Bread and casters set me up on Six-Island

 Peg 13, Six-Islands, Decoy
"It's a funny old life" (as Jimmy Greaves would have said, if he'd thought of it).  One day I'm playing bowls like a beginner, the very next day and I'm rolling my woods in to the jack like I was born to do it. And with a team-mate we thrashed a couple who should on paper, have thrashed us. So my bowls luck had changed, and then fishing followed. Even the slugs have stayed away...

I was very happy with peg 13 in this JV club event, even though it's the longest walk - the walk to my peg was fine - and I like this end of the lake. The wind was Westerly from the left, quite strong (it got stronger) and cold. I had Steve Tilsley to my left, with Shaun Buddle and Ernie Lowbridge to my right and together we made up one section.

My pole is pointing directly at Eddie McIlroy on peg 6, sitting in the sun.
The wind was sligtly behind us on our bank, and was cold.

Bread works at the start

I started with bread on the pole at 11.5 metres, without putting in any feed at all. On the opposite bank Chris Saunders landed a smallish carp quite quickly, but I didn't see any other fish landed in the first half hour. I thought I had a tiny touch a couple of times, then two definite bites which I missed, but the bread was still intact. Liners - so I came off bottom, with no more bites. 

I tried out at 13 metres, and if the wind hadn't been as strong I would have gone back to the van and brought my 14.5-metre section out, but clearly I would have had only a few seconds being able to properly present a bait near the island.

Fish!
Back on the bottom, and at last I hooked a 3 lb-plus carp; next drop,  and another came in. Then I hooked one very briefly before it came off. There had been splashing from Steve's swim, so he was definitely catching one or two. After a pause I put out a bomb with bread and immediately had a take from a 2 lb F1. 

Eddie, hooded against the cold, plays a fish
caught on feeder and a wafter.

Then came a long biteless session on the bomb, and then trying expanders on the pole, I wandered up to Steve, who had five fish to my three. Opposite me Eddie McIlroy on peg 6 was now catching fish on a feeder, and I changed to a hybrid feeder with dead maggots, which brought four F1s in four casts. Then followed an hour-long spell when I couldn't get even a bite - and Eddie also stopped catching.

Nowt on maggots
A look in the margin where I had been putting maggots brought just two tiny perch. After the match it seemed that almost everyone had the same experience - expecting to get at least a few bites from roach, but catching only small perch. To my left Steve now went on to a waggler, which brought a carp or two until the wind died away and he couldn't drag the corn bait from left to right. His stationary bait didn't work.

After another biteless spell on the feeder, I went on to a short line in front of me, in about four feet of water, where I had been flicking a few casters. I had just a pint with me, and thought just possible carp might come to them in the clear water.

Casters do the business
I had no fish for some time, but was almost certain that the float had shuddered a few times, so I stayed with it, using a size 16 on 6 lb line. Then a definite bite, and finally a hooked 5 lb carp on two casters. Then another, and then an obvious foulhooked fish stretched the 14-16 elastic right out, splashed on the surface in the middle in front of peg 12, and the hooklength broke.

I then put on a new hook - size 12 to 7 lb, but never had a touch for the next 20 minutes. A change back to the size 16 on 6 lb line saw three bites in the last ten minutes - and over 10 lb put in the net.

The weigh in
Eddie McIlroy had obviously won our eight-peg area in the bottom bowl, but I missed his weighing in of 89 lb 13 oz. He said that right at the end he was amazed, in the cold wind, so see fish come into the margins where he had just put in a little left-over bait. Seeing a big silver common in the swim he dropped in a bait, waited, struck at a bite...and hooked the double-figure fish, which gave him a real fight. But he landed it.

Eddie told me afterwards that most of his feeder-caught fish came to a wafter. It was enough to win, and he had this message for Lee Kendall, should Lee decide to fish next Sunday's match: "The Kendall-killer is coming after you!!" I imagine Lee will be afraid...very afraid.

Dave Parsons, second on peg 8 with 53 lb 9 oz.

