Peg 22, Oak, Sunday, Mar 9
Another good draw for me in this JV match, but the weather didn't help - flat calm and a bright sun after a cold night. In fact when I started driving to Decoy my van temperature showed 5.5 degrees; halfway there it had dropped to 2.5 degrees. And indeed, at the draw it was so cold I think we all suspected that the forecast for a hot day was way out. In fact by the time the match started it was actually quite hot.
Back to the fishing. Eight of us were pegged on the East bank of Oak, with seven on Elm. My peg 22 was in the area which is always favoured on Oak. Looks like my drawing hand is working pretty well. But actually not a lot was caught, which is hardly surprising considering the conditions. I started dobbing a single maggot on a size 20 hook, about 18 inches deep, because a few carp could be seen juist under the surface. After 15 minutes I had a bite...from a roach. I tried mugging the occasional carp I could see - but with no takers.
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| Looks like summer. No wonder it was hard. |
Two carp at 13 metres
So it was on to a maggot feeder, then a bomb and corn. But I didn't catch until I went out to 13 metres on a pole with a bunch of dead maggots over just a few deads, and some micros. That had brought me two carp about 4 lb each after three hours, with Ernie on my left on three, I think, including a couple on a feeder. Ernie had been slapping on a long pole for a time, but had no fish, which is so annoying when you can see them.
To my right Kevin Bell had, I think, just one carp. And everybody was struggling. Eventually I tried going out to 14.5 metres, though I'd not fed anything there...and I had a carp on first cast. That was about 7 lb, and within minutes of a recast I hit another - obviously fouhooked because of the way it stretched the elastic. Then the hook pulled.
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| Ernie Lowbridge on 24, to my left, nets his last fish, on a pole. |
Two more lost
I lost two more foulhooked - one at 13 metres, and the other from a swim right against the bank. Kevin and Ernie and myself were all looking in the margins in the last hour, but with ten minutes left and no more activity in the margin I went out to 14 metres again, with a bunch of dead maggots. Amazingly, first cast I had another bite, fron an eight-pounder, and that was my last fish. Kevin had two fish fairly late, and Ernie had another couple.
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| Kevin Bell, on my right, had a couple of late fish. This one was on a feeder. |
So Kevin ended with three carp, I had four, and Ernie had five. While I was fishing in the margins with corn a big carp drifted towards me and I dropped the rig in more than a metre away from the fish. As soon as the corn plopped onto the water the fish took fright. It didn't even have a look - it shot off straight away. That led me to believe that the fish were on a heightened sense of vulnerability in the sun, certainly near the bank, though Steve Tilsley reported that he'd had a carp or two fishing a waggler shallow well out. But he's good!
The weigh-in.
It was a real surprise when Lee Kendall, on corner, weighed in just two carp, for 12 lb. He said they were the only bites he had had, fishing long pole alongside the end-bank reeds. Lee's got a fantastic record in local matches, so at that point I realised that it had been REALLY hard. Next to him was Ernie McIlroy, who managed just a barbel and a few roach for 3 lb 1 oz.
Kev's three fish went 24 lb, and at an 8 lb average that was the case for nearly everybody in the match. I totalled 32 lb 5 oz, and Ernie went into the lead with 41 lb 1 oz. But the winner was Peter Harrison, on next peg 26, who had some smaller fish, taken mainly on long pole, for 45 lb 14 oz.. And the next two also weighed over 30 lb, so in the end the fish were fairly even spread, apart fro the end pegs. Elm was also difficult, with Roy Whincup and Joe Bourn dominating on pegs 21 and 23, at the car park end - I think they fished mainly feeder.
I was delighted, in the cafe, to be handed money for my four-peg section win. Things are looking up. Next day was the Spratts match, also on Oak, and I wondered whether the sun, which was balzing hot at the end, had warmed the water enough to set the fish feeding.
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| Kevin Bell, with friend. |
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| Ernie Lowbridge - second on Oak. |
Marks out of ten
A friend who lives locally told me he thought I'd often been hard on myself in the past when marking my performance. I stopped during the freezing cold, when there seemed to be no pattern to catching carp. But it's time to restart, and I give myself 6/10 for this match. Fish came into the margins very late on, so perhaps I should have dripped micros in there for an hour beforehand, so the carp get a sense of where there might be food when they decide to start feeding. I was pleased I startd shallow, and gave it up fairly soon when I sensed it simply wasn't going to work. No - seeing as how I sort of held my own with Kev and Ernie, who are both better (and younger) than me, I think I was worth 7/10.
THE RESULT
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| OAK |
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| ELM |
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Peg 13, Oak, Mon, Mar 10
What a contrast to 24 hours earlier. Now we were facing a very cold Easterly wind which got colder as the day went on. My hopes that the fish might start feeding were dashed even before we started. At least there was cloud cover, and only a few spots of rain halfway through this Spratts match.
Eleven of us draw for pegs 2 to 15, and I fancied (as I imagine almost everyone else did) pegs 9 and 10, which are either side of a bit of a gap where the new banking has dropped a little. I was almost opposite peg 18, where Eddie McIlroy had sat the previous day, and come plumb last on the lake.
