This is several days late - courtesy of 'things to do at home', the Olympics, and a nasty three-day attack of vertigo which kept me in bed. And I must start with what is, for me, a little gem.
After our Fenland Rods match on Damson (see below somewhere) Kev Lee showed me a couple of his pictures which he is about to frame, having already sold them. I've seen pictures of a dog and a kingfisher by Kev, which were quite outstanding. But these two landscapes were, for me, quite awesome. Here they are (quick snaps while Kev held them for me). I loved them so much I would have asked him to paint one for me, but my wife politely reminded me we have a dozen or more photos, taken and framed by me, ready to hang on our own walls, Still I think these are absolutely brilliant:
This what Kev does in Winter, instead of fishing!
Spratts match on Beastie, Monday, July 29.
I couldn't fish this match, and the general consensus was that I didn't miss much. Trevor won with 81 lb 6 oz from peg 23, fishing a pellet waggler right across to the island.
Result:
3 Bob Allen 14 lb 8 oz
4 Peter Spriggs 50 lb 12 oz
5 John Garner 53 lb 14 oz 3rd
22 Shaun Buddle 59 lb 5 oz 2nd
23 Trevor Cousins 81 lb 6 oz 1st
24 Mike Rawson 43 lb 15 oz
29 Roy Whitwell 11 lb 4 oz
30 Neil Paas 30 lb 4 oz
Spratts match on Yew, Tuesday, Aug 6
Another match I had to miss, with Addenbrookes phoning to give me the most recent update on the cancers on the lung. Unfortunately the scan results were not yet in, but in the meantime I was able to confirm that I am still alive (!).
Peter Harrison won this from peg 29 with five carp on the Method and pellet, followed by a few more on a top 2+1 fishing meat. As is usual on Yew the fish were big, with most around 10 lb.
Roy Whitwell's best fish was 14 lb, and he ended with 88 lb 8 oz taken on Method and wafter, and again on 2+1, putting him second.
John Smith was third with four carp on pellet waggler and pellet cast across ot the far side, folllowed by four more in the margins on meat. His eight fish went 77 lb 8 oz.
Result:
16 Neil Paas 68 lb 11 oz 4th
17 John Garner 39 lb 9 oz
18 Dick Warrener 60 lb 3 oz
19 Roy Whitwell 88 lb 8 oz 2nd
20 Bob Allan 5 lb 14 oz
21 Peter Spriggs 42 lb 11 oz
22 Dave Hobbs 40 lb 4 oz
23 Mike Rawson 13 lb 2 oz
24 Martin Parker 39 lb 9 oz
25 Mick Ramm 7 lb
26 John Smith 77 lb 8 oz 3rd
28 Trevor Cousins 49 lb 1 oz
29 Peter Harrison 116 lb 1st
Fenland Rods, Damson, Decoy, Sunday, Aug 4
Ten of us turned out for this match on Damson, and it was voted that we run it as a pairs match. The day was cloudy with a warm wind, and I reckoned it could be a good day.
I walked past peg 1, and immediately didn't fancy it. This peg is on the end, very sheltered, and can be a flier in Winter. But today it had no wind on it, and the water looked dead. Mike Rawson had drawn it - just his luck!
The pegs I fancied
Peg 2 is a noted margin swim, but it wasn't pegged today. I was on peg 10, and was glad peg 11 was left out, as a lot of big weights have come from there - it's so easy to fish under the bush on the left with a top two. Allan Golightly had 13, which I also like, and which has often won that bank, but the best swim by far looked to be 15, where John Smith set up. I had a wander up there before the match and there are stick-ups to the right, and a reed bed to the left, protruding about two feet out into the lake, with odd reed stems around, giving a cracking area for fish to back into.
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| Peg 10. A light breeze at the start blew harder towards the end. |
Back on peg 10 there were fish milling around in the margins before the match, as there were in most swims. Sometimes they disappear five minutes after the match starts, and sometimes they hang around for an hour or longer. The depth right against my bank was about eight inches, so I decided to start about two feet out, with banded pellet set at 18 inches.
Fish immediately
It took a couple of minutes to get a fish, which was far too long, and I quickly decided to go with casters. That had an amazing effect - fish came in immediately, and I had one within seconds, an F1 a little over 1 lb. That first hour was hectic, and at the end of it I must have had over 40 lb, best fish less than 2 lb, and I could see some of them actually take the banded caster as it fell.
The best thing about the whole day, for me, was that I could see how fish were responding. I would put in about 20 casters and fish would usually be there in two seconds, milling around. A bait dropped in among them was hardly ever taken - they were just too excited. If I waited until they had dispersed (about ten seconds) and dropped in just half-a-dozen casters to entice one or two back, and immediately dropped my bait down, that was the best tactic to get a fish.
Alternately I could drop the bait in and feed half-a-dozen casters over the top. But they had to accurate - absolutely spot on. A foot away and bites often never came. Surprisingly if I dropped thre bait in front of a fish I could see, without fgeeding, more often than not the fish would have a look and turn away immediately.
