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.