Next to weigh was Dave Parsons with 53 lb 9 oz, and as Ernie Lowbridge was about to weigh in on peg 10 he asked what I had. I said about 30 lb, though I had not clicked the last few fish, and hadn't even looked at my clicker. Ernie gave me what my grandmother would have said was "an old-fashioned look" and said I'd been catching all day. I thought a visit to Specsavers should be considered!

Amazed!
Anyway, both Ernie and Shaun Buddle had a little less than 30 lb, and I was amazed to weigh in 46 lb 15 oz. Steve was last in the section, and said he had just over 45 lb. He's a better man than I am, Gungadin - he weighed 46 lb 7 oz, leaving me as section winner by 8 oz. I am really sorry, Steve. 😂

Steve Tilsley (no relation to Ivy) with
his 46 lb 7 oz (beaten by 8 oz by me 😀). 

Roy Whincup won the top end with 50 lb from peg 1 and was third. So I was fourth and happy with my section win in such company. I was obviously in one of the better pegs.

Marks out of ten
Afterwards I realised I hadn't even tried corn or worm, and worm could well have got me bites in the caster swim. However I was happy I had changed from bomb to feeder (using the Preston interchangeable system), and had changed back to a size 16 when the size 12 hadn't worked in the caster swim. So I was probably worth 8/10.

Next match is Thursday in the big Spratts Christmas match on Yew. I think 15 will be fishing, so we'll probably be on pegs 1-15, and I'd like anywhere from peg 10 to 15. I won it last year, so miracles are possible!

THE RESULT

No Yewltide welcome for me

 Peg 23, Yew, Sunday, Nov 10
Not been a good week - the mice are refusing to throw themselves onto my traps, and suddenly I've started playing indoor bowls like a beginner. Though there is one bright spot - I've contacted Cralusso and they say they have managed to find some of their Capri and Spirit in-line floats which tackle dealers don't appear to stock any more.

I like these  Cralusso floats because you can change the tips, and I have only a few left of my favourite Drennan Tuff-eyes. The new Drennan AS models, also with interchangeable tips, seems nearly all either too small or their tips are too fine. I'm not a fan of very light floats for fishing on a long pole - fishing six feet deep at 10 metres in a strong Fenland blow with one seems pointless when you can't swing the rig back because it keeps blowing away from you. So 0.5 gm is my go-to size in most instances when fishing long, and 1 gm in a big blow, while I have floats in 2 gm and 3gm made up in my holdall.

Bryan Lakey made his name fishing for bream, but in his early fishing days he used to make headline winning matches on the Fen drains with roach - and he used huge porcupine quills for that. He convinced me that a heavily-weighted float often has lots of advantages, and I'm too old to be persuaded otherwise!

I had a lovely-looking margin swim down to peg 22. But I heard of only
 one fish caught in the margins on our lake - a tiny perch.

Nothing much to report
Not a good match on Yew for me - 18 of us fished the JV match on Yew and Oak. I was happy enough with my swim halfway along the lake, but  to cut a long (five-and-a-half-hour), dispiriting story short, I ended with one 8 lb cap, hooked 30 minutes from the end, on a pink wafter with a hybrid feeder, for plumb last on the lake. 

Chris Saunders, to my left, plays his second, biggest carp.

On my left Chris Saunders had two carp on a pole, and on my right Ernie Lowbridge laboured on a pole for most of the day for two or three big ide, and F1, and a few small roach, on maggot.

Gus Gausden won our five-peg section with
two carp, a caraasion, and a tiny perch.

Most on feedered maggot
Past Ernie, though, everyone seemed to have caught a carp or two on feedered maggot, topped by John Knight on 19, with nine carp on maggot feeder and hybrid feeder (not fished together!) and dead maggot, for 80 lb 3 oz. 

 Dave Parsons won Oak with 111 lb 10 oz, mainly on a feeder, from corner peg 15. The next JV club match is on Six-Island and Horseshoe - I fervently hope to avoid pegs 14 to 20 on Horseshoe!

My next bowls match is tonight, in a strong pairs league, when I hope my touch will have returned. I suspect my team will finish bottom of the league, probably without winning a game, but we like to make the stars work for their win...just like fishing!

