Handicap match on Crow is another good'un

Peg 18, Crow, Pidley
Our Fenland Rods annual handicap  was again on Crow, at Rookery Fishery, with 14 taking part and the handicaps based on last season's overall Championship positions. That meant that Roy Whitwell was fishing from scratch, as did the guests, and the club members adding 10% per position behind him. All our members just love fishing this lake - great bank platforms and easy access.

Deciding tactics before the match - Three Wise Monkeys plus one angler!

Yet again I found myself next (with a gap) to Roy Whitwell, and he found himself next to me (!) There was a bit of a wind on, right to left, and I wasn't sure whether a long pole would be possible. In any case I had decided to start on a feeder while dropping small cubes of luncheon meat just into the deeper water of 3 ft-plus out at about five metres.

        A beautiful left margin.        

I had a fish on within five minutes, but it came off; and Roy had the same thing happened just afterwards. In the next hour I managed one F1, but I saw Roy's rod bending several times - he told me aftewards that he lost several of those. 

So onto the pole line, and I was surprised not to get bites immediately. In fact it took me the next two hours to land just six F1s, including one when I added a couple of sections of pole and went onto a line I hadn't baited. That should have given me an inkling that the fish were tending to stay well out (but the inkle didn't reach my brain). I hadn't seen much action as I peered along the lake from time to time, so I ploughed on.

A nice right margin which I neglected to
  try until the last 20 minutes of the match.  

Switch
A quick switch back to feeder saw an F1 from a spot right against the far-bank reeds, but no more. Yet Roy was getting the occasional fish there. He is just so accurate with his casting.

 Sport on the five-metre line picked up a little, and a look into the margins with 90 minutes to go saw my first proper carp, about 5 lb, on cat meat. The fish were stirring up the bottom, but for every one I hooked (which wasn't many), I lost two foulhooked.

Stupid!
I left the right margin until the last few minutes, which was stupid, as I hooked two fish there immediately, though both were foulhooked and while one came off the other broke my 7 lb hooklength. I an sure that if I had gone there earlier I would have had several of the better fish. As it was I think I landed just two from there.

I had had perhaps four to 8 lb from the left margin, but lost at least that number foulhooked, and by the end I thought I had possibly 60 lb. Roy had had a really good last hour in the margins on his pole.

The weigh in
No catch pictures as I was concentrating on working out the handicaps as I followed the scales. I convert the weights to decimals of 1 lb as it's quicker to work out the handicap figures accurately.

I was surprised how low the weights were compared with what we usually get here. Last year I had 157 lb and didn't win. Mel Lutkin had 92 lb, taken well out, while Kevin Lee won the match with 108 lb 11 oz, all taken on mussel on a long pole apart from two on the feeder. At that moment I realised I would probably have done better to have fished farther out for longer, and to start feeding there properly.

I ended with 66 lb 2 oz - fifth in the match. It was noticeable that the bigger fish came from towards the higher numbers. But afterwards I found out that hardly anyone apart from Roy and myself had managed much from the margins. I ended seventh in the handicap.

Marks out of ten. 
Worth only 5, because of the basic errors of not looking farther out for longer, and not looking in both margins earlier. It was a lovely swim, with great margins both sides, and I should have won from there, I am sure.

THE RESULT

Yet again Mel Lutkin  was in the top three. He has a terrific 

set of results in this match over the years. Well done again, Mel.

Mel Lutkin

The Wizard
Roy Whitwell

Kevin Lee

Note: the weight in the Points column is the final handicap weight (in decimals of 1 lb). 

This determines the result of the medal placings.

Fish, and a miracle, at Beastie

Peg 13, Beastie, Decoy
Peg 13 can be a cracking swim, although last time I fished there I didn't do very well. After that match I read that Ben Townsend had had a lot of big fish on a feeder casting towards peg 8, which was unoccupied, as it was this day as wll. So I set up a feeder as well as the pole in this 13-entry Spratts match..

There was no ripple, while the swims on the other side of the spit had a good ripple. I started out at about 10 metres with corn, using my short top, and had a small F1. A look in the lovely-looking deep margin to my left didn't even get me a bite, so I moved to the shallow margin just to my right much earlier than I had intended to.

