finicky. Anyway, I'll never know, and carried on hooking the occasional fish, with a couple on double corn. The disturbance guiding the hooked fish through the reeds didn't help, either. I decided against going back out in front of me, and I saw Cliff didn't go out, either. By the end, because here you use all three nets, and split the fish, I thought I had around 40 lb but wasn't sure.
The only frisson of extra excitement was an hour from the end when Steve Tilsley came along, having packed up, and said he thought he'd seen a kingfisher in my swim as he walked along. Then he said he realised it was me waving about the new, turquoise-coloured Drennan cupping pot I've just brought, after breaking my cupping kit last week. I know, we should get out more!
I had a horrible feeling that the anglers who weren't hampered by the wind, and who had the option of fishing the far bank, or at least against the far shelf, would do better, and that was certainly largely true. But I wrote in the last blog that I would be happy to beat the angler to one side of me, and that's how it worked out.
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| Cliff Bellvue was on my left. I remembered him being on the next peg to me on Crow two Winters ago, and he remembered me, and even my name! |
Second on 3 was Sean Buddle, who told me he had fished at 11 metres, so there must have been a small amount of shelter along that bank, and Sean took advantage of that. As I've written before, angling is like poker - you've got to take full advantage of your luck when you get any, and despite what they may think EVERYONE gets lucky occasionally.
No sooner had Cliff weighed in than the rain, which had held off all day, came down heavily, and I managed only a shot of Pete Holland weighing in - even I hadn't got enough cheek to ask him to pose with fish in the downpour while James, just in shirt and shorts, waited and got even wetter!
I ended 14th out of 23 on the lake, which for me is good, against an army of regulars.
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| Overall winner Peter Holland had time to slip his waterproofs on before weighing - but James was stuck in his shirt and shorts! |
Crow was won by regular Dave Lack with 123 lb 10 oz on 15. The wind there must have been even worse than on Jay, as Crow is so exposed.
Next match Sunday on Lous' Lake at Decoy, followed on Monday by Willows. On Lou's the 'hot' peg is 6, but I'm not sure whether it fishes the same in Summer as in Winter, when you cast a feeder or bomb about 40 yards to the far bank reeds, trying not to hook them. However I do know that it can fish well on the pole, as can 1 and 7, on their days. That's assuming I've not been called in for my operation - looks to me like the doctors' and consultants' strikes have paused some of the non-life-threatening admissions for the moment.
Marks out of 10
I give myself a boring 7/10 for leaving the mussels behind and not having a look in the margins much earlier. I'm having a side puller put into a new short top, and with a strong elastic on there I think I will be better off if I get another swim there there are carp near snags - they don't fight as much on the stiff top. But on the day, in that swim, I think I did sort of OK. The results on Jay often depend on how the wind affects the swims. At least I found out where the fish were, even if I couldn't land them all. I probably lost seven or eight, perhaps averaging 6 lb.
THE RESULTS
JAY 1-21
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JAY 23-47 |
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