The results (pictures below)

Yew - not good in the middle section (where I was 😒).

The result from Oak - it fished a little better than Yew (but Not A Lot!).

Ernie Lowbridge - third

Roy Whincup - second on Yew.

...including this cracker.

John Knight - 80 lb 3 oz...

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

          

The sun had got his hat on, on Beastie

Peg 24, Beastie
This JV match (my first of the Winter with the club) was supposed to be on Willows, but during the week loads of leaves fell, and clogged up a lot of swims, so it was moved to Beastie. Actually I like it when there are problems. I've had very few problems fishing through leaves or weed, and I've found that the reduced light level tends to bring fish on the feed. No matter - well apart from the fact that peg 24 on Beastie is a bogey peg for me. 

First good news was that a new platform has been installed on peg 24, and with the forecast being for sun and no rain a warm day was in store. Not good for fishing, though, as we had back wind on our bank, giving us calm water all day, while each end of the lake had ripple.No pegs were on the spit (9 to 17 inclusive) as the bridge is being renewed.

A nice new platform - but no Raspberry Ripple all day.
And the sky was actually blue!!!

Quiet
Not a lot happened in my swim - an hour of bomb and pellet and The Method saw not even a liner, though to my left Shaun Buddle had a couple of fish - I heard the splashing. A switch to a 4mm expander fished at 11.5 metres saw three small bream and a small F1 quite quickly, then bites fell away. By halfway through I had lost a 3 lb bream which leaped clear of the water and threw the hook, and hooked a few small roach.

Maggot on a top kit saw me at least getting bites, and I spent about half an hour catching roach and perch at the rate of one a minute to start with, until they stopped feeding. I hoped that carp might have come in, but no, though they were splashing around the lake, and swimming around with their heads out of the water, or drifting around like shars with the backs showing  And there still wasn't a cloud in the azure-blue sky.

Still  quiet!
Nothing seemed to be happening near me except that Lee Kendall on 18 was definitely catching well. I did, though go Back out to  11.5 metres, then added a section to 13 metres, and caught a 3 lb bream on  expander. With just over an hour to go I decided my only hope of catching carp was to look in the margins, altough the water semed to be dead everywhere. First drop, to my surprise, in the left margin, on an area of hard bottom I had found, saw a touch on corn, and next drop I hooked a near-10 lb carp, which just fitted into the 18-inch landing net, so I then changed the net to mky 20-inch model.

Half an hour later I had reverted to my special method, which showed me that there were definitely fish moving in the swim, though not apparently interested in my mussel. Then I did hit a fish, that was on for a few seconds before everything went slack - broken near the hook. This rig was an oldish one - 6 lb straight through, and there must have been a wind knot I had missed.

Mayhem
Ten minutes before the end a grain of corn was taken on my special method, and a fish about 12 lb created absolute mayhem. It jumped around two feet out of the water four times, and splashed violently on the surface before suddenly making for my platform at speed. If I'd had my landing net in my hand there was a brief moment when I could have scooped it out, as it seemed to be dazed for a few seconds just in front of my keepnets.

Lee Kendall with a big old humpy-backed
common carp that was weighed at
12 lb 10 oz in a light landing net - so
 it probably weighed around 15 lb.

But the fish started motoring again, and it took another five minutes before I had it in the net - about 12 lb. I've never had a carp like that before, behaving much like a trout. I'm amazed the hook didn't fall out. I guess their strange behaviour all over the lake was down to some sort of pressure change. Any way, I had no time to catch anything else, but on my right Sean Coaten was playing an eight-pounder as the match finished, so I guess they were starting to feed.

The weigh in

Pegs 26 back to 20 suffered from having no ripple, and you can see that my 27 lb 9 oz was around average for that area. If that 3 lb bream hadn't thrown the hook and the rig hadn't broken on that big carp I would probably have topped those pegs.  But If Ifs And Ands Were Pots And Pans...

