It's deja vu (again) on Cedar!

Peg 18, Monday, Oct 9
It was like a replay of a match a couple of weeks ago - Peter Spriggs' name came out of the bag (Spratts use nice bags rather than old cocoa tins), and someone shouted out: "Twenty-six!" That was meant to be a sarcastic comment, but when Trevor Cousins uncurled his hands, there it was. Peg Twenty-six! Again.

Peter wore an appropriately-astonished look on his face, but was no doubt very happy, as he's won from that peg before, probably many times. BUT as we all know, fish don't always follow the rules, and they might have moved their centre of operations. The trouble is that we also all know that Peter is VERY good...

I was drawn on 18, four pegs away from where I had come second the previous day. I would have preferred a swim nearer the car park, but it was another lovely Autumn day, with a light Westerly in our face on that bank, and overcast. Twelve of us fished - six on each bank. 

My right margin was all around five feet deep.

Looking for a shallow area

I have found at this time of year, in a settled spell of warm weather such as we have been having, carp are more likely to be tempted up from the deep water into the shallows during a match rather than just in the last hour or two. So I looked for a shallow area. There was only one, in a small cut-out to my left. It was a stretch  about two feet long, right next to the bank, where a dock was growing on the bank, and offered me about two feet of water no more than ten inches out from the bank. Then it dropped straight down to four feet, and shelved gently down to five feet.

Shaun gets underway
I started out in front on 2+2 with hard pellet but even before my first indication Shaun Buddle, opposite on 9, was into a good fish. I had seen him drop in close to the side, and his bank was bare, so it was obviously fairly shallow. As he landed the fish I could see he was considerably less than five feet deep, so was obviously not in deep water. 

My next move was simply to drop a few grains of corn right against the bank in the shallow area, with a few more over the four-foot spot; and after another few minutes without a fish I dropped a rig with cat meat into my deep right margin. That brought an 8 lb carp very quickly, and I was thankfully off the mark.

Shaun was soon into action, opposite me. His bank had fallen in, offering
a long shallow run. When the leaves turn, Decoy will look wonderful for a few weeks.

Unfortunately I couldn't find much more, and Shaun kept on hooking fish. To his left Trevor Cousins also had some from his margin. After an hour I had that carp, another of 6 lb, and a bream. A quick look in the shallow swim, where I had been throwing corn, saw not even a touch, so I briefly tried the four-foot deep spot, also without anything. Then I alternated between the deeper spot at the bottom of that shelf, and the right margin, as they had the same depth. The next hour saw three more carp to 6 lb.

Ten minutes later Shaun is playing another one. He had a great first two hours.

Bites slow up
A trot up to Martin Parker on my left gave me the information that John Smith, opposite him, also had several carp. But now my sport went down, and I couldn't get a bite. I also saw that Trevor was now mugging (or trying to mug) fish shallow, and Shaun seemed to have slowed up.

Halfway through the match and I had another look in the cut-out, but something wasn't right - my float  wasn't cocking properly. So I re-plumbed and found that the four-foot spot I had found wasn't flat - a few inches either side it was nearly 18 inches shallower! It was more like a crevasse, and I doubted whether a big fish could even turn round in it. So I abandoned that, and had another look right against the bank.

My only shallow spot was almost next to that dock leaf.

Fish against the bank
That at last yielded a 6 lb carp on mussel, and I alternated between that and the right margin, taking an occasional fish from each. The sun was really difficult from the left, and for a time I had to leave that swim and go down to the bottom, where my corn might have drifted to. Another carp, around 10 lb, came from there, and another couple from the deep right margin.

Back into the shallowest swim, now that the sun had moved, and I hit a fish on mussel that refused to leave the bottom. Several minutes later I netted a near-4 lb barbel. The very next drop the same thing happened, and the fish refused to come off bottom, swimming round for ages in a circle. I assumed it was another barbel, but it turned out to be a 6 lb common carp foulhooked in a pectoral fin!

A good last 90 minutes
The last  hour-and-a-half saw me concentrate mainly on the shallow swim. I would pot in hemp, micros and corn, then fill the pot with water and drop it in with a splash, acting as a dinner bell. Almost invariably I would see swirls and I would get a bite, provided the mussel was just off bottom or just touching it. Laying on produced nothing.

