"Nere cast a clout till May be out" is an old saying you will all have heard of. Well, most of you, cos you're old enough, and wise enough to heed these sayings. However, after seeing that great glowing golden globe in the sky I took a chance and left off my thermal underwear for this Spratts match on Willows. I also left off one of the sweat shirts I've worn for matches since November. But when I got out of the van at Decoy a cold breeze hit me.
I wondered if I should have kept everything on - then I spotted Trevor Cousins in SHORTS, sporting that famous pair of former-footballing legs (though they are a little bendy now). I also have a pair of legs, but jealousy is a terrible sin, and I don't want to inflict that on any of my mates, so I don't wear them for fishing. In the event, the wind warmed up as the day went on, so I stopped worrying about Trevor's legs.
Scum on the surface has been a problem on Willows, so Shaun Buddle went to
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| The far bank looks enticing, but I decided against using my feeder rod. |
The occasional fish could be seen just under the surface, but not enough to tempt me to try mugging them, and they were moving quite fast - probably thinking about spawning. I decided to stick with the pole, and to use the feeder only if I was really struggling halfway through the match.
The water was calm when we started and I went out to about ten metres with an expander. dropping it in a slightly deeper spot, where it was just off bottom, and allowing it to drift onto the shallower area. A classic sort of swim. Within minutes Mike had had a small fish on the pole, and two or three more followed for him, before I had a tiny carp. To my right Bob Barrett had a very good start, catching carp on a feeder cast towards the scum.
Some time later I hit a fish that had streamed yards of elastic out within a second, and headed for Mike's float. I shouted a warning - the fish was obviously foulhooked - and Mike wisely took his rig out.
Just as well - that fish went right through his swim (remember we were very close) and threatened to embed itself in the reeds on the other side of his platform. Somehow it came free, and I was able to get my hand on the puller bead. But then it dived into the reeds between me and Mike and was firmly stuck.
I walked down to where it was, and was pondering whether to use a landing net to try to hoik it out, or my long-handled hook to try to pull the reeds away, when it suddenly came free. That was lucky! It turned out to be about 8 lb, hooked in a pectoral fin.
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| My right margin. Some fish came from well inside that cut-out, right next to the bank in 2 ft of water. |
I started on the firmer bottom, to the right, and I know it was in three feet of water, because I had the short top marked out in inches. I missed the first bite on cat meat but hit the second, which was a 5 lb mirror. Then a system came into play - I would put in some hemp and a little cat meat, and some pellets and when the reeds to the right started shaking I knew that fish were coming into the swim, and I would get either a carp or an F1.
Between bites I dropped in to the left; did it several times but had only one bite there which was a foulhooker...and that one came off! At one point I remembered Ben Townsend putting a post on Facebook which explained how he had caught fish on Six-Island, peg 25, just two days earlier. That included catching fish in just a couple of feet of water. So I tried it by coming right into the ride with the float almost touching the bank, with a worm on the hook.
I didn't have much hope that it would work, as the water is getting clearer and I was sure I would be able to see if any fish were there. But first drop in and a six-pounder came in! I spent the last hour or two alternating between this spot and the deeper area about a metre from the bank, where I put in some ggod pots of dead maggots (the left margin never gave me a single fish all day). I would get a fish about every 15 minutes - mainly F1s, up to 3 lb - on dead maggots or cat meat. Alternating them seemed to be best.
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| On peg 2 Peter Spriggs included some bream in his catch. |
I ended with about five 'proper' carp and ten F1s, estimating I had about 55 lb, but Mike next door had a terrible day after his early success, and packed up a few minutes early. To his left on peg 2 I had seen Peter Spriggs netting what looked like mainly F1s, but I saw him with at least a couple of better fish, so I guessed he had beaten me. Then Bob Barrett said that both Peter and Martin Parker, on peg 1, had had a good day, while he had around 50 lb himself.
Martin on 1 had what must have felt was a disappointing 40 lb 2 oz, because it can be a good peg, and he would have seen Peter on peg 2 catching. Bob Barrett reckoned Peter must have 90 lb, but in fact it was 71 lb 11 oz, while my estimated 55 lb went 66 lb 4 oz. I saw Bob weigh 48 lb 4 oz, but if he'd gone on as he started it would have been much, much more. Bob also said that no-one in the higher-number pegs had more than about 50 lb!!!!
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| Winner Shaun Buddle - his '50 lb' miraculously put on weight when placed on the scales and ended as 76 lb! |
So Shaun won, Peter was second, and I sneaked into third place - and I was very happy with that, seeing as how there were several other pegs I fancied more.
I managed to keep everything simple, and felt I had made any necessary changes more quickly than I often do, and changed baits more often than usual, rather than plod along with the same bait. I even tried paste, which I rarely do even though I always take some (I had one bite on it but no fish). So I think I was worth 8/10.
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| Bob Allen had to scrape around to find enough to pay John Garner his side-bet, but John insisted... |
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| ...and found it impossible to resist a smirk as he put the change in his pocket. |
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| Neil Paas brings his net in from peg 33, round the back of Willows. He beat Trevor Cousins, on the next peg 34, by just 6 oz, for fourth. |
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