Wet, but happy

Beastie Lake, Decoy Fishery, peg 18

This was a midweek club match, 12 of us fishing, and it took place at the end of that short cold spell in April, in fact at 7.30 am when I loaded up the car the temperature was just 0.5 Centigrade and the windscreen was covered in ice.

Now although Peg 18 is not one of the real fliers on Beastie – I would rate pegs 8, 9, 26 and 30 as better – I have great affection for it. I was on peg 18 when I won my first Decoy Open many years ago, with 53 lb – and I broke my pole that day. Peg 18 has a cut back on its lefthand side, going into the piece of water we describe as ‘behind the Spit.’ There’s a bridge over the cut, and big carp have a nasty habit of shooting up the cut, under the bridge, and turning right or left, at which point something has to give! And the fish here can be well into double figures.

Anyway, I’ve never had a bad day from this peg, and remember vaguely coming 2nd in a festival match only a year or two back, so was quite happy. I remembered that once I found fish in a hole several metres out, so I plumbed around and found it five sections out, and had a rig ready – in the event I never actually fished that spot! I also had a rig for fishing top three in front of me, where a lot of fish have been coming out all round Beastie. Then I had a rig for the righthand margin, about four feet deep, and finally two rigs for a swim at the end of the cut – one for smallish baits like corn or maggot or pellet and one for cat meat.

I started by putting some bait – meat, corn and hemp - in the deep hole at the end of the cut – I don’t often put bait in unless I’m going to fish a swim very quickly, but I know fish cruise through the cut from the main lake to the back piece, and suspect they make mental notes of where there’s food, even if they are not hungry at the time. Then in went some dead maggot on the righthand margin, and I followed it up with a bunch of maggots. Within seconds I had pricked a fish and a minute later hit a big fish which just would not come in – it turned out to be a barbel over 4 lb.

I remembered that in my previous match on Yew, where I had just 37 lb, I had lost a fish by breaking down to the top two too quickly, and it had shot under the platform and round a leg, breaking me. So today I played the fish on a longer pole until I thought I had it sort of beaten, then pulled the purple Hydro up until it was virtually on a tight line. Job done (but not until living through several scary minutes). Another couple of barbel followed and then I went in without a bite, so quickly went out to my top three line, where a roach and a couple of 1 lb bream obligingly took my bait.

Then it started to rain, and it was coming in to me from the right, so not much chance of putting up an umbrella. The rain lasted all day, though it wasn’t really cold – at least I didn’t feel it, with two extra layers of thermals on beside my normal Goretex waterproofs. At this point I thought I’d have a look in the deep swim, so put in my cat meat rig, and immediately a 2 lb carp took it, followed by a five-pounder! Several more smaller fish came from here, though each one came from a slightly different spot. It’s not easy fishing in the cut, as the depth varies so much, from two feet near the bridge, down to almost six feet out in the main lake. I had my favourite Middy 22-24 elastic on, which I have utmost confidence in. A few fish tried to make it to freedom up the cut, but dipping the pole right under the surface and hanging on, and talking nicely to the fish, persuaded them to come back.

After a couple of hours, with bites slowing, I switched back to the margin swim, and immediately had a tench, and one or two roach and two more barbel, biggest 5 lb. You can tell barbel because they fight long and deep and then suddenly pop up to the surface like a cork out of bottle, but give you only a couple of seconds to net them before they dive down and start all over again! Soon it was back to the deep swim, and F1s started to appear, some on the alternative rig with a smaller size 14 hook with corn and black Hydro elastic.

Then something made me want to have a look in the really shallow water nearer the bridge, and right next to the scaffold poles which hold the bridge up – a dangerous place to fish! And within seconds I was attached to something which almost made it way up to Peter, fishing peg 17, which was 20 yards away on the main lake the other side of the cut. I gritted my teeth – as you do – but then, thankfully, it came off and I have to assume it was foulhooked.

Eventually more F1s came, mainly to corn, from the shallow area, and when it died I went back to the deep water, switching back every 15 minutes or so, but never had anything else over 3 lb, though there were several bream up to 3 lb, two of which leapt clear of the water when hooked, believing they were trout. I didn’t put in a lot of bait, as there were obviously fish there and didn’t want to risk foulhooking any more, and in fact I foulhooked just one 3 lb F1 in the fin, which I landed. I could see Peter and Mick, to his left, landing fish and assumed I must be behind them, but with 40 lb in my first net and 38 lb in the second, I decided had to go for a third with half-an-hour left as I was getting steady bites now. It was still raining, and I had been having trouble putting maggots on the hook with fingers that were cold and wet...so I had been fishing mainly corn.

The new net went in and five more fish came to corn in the last 25 minutes. Now I hadn’t seen anyone else go for a net, so with a bit of luck I thought I could probably frame, with about 90 lb. Actually Bob, on peg 30, had weighed in 94 lb, all on a tip dropped in just a yard or two from the bank only a couple of yards to his right! A real bit of opportunist fishing, and a style that is not uncommon now.

As an aside I saw Amanda Barber the other day – a brilliant angler who used to win more than her fair share of matches on Decoy by fishing right down next to her own platform leg in Summer, holding her top two like a pen, pointing down; another style that can pay dividends on its day, but one few anglers dare try.

Anyway, my 40 lb net went 51 lb-plus (I can’t seem to get away from underestimating my fish) and my 38 lb net weighed 49 lb 8 oz! With the final 11 lb 11 oz I totalled 111 lb 3 oz and managed to win! Bob was second and Mick, two pegs to my left, third with about 87 lb taken largely in the margins , with some on that magic Top-Two-Plus-One. The anglers on the bank to my right, with back wind, all struggled.

My next match is on Cedar at Decoy, and I’m about to take everything out of my pole holdall and bag and dry it all, though my pole holdall, made specially for me by Phil Ogden, as a result of a suggestion on this site, is 100% waterproof, and the water inside is entirely because I forgot to zip it up on the bank. It took many weeks for it to arrive, but if you want stuff brilliantly made I can recommend Phil - he used to trade as GTI but now it’s Ogden’s Shooting Supplies. He made it to my specification and has a great big heavy, strong zip.


I’m hoping I can draw a swim with a shallow margin on Cedar, as that can be the difference between an average catch and a frame place. I don’t expect to win, as there are some good men there, but one thing I will do is to start taking cat meat in a cool bag, as it got a bit mushy on Beastie, and probably lost me a fish or two as it fell off when swinging it out. Coshida used to be the Number One Choice but two years ago it suddenly started all floating, so now Tesco is one of the best for me for the hook, with Co-op’s own make also OK...so long as they are both kept cool.

