Leaqving it late on Cedar

Peg 2, Cedar, Sun, Oct 11
There was a cold wind blowing at the start of this Fenland Rods match, and some of the anglers preferred to fish back wind. Personally I would nearly always choose to fish the opposite bank of Yew lake, where the margins are better and the reed growth thicker. And especially if the ripple was over that side (which it was). But as chairman I made the decision to fish back wind; it's a club, and it's my job to satisfy as many people as I can.

That meant that we all set up with calm water in front of us, though most started on a feeder cast across into the ripple. With nothing coming on that, I ten went out into the shallowest water I could find at about 3 ft 6 in,  with a pole, as the wind was losing some of its bite, and I expected fish to be in shallower wateer. That, though, also yielded nothing. Pushing out the pole to 13 metres I found five feet of water...but still no bites.

I do an "Ivan Marks"
After a couple of hours, with nothing in my net, I did a walk along, and there were a very few fish caught towards the far end (the higher numbers). Dick Warrener was the nearest to me with a carp, on peg 5. I then managed to foulhook a four-pounder in my left margin, and that was all I had at the halfway point. 

As I walked back from the end peg Martin Parker hooked into his second fish.

Not huge, but very welcome on the day.

Fish in my swim!
It was not until well past two o'clock that I started getting touches on my Special method, so at least I knew that there were fish in the swim. In went some dead maggots and with four or five deads on the hook I managed to winkle out four more carp - two of them around 10 lb - before the end of the match, also losing two foulhooked.

And although that first fish had come from the left margin, which I kept looking in, all the rest came from the right, and all on dead maggots. Meat and mussel didn't get a touch, though I admit I didn't try them for long. And by the end the temperature had gone right up, so the opposite bank would have been very nice to fish, with a ripple.

To my right Callum had four late fish, and I thought that he had probably beaten me (I actually thought I saw him playing five - perhaps he lost one).

Nice to see a tench, caught by Callum.

The weigh in

The word from the anglers walking past me to their cars was that Mike Rawson had several big fish, with the first possibly near 20 lb. But Callum was first to weigh, and to my astonishment  had only 10 lb 3 oz, which included two small tench. I'd assumed his fish were all bigger than mine. My five fish went 31 lb 11 oz; Allan Golightly hadn't had a single fish; but Dick Warrener had 40 lb 6 oz, all taken on a feeder, mainloy in the second half. So I knew that unless he finished in the top three I hadn't won the four-peg section.

    Mel Lutkin on peg 7 caught a common    
we weighed at over 17 lb.

As I followed the scales it appeared that there were a few more fish willing to bite towards the far end, where the water seemed to be shallower. Mike hadn't got a fish near 20 lb, but weighed in 64 lb 7 oz, to lead at that point. However on end peg 14 Roy Whitwell beat him by the equivalent of one fish, taking 67 lb 1 oz to the scales for a very hard-earned win, taken on feeder early on and in the margins late.

  Mike Rawson had just eight carp on  
 pole for 64 lb 7 oz.

Several anglers took all, or almost all of their fish, in that last hour. And I suppose that's what will happen now, as temperatures fall. However, it was generally agreed that we would have caught more from the opposite bank.

Marks out of ten
Actually I felt I had winkled out as much as I could on a difiuclt day, so I give myself 9/10 because I didn't make any stupid mistakes. I didn't overfeed, and felt that I felt just enough to draw fish in without making them suspicious. Who knows?

THE RESULT

A big catchup

I'm a bit behind, lads. Partly due to my last fortnight being concentrated on my lung cancer radiation, which has gone according to plan. So here are the bare details of the matches I have missed:

Sept 25, Spratts match on Elm, Decoy.
Kevin Lee won with 153 lb 12 oz - meat at ten metres and them close in, with carp to 9 lb. Trevor Cousins was second with fish to 8 lb in the margins, also on cat meat, and Martin Parker was third with fish on bomb and pellet, followed by some in the margins.

