I scrape a frame place on Cedar (without losing a fish!)

Peg 16, Cedar, Wed, Nov 6
I slug it out with the mice

Had a problem with mice, and while most of the traps are catching the little blighters, one trap has had its bait consistently taken without being set off. But I've just found out the culprit. Not a clever, dainty, mouse - a slug!! A slimy three-inch brown slug. Blimey - not content with devouring my hostas, they've started on the garage. Honestly, they get everywhere - I've even got slime trails on my bib and brace, which are hanging up on a nail. War has been declared...

And how many times can you die?
Also saw an interesting article in my local Hunts Post: "On May 11, 1812, for the first and only time in history, British Prime Minister Spencer Percival was assassinated."

So he was assassinated for the first time - just the once. And I've been wracking my brains to try to think of someone who has been asassinated twice. No, can't do it. My education is clearly lacking. 

The match
HOWEVER, my pre-match investigations before the Spratts event on Cedar did tell me that peg 9 has been fishing well (though on a feeder), and that the Southern end of the lake, next to the car parking, has been very poor. So I was happy enough to get 16, which is well down the lake, and opposite 11, while Neil Paas had been drawn 18, opposite peg 9. The light wind was cool and soon became definitely cold - so much for the forecasters consistently telling us that the weather is mild for the time of year. No, it wasn't!

It soon became obvious that there were going to be no big catches, At our end we sat for a long time, until Mike Rawson on 9 had a big carp on a pole, and then Neil landed one, foulhooked on a pole. I had started with a bomb and bread to the platform between us, with not even a liner. I probably should have persisted on the rod, but with the water so calm and fair numbers of carp splashing and cruising around, I fancied the pole.

Hood up in the cool wind, Neil nets one of his six or seven carp.

I like a hard bottom

There was a nice hard bottom a metre or two from the left bank, and I had a small liner or two, but no fish there, nor farther out in the deep water (about six feet). So I went out to 13 metres, where the depth was about five feet, and eventually took a 2 lb carp on corn. With so little action all I was putting in was a little hemp and a few grains. An occasional fish cruised in towards the side, and I dropped a piece of mussel in front of one. The fish slowly dropped down. 

Now usually a fish will either ignore the bait, or will scarper immediately. As this one seemed to take an interest, I perked up a little. Hours later with no more fish, Neil had had a couple more and I tried a mussel on the hook, laying the rig out. The float jagged as the bait was still sinking, I struck, and had a fish on which came off after a second or two. Possibly a strong liner, or perhaps the fish had the bait just in its lips.

Hardly text-book
Immediately I pushed all the shot up under the float, so had a mussel sinking six feet, very slowly. Hardly text-book, but on the third drop I had a bite as it got somewhere near bottom, and a 12 lb common was on. I had on my smaller, 18-inch landing net, because it's usually easier to unhook fish in them than larger nets. But I had a problem with this one - the line seemed to have been trapped round a fin and it then ran under the fish.

I couldn't work out why I couldn't find the hook. Suddenly I realised the probable answer - the hook had come out, hooked the bottom of the net, and the fish was laying on it. and I coulkdn't move the fish to reach it.  Never had the problem before, so after sliding the fish into the keepnet, and now seeing the hook in the net, I put on a larger net. But the mussel slow-sinking experiment had run its course, and I had no more touches.

Over in corner peg 13 Martin Parker found a couple of big carp fishing shallow.

Corn skin produces one

Neil had now had couple more carp, and I had seen Martin Parker in the opposite corner, take two fish shallow. So I put on a shallow rig with a corn skin, which sinks really slowly, not feeding anything. Only minutes later a fish hooked itself, and this one really gave me the run-around. It just wouldn't come off bottom, and it must have taken ten minutes to land, and I was glad I'd put the larger net on.

In the last 45 minutes I went out to 2+2 with mussel and had two more carp around 8 lb, while Neil also had a fish or two, and Peter Spriggs , opposite on 11, hooked two in the last ten minutes, but lost one. So I finished with four good carp plus the smaller one for an estimated 38 lb. To my right in the corner peg 14, Dick Warrener had managed just two bream.

The weigh in
As I had feared, the early pegs hadn't produced - Peter Harrison had 2 lb of roach and the next three on that bank never had a fish, while Mike Rawson put his big carp back without weighing (I don't like that, as it skews the results a little). My 39 lb was top weight round to me, but Neil had about six or seven (slightly smaller) fish for 47 lb 6 oz, on expander pellet or corn, and won, leaving me second out of the 14 competing.

  Neil Paas - winner on a difficult day with  
47 lb 6 oz from the next peg to mine. 

On peg 4 Dave Hobbs, who was golden peg, had 37 lb 13 oz on feeder and pole in the first 90 minutes and never had a single bite after that! And on 26 Roy Whitwell had no carp in his 4 lb 14 oz, which was a real surprise. Once Winter sets in that peg 26 is probably the second-best swim on the complex (after Lou's 6) and has produced many big catches from alongside the end-bank reeds. Clearly the fish have not yet moved into  their traditional Winter haunts.

Marks out of ten

It was one of those days when loose-feed  didn't seem to make any difference, though I do believe that hemp brings fish in to investigate, though it probably doesn't encourage them to feed now the water is cold. On peg 22 Trevor Cousins took all his 35 lb just hanging a grain of corn a foot off bottom, well out (though he did catapult a few pellets out occasionally, hooping that the fish would come and see what was happening).

I felt I had certainly not overdone it with the feed (I think that at time it can actually scare fish away) so I give myself 8/10. I'm not sure why our bank fished the best of the two, though I did notice that Peter Spriggs opposite seemed to be fishing at about four feet near his margins, while mine were nearer to six feet, so perhaps the fish wanted to feed nearer the deepest water. Next match Sunday with JV club on Yew - things will probably be the same. The secret is to land every fish you hook.

THE RESULT

East bank                                                 West bank

26 Roy Whitwell        4 lb 14 oz                  1 Peter Harrison     2 lb 3 oz
24 Dave Hobbs         37 lb 13 oz    3rd        3 Bob Allen            DNW  
22 Trevor Cousins    35 lb              4th        5 Bob Barrett         DNW
20 John Garner        15 lb 5 oz                    7 Bob Walker         DNW
18 Neil Paas            47 lb 6 oz        1st        9 Mike Rawson     DNW
16 Mac Campbell    39 lb               2nd     11 Peter Spriggs     28 lb 10 oz
14 Dick Warrener      4 lb 8 oz                  13 Martin Parker     19 lb 15 oz