A disaaaster!

Yew Lake, Decoy, peg 1

This was the second Telford match, the day after the first (as it would be!) And while I have posted that Decoy has no duff pegs where a match cannot be won, the carpark ends of the strips have not been the best this Spring. I suspect it’s because if a Southerly wind is blowing down the fish will follow it (ie away from the car park) and if it’s Northerly or Easterly, and blowing towards the car park, it’s nearly always terribly cold so the other end , protected by a bank, is much more sheltered and slightly warmer, so the fish at that end are more inclined to feed.

Anyway I drew peg 1 at the car park end which actually looks quite good, with a few reeds and weed against the end bank, to my right. The only bit of bare bank is on the end bank, at about only eight metres, but when I plumbed up it was barely more than ten inches deep, dropping off to four feet, so that was effectively not an option. However the match started well – I put some bait – dead red, corn and a little hemp - in among the reeds and in front of me at about three metres, and seconds after dropping in here with a bunch of maggots a 4 lb barbel took the bait. Things looked good!

Unfortunately that was it. For the next three hours I fished there, and in two spots to my right next to the reeds, in depths of three feet and four feet and apart from a couple of liners and a foulhooked fish which broke me, there was nothing. There was not a ripple on the surface as the wind was mainly behind me, which didn’t help in the sun. Halfway through the match I had just the one barbel. The angler to my left had a few early fish in the margins but then spent most of the rest of the match nicking odd carp at about 13 metres. Eventually I decided I would have to do the same, aiming for a flattish piece of bottom about four feet from the end bank.

I had to break the pole down twice because of the swim behind me, but eventually I nicked another barbel at 13 metres. The bites were so tiny, though! I had to dot the float down to a dimple and very gently ease the bait slowly along, and then the float would dip. The best time was when the wind moved round from almost Northerly to almost Easterly, which gave me ripple for about ten minutes, during which time I had two fish. I also moved my rollers round so I could roll the whole pole back at an awkward angle – to my right towards the car park. Unorthodox, but it worked after a fashion. Then the swim died again, and I struggled at 13 metres the rest of the match, using mainly dead reds on the hook, and ended with about nine fish for 39 lb.

The angler opposite had about the same, I would think, and he didn’t weigh in, and neither did the angler on his right. However the angler to my left weighed 128 lb, but that was not enough to frame – local Danny won the lake with 228 lb from peg 20 and Sean on peg 15 had 191 lb. There were 100 lb weights from almost every peg.

Strangely I was not worried after the match – I felt I had fished to the best of my ability and was confident that had I been given an average swim I could have got 100 lb. From halfway through the match I wasn’t fishing against the other anglers – I was fishing against the fish. And I was extremely pleased that I managed to nick just those few barbel and carp. It wasn’t easy – I had to fish a black-tipped float if I was four feet from the bank, but change to a rig with a yellow tipped float on a different rig about eight inches shallower if I was any closer because of the reflection. In addition I again found I had to put in bait before every fish – and with a 13-metre pole (that’s Browning metres, not some of the other manufacturer’s metres which are considerably shorter) it was hard work.

So a disaster result-wise, but it gave me a lot of confidence in my ability to winkle out fish in difficult circumstances – just like the old Winter Leagues. And I doubt if one of the other anglers would have willingly swapped swims with me...even though they all made comforting noises when I showed them my peg. But that’s matchfishing!

Bagging!

Oak Lake, Decoy, peg 13

This was a regular invitation from the Telford lads, who used to organise a three-day festival here which is now defunct. Instead, there are some two-day events – each day a separate match, so no overall winner.

But I knew I was in for a bit of a thrashing when I saw who was either side of me – Shaun Coaten, a big-weight specialist on my left, and Awesome Dawson to my right. Nevertheless I like fishing next to better anglers, as I can sometimes pick up hints – one of the most satisfying is that they rarely fish much differently to me, but they just do it better! Much of it is in the feeding.

Anyway, I was a little disappointed to see I hadn’t got a really nice nearby inside swim – the best long strip of shallow water was up to the next platform, which I duly plumbed up at about two-and-a-half feet. There was a small tuft of sedge grass about four metres along to my left, and a couple of feet beyond that a little bit of bank sticking out with the remains of a bush on it. Between the two was a flat bit the same depth, about 18 inches square, and I started there with corn,

Tony Dawson also started abnout a foot from the bare bank, and had three or four fish quite quickly, while I had nothing. So I went into the deeper water just over a top-two out and got a 5 lb carp. But after 45 minutes that was the only fish I had, while Tony had another one or two in the deep water and Shaun had started like an express train fishing the end bank to his left – he must have had 40 lb in the first 45 minutes!

One or two more fish came to me on cat meat from the deep water and then the fish started in my close-in swim – first was a mirror of almost 12 lb! From then on I concentrated on the close-in swim with maggot (feeding dead maggot or corn) and slowly built up a weight while Shaun went for a third net after about two hours, and Tony was not far behind. I had about 40 lb at that time, but then I settled down. Meanwhile Tony really started to work his close-in swims, fishing mainly to his left, but resting it from time to time and going to the right.

I had been feeding expanders down to my right and first put-in one was taken by a barbel, followed by a few carp. My mistake was that I was feeding the left swim and fishing to the right for one fish, then feeding the right swim and fishing to the left – a classic tactic. I realised too late that in fact the fish were coming in quickly to the feed and leaving within a minute or two. When I cottoned on things looked up and I went for a third net after about four hours.

Sport died down an hour from the end, when the wind turned and became very cold, and eventually I went back out to my deep-water swim with cat meat, and found fish willing to feed well. Tony was now on his fifth or sixth net, as was Shaun. I went for my fourth with 30 minutes left, lost a fish and landed two before the all-out was called. I reckoned I’d got 40 lb in the first net, 42 lb in the second, 40 lb in the third, and 7 lb in the final one – about 130 lb.

Well, bottom weight down to me was 98 lb and he was over in one net! Tony weighed 226 lb (from memory) and my first net weighed 52 lb 14 oz – far in excess of what I had estimated. The next one was even bigger – 57 lb 14 oz and just one fish away from a disqualification (how can I keep doing this?). The third net weighed 48 lb-plus, and the last one 8 lb-plus – total 157 lb 7 oz, and nearly 10 lb lost because of my rubbish calculations. Shaun weighed 210 lb, and although I had been well beaten I didn’t feel bad – I’d caught more in six hours that I’d ever caught in a season on natural waters! And the 10 lb lost was not relevant because my section had a 169 lb in it, on the opposite bank.