THE RESULT

East bank                                                        West bank     

23 Bob Barrett          47 lb7 oz        4th       2 Martin Parker      60 lb 10 oz  3rd
21 Mick Ramm         12 lb 11 oz                4 John Garner          17 lb
19 Kevin Lee            153 lb 12 oz   1st      6  Graham Ward      12 lb 7 oz
17 Trevor Cousins      63 lb 5 oz    2nd      8 Dick Warrener     10 lb
15 Neil Paas               42 lb 1 oz                 10 John Smith         32 lb 14 oz
13 Mike Rawson        DNW                       12 Roy Whitwell     38 lb 14 oz

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Sept 27, Fenland Rods, Beastie (Rover)

I made this a rover, on pegs 1 to 18 because those pegs include the 17 on the spit, plus 18, all of which have fairly flat banks behind them; most of the other pegs on Beastie have steps down, and that cause difficulty for aome of our members (including me).

So I had decided to fish pegs 18, 2 or 14 if I had the chance - all pegs I have done well off, and nice platforms. I had a handicap, though - a bad right foot. I've had hot toes there for years, but suddenly the whole of the front of that foot started to hurt, and overnight my big toe swelled up, went red, and also hurt. Typical gout. I Googled it and found that radiation can exacerbate it, which is what I suspect happened. 

Any way, I hobbled about, walking stick in hand, and insisted the members come to me for the section pools. And while in the car park Tony Evans told me he had recently won off peg 7 on Beastie, and he told me where he fished. I know, however, that it's a bit of a climb down there - the last thing I needed with a dodgy foot.

So why, when I picked out peg 1 from the bag, giving me first choice, did I do something as stupid as a stupid Member of Parliament (of which there are many) with an Honours Degree in Stupidity at the University of Incompetence? I chose peg 7!

And yes, it was a nightmare getting down there and back up a dozen times as I assembled my gear. And no, it wasn't really worth it, as I ended with 39 lb 4 oz for eighth place out of ten. All I could catch were bream and the occasional F1 on corn, plus one 3 lb carp from the left margin, which was where Tony Evans had won his match. 

The wind was all wrong - a really stiff left to right, and it wasn't until 20 minutes from the end that I started to feel I was going to catch well. In that last 20 minutes Roy Whitwell on my left had three big carp and lost one, to completely overtake me. I had three or four late F1s and was playing a big fish when the match ended, only for it to snag me solid in the margin. I had to break the rig.

 Dick's 19 lb 5 oz carp - a fish to remember.

Dick Warrener has almost certainly won our club award for the biggest fish with a 19 lb 5 oz whopper he landed on peg 14. I took no pictures as that last fish put me behind packing up, and the gout slowed me right up packing away, and climbing up and down the bank, as you can imagine. My own fault - I could have had the pick of any of the pegs and undoubtedly picked the hardest one to navigate. Roy took a picture just of the big carp; thanks, Roy. 

Dave Garner won from peg 13, on the back of the spit with over 100 lb. It's not been the best of seasons for Dave, so I was delighted he won it, using his usual waggler tactics.

THE RESULT

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Sat, Sept 3, Fenland Rods on Horseshoe lake, Float Fish Farm

A depleted turn-out of six , partly due to the fact that the fishing is different to Decoy - not as many big fish, and generally smaller weights, and meat and mussel are not allowed (although I was told by local matchman that they do, in fact, use mussel there). It's not being able to use a big sinking bait to attract those big margin fish that has caused several to not come to this venue. Paste is a static bait, whereas often the better fish need the stimulant of a bait moved or twitched.

Halfway through the match Callum on
 peg 3 found a 5 lb carp in the margins.

However I don't mind the difference - more bites from smaller fish. I picked out peg 1, which is the 'flier'. There was no ripple, though - flat calm on the three pegs on our side of the lake. Hardly a fish was taken on feeder or bomb ( I never had a touch for nearly an hour), and I found the little carp, recently stocked, on a pole near the reeds on very small pieces of corn, and then on expander. 

A multi-coloured Koi

My fish were mainly from 4 oz to 6 oz, with the ocasional carp to 2 lb coming late. I also had a cracking multi-coloured mirror, which I had the greatest difficulty in netting as I had my 18-inch landing net up, and the fish was really too big for it. On about the seventh attempt I managed to get its head in, and jiggle it down, though even then its tail was laying over the rim. It was somewhere around double figures.