Swirling in my margin
I'd put in casters and hemp, and now I saw fish swirling somewhere beneath the surface. It's only two feet deep here, and I've had good catches in that shallow spot before. It didn't take long before a six-pounder was in the net on a short top, short number 3, and my number 4. Then I had a lot of liners, so got up to get another top out of my holdall, to use with one of my special rigs, which I was convinced would get fish.

Flat calm, so I was amazed when fish came into the shallows.

I sat down, attached the rig, put in the short Number three, and looked for my Number Four. Gone. It had been laying beside the platform when I got up, but it was now definitely gone, and I'd not got another with me. In fact I wasn't sure whether I had a spare at home.

A horrible feeling
Two years ago I spent hours and hours scanning the intrnet for spares for my Browning Xitan Z9, and especially the Number 4, without any success. I bought a whole second-hand pole off John Pratt in the end, which had hardly been used, to ensure I had spares. But I know I had broken a Number 4  since then, and had a horrible feeling I'd not been able to get it mended. So I was in deep mire.

I walked back to the van, over the bridge, and got my long hook. I spent half an hour using this trying to locate the section, but couldn't feel it. Kevin Lee came over for ten minutes and had a go, but he couldn't find it either. And by then I guess we had scared all the fish away. I decided to go home, as fishing for big carp with  tiny short tops seemed stupid. But I had a long Number three with me.

I decide to stay
Then I thought that in fact the short top with Matrix 18-20 elastic was probably my best bet for landing big carp anyway, and I hadn't tried feeder yet. So I decided to stay.

The feeder plopped out nicely just in front on peg 8, but in the next half-hour I never had even a liner. So it was back to my short top and long Number three, and the match was half over. That set-up enabled me to go to the deep lefthand margin, and first drop I had a 4 lb bream which hurtled out of the water when hooked. As they do. And eventually I saw swirls again in the shallow right margin.

My special rig
There I out out my special rig with corn over hemp and casters, and started to catch good carp, from 5 lb upwards. A couple of eight-pounders also came in, though two or three more came off because I just couldn't follow them out; they may have been foulhooked. I played one for a fair time only to see it pull off near the net. But generally I was landing fish hooked in the mouth in 40 to 50 seconds, thanks to the short top.

I think I may have overfed a little, as I was waiting for a long time for bites, even though I knew the fish were down there. I had one or two on cat meat, but none on mussel; I had an idea that a mussel was too big for them on this occasion.

The very last carp was the biggest at about 10 lb and this was in my landing net inside 30 seconds, just before the match ended. I heard some splashing from Kevin Lee's peg 15 and assumed that he would beat me; the rest I knew nothing about. I had clicked 37 lb for both my nets.

    Kevin Lee included this cracking    
 common carp in his 63 lb 8 oz.

The weigh in
The weights in the early numbers were much lower than  I had imagined, with Neil Paas leading with 52 lb. My first 37 lb net went about 49 lb, and the second about 43 lb; total 92 lb 12 oz, which was leading. Kevin hadn't beaten me after all - he had 63 lb 8 oz. But in the 20s two catches eclipsed mine - Peter Harrison on 23 had 99 lb 12 oz, and Roy Whitwell on 29 won with 102 lb, with several taken on a pole to the left point of the reeds. So I ended third, which slightly helped eclipse the loss of my section.

Marks out of ten

I was kicking myself, because I'd lost well over an hour because of the lost section. But I obviously made a decent job of the second half, using what I had pretty well. The one thing I should have done was to fish casters shallow in that right margin, as I am sure I would have snared one or two more carp. So I give myself 8/10. And I still can't work out how I managed to knock the section in. There was not much wind, and it wasn't pointing downwards. 

John Garner. He's the man who
takes my picture for me
when I catch something
worth photographing!

Bob Barrett with two friends
from peg 18, against the
bridge going over
to the famous spit.

Peter Harrison picks out his third net.
This was before he performed his miracle!

A miracle
I'd followed the scales round, took some pictures, and still had to go back to pick up my nets which were drying on the bank. Then Peter Harrison drove past and stopped, asking me whether I would like him to try to find my section with his rake. Would I like it? Is the Pope Roman Catholic?

He came down, threw out the rake and brought in an old tin can and a long piece of wood from a tree. Second throw he brought in another tin can and another piece of a tree.