Lee Kendall won with 132 lb 3 oz, taken on maggot and worm (I presume on their own bu mainly together) and he fed four pints of maggots. His win wasn't a surprise - I guess if there had been a bookmaker there every angler would have had a fiver on Lee to win from that peg.

Marks out of ten
Probably 7/10 as it's difficult to make something happen when nothing is happening, if you know what I mean. I just wish I'd looked in the margins half an hour earlier!!!! Not sure hen my next mtch is. Probably somewhere on Wednesday.

THE RESULT

A wet and windy weekend on Damson and Oak

Peg 7, Damson, Sunday, Oct 20
I can definitely forecast that Micemass is around the corner - they've started foraging in my bins of pellets, and twice I've had a little surprise when they've jumped out of the top as I plunged my head in to cup some out. Luckily they've been very obliging and leaped onto the traps I've started setting.  Food for the magpies...

First fishing match since turning 82, Fenland Rods' last match of the season (The Les Bedford Memorial Cup) and what a welcome! The forecast was, for once, pretty good - good in the sense that they got it right, not good in what they said would greet us on the morning. But at least it wasn't raining much as we started. Peg 1, which has not produced good results in our matches recently, went to Roy Whitwell, and since he's good and it was the most sheltered peg on the lake, I feared the worst.

Up with our umbrellas
Most of us put up our umbrellas immediately, with Kev on 5, Mike on 6 and me all stacking them vertically, to our left, against the strong Southerly wind. Starting on casters shallow  in the margins I couldn't believe what I caught - NOTHING! Normally you can get some immediately. So it was over to corn on the bottom, and slowly the bites started.

Snug as a bug in a rug - ready for the wind, and it certainly blowed!

Down came the rain but I was as snug as a bug in a rug because the wind drove it almost horizontally onto the Preston Flat Back umbrella. It's big at 50-inches, but three guy ropes, with the back stapled down and a storm guide screwed into a bank stick saw it rock solid. And the fish, from 1 lb to 2 lb, came slowly, but steadily.

A good first two hours

A little before the two-hour mark I had about 40 lb of F1s, and decided to start my second net. I'd forgotten to bring my keepnet bar, so had to use banksticks in the scaffold poles at the front of the platform. But I had to move the net I'd been using from the left one to the right one, and put the second net in its place.  

A bad move!

Moving the nets took only a minute, but when I sat down again and started fishing, the fish had departed for pastures new - probably along to Kevin on peg 5!  Strange how often that happens.

The next two hours saw me get just the very occasional fish - perhaps one every ten minutes, and I should have gone long into the deep water. On my right Dave Garner, who had had a bad start, was now catching what looked to be 'proper' carp out in the deep water.

Early action from Dave Garner on peg 8.

We go for walks
Callum Judge walked the bank and said he'd had a great hour on the feeder with 30 lb, before his swim had died. He was in end peg 13, so I assumed he would be in the running at the end.

Yes - it was definitely a carp!

With nothing much happening at my peg I took a leaf out of Ivan Marks' book and walked up to Mike, who was very despondent and said he'd not had a bite for the last two hours. Back I went to my swim.

Then a hiatus - the wind slewed round to be almost in our faces but the umbrella still protected me. Then - disaster. The wind turned even more, suddenly, and roared into the front of the umbrella, and I could feel the box rocking. 

I prepare for take-off
I looked round to see Mike on 6 holding on to the side of his umbrella for all he was worth. I did the same and obviously now had to try to take it down. But that wasn't easy. In a slight lull I jumped up (OK crawled around my building site) and grabbed the bankstick, which I still had to unscrew from the storm guide. With wet hands it was a bit hairy, and I could see the right hand side of the box lifting off the ground.

That could have been me, soaring high.

I had visions of  suddenly being hoisted up, Mary Poppins style, and being whisked over some surprised anglers fishing in a JV match behind us on Elm and Cedar lakes.

Now I could see the umbrella pole was bent over at about 30 degrees. Wet hands meant I took ages unscrewing the bank stick and luckily the umbrella pole had bent so much that the guy ropes had loosened and I was able to lift it up and collapse it, still with my feet on the ground! Mike and Kevin managed it as well, but Mike said he was going to pack up.