Callum with the carp.  He later had another
which was somewhere around 10 lb.  

That brought my catch up to 33 lb 10 oz for third out of the six of us. Mark Ramm won with a similar catch to mine - small carp plus the occasional better fish - with 37 lb 1 oz. So it was fairly tight at the top. I wasted a lot of time trying to catch carp which I knew were in my left margin - I foulhooked two and lost them. If I had carried on catching the smaller fish I would definitely have won. Decisions, decisions.

The good news was that, in winning, Mark stopped Kevin Lee picking up the Golden Peg money; Kev finished second just 1 lb 4 oz behind Mark. A low weight day, but I really enjoyed the match. And I now definitely know that there are big fish there.

Decisions

I now have to decide whether I should book matches there in 2028 if so few are willing to fish there. I estimate that about eight or nine is the maximum that will go (some of those were away for this one). I could probably book Trev's lake at Head Fen, but then some will refuse to travel. That's disappointing, especially as Mike Rawson takes the best part of an hour to travel from St Neots to our matches at Decoy.

My beautiful ten-pounder.

Kevin Lee with two of his bream.

THE RESULT

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Spratts match on Yew, Decoy

Another match I had to miss, as I was playing two bowls matches. It was won by Kevin Lee, yet again, who fished mainly meat close in. Peter The Paste was second, taking some fish on his favourite bait, plus some on meat, while Neil Paas had some om pellet and others on meat.

My next match is also on Yew, and with rain forecast before then there's the possibility that it will stir things up a bit. At least on Yew you know you are targetting mainly big fish, so the priority is not to lose those you do hook.

East bank                                                West bank

26 Trevor Cousins  28 lb 6 oz                 3 Graham Ward    40 lb 11 oz 4th
24 Neil Paas        41 lb 6 oz      3rd        5 Dick Warrener        DNW
22 Mike Rawson      DNW                     7 Roy Whitwell    33 lb 13 oz
20 Bob Barrett        24 lb 7 oz                9 Kevin Lee        100 lb 15 oz 1st
18 Peter Spriggs    70 lb 2 oz   2nd       11 Peter Harrison    30 lb 4 oz
16 Bob Walker        38 lb 8 oz              13 Mick Ramm    DNW
                                                              15 John Garner    39 lb 1 oz

Oak and Kingsland

Spratts on Oak

Thursday, Sept 17 saw a Spratts match on Oak which I wasn't able to fish. Yet again Roy Whitwell led the field, with 122 lb 13 oz from peg 7, using his usual Method feeder and pellet. Organiser Trevor Cousins also used Method, with a wafter for his 104 lb 12 oz runner-up catch, with Martin Parker third, also taken on feeder.

All-round it looks like a nice result for them - there are still, obviously, plenty of fish willing to feed in Decoy. Fishing right across to the far bank apparently paid off for the top three, but John Smith told me that towards the end he found carp right against the bunch of reeds to his left, on peg 9. Let's hope the first frosts hold up for a few weeks.

THE RESULT

2 Martin Parker            90 lb 2 oz         3rd
3 Kevin Lee                    68 lb 7 oz        5th
4 Dick Warrener            44 lb 15 oz     10th
5 Graham Ward            6 lb 5 oz         15th
6 Neil Paas                    64 lb 13 oz      7th
7 Roy Whitwell         122 lb 13 oz        1st
8 Bob Barrett                15 lb 5 oz       12th
9 John Smith                66 lb 15 oz        6th
10 Bob Walker            71 lb 1 oz            4th
11 Mick Ramm            20 lb                 11th
12 Mike Rawson        49 lb 2 oz            8th
13 Dave Hobbs            DNW
14 Trevor Cousins        104 lb 12 oz    2nd
15 Peter Spriggs            45 lb 8 oz        9th

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Peg 3, Kingsland small carp lake

Fenland Rods went to Kingsland, to fish the small carp lake - our first visit since Heidi and Dominic took over. Nice new keepnets were given to us, and the 13 of us started in bright sunshine with a bit of a breeze, while all over the lake we could see carp hanging just under the surface.