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| A good 'un for Roy in the first half-hour, but it was his only one. |
No big fish
To my left Roy Whitwell started well, though not as well as me, but soon after the start he had a big fish, about 8 lb, which is big for Damson. I never had one that big all day, taking F1s and small commons up to this point.
Within an hour both Roy and I were remarking that every time we looked over to John Smith he was playing a fish...and that went on until very late in the match. He definitely would weigh in a proverbial shedful.
Eventually my caster fish stopped responding in the same way and I tried three banded maggots, which brought a few, then I went on to the bottom with corn, which kept fish coming steadily but more slowly, but still feeding caster. These fish tended to be mirrors, of 2 lb-plus, up to about 3 lb 8 oz. Then bunches of caster on a size 12 worked, then paste, then cat meat.
Big fish in the side
I did have one more hectic spell on banded caster shallow, close-in. One or two nice carp over 2 lb came from under the bush, but the bottom was like a silhouette of the alps, and it was difficult to decide where the fish were. And all day better fish of 4 lb were coming into the side, and seemed to be sucking the side of the bank. Perhaps there were some trace elements in the earth there. They never even looked at anything thrown to them.
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| Roy was landing his fish so quickly that I never managed to get get a really good action shot. |
Roy went on to the Method feeder when his fish tailed off and had fish immediately - they were taking within 30 seconds of him casting out. He had two or three short spells like that, which whittled down whatever lead I might have had, and each time he came back on to the pole and caught again. Towards the end I found that mussel brought slightly bigger fish, but after five hours they definitely slowed down.
The last half-hour
The wind seemed to affect the fish more than I would have expected - when it blew harder, putting a bigger ripple on, the fish went down to the deeper water, which is about three feet on the top of the shelf. I never tried the bottom of the shelf, which is about seven feet deep.
That extra blow also messed up my lefthand swim, where I had had a few, because it meant fishing into the wind. So that last half hour became quieter and quieter - I put about 9 lb in that fourth net in the last 30 minutes. I estimated I ended with nets of 40 lb, 45 lb, 40 lb and that last 9 lb - total 134 lb.
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| Bob Allen, my partner for the day, did really well from peg 3, taking 91 lb 11 oz and coming second in his five-peg section. |
The weigh in
I'd had seven rigs out - two shallow, three margin rigs with different sized tops, a cat meat rig, and the seven-foot rig I never used. So I was a bit late packing up and arrived at the scales after Mike Rawson had weighed just 29 lb 3 oz - as I had sort of half-expected on that flat-calm peg.
When I got there the weighers had just weighed in my partner for the day, Bob Allen. He was on peg 3, mainly on paste, and had 91 lb 11 oz, which I said was a really good, solid weight on the day. In fact he finished second in his five-peg section, beaten only by Kevin Lee.
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| Dick Warrener extended his good recent run, taking 86 lb 15 oz from the peg next to Bob Allen. |
Kevin had 127 lb 8 oz. Roy and I hadn't been able to see Kev all day because there was a bush in the way, but we had heard a lot of splashing going on, so guessed he had done well.
Roy was the first to weigh in my section of five - 121 lb 8 oz, and I thought I would definitely beat that...and I did! My nets went 47 lb, 51 lb, 47 lb and 9 lb - total 157 lb 6 oz, best fish less than 4 lb. I'd no idea what the two to my right had, but John on end peg 15, on the end bank, said he had 200 lb.
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| Roy Whitwell and I had a really good battle from the start (but I beat him!) 😀😀😀 |
Mel, next peg to my right, had 65 lb 15 oz, and Allan Golightly on 13 had a great start before the fish completely deserted him, leaving him with just 37 lb 5 oz. Then John weighed in his five nets - a magnificent 204 lb, which gave him top points in our section. He took a lot on prawn.
Unfortunately for the rest of us he was pegged with Kevin Lee, so they finished with just 2 points, and won the Pairs event. Bob and I were both second in our sections, though, so we had 4 points for the second prize. I ended second overall.
Marks out of ten
I felt I had kept everything simple, and had lost only four fish all day, all foulhooked. I wasted no time trying to catch the bigger fish I could see in the margin against the bank, and switched methods and swims several times quite quickly when bites tailed off. So I thought I had caught pretty well on an average peg, worth an unusual 9/10. Next match is the Ellis Buddle Memorial on Oak and Cedar - 11 drawn teams of three at the time of writing.
Ellis, as I have written before, was an inspiration to me. For the last couple of years all we had to do was get him to his peg, make sure that he could reach everything from his box, and leave him to it. There he would sit, plumbed in to his oxygen mask, and he would catch fish - lots of 'em. He told me it was smoking that had given him his emphysema. A lovely man. Remembered thanks to his son Shaun's determination to get this match underway each year.
Team Result: Points
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| John Smith - winner with 204 lb exactly. |
2 Bob Allen, Mac Campbell 4
3 Dick Warrener, Mel Lutkin 7
4 Mike Rawson, Roy Whitwell 8
5 Dave Garner, Allan Golightly 9
Note - the club pays three-peg or four-peg section prizes, by default.
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