I lose more than I land on Cedar

 Peg 14, Cedar
Yet again I wasn't served up with any Raspberry Ripple. But it's a nice swim, in the corner of Cedar lake, at Decoy, and I had a reed-covered end bank to fish to. So that's where I started, in this 13-entry Spratts match. I went out on a pole to 11.5 metres, just away from the reeds, with an expander. Then a grain of corn, and after 20 minutes I had a bite, and hit a fish!

Peg 14, with some ripple in the background!

I held the carp hard, but after 30 seconds it snagged me several feet away from the reeds, and eventually the hooklength broke. Not long after that I hit another carp, in the same spot, and this one took me right out to the middle, almost into Dick Warrener's swim (he was two pegs away) and eventually shed the hook. That was the end of bites in that spot, so I went out in front of me. 

I lose so many
In the next hour or so I took four carp from there, on corn, but all the time I was putting hemp and casters into the margins to my right, where the water was only three feet deep, and also a couple of metres farther out into the deeper water. That deep swim produced quite a lot of bites to corn, but most of the fish came off. They didn't seem to be foulhooked, though. The inside swim was just as good, but again a lot of fish were lost. 

It was a mystery why they came off, but I know that at one point I had six nice carp in the net and had lost ten. After 14 I lost count. And at one point, after losing a fish which I had seen to be well into double-figures I put down the pole and walked up to see Dick Warrener on 16. I remember telling him I must have lost at least 20 carp.

The last hour was better - two carp and two barbel on a bunch of casters or cat meat, with only about three lost. I assumed that they must have been foulhooked, but later I strongly suspected they had almost all just been very lightly lip-hooked. I put this down to the fact that with no ripple and some sun, they were very finicky. And two or three of the fish I landed were, in fact, hooked on the outside of the lip.

Roy Whitwell, 2nd with 93 lb 14 oz.

Still, in was an interesting and enjoyable day, won by Neil Paas who caught all his fish close in on hard pellet, for 103 lb 6 oz, and the top weights were tight.

 I ended sixth with 67 lb 13 oz, and just three of those lost fish would have won me the match. I think that the hemp and caster got the fish interested; I was happy enough to at least have probably hooked more fish than anyone else in the match, in a swim that was flat calm almost all day.

90 lb 15 oz for Peter Spriggs.

Peter's best fish was at least 12 lb.

Marks out of ten

I give myself 8/10 for using the casters and hemp, which at least brought fish into the swim while the nearest angler, Dick Warrener, was really struggling for bites. And as they say (or would have done if they'd thought of it): 'Tis better to have hooked and lost than never to have hooked at all.' Next match is Beastie after the Bank Holiday.

THE RESULT

East bank                                West bank

26 Bob Barrett        21 lb 14 oz        `  1 Roy Whitwell           93 lb 14 oz  2nd

24 Rod Melnyk       50 lb                    3 John Garner            51 lb 13 oz

22 Mick Ramm      17 lb 3 oz             5 Peter Spriggs        90 lb 15 oz        

20 John Smith        91 lb 14 oz  3rd    7 Mike Rawson        34 lb 2 oz

18 Neil Paas          103 lb 6 oz  1st    9 Peter Harrison         52 lb 7 oz

16 Dick Warrener   29 lb 13 oz          11 Trevor Cousins      91 lb 1 oz       4th

14 Mac Campbell    67 lb 13 oz