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| We were huddled up against the East wind at the draw. |
Some poles were out in the first couple of hours, but by the end I think almost everyone was on a bomb or feeder. To my left, in corner peg 15, John Garner had a nice-looking swim, where he could fish to the end-bank reeds, opposite to where Lee Kendall had been on the Sunday.
A slow start except for...
I started on a maggot feeder, then went on to the pole at 13 metres, using the same rig I'd used the previous day. They produced nothing, but on 10 Roy Whitwell caught some carp on a rod with what I was sure was a small hybrid feeder, casting right cross to within a foot or two of the far bank.
Before I changed to a hybrid feeder, I had a quick look in the margins, where I dropped in a few dead maggots, and followed it up with a rig, in about three feet of water. The float dived down instantly - first drop - and I was attached to a double-figure carp. I know this because after about five minutes it rose to the top - a beautiful light-coloured mirror. But the hook pulled out, and I think I may have said a naughty word!
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| I was not catching, so I nipped up to Roy Whiwelll to take him in action. |
No more touches in the side, so I changed to the hybrid feeder. I put in it a few micros, with a few dead maggots, laid on my bunch of deads, and covered the top with Method feeder groundbait. That worked, and after three hours I had two carp, about 4 lb each, while John to my left had a small perch, and Bob Allen, on my right, had nothing.
Once, when I was reeling back after a fruitless cast, I hit something that bent the rod, and a minute later that hook, too, pulled out. Obviously foulhooked. Not my day.
I try Sticky Syrup
In the afternoon I had another look on the 13-metre pole line, for not a touch, nor at 14.5 metres. I also started adding a touch of Sticky Syrup additive to the feeder, and with an hour to go I had added three more carp around 8 lb. I also had several line bites, all obviously by fish high up in the water - either a quick flick, or a long pull without a proper tug on the line.
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Near the end Bob Allen had a good
run of three fish in about an hour. |
To my right Bob Allen had a good hour when he hit three carp on his hybrid feeder. I had a quick look down the margins, only inches from the 'tins' which line this lake, and very quickly hd a bite on corn which I missed. I changed to a smaller grain and immediately hit an 8 lb carp, which I landed. I know that carp were coming into the swim during that last hour, but I couldn't work out how to present the bait so they took it. Very frustrating.
A purple patch for John
Half an hour to go and John Garner still had just that tiny perch. Then, suddenly, his luck changed, carp started to feed in his swim, and he caught three good 'uns on a soft pellet on the pole. He had no time for a fourth before the weigh-in.
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| John Garner from Zero to sort of Hero in 30 minutes. |
The weigh-in
I was surprised how few fish the early pegs had - Bob Barrett on peg 3 led with 29 lb 12 oz, taken on a feeder and wafter, down to Roy Whitwell. Roy had obviously won, with about ten or 11 carp for 82 lb 1 oz,taken mainly in the first half of the match.
Bob Allen's three went 23 lb 15 oz, and my six carp weighed in at a satisfying 45 lb 11 oz - enough for second place, with John Garner's extra-late spurt giving him 25 lb 4 oz and third spot. I was happy with my result, but still very cold. And the forecast befor the next week doesn't seem to be much better. Perhaps things will have improved a little for JV's match on Sunday - no idea what lake it is on. They are all so different.
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| The winner, Roy Whitwell, 82 lb 1 oz. |
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John Garner - a late sprint
to get to fourth place. |
Marks out of ten
I felt I fished pretty well, considering I'm much better on the pole than on a feeder. But I took a lot of care with the bait in the feeder, and managed to tget the feeder right across to within a foot of the far bank at times. I rung the changes with the distance - sometimes a foot into the shallow water and sometimes two metres back, into the deep water. Both gave me the odd fish. So I think I'm worth 8/10. Things are getting better.
One thing I did was to use really manky dead maggots, which seem to me to be a better bet than nice plump ones. I still remember the time in Deeping St James (where I lived) when I was feeding casters to a shoal of chub from Jimmy Deeping bridge. The sun went in and I couldn't see the casters, so I flicked in a single white maggot so I could check where it was running down the river.
I watched the maggot as it flowed downstream, and watched a chub approach it (I could just see its light-coloured lips). Next thing was that the whole shoal turned tail, their sides flashing white, and they completely disappeared. That taught me a lesson that, at least sometimes, fish will take fright at a bait. Presumably because they have been caught on it. Who knows?
THE RESULT
2 Peter Spriggs 15 lb 5 oz
3 Bob Barrett 29 lb 12 oz 4th4 Neil Paas 21 lb 8 oz
5 Bob Walker DNW
7 Trevor Cousins 24 lb 12 oz
8 Martin Parker One liner
9 Mick Ramm DNW
10 Roy Whitwell 82 lb 1 oz 1st
12 Bob Allen 23 lb 25 oz
13 Mac Campbell 45 lb 11 oz 2nd
15 John Garner 25 lb 4 oz 3rd
