I'm pleased to report that my shed is now free of bluebottles and the maggot fridge is switched on and working perfectly. In addition, my Dearly Beloved is none the wiser about that unfortunate episode when a cloud of flying insects gave a spectacular imitation of starlings murmurating in the skies above our surprised village a week or so ago, of which no more will be said!
Twelve of us hopefulls turned out for this Spratts match - no doubt all hoping to draw peg 1 or 15; I know I was. But early in the draw 15 went to Peter Spriggs. He's won off that recently and is running hot at the moment (well, he has been for several years). The a minute or two later: "Peter Harrison, peg 1!" Peter has won off that peg as well (so have I, so it must be a good 'un). To cap it all, if my memory is correct, Peter Spriggs was drawn Golden Peg...
Now I am a realist, so I decided that on peg 18 I would be fishing for third place at best, and that actually relaxed me, and I determined just to enjoy the day. Not that I was unhappy with my draw, because I came second off 20 earlier this year, beaten by the flier 25, which was not in today. In addition I remember that John Smith won off end peg 19 last season in a Spratts match. Yet a few years ago that bay, from the point at 15, round to 23, used to be known as Dead Man's Bay, because no much was ever caught there!
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| My home for the day - peg 18 in Dead Man's Bay! |
After the huge amount of rain we'd had overnight I didn't fancy my chances of catching a lot and put in only two nets, instead of my normal three. Next, Karen came down to the lake with the live maggots I had ordered. She had said the delivery to Decoy would be around 9.30 am. and she had some to take to Six-Island as well. That's service for you! Karen's doing a great job managing Decoy, has been very helpful to the Fenland Rods club, and I've heard no grumbles at all.
It was a slow start - the first hour saw a tiny carp or two on an expander, then a couple of F1s on corn. But there were fish there, as I was getting indications just as the bait was almost on bottom. Then I foulhooked an F1 on the top of the head, which meant it must have been rooting around on the bottom. So why wouldn't they take my bait properly?
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| Joe Bedford in action to my left on peg 16. Peter Sprggs, is to his left. |
I had intended to fish hard pellet on that line but instead decided to have a look towards the platforms either side, in the deeper water about five feet from the reeds. I chose to fish the deep water because the sun was out and the surface was flat calm. That brought a couple of bream and roach, and a small carp from the left. First drop towards the right platform, and I pricked a fish first drop - the elastic came out momentarily but the fish came off. That happened quite a lot in this match, and I must assumed that the fish were all foulhooked.
Back out to the long line and the occasional carp to 2 lb came in, and after two hours I had about 12 lb. I had seen Peter Spriggs, to my left, playing a fish or two, and about this time I saw Joe Bedford land a much bigger carp, fishing near the margins. That was obviously my next move, so after a quick look near the platforms I set my stall out to fish on a top two either side.
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| Joe didn't have many fish, but they were nice ones. |
From the left I had a couple of bream on corn, best 2 lb, and tried worm, which bream love. But the result was a tiny perch, so it was back to corn for a roach and another small F1. Bites were not easy to hit - something would tug at the bait (at least that's what it looked like) and then leave it, and perhaps sink slowly down, but there would be nothing there. Probably liners. Occasionally it would disappear under the surface and if I left it for two or three seconds and it didn't re-appear it would be a proper bite, and a fish would result.
But I felt that I should be getting more fish, so I changed to my special method, which I haven't used much this year because conditions haven't been right for it. They weren't ideal today, but I thought it worth a try, as it has got me out of jail many times. Basically if I can't catch on that in the margins I won't catch anything.
The result was instant - next fish was a mirror around 8 lb, and I was VERY glad I had changed the elastic. I immediately changed to mussel and soon after, I was attached to another good carp. It came in quite quickly, as I kept the top low and let the elastic pull the fish slowly in to the net, rather than constantly trying to bully them in. It doesn't happen every time, but when it does, the result is very satisfying (though often the fish come alive in the net and are difficult to unhook).
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| Mike Rawson was on 20, to my right. There was a platform between us, hidden by the reeds. |
Today I put that into effect, and scooped up a handfull of micros while was playing the next fish, squeezed it, and plonked it in the swim. Then before the next cast I would out in a biggish pot of micros, hemp and corn or 6 mm pellets. It seemed to work, and slowly I started getting carp mainly 5 lb-plus. I also kept hitting fish as I lifted the rig out. None stuck - they all came off immediately.