Every other angler on the lake weighed in over 100 lb and I was about 8th from the 12. Happy with that, as they are all better anglers than me, and I didn’t do anything really stupid – except I should really go to Specsavers and get a new pair of glasses...

PS. The prawns stayed in my bag, as it wasn’t the sort of day where I felt a bait change would make much difference – it was all down to feeding and presentation.

PPS. The next day this lake was won from my peg, fishing just past the small promontory, with paste. I really should have had a look there when sport tailed off. My error.

Always the bridesmaid

Yew Lake, Decoy Fishery, peg 13

I was eating my early-morning porridge (oh yes, we know how to live it up down here in the Fens) when I remembered the prawns. I’d bought a couple of dozen big ones last year and put them in the freezer, so I went and picked out half-a-dozen and put them in my bait bag, together with the pellets, maggots, worms, cat meat, sweetcorn and my sandwiches. You see, prawns have been catching fish on Decoy, and I thought the light colour might make them stand out.

So, porridge finished, I went out to the car. It was 2 minutes to 8 o’clock, and the condensation I had seen on my windscreen turned out to be ice! The sun was already blazing, without a cloud in the sky, and with the water likely to be still stone cold it looked like a difficult day was ahead.

This was a midweek club match – well actually it’s a collection of mates, mainly from the Wisbech area where I come from, but with a few foreigners from Peterborough who are allowed to join us provided they promise not to win too often! To be serious, the standard is quite high, and a couple of former National Champions regularly fish, so a win is something to be proud of.

My peg 13 was just past the pegs I really fancied – 10 and 21, which is opposite - but with just 15 of us fishing we were in the odd numbers on my side and evens on the other side so those two pegs were not in. However, I am lucky in that whatever peg I draw now, in any match on commercials, I am happy. It’s me against the fish – that’s more important than me against the other 14 anglers, though I’m still as competitive as I ever was.

I’d read a piece on simple pellet fishing by Barry Mason in Improve Your Coarse Fishing, and decided to at least start on 13 metres with pellet, which is longer than I normally start on, but which has been winning matchers is the cold weather here. I know Barry and have absolute faith in whatever he writes. So on went a rig for 13 metres, plus another for the bottom of the shelf about five feet out, plus another shallower for close-in work, where the bank had fallen in and it was about three feet deep.

But for the first half hour I put out hair-rigged corn on a straight lead while loose-feeding the pellet swim. This produced one carp of 3 lb and I went onto the pellet, under a 0.5 gm Drennan Tuff-Eye float. Ten minutes later I got a bite and landed a four-pounder. But then – nothing. Meanwhile the two anglers on my right were hitting good carp on two-plus two, so I put a small pot of hemp, corn and a little cat meat into the deep close-in swim to my left. Ten minutes later, still with nothing else on pellet I dropped in with cat meat and immediately hit a big fish which turned out to be about 12 lb! Game on.

A 3 lb barbel followed and I topped up the swim, and went back to the pellet swim which I had been loose feeding, to rest it. A couple of liners followed, and so I laid the pellet rig out straight and seconds later, when the bait was at about half depth, a three-pound carp took it. The fish were obviously up in the water so I made the decision to try shallow.

I fished it hard for 45 minutes, constantly feeding a few pellets and slapping, but did not get a fish, even though I could see odd carp up in the water. Confident that I had given it a good try I abandoned it. At least I wouldn’t spend the rest of the match wondering whether shallow would work. The wind had been really strange – none when we started, then I had a good ripple, then nothing the it suddenly changed from Southerly to Easterly and got really cold. Then, just as quickly, it was back to the South, with ripple occasionally. Perhaps that was why the fish would not feed confidently near the surface – afterwards three other competitors told me they had all tried shallow, and not had a fish between them.

Meanwhile I had also been tossing a few expanders into the shallow swim on my right and I kept on doing this, hoping that the F1 might come in close, while I fished meat to the left. The deep swim produced fish intermittently on meat, but there was no pattern to their feeding. So I dropped in with an expander no more than two feet out from my righthand bank…and hit a barbel. If they would come in that close and were willing to take a pellet I decided I would, reluctantly, have to fish for them. So in went a pot of reds to the deep swim, and a lighter rig for a bunch of five reds on the hook. Obviously I would prefer carp, because barbel fight so hard, but barbel it would have to be.

This worked well, bringing several barbel, to nearly 5 lb, and also the odd carp to double-figures. But even the barbel bites were quite cadgey – not the vicious pulls you can expect in Summer. Then I tried it to the right, and also caught, though in the shallower water they took longer to come back once I had hooked a fish. I had purple Hydro on here and it definitely allowed me to land the fish more quickly than the red 14 I had for maggot in the lefthand swim. But when I put the cat meat rig out to the left, the white Middy 22-24 elastic was even better; it’s still my favourite, but I’m on the last spool.

I could not get a bite laying on, or hanging a bait off the bottom. Every fish came to a bait fished dead depth, and several came immediately after I lifted the bait an inch – no more. I have found that produces more bites than lifting it a foot or two and letting it sink. Just that little twitch seems to provoke the fish into action. I wondered afterwards whether I should have moved my bulk down to within a few inches of the bait instead of being 18 inches away. That’s something I certainly should have tried.

Among the fish were several foulhooked, but I managed to land all but two of these. Then with an hour to go sport slowed and I scratched around, finding the odd fish in about four inches of deeper water another couple of feet out, while Terry on my left put out a hard pellet on leger and had a really good run. In the end that was the difference between us. Top weight up to me was Trevor, the organiser, on peg 7 with 110 lb 2oz but my three nets went 111 lb 7 oz! Then Terry on 15 in the corner weighed 137 lb and I knew that only Peter on peg 16, opposite Terry, in the corner, could also beat me because he was the only other one who had been for an extra net. But he weighed 104 lb, taken from close-in, leaving me in second place for the third match running! A hat trick of sorts - but don't get me wrong, I'm happy about that. And by any standards it's a good start to the season proper.

There were several other 50 lb- 80 lb weights so all-in-all it had been a good match. And as I was packing my bait away at the end of the match I came across a little polythene bag containing six prawns…I had forgotten all about them!! This weekend I have a little two-day event, to be fished on Oak and Yew and I will give them a try. Honestly!