Opposite, Shaun seemed to have got going again, and I had seen Trevor land several fish on his mugging rig - he gets them in quickly and they tend to splash, while I play mine with the pole held down and often they don't splash at all. Again the short, stiff tops and the short Number Three were better than the long, bendier top twos as the fish don't fight as much.

With the sun now not a problem I also had a couple of fish from the very bottom of that left shelf, and started a third net with 45 minutes to go. The first fish in there, from against the dock leaf,  was over 10 lb, and three or four more followed. I dropped my rig in about four seconds before the whistle went to end the match, and reckon that if it had been blown just 15 seconds later I could have had another fish. They were really feeding in the shallows!

I was just in time to see Peter Harrison weighing in.

The weigh in

On the opposite bank the weights were all consistent - Bob Barrett on 1 had 128 lb 9 oz on his feeder, and next door Wendy Bedford, also fishing a feeder, had 64 lb 1 oz - a good day for her. But next door Peter Harrison, fishing mainly hard pellet at 9 metres, had a magnificent 167 lb 6 oz to go into the lead. John Smith's fish had gone off after a good start but he still ended with 82 lb 5 oz. Then came the piece de resistance - Shaun Buddle.

The winner!
Shaun had six nets in and as the weights were totted up he was approaching his personal-best match weight of  248 lb. His last net fell 6 lb short, and he ended with 242 lb 14 oz - obviously the winner. Congratulations all round. He had, as I had supposed, taken his fish mainly next to the bank. I think he used mainly dead reds and mussels.

Peter empties one of his nets into the weigh bag.

Trevor had about 70 lb mugging to bring his total to 109 lb 6 oz, and the scales moved round to my bank. Mike Rawson was in the same swim he had had the previous day, and had 28 lb 10 oz. I was next and estimated I had probably 100 lb. My nets went 42 lb, 39 lb and the last one, started at 3.15 pm, contained about 35 lb, bringing me a total of 117 lb 5 oz, causing Trevor to murmer sarcastically "A hundred pounds!" The rest of the weights on my bank were poorish, but Peter Spriggs on corner peg 26 also had three nets, and would be last to weigh.

Surprisingly Peter had struggled. I wonder if that was because, I seem to remember, the only shallow spot in that swim is also in a tiny cut-out to the left. I don't know whether he tried there, but it is even smaller than mine was. Anyway he totalled 103 lb 12 oz, which left me top weight on my bank and fourth overall,  which I was happy with.

Shaun had plenty to smile at, just missing his personal best with 242 lb 14 oz. Well done, mate.

Peter Spriggs - 103 lb 12 oz on peg 26.

Mike Rawson - 28 lb 10 oz on my right.

Marks out of ten
I'm feeling so buoyant I could crush a grape (as Duncan Norvelle used to say, or was it Stu Francis?), so I think I deserve 9/10. I didn't make any stupid mistakes and I think I rotated my swims OK, allowing fish to get back and start feeding before I dropped back. I lost only three, all foulhooked, and I guess everybody else lost some as well. But the special method I used for some of the time allowed me to keep striking at liners to a minimum. 

Perhaps I didn't use as much loosefeed as I could have done in the deep water, but I don't think they ever lined up properly to feed there, possibly preferring to feed elsewhere in shallow water. I was amazed they kept coming up to that small shallow area, and would obviously have liked another somewhere, so I could have jumped from one to the other. Again my mussels took nearly all good fish, with just three F1s to 3 lb.

Next match Saturday on Beastie. If we have 5-17 as stated I would like 5, 9 and 13 to 17. But I like Beastie, and will be happy anywhere - any peg can win on its day. Otherwise I also love 2, 18 and 30.

THE RESULT

West bank                                                                East bank

26    Peter Spriggs          103 lb 12 oz                          1     Bob Barrett           128 lb 9 oz    3rd
24    Bob Allen                46 lb 3 oz                             3     Wendy Bedford       64 lb 1 oz
22   Joe Bedford              41 lb 8 oz                            5     Peter Harrison       167 lb 6 oz   2nd
20    Martin Parker          27 lb 7 oz                             7     John Smith              82 lb 5 oz    
18    Mac Campbell       117 lb 5 oz    4th                   9     Shaun Buddle        242 lb 14 oz  1st
16    Mike Rawson          28 lb 10 oz                          11   Trevor Cousins       109 lb 6 oz