A sensible idea
The rain had pretty much stopped, but Mike's not in the best of health after his stroke, and I thought that was a sensible suggestion. If the rain came again we would have no protection except our waterproofs. In fact it did rain eventually, but only lightly, and I carried on fishing.

Going long, on cat meat on a 1 gm rig (the wind had died down a little and the float sat up beautifully), saw the occasional fish come in, and they were mirror carp, best just under 3 lb. Dave Garner seemed to be getting bigger fish than that and was catching me up. And soon lots of splashing cam from peg 5 - Kevin Lee was getting some good fish over 4 lb, and that carried on to the end of the match. I thought I'd perhaps got just over 60 lb.

Roy Whitwell fished feeder and pole
 on peg 1, weighing in 93 lb 4 oz.

The weigh in
Roy had found fish on peg 1 - over by 6 lb in one net he still weighed 93 lb 4 oz. Martin Parker had 65 lb 14 oz, and then the piece de resistance - Kevin Lee's 120 lb 4 oz; what a catch on a terrible day, and he had several fish over 4 lb in that last spell - fish I couldn't find. Well done, Kevin (not for the first time). His shallow-water fish came on paste and the deep-water fish on cat meat.

Kevin had some lumps from the
deep water.

Mike Rawson had obviously gone home, and would miss the end-of-season presentations after the match. Then I took my two nets to the scales - 64 lb 8 oz, down in fourth place. And to my surprise that was where I remained, with Callum on the end finishing with just 51 lb 11 oz, so I ended fourth, winning just my section, with the first three pegs dominating. And Kevin won the cup.

Marks out of ten
I should have gone long earlier, but when you're putting occasional fish in your net, and you get the feeling that most of the others are stuggling, what do you do? Probably should have tried the feeder, as some fish were caught on it. But in those conditions the tempation is to avoid getting up in the rain and pulling out your rod. Worth 7/10.

Next match was the next day with Spratts on Oak.

THE RESULTS

Ten of us fished. Mike had sensibly departed. Now to the presentations...

It's cup final day!

Ready for the presentation. L-R:  Big fish shield; Bedford Cup
 (presented by the Odd Fellows); Club Cup;
The Championship Cup; plus the three handicap medals.

Sartorial elegance in practice! As chairman
I prepare to hand over the main
Championship Trophy to Kevin.

For the first time ever the four main trophies went to one man - our treasurer Kevin Lee. What a season he has had. His biggest fish was 16 lb 9 oz. Here is the final result: (we give 15 points to the winner, 14 for second etc):

 

The handicap medals went to Martin Parker (1st); Mel Lutkin (2nd) and Dick Warrener (3rd). Well done all.

And come April we start to do it all over again.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Peg 16, Oak, Monday, Oct 21

Oh dear. My name was first out of the bag in this 15-entry Spratts match, followed by "Sixteen", in the corner, which is one of my bogey pegs. I was not happy, and I might even have had a moan or two(!), because I have unhappy memories of sitting on 16 in a three-day Telford Festival, a few years ago, and coming last on the lake. My frustration was only partly diminished when the angler who had won the lake drew 16 the next day...and he also finished last. I've drawn it two or three times since then and always ended up unhappy. 😞

As I loaded my trolley I remembered there are sturdy reeds on the left which stop you fishing along the bank there, a bumpy margin, and a steep drop-off a few metres out, while the reeds on the end bank flop over and stop you fishing close to them. Definitely a bogey.

A revelation!

Then - a revelation as I started the walk to peg 16! Of course, Oak has since had the margins cleared out and the banks reinforced with tin. And so far this season I've had some good weights fishing near the 'tins'. I'd forgotten that. And when I got to my peg I was actually happy - a nice bunch of reeds to my right, and a spare platform on my left which I could fish to.

A nice-looking corner peg - wouldn't you agree?

The wind was down the lake, towards my corner, and slightly into my face - a good sign. Actually it was getting a little stronger and it was cool, and with the sun so low it would have been difficult to fish to that platform, so I never did. And I started out at a modest 2+1, in the deep water, in front, around six feet, with the depth anything up to a foot less as I plumbed out.