Another Scratcher but a good result

Snake Lake, Head Fen Fishery, peg 8

This was a strange day that started off badly – I hadn’t fished at Head Fen, near Ely, since last September. It’s about 45 minutes from my house, and when I arrived the ticket shed had been moved and I could see no sign of the sheds where the nets were kept. I addition there was a pleasure angler setting up on Snake. He had not seen the note on the ticket shed, and happily moved, especially when myself and another angler assured him that Trev’s Lake would be a better bet for pleasure fishing anyway, as it contains many different species of fish, as opposed to Snake which has only carp, is shallow, and almost always fishes hard in cold weather.

When I then asked where the nets were kept an angler told me: “You have to use your own.” Oops! A new rule! I hadn’t brought my keepnets, though I had a spare landing net in the car. So I headed back home, a bit annoyed that I hadn’t thought to double-check (though nets have been provided here for at least ten years). Then a stroke of luck. At the junction where I was turning left to go home a van was coming in from the right – had I been ten seconds earlier I would not have taken any notice of it! And I recognised Dave Priestley, an old Mucker of mine from Wisbech.

I wound down the window and he stopped and I told him of my problem; he looked at his mate and turned back to me and said he would be able to sort me some nets out! Sure enough they found some nets, left I presume by some regulars…and I was in business! So thanks to Dave and Nod.

My target today was simple – try not to come last. All the others knew the fishery like the back of their hands – they were all regulars and would know every swim. Among them was one of the best matchmen in East Anglia – Tony ‘Awesome’ Dawson, who lives at Ely and has a fearsome reputation throughout commercials in this area. So avoiding last place would be very satisfactory. Fourteen of us fished.

There was a strong bitterly-cold North-Westerly again and I prayed for a back wind. No such luck – I drew 8, which had the wind coming in from the right at an angle. And with the weather as it was I had little option but to start on the far bank, which luckily I could reach with 13 metres, while some of the others needed 14 metres. I realised after the match that it was probably the windiest and coldest swim in use that day! Imagine a capital M with another leg going up on the right – that’s the shape of Snake and we fish along the bottom bank – Peg One to 5 on the inside of the first leg and 6 to 9 down the second leg and round the corners to 28 at the end on the right, with the wind coming approximately from the right bottom corner of this page.

Now before a match I usually sort out the tops I think I might need and attach rigs, folding the tops down with a Doobry in place to stop the elastic being cut, and holding the winder in place using the piece of elastic I use as a hook-up. This saves me time thinking about what I might need, or rooting about in my box for rigs. And luckily I had had the foresight to attach a small yellow-topped Maver Invincible float to top containing purple Hydro, which I started on.

In Summer this is a prolific water, with 100 lb possible from almost any peg – fish which have grown quickly from 2 lb to an average of 4 lb, with some at 5 lb-plus. But in a rare fit of intelligence I decided to fish as if it was Winter so, with the water so cold, I simply dobbed a piece of bread punch with this rig against the far bank, where the water was about two feet, shelving down to three feet about four feet out from the bank. I looked around and nearly everybody else also seemed to be fishing the far bank as well.

In the first half-hour I had two or three obvious liners, and then struck lucky with a piece of corn, which was taken by a four-pounder, And this was the time when I realised I needed that tight Purple Hydro to stop the fish ploughing into a channel to the left or a little tuft of sedge to the right. There was no question of shipping straight back to the top two – that took a minute or two, by which time the fish had started to tire. The strong stuff stops fish from building up a head of steam, and this was what was needed today. Then it was a matter of coaxing them in by holding the pole tip low so they tend to rise to the surface.

I also lost a fish, also obviously foulhooked as it powered off along the far bank, suddenly changed direction to go the other way, came in towards me at speed, and then made off straight for the far bank again. Anyway, it came off. And it was satisfying to see Tony Dawson, through one of the channels which cut across from one arm to the next, also hit a fish which he had to follow from way on his right to way down on his left in a matter of about three seconds. The fish on here really do go!

I had already put in a few expanders and grains of corn at five sections, almost in the middle, and had a look here, which resulted in a five-pounder foulhooked in the fin – a bit of a let-down because for a moment I thought I might be able to get fish going there. But although I tried it several more times I never had another bite there.

The rest of the match saw me concentrate on the far bank, with occasional forays into the middle, and down the margins with luncheon meat, which produced nothing. Yet in Summer you can catch fish after fish from the margins after the first hour or two. With the wind from the right I held the pole across my right knee, resting against my left knee, but I had to press hard with the left hand against the wind and my left shoulder started to hurt, so I had to keep stopping. I don’t think I’ve done any permanent damage but as you get older it’s best not to take chances. And the wind was so cold that I twice stopped to take a hot drink – something I rarely do during a match, but they warmed me up sufficiently to stop me shivering.

I had a couple of fish with the bread a foot off the bottom, then a spell of liners, and in desperation came up to just ten inches deep, which surprisingly brought a lost fish within seconds then two quick fish at 4 lb or so. Over the next two hours another three fish made their way in, all at just ten inches deep, plus another couple of lost foulhookers, and with an hour to go I was wondering where my next proper bite was coming from. It was a real scratcher!

At this point the sun came out, causing a problem because it cast a shadow from the pole, and I dare not lengthen the line between pole tip and float because of fishing so close to the reeds. A longer line than the one foot I was using would have meant the fish would be in snags as soon as I struck..

In desperation I potted in some red maggot – the first feed I had used on the far bank - hoping this would take the fish down to where they felt safer. Amazingly this brought two quick fish just off bottom on a bunch of four dead reds, and with eight minutes left a final fling with bread punch just off bottom saw me net another three-pounder seconds before the whistle went. I hadn’t seen many other fish caught recently, though the angler on peg 11 had a fish on the whistle, and the angler behind me later told me he had had four fish in his last four put-ins, so perhaps they had started to feed.

Top weight to me round from peg 2 was eight fish for 33 lb and I had been determined not to underestimate my fish like I had two days earlier, so I overestimated, and with my clicker showing 35 lb for eight fish in one net and 7 lb for the other two fish I reckoned I probably had 36lb, so at least I would not come last and might be top weight on this little piece of bank. Mission Achieved!