Third throw, well out, and he brought in...my section! I couldn't believe it. Suddenly I went from despondent to ecstatic. Thanks. Peter. I ought to get one of those double sided rakes myself; better still, don't lose a section! It was The Miracle At Beastie!

Next match on Crow at Pidley in our Fenland Rods Handicap. I was third in our Championship last season so I add on 20%. I love Crow, and will use luncheon meat as usual. 

The winner, Roy Whitwell.

THE RESULT

3 Neil Paas                52 lb 2 oz

4 Mike Rawson         19 lb 9 oz
5 Trevor Cousins        42 lb 7 oz
13 Mac Campbell      92 lb 12 oz   3rd
15 Kevin Lee             63 lb 8 oz
17 Mick Ramm            4 lb 14 oz
18 Bob Barrett           68 lb 4 oz     4th
20 Peter Spriggs         64 lb 5 oz
22 Dick Warrener       48 lb 9 oz
23 Peter Harrison       99 lb 12oz   2nd
24 Graham Ward          4 lb 8 oz
29 Roy Whitwell      102 lb            1st
30 John Garner           42 lb 12 oz

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    

A match to forget in the sun on Lou's lake.

Peg 1, Lou's
Fenland Rods match on Lou's lake, fished by 12 with pegs 7 and 15 left out. I didn't fancy my peg 1, because there are no nice marginal reeds. The day was hot, and our end had hardly any ripple. I fished for five hours and 20 minutes, catching about 20 tiny roach and perch out at 11 metres, in two feet of water, on maggot.

Hot and airless. And no raspberry ripple. 😒

I kept going out to the end bank with meat, corn or pellet, but never saw a sign of carp, though the occasional one was splashing way over to my right towards corner peg 6. Beside me Mike Rawson had the other peg I didn't want, but he managed a carp on a feeder halfway through, and I think ke had another after that.

Mike Rawson lands a carp on feeder. I tried it and never had even a liner. 😒

Big carp kept rolling about in the mud in my right margin, in about eight inches of water, and it looked as if they were actually scooping it up. I couldn't make out what they were doing - Peter Spriggs told me the next day they were almost certainly eating bloodworm, which I hadn't thought of. Anyway, I had tried for ages to get a bite there, but didn't. To our right Dick Warrener had half-a-dozen carp, and I saw a fish or two being landed to his right.

Then, with 40 minutes left, a fish stirred up the mud in my left margin, which was only inches deep, and I put a grain of corn a little farther out into about a foot of water. First drop and a 5 lb carp took it. Success. In the next 30 minutes I took two more; my fish weighed 16 lb for almost last. A match to forget, won by Roy Whitwell on peg 14, taken mainly on the pole, and his 85 lb 14 oz was way ahead of everyone else. Well done, Roy.

I am sure the fish wanted some sort of thick cover above them to have enough confidence to feed in the margins, Even so I was surprised I couldn't get any carp towards the end bank, where there were sparse reeds, and I kept trying in about 18 inches of water; the margins there were only inches deep and I never saw any movement there.

THE RESULT

Catching up on Elm

Peg 11, Elm
I'm moving around the country more slowly now, but it's not my age (or at least it's not mainly my age). It used to take me 31 minutes to get from my house to Decoy; now it takes 50 minutes-plus. I feel guilty about the fact that my little van is spewing out pollution for 20 minutes more, but it's the fault of the local councils and various governments who wish to control our movements (literally).

Lt Gruber had a little tank. I have
a little van!

You see, my little village of Wyton is now a 20 mph area, so it takes me longer to get on to the main road, which is now a 40 mph area instead of the original 60 mph. Now, because of roadworks, I have to make a four-mile detour, and travel through the little villages of Bury and Ramsey in my little van, and there's a stretch of almost 2 miles which is now a 20 mph area, which I chug through in second gear. Then I whizz through Ramey Mereside at a startling 30 mph, avoiding the various assorted speed controllers, up to the railway crossing which is the start of another 20 mph section into Whittlesey. 

And when the schools are in residence it's another few minutes waiting for the children to cross the road, which I admit they do in a very orderly fashion; I'm sure we were never as well behaved at my school. But I never saw skirts that short at my school. Perhaps that's because it was an all-boys place. Though there were some funny lads there!