Into the deeps

That deep swim, fished with expander, yielded nothing, and neither did a switch to corn. Opposite me, Bob Walker on 15 had an early fish on feeder, and I watched as his next cast went to the end bank. Soon after, I turned to the bunch of reeds, fishing just beyond it,  where there was a hard bottom in about four feet of water.

The wind started blowing harder, and when my float disappeared momentarily under a wave I dismissed the idea I might have had a bite. When it happened again I was on full alert. And then it disappeared and didn't re-appear. The culprit was an 8 lb mirror!

Foulhooked

Immediately I put in a few grains of corn and went out to the deepwater swim in front of me on corn, where I hooked a fish which stretched the 17 hollow elastic out so far, and so brutally that I knew it was foulhooked. Several minutes later it was still foulhooked, and I never looked like landing it. Then the 6 lb hooklength broke. But at least I knew the fish would come in there.

Bob Walker, opposite on 15, plays one of his fish, taken from the margins. The wind was cool, and we never had sun all day - good conditions for the time of year.

Soon after losing that fish, I hooked a fish in the reed swim which immediately snagged me in the reeds, though I managed to recover the whole rig. Presumably foulhooked. Meanwhile Bob Walker had had two or three good carp fishing to his right, against the 'tins'.

First cast...

My first drop into the left margin, about a metres from the edge, saw a bite within seconds, which turned out to be a fin-perfect common carp about 10 lb. And from then on I alternated between the three swims, taking a couple more good carp from the right margin swim, on mussel, with Bob opposite also having one or two more.

In the last hour I went out to the longer swim, and found fish there, also on mussel, taking two, the first of which was a 3 lb F1. Once I had a bite on mussel, struck gently (as I do) and the bait was gone. So a fish must have taken it very tentatively, and I guessed that probably not many of the other anglers had been bagging. The wind was now quite cold. 

I think I had another two from the  deep left margin, and also saw a fish turn right against the tins. But when I tried fishing that shallower swim I never had a touch. So I finished with seven carp, for about 50 lb, having briefly lost two more foulhooked.

One of my old schoolmates, Mick
Ramm, included a big old 'double'
 in his 20 lb 4 oz catch.

The weigh in

I didn't get to see Bob Walker weigh in, but I wasn't surprised when I was told he was leading. I had seen him hook nine fish, but he told me he had lost one of those, finishing with eight for 74 lb 9 oz. My seven went 49 lb 15 oz, which put me into third place (just 4 oz ahead of Dick Warrener). And nobody else on my bank beat me, so I ended third. I was happy with that.

Another old mate, Martin Parker, 
was fifth with 43 lb 5 oz.

Marks out of ten

There are always difficult decisions to make, aren't there? Afterwards I found that several fish had been taken on a feeder. But I had decided, in that swim, to stick to pole, which is my strength. Even so, I know I should have taken the feeder rod out of the bag to try the occasional cast, even if just to rest my pole swims.

We weighed Neil Paas' best fish at
14 lb 3 oz, taken from peg 28.

Trouble is it takes longer to pack up, as I always have several pole rigs ready - one for each swim and a couple of spares.  And, yet again, I didn't try paste at all, even though I had it ready to use. Nor did I try hard pellet. However, top on my bank wasn't too bad - good carp were taken all along the lake, so it's not as if all the fish were down at our end. I award myself 8/10, because apart from not trying other baits I made no obvious mistakes that I could think of.

