Corner pegs dominate on Cedar

Peg 21, Cedar, Sunday, Sept 24
I am ashamed to admit that at the draw for this Fenland Rods match, when Peter Spriggs' name was drawn from the old condensed milk tin, prior to his number being taken from the bag, with only a few pegs left, I actually said, aloud: "Oh, please. Not 26". Because Cedar 26 is, after temperatures drop, probably the second-best flier on the whole complex, behind the famous Lou's 6 (which often requires precision casting with a feeder for 50 yards).

Peg 26 is a corner peg, with a lovely bed of reds stretching out from the corner, and the end bank easily reachable on a pole, and it has won match after match in the Autumn and Winter. And Peter is a VERY good angler. So forgive me for my jealous, plaintive, outburst. However, I got my just rewards when Mel Lutkin drew out one of his balls, turned it over, and announced, almost apologetically: "Twenty-six." 

My lefthand margin was fishable on just a short top two.

Trying to be positive
So I realised we were probably fishing for second place, even though Decoy is so fair, and any match CAN be won from any peg. I was given 21, which at least avoided 24, which I had failed on so recently. There's no reed cover on that swim, and I pitied Dave Hobbs, who was sat on it. In contrast, my swim looked good - the corner of a reeds bed to my left, and to the right and nice stretch with reeds alongside the bank, ending in the corner of another protruding reed bed about ten metres away. But the howling wind from left to right was going to make presentation difficult wherever we all fished, though the higher-numbered swims had less than those at the other end.

As a general rule Cedar tends to fish better towards the car park end ie: 1-5 and 25 back to 22 approximately. But Allan Golightly was in corner peg 14, with the Southerly wind blowing down that way, so I thought that he stood a good chance of catching fish, even though it was very rough down there.

The right margin. There's a cut-back there which is
not obvious in this picture. The wind soon picked up.

Bre-e-e-am. Bream, Bream, Bream (apologies to the Everly Brothers)

I put in some micros and hemp on a top two in front of me, and some corn to the left corner. There was a small area cut back into the bank which gave me about three feet of water and I earmarked that for a bit later. A few casts on the bomb brought not even a liner, so I had a look with corn on the top two line, on corn over hemp and micros, with a 1gm Cralusso float (don't know if you can still get them - they have interchangeable different-coloured tips). My immediate reward was a leaping 2 lb bream.

A couple more bream came, plus a small F1, and I tried a worm, which brought just a small perch. How do they get those big worms in their mouths? Then I was tempted to look in the shallow swim. There was nothing there, so I put in some bait and had a look in the left corner swim, which produced another bream, around 3 lb, first cast. Then a 4 lb carp from the front swim, and finally a nice carp from the shallow swim, on corn. But although I was getting liners there, it took a long time for the next two or three carp, best 10 lb, on mussel and halfway through the match Callum, to my left, said he had about 40 lb, with Kevin Lee on his left on a little less.

Mike in action. We were often struggling in the wind at this end.

Problems with wind
At that time I reckon I had about 45 lb, and went back into the shallow swim to try again, although the increasing wind made it quite difficult. At that point I should have taken note that both Callum and Kevin were fishing about four sections out, but as I knew that there were fish in the shallow swim, I kept on there, trying to get my special method to work, but conditions were against it, and eventually after it brough a fish or two I gave it up.

The problem was that it took me about 20 minutes to get each fish, on mussel, altough they were good 'uns, approaching 8 lb. Meanwhile there was a lot of splashing from Callum's swim, and I realised I was falling behind, and I got the impression that he had come in a little closer. To my right Mike Rawson was struggling, and had only the odd fish. 

Liners
I kept getting liners, and briefly foulhooked three or four. But a lot of the time I am convinced that the carp were actually dragging the mussel off the hook, but not taking it completely into their mouths. Perhaps they were finicky because the water was shallow, though it had a big ripple.

I sneaked up on Callum, to find him unhooking a big one.

With 90 minutes left I put dead maggots into the shallow swim, and baited with a bunch of deads, which did produce two or three quick carp. But then a roach and a tiny carp forced me to look elsewhere with 30 minutes left on the clock. 

