A slow start doesn't help me on Crow, Pidley

Peg 9, Wed, Feb 14
Back with the Pidley Pensioners, with me on Crow, and some of the others on Magpie.The wind soon picked up and made fishing a long pole difficult. I had intended to start on a feeder, but it wasn't cold, and I had a quick look on the pole, just over the margin in the dep water. The rig settled nicely, but I had to take off a No 13 shot because of the waves. That done I dropped back, fished for about a minute, and looked to my right to see Marcus Wareing on 7 aleaady reeling in a fish taken on a feeder.

Five minutes later I put out a maggot feeder to the far bank. In the next 40 minutes Marcus landed about 6 or 7 more fish, and I had not had even a liner. Half an hour later I switched to a small hybrid feeder (similar to what Marcus was using), trying maggots, an orange wafter, and a pink wafter, still without even a liner. 

The bank was squishy with water, but thanks to the artificial turf 
all the pegs at Pidley are virtually free of mud. The wind picked up
considerably after the match had started, and 14 metres was out of the question for me.

Maggot was best
To my left the angler on 11 had had a fish or two on a maggot feeder, cast about three-quarters of the way over, so I tried that. Nothing. Almost two hours had gone before I gave up and went back to the pole, trying expanders. Then a switch to maggot brought a bite and a fish...attached to about two feet of a broken pole rig. Somehow the l F1 ended in my landing net and I was at least not fishless.

The rest of the match saw me using a cad pot every other cast, putting in maggots, and every 15 minutes I would get an F1. However, I knew that there were fish in the swim beause I could see tiny jigs on the float as the bait sank. I had one fish well off bottom, but had to drag bottom to get a bite. Very strange. 

Of course between the big gusts I had a look well out at 10 metres with corn or maggot but never had a touch there, so stayed on a 2+2 or 2+1 line. A few minutes from the end, with about 12 F1s in the net I hit a better fish which proved to be a 5 lb mirror. At the same time Marcus, who had been switching between feeder and pole, was playing an eight-pounder. Two minutes later the match finished. He told me he had had taken fish on mainly expanders on the pole, with a switch to maggot closer in in the later stages. Well done on the win, Marcus. 

The weigh in

Will Hadley on 5 had 60 lb 8 oz, but Marcus, thanks to that late big carp, pipped him with 67 lb 14 oz to win the lake. I had a miserable 23 lb, beating only two, who were in the deeper water in the higher numbers. Interestingly  Marcus was on peg 21 last match, and had put on the same rig, set at the depth for peg 21, only to find that his swim on 7 was two feet shallower. We assumed that the better weights would be at the other end, but we were wrong.

Marks out of ten

I started on expanders, which I have a lot of faith in, but never had any sort of  touch. Then when eventually I went back on the pole with maggot I felt I was fishing OK. Why I never had a touch on the feeder is still a mystery. The pole rigs seemed to be working perfectly, though towards the end I lost about five fish, which I thought were probably foulkhooked. Then I realised that several of those I had landed were hooked very lightly in the lip - I was amazed they hadn't pulled off. So I have to assume that they weren't really feeding, and I give myself 6. I've fished much worse and caught much more in the past!

Magpie was won from favoured peg 36 by Rob Heath, who always seems to outfish his nearby competitors. Give him a flier and he's way out in front. Well done, Rob.

Next match is Sunday somewhere on Decoy, which means a change from 8 and 10 elastics to around 14, as the fish can be well into double figures, especially after this prolonged mild spell.

THE RESULTS

Crow 1-12

Crow 13-25

Magpie 1-22

Magpie 23-36