Next match Sunday - my first of the Winter with JV club - is on Willows. I'd be happy with 1, or from 15 to 24. Peg 25 can be a flier, but it can be difficult. The nice thing about JV is that I'm not always last to pack away. 😁

THE RESULT

East bank                                                   West bank

30 John Garner       27 lb 8 oz        

28 Neil Paas           39 lb 12 oz                    3 Peter Harrison       39 lb 3 oz

26 Shaun Buddle    33 lb                              5 Peter Spriggs        22 lb 1 oz

24 Martin Parker    43 lb 5 oz        5th        7 Trevor Cousins      33 lb 5 oz

22 Mick Ramm        20 lb 4 oz                    9 Bob Barrett            DNW

20 Dick Warrener    49 lb 11 oz     4th        11 Roy Whitwell,    61 lb 10 oz  2nd

18 Mike Rawson    DNW                            13 Dave Hobbs        DNW

16 Mac Campbell    49 lb 15 oz    3rd        15 Bob Walker        74 lb 9 oz     1st

Scraping the barrrel on Horseshoe, Decoy

 First, apologies for the lateness of this blog - a two-day attack of Vertigo has been the culprit. Anyone know how to stop them? It was my second in less than three months.

Now, a late-late result from the Spratts match that took place on Yew on Oct 3.

Peter Harrison won from peg 14 with 92 lb 11 oz of carp to 9 lb taken close in; Second was Peter Spriggs, peg 24, with carp to 8 lb and barbel to 5 lb from the margins. Third was Dave Hobbs, peg 5, with 53 lb 5 oz of carp to 11 lb on meat and mussels.

RESULT

East bank                                                West bank

                                                                            1 Bob Walker        21 lb 3 oz
28 Bob Barrett        DNW                                   3 Roy Whitwell      18 lb 14 oz
26 Mick Ramm       3 lb 1 oz                              5 Trevor Cousins    40 lb 14 oz
24 Peter Spriggs     66 lb 13 oz          2nd           6 Shaun Buddle      30 lb 8 oz 
22 John Garner     28 lb 11 oz                             8 Bob Allen            DNW

20 Neil Paas        52 lb 1 oz                 4th         10 Dick Warrener    5 lb 10 oz 

18 Dave Hobbs    53 lb 5 oz                3rd         12 Mike Rawson    DNW

                                                                            14 Peter Harrison   92 lb 11 oz    1st  

NOTE:       John Garner won £1 from Bob Allen!  

  

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Peg 19, Horseshoe, Saturday, Oct 12

Ten of us were on Horseshoe for this penultimate Fenland Rods match of the season, and I didn't really fancy peg 19, as I've seen, in the past, some JV Winter match results on Horseshoe where these high-numbered pegs have seen really good anglers blow out. Still, it's not Winter yet, although we've had some cold nights, so I was (as always) hopeful.

Now this won't take long. The Decoy team have been working on this swim, having taken out a load of the lillies which grew so profusely earlier on, and the swim looked quite nice. There were very tall reeds immediately to the right, which gave me some shelter from the wind, and the rain which fell later. 

A slow start

To the left there were still some small patches of lillies, and I reckoned that fish would be hanging around them, close to the margin somewhere, However, I started out at about eight metres, with corn, just over a sparse line of lillies, but to my surprise I never had even a liner.

Suddenly, after about half an hour I fancied I saw a flash in the left margin, and came in there, on a top two, with corn, using my special method, which usually tells me if there are fish about. Sure enough I had a small touch, then a proper bite, and a good fish was on. But almost immediately it had run into lillies, close to the bank, and I was stuck fast.

Reeds to the right, lillies just beyond, and a small patch of them in
the bottom of the dark reflection, just above the marginal grass to
the left. The wind got up, and it rained, but all-round it wasn't too bad.

I was able, easily, to reach the lillies with my long landing net handle with a hook on the end, I dug the hook down, found the lilly stem, twisted the hook round it, and brought everything back - except the fish. Determined not to have that happen again I changed from the 17 elastic to a stronger one, and pulled out about ten inches of elastic from the puller bung, and tied a temporary loop. Now the elastic was very tight.

Another one lost

Half an hour later I had another bite, and this fish, instead of moving straight out, went straight across the swim, pulling me with it. I hadn't time to fix the Number three section, and even if I had I'm not sure it would have done any good. Because there were lillies only a few feet to the right I held the fish hard, and the hook pulled out.

Seconds after I walked over to Roy Whitwell's
swim he was playing a carp on his feeder rod.