There was no ripple on our side, and as the sun went round, our  swims started to be in the shade; while opposite I actually saw Kevin Lee taking off his jumper as he basked in the sun.

But as we half-expected, the better carp didn't want to feed. I started in just a grain of corn, with two or three potted in about six metres out, and eventually I had some knocks. It took half an hour to get my first fish, a carp of about 1 lb. Three more followed, plus some very small fish a few ounces each, and then a real elastic-stretcher which turned out to be a 5 lb carp foulhooked. But it ended in the correct place - my keepnet.

They wus frit

Every time I flicked a grain of corn to one of the many fish hanging in my swim they took fright and turned away. I expected that they would start feeding at some time in the day, so determined to keep looking in the margins; I spent a minute or two there. but still had only knocks from tiny fish, some of which were foulhooked. There must be millions there.

Bright sun, but no ripple on our side, greeted us. Mel Lutkin, 
opposite on 15, said his swim was black with carp just under the surface.
Spoiler: Mel ended with only 1 lb 13 oz - mainly small stuff.

I walked up to John Smith after an hour or so, to see that there was hardy a fish caught between me and him; yet John said he had about 25 lb. You could have knocked me down with a feather. What he didn't tell me (and he told me after the match) was that he had mugged these nice fish of 5 lb-plus with mussel.

He was plopping the mussel in and dragging it  along under the surface and if the fish showed interest he let it fall and the fish went down and took the bait. Why hadn't I done that?

S-l-o-w sport

Back to my swim and nothing better happened - I would get a 1 lb-plus carp every 20 minutes, but at least I was catching comething. To my left Stephen Thompson was struggling for a fish. Then a 3 lb carp took a grain, but that was my only 'better' fish.

Two hours to go and Stephen packed up, but I soldiered on, fully expecting the bigger carp to come in and feed. I noticed that as they drifted around they were coming closer to the bank, and with half an hour to go one actually swam along the margin and under my platform. But in the side I still got only those little tiddlers knocking the bait, and the occasional 1 lb fish.

The better fish never did start feeding. I tried paste, and funnily enough I didn't get even the little knocks on that. Cat meat and mussel were gradually  nippled away to nothing. Corn was the only bait I caught on. Perhaps should have put on a hard pellet, but I took the view that the better fish just didn't want to feed.

The weigh in

I was first to weigh my measly 27 lb 15 oz, as Stephen on peg 2 had long gone. I assumed I would probably be last of the rest, but to my amazement the next three managed only 16 lb 8 oz between them! Then John, last on our bank, took 40 lb 8 oz to the scales; obviously he hadn't had many more fish after I had visited.

The winner was Kevin on peg 11. He had had a good last hour or two mugging those bgetter fish with cat meat. He would drop in, fishing about 18 inches deep, and sometimes the fish would go down and snaffle the cat meat. Sometimes they wouldn't, but enough did to enable Kev to weigh in a winning 70 lb 11 oz.

The results show how difficult it was, especially at my end of the lake. So I was content with winning my section of four. The funny thing was that I could actually see some of those fish sucking in tiny pinpoints of something just under the surface. No idea what it was, or whether they spat it out again. But they never went for any of the floating leaves or other stuff actually on the surface. Surface fishing is banned now, so I didn't get a chance to try floating pellet, which used to take fish, sometimes.

Next match is our Fenland Rods rover on Beastie, where I hope to include pegs 1 to 18, as they offer nice platforms, with no steps, on the spit. I've been trying to ring Karen to check that, but no reply so far.

THE RESULT

I was not on another end peg! I was on peg 3, with Stephen on 2.
 Honestly. You can't get the staff now, you know...

Two matches on Willows

Peg 23, Willows, Wed, Sep 9
For a change, in this Spratts match I was given the one peg I really fancied. Peg 23 is often not put in, but it has an aerator to the right and the only time I ever fished there I won with fish from next to it. I remember, though, that it was very snaggy and every few casts I retrieved various-sized twigs and branches. It was the same this time, but there were fish there again.

The first minor problem was that there was a breeze coming in from the right, so perfect presentation was difficult. I used a 0.5 gm float, but afterwards I thought that a 1 gm rig would have enabled me to hold it in place more easily. 