Err, I still need to go to Specsavers! The first net was 39 lb 10 oz and the second 7 lb 8 oz. giving me 47 lb 2 oz, which was top round to peg 16, a lovely-looking swim with reeds and Irises opposite which has produced the winning weight in several of our club matches here. He had 121 lb, all on dobbed bread punch across. Dave Priestley, to the winner’s right, had 43 lb, which no-one else could top, so I picked up a brown envelope for second. Happy Days.

I now wonder whether slop would have brought the fish in to investigate. Groundbait is allowed on Decoy only in feeders, so I get out of the habit of using it. On the other hand since the fish were not really feeding, but cruising around aimlessly, it might have actually put them off. Who knows? The interesting thing was that the fish seemed to be changing their depth constantly, which is something I must bear in mind for the next match or two.

Tomorrow sees me on Yew Lake at Decoy, in a club match – this club holds all its matches midweek to allow for shift workers. The fish on this strip are a good average size, with lots in double-figures, and Pegs 10 and 21, opposite each other, are always a good bet. But knowing my current luck I will get nowhere near them, and will be facing the wind. Wish me luck!

Close, but no cigar

Decoy, Six Islands, peg 25

This was my first weekend club match of the new season and we were greeted by a very cold, strong Westerly wind with a bit of North in it.

On Six-Island, which is L-shaped, Westerlys mean the swims at the bottom – from peg 4 (in the corner of the L) round to 15 - have ripple while the rest often don’t. And in this cold wind I was happy that I would bask in the sun – except that the wind was at exactly the right angle to hit my swim hard – from the right and slightly in my face – while Tony in peg 24 on my right in the other corner was much more sheltered. And today I would have picked his swim rather than mine, because I know that the right margin is good, and fish hang around the aerator beyond that, at about 10 metres, and there’s an island in front. One good bit about our two swim was that they are only a few metres from the car park.

I’ve never managed to draw peg 25 before, which usually seems to produce some fish, so I was fairly happy, but I would have been happier had Dave, one of the best anglers in the club, not managed to draw 18, a noted swim in the narrowest swim on the lake, but one which has probably produced more winners than any other.

Peg 25 (imagine the top right corner of the “L” looking down the lake) used to have an island which is now worn away, so my first job was to plumb up and find its remains, which I found were at 13 metres, so I had a 1gm Drennan Tuff Eye float for the edge of the island and a half-gram for the island itself, which was almost 18 inches shallower at about three-and-a-half feet. Then, because the wind appeared to be gaining strength, I decided on a simple two-plus-two swim in front of me, another at 11 metres to the aerator 12 metres to my left, and two more margin rigs, one with a Maver Invincible float with yellow tip – my favourite for close-in work as I can see them below the surface. This was for small baits like corn or pellet; and the other was with an Animal size 12 hook and a 1 gm Cralusso float for use with cat meat.

First drop in was on the 2+2 swim with corn, and I had touches immediately, which I guessed were from roach, and sure enough after a few minutes a 4 oz roach came in. But there’s no possibility that roach can get you a big enough weight on Decoy to make them worth fishing for, so I was looking to find carp, which run into double-figures. My next move would have been towards the island, but I didn’t now fancy holding my pole in the wind because the big gusts would have swivelled me round on my seat. So I had a quick look in the margin. If a match starts slowly I always try another rig, and if that doesn’t work immediately I try another, so in the first hour I have often tried all of them just to check that they are fishing OK. Today, though, I got touches on the small margin rig fished about a metres from the edge, and sure enough after 20 minutes a 4 lb carp took a piece of corn.

I changed immediately to cat meat. I’d already seen Dave catching fish on his float rod (he doesn’t use a pole) and knew he would be using cat meat – in fact he told me afterwards he never put anything else on his hook). That change produced a run of good bites for me and several hooked fish which came off – probably foulhooked. All the bites came within a second or two of the bait hitting bottom, so I guessed the fish were interested but not really hungry. Sure enough the next fish, about 2 lb, was hooked on the outside of the mouth.

After about 90 minutes, with two F1s on corn, I had four fish in my net for 12 lb. I checked with Tony, who said he had six big carp – I assumed he meant 4-5 lb minimum, so I was already trailing.

A quick look towards the aerator saw me hook a roach on corn and then I lost sight of the float for a second or two and the next thing was the pole bending into a fish which resolutely refused to move for a few seconds and then ploughed out down the left-hand bank. For all I know it’s still going, because I was powerless to stop it breaking just at the hook. Later I had a couple of barbel, and now suspect it was a very big foulhooked barbel – I had no chance on my puny14 elastic and 6 lb line!

The next hour saw me pick up another three or four carp and F1s from the margin, and two pieces of catmeat brought an eight-pounder hooked on the outside of the mouth. Almost every drop-in the float was moving, but when I fished pellet or corn off bottom, where the fish were obviously swimming, I couldn’t get a bite!

Then about 1.30, halfway through the match, Bill, to my left, and Dave went for their third nets, so they must have got at least 80 lb each…and I estimated mine at 30lb! Drastic action was called for. I had dropped in to my left on a top two and had a vicious missed bite which I suspected could have been a liner from a barbel, so in went a big pot of dead red maggots, and sure enough a 4 lb barbel came to a bunch of four dead reds.

For the next couple of hours I picked up odd fish here on maggot, corn and cat meat and with 40 lb in my first net, had started on my second, putting in a pot of dead reds every 40 minutes and feeding half-a-dozen grains of corn and a few pellets. The wind made presentation very difficult indeed, even fishing close-in. It was impossible to hold the rig still for long enough to get a good drop and a few seconds touching bottom, even with the big Cralusso float, and fishing overdepth produced absolutely nothing. I did wonder afterwards whether I should have tried a 2 gm or 3 gm float for stability, but even by my crude standards that would probably have been over the top.

Then bites dried up and I found the fish a couple of feet farther out, in an extra four inches of water…who would think that could make a difference? At one point after a blank spell I moved the float half an inch down and hit three F1s in three casts, while a worm brought several roach bites and finally another eight-pounder. Then I found a couple of fish on meat right beside the bankside reeds, followed by a big fish snagging me on my righthand bank. I lay on the bank and worked my way down the line to the root where the line was snagged, but before I could break the root I felt the fish give a kick and break the line.

The white Middy 22-24 on my cat meat rig got the fish out in less than half the time of the corn rig with a red 14 elastic, even with a puller, so I changed this one to Purple Hydro, and that worked far better. I prefer the really strong elastics at all times if I can get away with it – I am happy to play the fish really gently and coax them to the net rather than bully them. Anyway, it works for me. It’s such a pity that Middy no longer market the white 22-24 – if anyone knows where you can get it I’ll buy it!

