Bream on Beastie and late carp on Elm

Peg 3, Friday, Aug 18

Apologies to my readers (both of them) for this being late. I thought when I retired I would have lots and lots of spare time, but now I don't know how I found the time to go to work...

Eleven of us were in this Spratts match on the famous Beastie lake at Decoy. Before the introduction of carp it was a noted bream water, and the ashes of Syd Meads, one of those who dominated the Irish bream festivals for 30 years from the 1970s, are still on the island in the middle. Syd loved this water, which was close to his Wisbech home, and used to fish matches there with his close travelling companion Bryan Lakey.

But now you need carp to win, and luckily they can come from any swim, though whenever I have been pegged on the East bank, in the low numbers, peg 3 has never done particularly well. There's a lovely-looking bank of reeds on the left, going out to about 14 metres, but the right margin is open bank, and didn't feel particularly inviting. The light wind was Easterly over my back.

Peg 3 for me. And I didn't moan about it!!!

I started on a feeder to the island, about 50 yards distant, but that produced just one small liner, so it was out to 14 metres on hard pellet, just on the edge of the ripple, which produced a bream and a nice F1 and then something that came off, followed by a blank spell. Losing a bream can be fatal, as years fishing the Fen drains taught me!

Fifty yards to the island, and those reeds on the left look nice, but
there are lots of snags caused by stuff falling from the willow tree.

I catch shallow
To my right Neil Paas on 4 had an early fish on the feeder, but I didn't see him take anything else - I was now too busy catapulting casters out, hoping to catch shallow. And I did! Several small F1s, around 6 ox, took banded caster, and one small bream. It was great fun, as they were hooking themselves, but  they weren't frantic, and I knew I needed to catch something better. So I tried the right margin in the deeper water about ten feet from the bank. When I had been plumbing up the plummet had definitely hit a fish there, which always gives me confidence, although Bryan used to say to me: "Fish have fins, Mac!"

First drop on corn and a 2 lb bream came in on cat meat, followed by three or four more. I walked up to Trevor Cousins at one point, imagining that he would have slaughtered fish shallow on his wagglers, as fish were topping out in the ripple, but he said he had only about 9 lb. I estimated I had 15 lb, which gave me a bit of heart.

When the bream seemed to go I tried next to the reeds, but it's very snaggy there, and I kept hooking twigs. A further look out to 14 metres brought another bream or two, and then I started on a new line at 2+1 in front of me.

Neil Paas plays his first fish in on the feeder. He went back to it several times during the match.

My last fish - a cracking 12 lb 2 oz common.

I find the bream!
Half-a-dozen very small F1s came in on corn, and I considered looking elsewhere, but I was putting fish into my net, and carried on. Then the bream turned up, and with about 20 minutes to go I had netted about 20 or 25 of them, nearly all around 2 lb, several of which had leaped out of the water, as they do, causing Neil to quickly look up. Now he was catching fish as well, and it seemed that some of them, on the feeder, were proper carp, while he also had some fish in the margins.

I managed to land every one, playing them carefully as they have such soft mouths.

Just a few minutes to go and I had another look to the right margin swim, and immediately hit a 4 lb carp on mussel. That was followed by my hooking something that really stretched the 16-18 elastic on my short top. The match ended as I was playing it, so I took my time and five minutes later netted a lovely-looking common, which went into my third net on its own. Those were the only two carp I had all day. They really were just coming on the feed.

Neil Paas - 88 lb 8 oz for second place on peg 4.

The weigh in

I had played it safe with the nets, starting the second when I had about 30 lb in the first, and doing the same with the second, just to be careful. Trevor was first to weigh - 56 lb 13 oz and I thought I would probably beat that. The last fish weighed 12 lb 2 oz, bringing my total to 75 lb 2 oz, and John Garner, who had walked round the lake to help with the weighing, took a picture for me.