Back to the roadworks, which are because of, err, well, potholes and ordinary holes. I'm told that one reason (apart from the Fenland silt) is that the original tarmac applied when I were a boy, was hard, and water accumulated on its surface, and froze in the winter, causing accidents. Modern tarmac is porous (and cheaper), so the water seeps down, leaving the surface drier. BUT the experts who suggested its use didn't know (or care) that when that water inside the tarmac froze, it cracked the road. And it always will!! So my little van will continue to pollute for longer that it used to. That's progress.

My right margin looked very nice.

The match
And so to the  Fenland Rods match on Elm., where yet again I drew next to Roy Whitwell, who will be pleased to note that he has been given back his original name. I have the power, in this blog, to change names and ages at will, and have frequently been known to do so, with no lasting harm to the persons involved.

Anyway, before the match started I plumbed up, which always takes me at least 15 minutes. And when I dropped the rig down into the right margin, next to my platform, I felt it hit fish! A good sign, wouldn't you say? So that was where I started, on corn, and within minutes a 5 lb common carp lay in my little landing net. But no more followed, so I switched to feeder.

While I was doing that, Roy Wizard waved his magic feeder rod and within an hour or two had four carp, while I took just one, right across next to the far-bank reeds. Meanwhile Callum on my right had two or three, and I was behind.

It's disconcerting when Roy starts doing this early in the match!

A change was called for, so I baited two swims very lightly with hemp and casters - the right margin, and the deeper water a few metres away, also to thge right. I'd plumbed up the left margin and actually had a knock or two there, but the bank was bare, giving the fish no cover, and I never looked there again.

Switching carefully  between those two swims saw an occasional nice carp some to me, first on casters and then on corn, and the last couple of hours were best. And I didn't lose many fish, which was pleasing. In that time I had a patch where about three carp over 8 lb in 20 minutes, which was a nice end to the match. But Roy had kept catching carp on a feeder, and I guessed he had a lot more than me, while he said I had beaten him.

Dave Garner waved his little
 waggler and picked up
 63 lb 1 oz of these little beauties.

The weigh in
Mark Ramm, guesting with us this season,  had weighed in 83 lb 12 oz from peg 1, which was not fancied at all. I think he took several on feeder. That led the field down to me, with Callum lying in second place with     76 lb 4 oz. 

My nets went 100 lb 5 oz, and when Roy weighed I saw that his fish were, on average, a fair bit smaller than mine, which was why I thought he had cbeaten me. He totalled 77 lb 4 oz, leaving me as the winner and Mark second.

Marks out of ten

 I thought that this was one of my better matches, thought a glance st the result suggests I was near the best end. Nevertheless I give myself 8/10, and it gave me a lot of confidence in my hemp and caster feed. Next match on Lou's where, with the water level low, I wanted any peg except 1 and 2, where the margins are decidedly dodgy compared with the others, which have a lining of dense reeds.

THE RESULT

I work hard on Damson

Peg 12, Damson, Fri, Aug 15
This was a Spratts match, held on pegs 5 to 12 of Damson, and as usual Trevor did the draw. When Roy Whitfield's name came out it was followed by "Eleven". Now that's a good draw - there's a bush to the left, which has been trimmed down, and when it was much bigger fish would always be under it. There's a shallow spot next to the bank, and round that there's a deeper area which always seems to hold fish.

Me moan? Never.
I must have let out a groan when the swim went to Roy, because when my name came out Trevor asked me where I'd like to be drawn. I said "Ten" because that's the nearest swim to that little bush. But number 12 came out. Now what's the point of asking where I'd like to be drawn if I don't get it? It's like my wife asking me what we should do now, and I tell her...and again I never get it!

This was one of those days forecasted to be ultra-hot, but it didn't feel particularly hot to me, especially with a slight breeze into our faces.

Casters shallow it is
Damson always holds fish somewhere in the swim for some of the time (though today I had seen only one fish, while usually there are lots showing themselves before the match), and I had casters with me, so casters shallow it would be.

Ben Townsend started me off on Damson when I fished casters shallow with him earlier in the month, and we had so many fish in the first 45 minutes that I suggested we move. He assured me it would work on all swims on Damson and indeed I nearly always start off fishing a pellet shallow and usually get a fish or two straightaway. 