Next fish was 6 lb and that went into the first net, to bring it up to 40 lb, giving me a safe margin. I was really enjoying it - the short top combined with a short Number three means you can use the puller if necessary with the extra section attached, and I did so to land the better fish. But the shorter length of elastic means you have to be prepared to add a section or two at times early in the fight.
Even using my special method it wasn't all perfect, but at least it told me whether fish were still in the swim, even if I wasn't getting good bites. To my right Mike Rawson started getting fish farther out, but they were smaller, although he had one fish at least into double-figures. I couldn't see Peter Spriggs landing much, but I was sure he would have been bagging; and of course I had no idea what Peter Harrison had on 1.
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| Several bream were caught - they have shown well at Decoy in the past couple of years. This one is in Trevor Cousins' net. |
Soon after that I put in a third net, but stupidly, because it was in the last hour, I didn't click properly.
In the last half hour the fish seemed to have vanished in the righthand swim where I had been fishing, and I had been coming slowly closer to the bank to get bites. I would have liked to drop in right next to the reeds, but there were several reed stems laying out a couple of feet from the bank, parallel with it, and I daren't risk moving them because it was the only cover there.
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| Wendy Bedford, fresh from her Spratts win last week had 30 lb 5 oz from peg 11. |
I missed the first few weighs, but Peter Harrison was way out in front with 99 lb 3 oz, on cat meat and hard pellet mainly from the right hand side of the swim. I was surprised at how low the other weights were - below 50 lb, up to Dave Hobbs on 13, who had 54 lb 13 oz. Next was Peter Spriggs on the pont on 15, who had not emptied it after all. He totalled 59 lb 3 oz, and said he must have lost at least ten fish. From his description of how the fish took off I am sure they were all foulhooked.
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| Dave Hobbs waits patiently while his first net is weighed. |
My first net I struggled to lift out - sometimes a rig gets caught under the platform - so John Garner came to my rescue. He lurched up the bank with the net and immediatelynearly everybody suspected that my 40 lb net was overweight. Indeed it was - that was obvious. If it went over 60 lb it would be disqualified.
My heart was in my mouth as I saw the digits shoot upwards to...56 lb something. So I would get 50 lb for that net. The next one (40 lb in my estimation) had 48 lb-plus (phew) and the last one which I hadn't been clicking because I thought there would be no need, went 46 lb; I was lucky there! Total 144 lb 5 oz for the win.
Then the rain, which had been just spots, came down a little harder and, ironically, gave us a bit of ripple where it had been calm all match! To my right Mike had slowed up after a good spell fishing long, and had 48 lb 13, but on end peg 22 Bob Barrett had worked his magic with his feeder rod, down the margins, and ended with 57 lb 1 oz. He really can fish that feeder.
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| Peter Spriggs' fish were a lot smaller than mine. The better ones seemed to be in our bay. But he always enjoys himself, win (which he does a lot), or lose. And he did come third. |
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| The rain had started before Mike Rawson was asked to pose with his fish. |
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| Last to weigh was Bob Barrett, fourth from peg 22. |
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| Mike shows fishes his best, double-figure, fish out of the weighing bag. |
I give myself only 7, because I never even tried maggot on the hook, and I had both live and dead with me. Nor did I try hard pellet or paste for those big carp, nor worm once I knew they were in the swim. So often a change of bait will tempt a fish when they seem to have wised up to the bait you are using. Mussel was fine, but I wasn't getting fish that quickly - I really should have tried something else.
However I did play the fish well, apart from that one blip. And I was chuffed that I took Lee Kendall's advice to keep feeding. Previously I have tended to take the advice in so many magazines, and fish for 'one fish at a time.' I got through two tins of hemp, two tins of corn, a pint of 6mm and nearly three pints of micros. Plus some mussels, usually putting five half mussels in each time, with a half on the hook. Happy days.
PLUS it seemed the fish our side of peg 15 were bigger, so Dead Man's Bay was the hot area to be in, even though there wasn't much of a ripple. But you've gotta take advantage of that sort of luck when it comes along.
Next match on Cedar on Sunday, when it would be nice if corner pegs 1 or 26 stuck to Mel Lutkin's fingers when my name is pulled out!
Trevor told us that Mick Ramm won't be fishing with us for the forseeable future. He missed fishing all last year because of one hip being so bad he could hardly walk. He had an operation on that in January, and fished with us early in the season, when he was absolutely fine. But when he fished recently he was hobbling, and now apparently he can hardly walk again, because the other hip has gone, and at the time of writing no date had been set for an operation. And with millions of appointments and operations in the NHS pipeline who knows when we shall see his smiling face again? I know Mick is the same age as me, because we went to Junior school together when we were aged about 7-10.
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