Neil had beaten me, as I thought he had, thanks to those carp on feeder which gave him 88 lb 8 oz, and that lead round to Mike Rawson on 17, who told me he had hooked at least  100 lb of double-figure fish, but had lost six at the net. He was pretty frustrated and didn't weigh in. But 95-year-old Joe Beford on 18 had 60 lb, and I understand he also lost some big fish. Is he the oldest practicing matchman in the country?

On 30 Martin Parker, former Vets National winner, nearly got a net disqualified by going more than 8 lb over the club's 50 lb limit, ending with 51 lb 7 oz.

John Garner on  24 won with 102 lb 6 oz, taken on a pole I believe, and I ended third, which I was pretty pleased with, as I would have chosen several of the other pegs before 3.

Martin Parker - he put out his second net...and promptly put his next
double-figure carp into the first one, sending it up to 58 lb 8 oz!!

Marks out of ten

I give myself 7. I scrapped around, really, but didn't waste too much time in the swims where I couldn't catch - particularly against the reeds, which look very inviting. At the end, though, I plonked in a spare handful or two of bait down beside the platform. I take most home to freeze, so there wasn't a huge amount. Bugga me, within ten minutes carp were swirling around there, where I had got a rig ready to fish it, but hadn't tried!

Next match the next day was on Elm. 

THE RESULT

2 Trevor Cousins       56 lb 13 oz
3 Mac Campbell        75 lb 2 oz    3rd
4 Neil Paas                88 lb 8 oz     2nd
5 Bob Allen               39 lb 2 oz
17 Mike Rawson        DNW
18 Joe Bedford         60 lb 10 oz
22 Dave Hobbs        65 lb 4 oz     4th
23 Mick Ramm        26 lb 8 oz
24 John Garner       102 lb 6 oz    1st
29 Bob Barrett          39 lb 2 oz
30 Martin Parker      51 lb 5 oz

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Peg 9, Saturday, Aug 19

Happy with peg 9 on Elm. It's a hotspot in Winter particularly, but three-quarters of the way down any of the four strip lakes is always OK. In this 11-entry Fenland Rods match I had a spare swim to my right, but a bush close to me meant I couldn't fish that margin, let alone to the next platform. It also meant I couldn't see Dave Hobbs, on 7.

Shaun Buddle on 11, next to the corner, was Golden Peg, but in the corner peg 12 sat Callum Judge, who won his last match on this lake from that swim, and I made him favourite today. The wind had turned round from Easterly to almost Westerly overnight and was blowing down from peg 1 to peg 13 in the opposite corner to 12, right to left.

Callum gets his prayer mat out in the car park before the start. 

I had only two shallow spots in my swim - either side of my platform, and though the bush to my right looked fishy its branches were in the water and I couldn't actually fish under it, though I did plumb up next to it, and it was the same depth as the rest of the nearside swims - about six feet. I decided to start on the feeder.

A quick fish on the feeder

A quick five-pounder on a hybrid feeder cast right over to the far bank with a red wafter started me off well, but although I then had liners no more fish came. I'd been throwing casters about six metres out and suspected that some of the liners were from fish there, so I went shallow. That brought just two or three roach and eventually I put out my banded pellet rig at about the same distance, fished on the bottom.

A nice ripple, and overcast to begin with, but a very slow first half for me on peg 9.

I was surprised not to get any fish on that, though I did briefly foulhook something big which came off seconds later. Shaun had said, after about 90 minutes, that Callum already had 35 lb. Now Dick caught two or three small carp from his margin, and I had a look there, and almost immediately had a 3 lb carp on corn, but then nothing. 

Well behind

The match was now halfway through and after shaking hands with my best friend I wandered up to Peter Spriggs on 6, past Dave Hobbs who was playing a foulhooked fish which eventually came off. Peter, who was fishing in his deep margin, said he had about 30 lb, so I was well behind the leaders. I went back and concentrated on the deep margin to my left. Around this time I heard splashing from my right - possibly Dave Hobbs landing fish, and possibly carp splashing around, which already happened several times. I hoped it was the latter.