One tiny roach (almost)
Not today I didn't. I stuck with casters for about 20 minutes, with just one tiny roach on banded caster, and that fell off! Meanwhile Roy on my left had fish on a pole so I changed to corn down the side. Eventually I had a fish, a 1 lb F1, and I think Roy had hd seven or eight, and he then went on to his favourite feeder, cast to the island. I'd left my rods in the van, but I had no island to cast to in any case, so I blundered on.

Slowly I found F1s and then carp on corn, while feeding hemp and caster, but I had to come very close to the bank to get a bite, in my left margin. Of course I also went into the right margin, but waving reeds made it difficult to see every little knock on the float, and I'd left my hook in the van as well. No matter, I managed to knock some of the reeds down, out of my eyeline, and started to catch very slowly on both sides, mainly carp of 2 lb-plus.

There was a lot of splashing to my left as Roy found fish on the feeder.

Fish to 7 lb
I trundled on because I was catching the occasional fish of 4 lb-plus, with the best at 7 lb. I saw that John Smith on my right on peg 13, was catching good fish from the deep water. I'd got a rig ready for that, but carried on in the margin. Roy then had a purple spell on the feeder, hooking fish after fish within seconds of casting out. I should have gone out into the deep water at that point, but I only went out there in the last hour, by which time even John was catching hardly anything. Roy also started to catch a few by dropping his feeder down into the shallow margin.

My original rig didn't seem right so I put on a heavier float for the deep swim and managed to get just three or four carp on cat meat in that last hour. I don't think John  had any in that last hour. I guessed Roy had  twice as many fish as me, almost 200 lb; while I had something over 90 lb in my three nets.

The weigh in
The weights started in the 50s and 60s with Neil Paas totalling 105 lb 10 oz from peg 9. I'd seen Neil catching a lot of fish towards the end when I couldn't get a bite, as had Kevin next to him, so I was certain I was well down the list. 

Neil Paas sees his fish being weighed,
pen in hand. John Smith watches.

Kevin's four nets went 141 lb 10 oz to take the lead, and then Roy weighed in. His first net went  25lb, his next was 56 lb,  knocked back to 50 lb under Spratts' rules. Then disaster! His third net went just over 60 lb, and it was disqualified; his final total was 75 lb. And as he'd weighed in he told me that most of his fish were F1s, and not as big as I'd imagined, partly because this year the F1s are fighting so hard.

My three nets went approximately 34 lb,  44 lb and 27 lb, giving me a total of 107 lb 3 oz, and putting me a very surprised second with just John to weigh in corner peg 13. He said he'd had trouble losing fish, and rigs, in the reeds, but his total of 156 lb 10 oz won the match. Well done, John, who is almost (not quite) the oldest man there. He is pipped by myself, and Mick Ramm, who is just months older than me. 

So I ended third, which should have been fourth.  Roy would have been second (by ounces), but life's full of woulds and shoulds, isn't it?

The lower numbers seemed to have a lot of F1s in their nets, while myself and John had a lot more mirrors and commons. I put mine down to using hemp and caster, but perhaps the carp were just more concentrated towards our end.

Marks out of ten
I deliberately left my rods in the van because I took my hardcase containing my short kits. I would probably have tried a feeder in the side if I'd had a rod set up, but it's so easy to confuse one's self, and I used about five different pole rigs anyway. I'd always intended to concentrate on the pole shallow, which is why I left the rods behind. The bottom line is I enjoyed it, and third place in that club is pretty good, so I give myself 7/10. Next match was the next day on Elm.

THE RESULT

5 John Garner            50 lb 8 oz
6 Trevor Cousins        66 lb 3 oz
7 Bob Barrett              32 lb 4 oz
8 Mick Ramm            35 lb 14 oz
9 Neil Paas               105 lb 10 oz
10 Kevin Lee            141 lb 10 oz        2nd
11 Roy Whitfield        75 lb
12 Mac Campbell    107 lb 3 oz           3rd
13 John Smith          156 lb 10 oz        1st

 

And then there were six...

Peg 18, Phoenix, Float Fish Farm
This was Fenland Rods' first time on Phoenix, at Float Fish Farm, who were happy to let us have the whole lake. Many thanks. However, just eight signed up, and I got a message on the morning from Callum  that his wife was ill, so we were down to seven. Martin Parker turned up and had a funny turn, so the tackle shop got him a chair.