A nice breeze at the start, but I needed to keep the bait close to that aerator.

I started out a metre from the aerator with a 6mm expander over micros and had a few knocks, eventually bringing in a nice roach. A shift right up to the pole holding the aerator saw a bite and the elastic shot out under the aerator; but with the pole dipped down well under the surface the 2 lb F1 came straight back, and into my waiting landing net.

My opponents were catching...
To my left there was splashing from both Neil Paas' and John Garner's swims, and the fish seemed to be bigger than mine. In fact they probably weren't, but the other bloke's fish always look bigger, don't they?

Over the next hour or so another half-dozen F1s up to 3 lb took corn but then there was a bit of a lull. Moving back out away from the aerator  and then back right to its edge saw one or two more, but mid-match I must have gone 90 minutes with only the occasional roach. Then bites started again, but it was slow work.

Hard work
I really enjoyed fishing for that one bite; lifting or dragging the bait to induce a take; and after a lot of work a fish would eventually come in. I didn't lose any, which was very satisfying, although those F1s were turbocharged.

In the last hour I saw swirls from 'proper' carp near the margins where I had put in a little corn and hemp. A couple of times I hit fish on cat meat, only to come back with a scale. Then a 3 lb mirror, hooked in the mouth (only just) came in, and I almost wish it hadn't, because I wasted more time trying for another. Without success. That was my only proper carp, but I lost another couple, foulhooked.

A late flurry
The last few minutes saw me go back to corn near the aerator and two more F1s were my reward. I wish I hadn't gone into the margins, because although the bites were finicky, I reckon I could have had another six or eight F1s fishing to the aerator. 

Peter Harrison had a mixture of 
sizes in his first net. The second
held three carp for 31 lb.

I thought I had about 40 lb. Right at the end Neil Paas had landed a fish which was definitely bigger than any of mine; about 5 lb. It was only afterwards that he told me it had been foulhooked. I guessed both he and John had beaten me.

The weigh in
Peter Spriggs had 57 lb from peg 1, which included some proper carp. Then Peter Harrison on peg 3 brought in his nets, and there were some good fish there - his last net held three for 31 lb; total 77 lb 6 oz. 

Next was Graham Ward on 15, who had feedered his way to 55 lb 3 oz, and they turned out to be the top three. As we moved round towards the higher numbers there were precious few carp - most were F1s.

Graham Ward's 55 lb 3 oz
was taken mainly on feeder.

To my amazement my 44 lb 4 oz beat both Neil and John, and Roy Whitwell on 29 was the only other person to beat me, with 47 lb 5 oz. So I ended fifth out of 12, and I think I could have finished an easy second if I hadn't wasted time in the margins.

Marks out of ten
Although I didn't frame I had managed to winkle out F1s among the twigs and branches. So I had made the right decisions, but should have carried on putting the occasional fish in the net. I wasn't to know that, of course; usually I can add bigger fish in that last hour. So I give myself 8/10 as I had put myself in the positon of actually coming second.

I have to miss the next couple of Spratts matches as I am in a bowls match for the next one, and radiation on my lung is beginning on Sept 21st for two weeks.

THE RESULT

1 Peter Spriggs            57 lb                2nd
3 Peter Harrison          77 lb 6 oz        1st
15 Graham Ward         55 lb 3 oz        3rd
19 John Garner           31 lb 6 oz
21 Neil Paas               42 lb 3 oz
23 Mac Campbell       44 lb 4 oz
25 Mick Ramm            8 lb 12 oz
27 Bob Barrett           20 lb 5 oz
29 Roy Whitwell        47 lb 5 oz        4th
31 Mike Rawson        16 lb 15 oz
33 Trevor Cousins      42 lb 15 oz
35 Kevin Lee             37 lb 3 oz

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

FENLAND RODS RESULT

Here's the result from a Fenland Rods match I had to miss.

After the Spratts match I thought there was a very good chance that some big weights might come from the first half of the lake, as that had held all the better carp.

Yet again Roy Whitwell showed everyone else a clean pair of heels from peg 14. But I don't have any details.

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