Dave Hobbs was on my right, and unfortunately
the splashing I heard was him landing fish like this.

Slowly I started getting small fish on corn, then two or three proper carp to 5 lb. Although the fish weren't biting very well at least I was putting fish into the net, and I stayed there for most of the rest of the match. First drop into the right margin near the bush saw a 2 lb bream, but nothing else. Fishing mussel about an inch off bottom then brought a good, short spell of carp over 8 lb, during which time I started my second net. A couple more quick carp went into that, taken on mussel.

Some excitement

Near the end I felt I had to look in the tiny shallow area near the platform, and only inches from my nets. There, fishing mussel, I had a bite which turned out to be a foulhooked carp around 7 lb which provided a brief moment of excitement (I'm easily entertained) when it surfaced spectacularly right in front of Dick, who pointed to it and looked at me. He had realised I was attached to something that had stretched my  orange bungee elastic out like a lazer beam down the lake and had lifted his rig out of the margin, and I was able to tell him that yes, that fish was mine (or soon would be). 

I had plunged the top under the surface and slowly the fish came back. Then it ran out again, the elastic still like a lazer beam almost parallel with the surface, and Dick again lifted his rig out and the fish again drifted back to me. This was its last long run, and now it went round in circles for a time - not surprising as I had hooked it in the pectoral fin! It took a few minutes but it eventually ended in the net.

Shaun Buddle takes out his last net on Peg 11.

The last minutes wasted

Then to the right, about a foot from the platform, a four-pounder came, and I wasted the last 20 minutes of the match fishing these two swims without any further reward. I should have gone back to the banker swim in the left deep margin.

I thought I had 35 lb in the first net but I hadn't clicked the second net as I thought, when I started it, that I had no hope of filling it. If I had 30 lb there that would be 65 lb, which felt about right. I had lost about four fish probably foulhooked, which was probably fewer than most of the others had lost.

The weigh in

Weights in the low numbers were not good - best was Kev Lee having 67 lb, well beaten by Peter Spriggs with 86 lb 10 oz, which I had no hope of beating (!) Dave Hobbs then weighed 101 lb 10 oz and to my amazement my first net went 42 lb and the second (which I hadn't clicked) went 46 lb. Total  88 lb 2 oz.

Always smiling - Shaun shows some of his fish, including
one that looks to be well into double-figures.

Shaun Buddle on 11 could not find a fish in his margin, and took all his 93 lb 6 oz out at around six or seven metres. I then realised that I hadn't tried there once after I had started catching fish in the margin. I should have done, as they might have backed off there.

But in the corner Callum had blitzed it with a superb 173 lb 6 oz. Every fish came from the end bank or in open water - none from the margins, and every fish was on mussel. Well done, Callum, a brilliant catch on a difficult day. So I finished fourth.

Marks out of ten

I give myself just 2. When I got home my head was spinning with all the things I should have tried and didn't - fishing farther out; fishing cat meat properly; trying paste or worm when I knew that fish were in the swim; and in particular trying 8mm hard pellet again after the first abortive try. I should definitely have had more. At least I am now back framing after a stretch of about three matches when I was well out of the frame. Things are looking up, provided I can remember what change baits I have!

The winner - Callum Judge blitzed this match with a brilliant performance -
he had 173 lb 6 oz, with every fish taken on mussel.

A nasty surprise

Next weekend I have a match on Rookery Fishery, and in September a weekend away with JV club at Grange Park, Messingham. Luncheon meat is allowed on both those waters, so today (Friday) I picked up half-a-dozen small tins of Spam from our local Aldi, to go with the couple of tins I already have.

Got home, and looked at the price - £19.50 for six small tins!!!! That's £3.25 each. Gotta keep the receipt away from the wife - if she sees that I am spending more on feeding fish than I am on feeding her I'll have  my privileges cut off...😒  

If I'm still in reasonable working order my next match is on Damson on Tuesday, Aug 29. 

THE RESULT