Behind me Roy Whitwell was on peg 1, which I like, and  I immediately had a walk over to him, in time to see his feeder rod pulled right round, and him land a carp of about 4 lb. He said he had about 12 lb to 14 lb, and that Kevin Lee, on peg 10, had landed several carp, but almost everyone else seemed to be struggling. Before going back to my swim I walked up to Dave Garner on 17, and he hadn't had a bite, and said that Mel Lutkin on 15 hadn't had anything, either.

Yes - that one was safely landed.

Back to my swim, fairly heavy rain started, and after another fruitless look in the original long swim, next to lillies, I went out into open water in front of me. In the next couple of hours I managed to hook three carp in that swim. The first was coming in nicely but I started to break down too early, and as I lowered the pole the fish shot into that bed of lillies to my right and pulled off.

A fish!!!

Next drop and another fish was on, but I knew it was foulhooked. However, it ended in my net - a little less than 3 lb. Half an hour later I had changed to maggot and a fish hooked itself, obviously a carp. The elastic stretched to the right as the fish charged down the centre of the lake, and I thought I now had a chance of landing another. No - the hook pulled out!!!

But as this fish had taken maggot I decided to put in a few more, and stick to maggot until the last few minutes. So in went some more and I wandered up to Dave Garner again. Again, he said he'd not had a bite, but Mel on 15 had a carp. Now we fish three-man and four-man sections in this club, so I decided to fish for my three-man section. On maggot. And around this time the rain stopped.

Small roach and bream

That worked after a fashion, and some small roach and three small bream, best 10 oz, came in, though several roach dropped off. I was still using  a 13 elastic - far too strong for the roach, but I thought I would have a chance of landing a carp provided it wan't foulhooked (which I now began to suspect all the others had been).

A few minutes from the end I went back into the margin, saw one swirl, but never had a touch. And that was my day done.

                                                     The weigh in

Kevin was the obvious winner with 
68 lb of carp, F1s and carassio...

Roy on peg 1 eventually moved from his near margin to a little cut-out in the bank a section farther away, where he found two feet of extra water! And that was where he took the bulk of his  49 lb 2 oz. Next door Martin Parker included a carp around 12 lb in his 14 lb 3 oz.

I caught up with the scales in time to see Kevin Lee weigh in his winning 68 lb, which included a pike about 6 lb. Horseshoe occasionally produces the odd pike - a 17-pounder came out a few years ago landed, I think, by Tony Evans.

...and a surprise 6 lb pike!

On peg 11, next door, Mike Rawson had 18 lb 4 oz for fourth place, only 3 oz from third-placed Dave Hobbs, who had weighed in 18 lb 7 oz from peg 5. Then the scales came to my section of three, the last to weigh.

My section

Mel Lutkin still had just the one carp, 2 lb 14 oz. Dave Garner had had just one bite, 20 minutes from the end, from a carp of 4 lb 7 oz on half a mussel. Finally, my decision to fish for the section paid off when I weighed in 6 lb 3 oz for the section win. Without those small maggot fish I wouldn't have won anything. And the winner was Kevin Lee, who was on the fourth Golden Peg. Four were drawn at the start - three at our £50 cap and the last at £27, which is what Kev won. Well done, Kev.

Mike Rawson was fourth with 18 lb 4 oz.

Marks out of ten

I have to assume, realistically, that the pegs we were in, on the South bank, weren't holding many feeding fish. And at least I'd hooked five carp, though they might have all been foulhooked. So since the decision to stick to maggot in the open water had produced at least a small brown envelope, I give myself 7/10. Not sure what else I could have done.

Pike

Mike Rawson said it was the first match he'd fished in which pike counted. But after I got home I sat and thought about it, and remember coming second in an East Midland Winter League match on the Forty Foot with the help of a 3 lb pike. So they must have counted  at some time, though under the very early NFA rules pike definitely did not count. Mind you, neither did eels, catapults were banned, and you weren't allowed to even break the surface of the water in front of you before the start of the match! How ridiculous.

Next match the Les Bedford Memorial on Damson, Decoy, on Sunday. I won it last year, and I've been sorting out the appropriate rigs, though rain is forecast for most of the day. 

THE RESULT