With 45 minutes to go I felt I had scratched around all day without ever getting into a rythmn, catching some margin fish on a top two and others on two-plus-two farther Along the bank; then suddenly I hit three better fish, all around 8 lb, in succession and with an estimated 43 lb in the second net and 13 minutes to go I decided to get a third net in case I got another eight-pounder. Mercifully no-one else had gone for a third net, so I was possibly in third spot. But that wasn’t guaranteed as some of the anglers here could easily have almost 50 lb in each net.

With eight minutes to go I was back…and the carp had gone. All I could get was roach pecking at the cat meat, so on went a piece of corn, and in came a 4 oz roach…actually it didn’t . With the fish in the landing net a big gust of wind turned the net over as I held the handle, the fish flew out, and I ended up hooked to the net! One more roach successfully landed and the match was ended. That last roach went into my third net on its own, poor little lonely thing.

Isn’t it strange how often going for that net means the fish have gone? Anyway I had a hot drink because I was now very cold indeed. And the two long swim rigs lay unused. But that is not uncommon, and if I ever need a rig quickly I can always press them into service. Nothing worse than having a tangle or break with five minutes to go and having to put on another rig.

Bill, down the bank to my left, weighed 93 lb (if I remember correctly), on cat meat or prawn, a fairly common bait on Decoy now. Dick on peg 4 had 92 lb, and there were other 70s and some 50s. But Dave on 18 had 137 lb and was over in one net – the obvious winner. Tony to my right had 70lb-plus, and I reckoned I had 83 lb, though Bill said I had a lot more.

The single 4 oz roach went into the weigh bag first, as my first net was obviously going to be under 50 lb (I had estimated 40 lb). But when I lifted it out I knew immediately there was more – 56 lb it showed, knocked back to 50lb. I know I tend to underestimate the weight of fish, but that was bad!

Not as bad as the second net, though – way, way over the 50 lb limit and I didn’t have the nerve to check how much over 60 lb it was. In the opens here 60lb-plus get you disqualified, but club anglers are a little more indulgent, so it counted as 50 lb and 100 lb gave me second place. The fish I had all estimated at 8 lb must have been 10-12 lb or more. I must remember that in the coming weeks.

So a reasonably-satisfactory first club match which, with a bit of luck, I could possibly have won, because overall I lost about a dozen fish – seven early on in the first hour, and another four or five later. Tony, to my right, fishing in the margins, also lost several, including a big one which snagged him in the roots, like me. But I never felt I was ‘In the Zone’ partly because of the unsettling effect of that cold wind.

My next match is an Open on Head Fen, near Ely, where luncheon meat is allowed but cat meat banned (the opposite to Decoy). I like this water – I once beat the fishery record but had two nets disqualified for being overweight (the nets, not me!) But since only one tin of luncheon meat is allowed I will also be relying on corn and pellet. The water is still cold so it could be a grueller in places. The fish run mainly to 5 lb but are turbo-charged so it will probably be black or purple Hydro and the white Middy on my main rigs. But I will have a top rigged with grey Hydro beside me in case I need to change down.

Magpie Open

Rookery Waters, Magpie, peg 4

This winter pegs 1 to 5 (and particularly 1 and 2), 25, 31 to 35 and 38 have been most consistent, so I was pleased with Peg 4. There is no obvious feature here but there is a submerged island just out to the right, which I found was about 10 inches shallower than the surrounding lake. So I put on a rig to fish to the deep water, another for the shallower island, a light rig for the left margin, and two for the right margin – one for the deeper water about two feet from the bank and another for a shallow shelf in a tiny bay, where Alex Bates said the fish could end up.

The weather was a second warm day in a row, but the water was cold, and the bright sun, with no ripple, didn’t offer hopes of a huge catch. Still the water was a good colour.

I started with a small pot of 4mm pellet and corn by the side of the submerged island, with a half-gram Tuff-Eye with a black tip, as the reflections here were difficult, and after about 15 minutes I’d had two or three bites which I missed. On went a 4mm expander, and a good bite showed the pellet was untouched, so they were obviously liners. I hit the next two bites on corn, and two 2 lb carp were in the net. No more, so I put the shallower island rig out in the same spot…with no result (this had a red tip which I could see against the dark reflection, and it ensures I didn't pick up the wrong rig!) I tried over the island, still without a touch, then put the deeper rig back into the original swim, still with no result, so I trickled more feed in, but It appeared the fish had moved.

It was time to try the margin, so I threw about ten expanders out to my left, followed it with a pellet on the hook, and got a 4 lb carp immediately. But again, nothing followed. Very strange. So I tried the right margin swim, in the deeper water and had a carp on luncheon meat immediately…but then nothing!

Meanwhile the angler to my left on peg 5 had been catching fish up in the water near the reeds at about 13 metres. But I and the angler to my right didn’t have a really good feature like this, and we were both scratching around for the odd fish – though it looked to me as if there was the edge of a lilly bed just to his right.

Scratching my head, I simply had to have a go at the odd carp that I could see cruising around under the surface. They were moving quite fast, so didn’t look as if they were really feeding. However, first drop in to a black shape a foot deep with a small cube of luncheon meat saw another four-pounder in the net. And I spent the next three hours or so either targeting the very odd cruiser, or leaving a piece of meat just hanging there, at 7 metres, and waiting for something to grab it. Amazingly I had seven or eight fish like this.

The odd foray to the right margin with a bunch of maggots brought another couple of fish, but the shallow swim there never produced a touch. Then the angler to my left had three fish in ten minutes or so by slapping, and I got my shallow rig out with banded pellet with just 45 minutes to go.

First drop in I lost a fish after about a second, and next slap the same thing happened. On the third slap, a little farther out (I had eight feet of line above the float because of the bright sun) it resulted in a hooked fish, over 4 lb, which gave a great scrap before being netted. But no more. Then with five minutes left another came to a piece of ‘hung’ meat.

The scales showed 106 lb on peg 1 and 111 lb on peg 2. Now both these had proper areas of lilly pads to fish to, so I wasn’t surprised they had done well. Peg 3 had 54 lb and I weighed 58 lb, believing the angler on 5 had twice as many fish as me, so would weigh in 120 lb or so. But in fact his fish were smaller, and he totalled 89 lb, with peg 6 getting 75 lb, almost all in the margin under an aerator – I was told this peg has fished well on the inside several times recently.