Excitement!
At around that time Bob Allen came charging down the bank, landing net in hand, trying to keep up with his top two, which was making good progress though my swim. I tried flicking my rig over the line, but missed, and by the time I turned round, to grab hold of my long-handled hook, the fish had taken a smart right turn and was out almost in the centre of the lake, where it nose-dived down, taking the pole with it. By the end of the match Dave Hobbs had somehow retrieved it, minus the fish, and was able to hand it back to Bob.

That was the most excitement I had had all day.

I should have fished the reeds
Later Kevin told me that he had had a really good last hour fishing the deep margins next to reeds, but I went out to the top-two swim with 30 minutes left, and caught only another bream and a 4 lb carp. That was stupid, because I hadn't been back to the margin swim where I had had a bream first drop and never tried it again! It wasn't difficult to fish - I could have done it on a short top two!! And I suspect I could have had four or five quick big carp there, for a grandstand finish...

I thought by the end I had 40 lb in each of my two nets.

Callum fished mussel all day for 129 lb 6 oz and fourth place.

The weigh in

By the time I had got round to loading my trolley the scales were up to me, with Allan Golightly leading with 162 lb 11 oz, taken mainly on a hard 8mm white Fujika pellet. That was more than I had envisaged, and I thought it a very good performance in difficult conditions - even playing fish was not easy in that wind.

I couldn't lift my first net out in the wind, so John Garner did the honours - 50 lb 3 oz. The rule with Fenland Rods is that we aim for 50 lb maximm, but there are so many double-figure fish in Decoy, it is difficult if you have, say, an estimated 36 lb in a net, to judge whether a big one will take it a little over. So we now aim for 50 lb, but will accept 60 lb, provided the ruling is not constantly abused (which it has not been).

So my extra 3 oz counted, and the second net was 48 lb 13, total exactly 99 lb - second in the first five pegs. But both Callum (who took all his fish on mussel) and Kevin (on cat meat) beat me, and inevitably when we got to Peter Spriggs, he had five nets in, and 197 lb 1 oz in them - a well deserved win. So I ended fifth out of ten.

Our current club champion Kev Lee - 159 lb 7 oz for third spot, taken mainly on
cat meat,  with a final flourish inside, in the deep margin against the reeds. 

Marks out of 10
I give my self a generous 6/10, mainly because I ignored the two obvious areas where fish can be always caught - out on four sections, and right against the reeds in the deep water. On the other hand I took at least some advantage of the shallower swim, but I didn't take into maccount that fish are more easily disturbed when you hook one than in deeper water. Sure I was putting some bait in there every time I landed a fish, but I should then have moved to another swim.

Peter Spriggs - winner with 197 lb 1 oz, 30 lb ahead of runner-up Allan Golightly.
Peter fished in his left margin, and lost several fish trying to stop them getting in the reeds.

My next match is Friday on Six-Island, where we have pegs 13 to 25, but Karen may allow us to fish the whole lake, if she has plenty of pleasure-fishing swims available. In any case not many pleasure anglers would willingly fish next to a match. 

The wind always dominates on this lake and the current forecast is for a Westerly, so if we have the whole lake I fancy 8 round to 12, which will be in the wind. Otherwise 13 or 14 if they have ripple, or 15, 17 or 25. But what do I know?

OOOps

No it's not - Friday is Oak with Spratts when I'd like 1 or around 10/11 or opposite around 20/21. Then Sunday is Six-Island with Fenland Rods. Get a grip of yourself, Campbell!!

The News - angling is good for you (who knew?)

I see articles appearing following the revelation that angling is good for "wellness" (a bloody stupid word) and that few anglers seem to suffer from mental problems. My wife (and many others) would probably argue that fishing like we do is a mental problem in itself, but I understand the concept. 

One of the articles was Craig Brown in the Daily Mail, who writes that fishing is "Holding a rod all day and doing nothing". REALLY?

On a serious note, he has it all wrong - fishing (no matter what your capabilities) involves decision-making all day, from making the decision to go fishing, getting ready, making decisions every few seconds while fishing, then physically packing up and going home. The result is that whether you catch fish or not, you have actually achieved something, as opposed to someone sitting all day and watching  TV. 

Achieving something is what keeps us being positive. Ask any psychoanalyst and they are likely to say that DOING something is the difference between feeling that life is worth living, and giving up.

THE RESULT