When I say a funny turn I don't mean like Tommy Cooper's funny turm ( Man: Doctor, I keep thinking I'm a pair of curtains. Doctor: Don't be silly. Pull yourself together). No, Martin definitely didn't tell any jokes. But he seemed to slowly get better and drove to his peg after the draw. Kevin Wilmot had given me the eight swims he thought would best suit us, but now we were fishing just 1, 5, 11, 18, 17, 20 and 31, with Martin on 31.

Fifteen minutes later I had a phone call from Martin's wife, Sheila, to say that Martin had rung her saying he again felt unwell. I went round and Martin was in his van at the wheel. After a conversation we decided that he was well enough to drive home, and I watched him drive away. A short time later he rang to say he was home, feeling a bit better. And then there were six of us...

The message from above
Someone had very kindly written"18 FLYER" on my platform. So at least I knew I was on the correct peg; some of the pegs on some of the lakes here seem to be missing, probably overgrown. But where should I fish?

Frankly  it would have been more helpful if the 'someone' had written something like: "Fish feeder with orange wafter within a metre iof the far bank to the right against the reeds, or fish the right margin with paste. In the last hour go to the reeds in the left margin" They would, or course, have to have written it very small to get it on the paving slab, of course, but I needed information, information. Only half a message; typical!

Thanks for nothing!

A cool wind

No matter. Conditions largely dictated my tactics. The cool wind was into me slightly from the right, and as 18 is in a corner it was very kindly blowing a little debris into my swim. It wasn't too bad when I got there, but as the wind picked up the debris started piling up. 

This won't take long. Fish were waving to me from the far bank, so I started on a feeder and for half an hour I had liners; then they stopped and I hooked a fish...which came off. After 90 minutes that was all I the action I had had so I wandered up to Frank on 27, who had two carp on a feeder from well short of the far bank. He said that Mark Ramm on 29 had had several fish on a pole. I went back to my nightmare.

It looked lovely before the start!

By now the left margin was really afloat with debris, but I had another half hour on the feeder, without a bite. I felt I had to try the pole so I went out to about four feet of water to the right, as there was scum close to the bank. Here there was a huge undertow, left to right, but I put on a 1 gm float and was able to hold back and in the next hour or so I had two or three small carp. 

Eventually I felt I had to try to the left, about ten feet from the bank to avoid the rubbish, but the undertow was so strong the float just whizzed back to me. I put the float up the line, and next cast was snagged; next cast I hooked a piece of carpet or something, covered in weed. Next cast snagged again. I gave that up.

Now I understood!
Then I realised that the undertow wasn't an undertow - it was the result of the spinner near peg 16 being on, and creating a big flow, like the Trent. That explained why rubbish was gathering next to the bank to my left, where the flow was less, but just under the surface I could see leaves in front of me flowing fast to the right. So it was into the right margin about  metre from the bank, as the scum there had cleared, where at last I found fish.

Casters the answer for me
Putting hemp and caster into two feet of water saw a nice final 90 minutes with four small barbel and a dozen carp, nearly all on a bunch of casters. Nice fishing. If I'd started there I might have been able to get somewhere near Roy Whitwell's winning 126 lb 7 oz from peg 11, taken on mainly bomb to the far bank mud after a slow start.  A day or two later Kevin told me that the hotspot in my swim was, indeed, in that left margin.

When the scum cleared I fished there and found fish.

Conclusion
I wouldn't hesitate to go back to Phoenix. It obviously holds fair numbers of fish after last year's problems  on some of their lakes, and the banks are nice, and the margins look good. If only I had been able to fish my left one! But that's fishing. Well done Roy, who had never fished there before. Mark Ramm was second, and I was third, winning my three-peg section by default. Better than nothing. Next match on Damson with Spratts.

THE RESULT

1 Allan Golightly           4 lb 6 oz
5 Stephen Thomson        DNW  (had a carp and a barbel)
11 Roy Whitwell        126 lb 7 oz         1st
18 Mac Campbell        41 lb 11 oz       
27 Frank Snow            17 lb 11 oz
29 Mark Ramm           68 lb                2nd