Opposite 5 was the winner on peg 31 with 124 lb 14 oz, all taken at 16 metres to the reeds by slapping – very hard work!

The pegs from 7 round to the twenties didn’t fish particularly well, though Simon Godfrey on 22 had 124 lb 4 oz shallow – but he could catch fish in a bucket of concrete! The end result was that I was somehere around 10th I think, so for me it was a decent day and I think I did the peg a fair amount of justice.

It was interesting that the fish caught by peg 5 by slapping were smaller than mine, and also interesting that even in the coloured water catching a fish seemed to put all those nearby off – that’s been particularly noticeable when the water is cold. So it appears that having caught one fish I must be prepared to move within a minute or two if the next drop-in there doesn’t produce.

Next match sees the first in my weekend club series, on Cedar at Decoy.

Operator Error – a match best forgotten

Rookery Waters, Raven, peg 9

This was an Over 60s event on the new Raven lake, opened 18 months ago. It’s in a rough horseshoe shape with the round end flattish. All the pegs are on the inside of the horseshoe and you can park your car at the peg, which will make it a very popular venue. Peg 1 is at the bottom of the first leg, moving up, across the back and down to peg 28-ish at the other end of the horseshoe. Peg 9 is two before the first corner.

Raven has margins only 1 foot near the bank, quickly dropping to almost 3 ft and then a very steep drop to 8 ft which you can reach on a top two if you stretch out. I saw it before it had water, and the margins were flat, which shows you just how much the bottom is affected by wave and fish action.

I didn’t know much about the lake, so started by putting some corn and luncheon meat almost halfway with a bait dropper then fishing bread punch across at 13 metres, fishing ten inches deep to the far bank, then moving back out for three or four feet, then deepening it six inches at a time and repeating, until after more than 20 minutes I had not had a touch of any sort. That was a bit surprising as there was a good wind, and plenty of ripple.

So next it was down the deep swim with corn, and after another 20 minutes still not a touch. So I tried my close-in swim for another 20 minutes, feeding with a toss pot close to the edge of a bit of weed, still without any indications. The cold wind was getting up, and this decided me against going right across again – possibly a mistake. So it was down the track again, and after 20 minutes I got a 1 lb carp on corn, without feeding anything, and a few minutes later another. Then another 20 minutes without a bite. Very frustrating.

So it was in to the side again, and immediate action with a 1 lb F1 on corn about 20 inches deep, just touching bottom, and two more foulhooked and lost (a scale left me in no doubt) and then another on pellet. Fishing off the bottom did not bring a single bite. Another 20 minutes and a 6 oz carp hooked in the mouth, and I wandered up to Alan on my left, who had four fish to my five.

The rest of the match followed a strange pattern – 20 minutes fishing the deep swim and baiting with a tosspot, and I was about to try the far bank, despite the gusty wind, and I would get a fish, which led to another 20 minutes of inactivity, then just as I was about to change, another fish would come. I finished on the inside following a magnificent spell of three fish in 15 minutes, and with 45 minutes to go was about to look right over when another one came along…so I persevered down the edge and wasted the final 45 minutes!

As the scales came I was astonished to see a 47 lb at the end to my left, then Keith Rayment with 35 lb, and I know he had most of his fish in the deep water. Alan weighed 6 lb, and my meagre haul of 15 fish went 12 lb, with the angler to my right on peg 9, on the corner, DNW-ing.

It’s not a criticism of everyone who DNWs, but I dislike seeing it unless it helps the weighers-in in bad weather. Weighing-in helps the competitors decide afterwards whether there’s a definite pattern to the weights, and I have always (rightly or wrongly) regarded it as a bit of an insult to those who do weigh in…almost like saying “I can’t be bothered with you lot”. On natural waters it also used to give liars the chance of boosting their imagined weights, though on modern commercials that’s not an issue, since others can see what they are catching. Anyway, the angler on my right told me had had 11 carp and lost 17 better ones – though I suspect they were foulhooked, as a couple of my 1 lb foulhookers felt like four-pounders on steroids! So he probably had roughly the same weight as me, fishing right across. His wind was very slightly off his back, but it still must have been difficult as it looked as if he needed a full 16 metres to reach the far bank in the corner.

Anyway, the final word on not weighing in goes to Kevin Ashurst who once told me in his inimitable Lancashire accent: “If you haven’t weighed you haven’t catched!”

To my surprise 80 lb won, the end peg on the other leg, where it was almost flat calm, with (from memory) a 60 lb and a 50 lb to his left, and another 50 lb at the flat end , who had a backish-wind. At least I beat the anglers either side. But I really should have given the far margin a proper look, even though it would have been a little difficult in the wind. Kevin Peacock, behind me on the other leg, had 32 lb across on luncheon meat, though he found it difficult.

Bottom line is that it was probably ‘Operator’s Error.’

Another match of two halves

Open on Westwood Lakes, Falcon Pool, peg 1

This was only my second visit to Westwood near Boston, Lincs – the first was five years ago in a match on Skylark. I like the arrangements – 9 am draw, which was good for me as it’s almost an hour-and-a-half drive there for me. There’s a good shop (Westwood’s feed pellets only, which I don’t mind) and a great restaurant. Then the match doesn’t start until 10.30, by which time even I can be ready to go. My regular club matches give only an hour or less, and I am rarely ready to start when the whistle goes.

It was good to see several old mates at Westwood, and then there was the bonus of being able to park the car behind my peg – a bonus which gets bigger as you get older! A cold wind was blowing, but at least it was over my right shoulder. Falcon is a little over 13 metres wide, and I found it was very shallow right over, which was out of the equation quickly, as the wind got up. The main species here are F1s, with some barbel.

There was a small hole at three sections out, about a float-length deeper than the surrounding area. It was about four feet here. So I set up a 0.5 gm Tuff Eye – my favourite float – with another similar rig a little shallower to fish down the centre track. Tuff Eyes have four interchangeable tips, and I put a black tip in the three-section rig and a red one in the slightly-shallower rig – this stops me picking up the wrong one…which I have been known to do in the past! For far-bank fishing the yellow is always my choice, against the reflection of the bank. Then I chose a light rig for the side – an old Browning float whose name I have forgotten - though I didn’t expect to see anything feed there because of how cold it was.

I got bite after bite on expander pellet in the three-section swim, all of which were liners, as the pellet was untouched. I also briefly hooked several fish, which were obviously foulhooked as again the pellet came back intact. I tried putting the micro and 4 mm feed pellets in with a bait dropper to get the fish down, but nothing changed. They were obviously cruising around but not feeding. A change to the other shallower rig to fish off bottom brought no bites at all!

Then I saw clouds of mud coming up right in the side – in less than a foot of water – and tried there with maggot, but got not a single touch. So I tried a grain of sweetcorn down the side – at about 20 inches deep – and got a small F1 first drop-in. But nothing followed.

Frequent changes of swim and bait saw me with just three small F1s at 1 o’clock, halfway through the match. Annoyingly I could see the next man, Ron, three swims to my left, steadily taking fish four sections out, where I couldn’t even get a liner! Then suddenly I took a 12 oz fish out in front, then two or three more, followed by a lull, and I turned to the inside, where I started catching F1s up to 1 lb. As Victor would say: “I don’t believe it!”

This pattern followed to the end of the match – three or four fish out on pellet then three or four more on maggot down the side in about two feet of water. I found out later that Ron had been catching with his float almost against the reeds, on pellet, in about 12 inches! I tried that briefly, but had to revert to the deeper side swim, just down the shelf, to get a bite. Most came on a single maggot as I just teased the bait sideways. Right at the end a 2 lb bream came in – foulhooked on two maggots. But they all count.

Anyway, I weighed 32 lb, almost all F1s, with all but three taken in the last two-and-a-half hours. Ron had 64 lb for fourth (I think). The match was won to his left with 101 lb, fishing the inside, with several weights in the 50s. And I was reasonably happy at the end, as I wasn’t last, and had I caught as well in the first half as I did the second half, I could have framed.

I still don’t know what went wrong at the start, as I didn’t overfeed. But I wonder if a larger 1 gm rig would have allowed me to control it better – even at just three sections – in the difficult wind. And next time I will also have a tiny really thin-tipped float for the side as an alternative, in case it makes a difference. Until you try it you never know.

The other possibility is that I could have used a sloppy groundbait with hardly any feed as most fish were F1s and I have read that this can be productive for them. I’ve had good catches of F1s from Tunnel Barn Farm fishing as I did here, fishing with very sensitive rigs, but at Decoy, the venue I visit most often, the majority of fish are mirrors and commons, and groundbait is allowed only in a feeder.

Fishing is a never-ending learning process and I am happy, next time, to try something else. A small piece of worm used to catch me crucians in matches when most others were struggling, and that’s another option.

So a nice venue, not too deep, with good banks that enable you to get a full 16 metres behind you. There are Opens on Sundays and Tuesdays, and an Over 50s on Thursday, and I look forward to going back there.

A late finish at Pidley

Magpie Lake, peg 33

This was the regular Over-60s match at Rookery Waters, which is only 20 minutes from my home, and although the café serves breakfasts I usually make do with just a mug of tea. The draw is in the café and I drew on the island, peg 33.

This swim has had some form, though 35, to its right, has been a real flier this Winter. My peg has an island out at about 2 o’clock around 25 metres away and a sunken bed of reeds at 11 o’clock to my left, at about 20 metres. But the good news was that John, on peg 35, said a mate had fished on 32, to my left, yesterday and had 31 good carp – with several over 4 lb – at about 8 metres.

I looked and sure enough there were three carp not far out there, just under the surface. So I determined on three lines – in front at 11 metres, the same distance out towards 32 on the left (which had no-one in it) and a shorter line to the left at 8 metres, closer to the bank as the wind was from the right. I also had a hair-rigged leger, which I used towards the island.

Unfortunately my carefully-laid plans fishing pellet in front and maggot to the left, brought me just three roach in the first four hours! One reason was that five minutes before the match started the light wind, which had been bringing just a few spots of rain from the West, turned a full 180 degrees in seconds, picked up power, and immediately brought very heavy rain from the East, while the temperature dropped. I’ve never seen a wind change so quickly.

I had asked John, earlier, whether he would be putting up his umbrella – and, looking down his nose at me, he replied disdainfully: “No, I shan’t be doing that!” Minutes after the storm started I peered out from under my brolly to see John’s was definitely in place!

John had three early carp, then 90 minutes blank, and then a run of smallish carp around 2 lb. I hadn’t seen much else caught, though after three hours the angler on my left said he had had four carp. I tried touching bottom, laying on, and fishing up to a foot off bottom, with pellet, bread and maggot, all to no avail. So when my mate Colin came down with 45 minutes to go, to see how I was getting on, I was not a happy bunny. Finally, and partly because I was getting cold, I tried the leger again towards the island – once close to the reeds, then a few feet out, and then halfway.

The last cast with corn brought a strong pull, then the tip dropped back, then it went again – not a real wraparound but a definite bite rather than the tiny liners I had been seeing. I struck and it produced a 4 lb carp. There were now about 30 minutes left and I decided to go out towards the same spot with sweetcorn on a pole at 13 metres. It hadn’t worked previously, but I had just noticed three anglers lose carp, so perhaps they were on the move.

I put in a half extension to my Browning Z12 and it felt good, because it gives a nice balance and I can grip it really hard if I wish because it’s strong. The Z12 gives you three reversible half-butts, so they fit into several of the sections. A few frozen grains of corn went in with a tosspot. A couple must have floated and immediately attracted the attention of a couple of mallard. I don’t mind this as I am certain that the fish learn to associate ducks feeding with the opportunity of food for themselves. Even if the fish are not hungry I suspect that habit and instinct urge them to move towards the commotion.

Anyway, within a few minutes I was playing a carp, about 3 lb. Next came a missed bite, then another two carp around 3 lb. I found that I had to leave the bait still for a minute or two, then lift it and if I was going to get a bite it would come almost immediately. It felt as if the fish were lying in wait an inch from the corn and waiting for it to show signs of life. Then they would pounce.

The shout went up to end the match and John on my right was first to weigh, 25 lb, while my four carp and three roach weight 17 lb 10 oz. As usual I had underestimated the weight of my fish! Kevin on 11 won with 28 lb, and there were three around 25 lb – 26 lb. So I was probably fifth or sixth, but out of the frame. The angler on my left had another three carp, I think, for 16 lb

Conclusion.

I can’t pinpoint anything I did wrongly. Sometimes you know, afterwards, that there were things you should have tried but didn’t – not in this case . The angler opposite, I was told, had 16 lb all in the last 30 minutes. So it was probably just one of those days when the carp in some spots were willing to feed occasionally and the carp in others were late starters. The story of my life!