A good day in the rain

Willows Lake, Decoy, peg 24

Willows is a temperamental lake, compared with the others at Decoy. On some hot summers days you can sit there biteless, watching hundreds of fish of all sizes gathered in pods just under the surface just drifting around with the wind. At other times the fish will feed with abandon, in even the worst conditions. You just never know what you are going to be presented with. But on a day like today, a midweek club match surrounded by mates, the fishing really didn't matter, so long as we all caught something.

One thing is certain – peg 25 is a flier, and has probably won more matches at Decoy than any other. It has a little island to the right, just feet away, and the main island in front 25 yards away. Lots of options – perhaps too many at times. But I also like peg 24, which has an aerator to the left and a nice margin to the right, though you’re limited for space here as Peg 25 is only a few yards away on your right.

I’ve had decent catches from the margins on peg 24 in the past, and think I may have won matches from here. With a strong wind and rain coming at me from the front left I decided it wasn’t time to try to be a hero and fish well out, so I decided on a maximum of four sections in front, and the two margins. Before this match started I could have fished at 13 metres but, sure enough, within seconds of the start the wind increased in force and my four section limit was about right.

I started on corn at four sections, in about five feet of weater, because the water was pretty rough, and it’s more positive than expander, being that little bit heavier. Immediately I got liners from fish off the bottom, but I really didn’t fancy fishing shallow into the wind, so after catching a small bream and a small F1 I put out a piece of cat meat, which brought a 2 lb F1. Half an hour had gone by, and I did what I prefer doing – having a look on all my swims, just to get the rig working properly. First I went to the right, with my favourite inside rig to purple Hydro.

Willows has proper margins, unlike a lot of the other lakes at Decoy, which have had their margins gradually scoured away by wave and fish action, so I was able to search the water from right against the reeds out another three feet, where the depth was only about ten inches greater. On the whole the fish were out in this slightly deeper water.

This area brought a couple of F1s, but I was now well behind Rob on 25, who had about ten fish up to 5 lb. So I put a few bits of corn beside the aerator to my left, which was moored close to the bank, and left it alone. The reasoning was that it’s a natural holding place for carp, so all I needed to do was to tempt the odd fish into feeding, hoping that when I fished there the fish would respond again. But most of the next hour saw me in the right margin, catching odd F1s, and then putting in a bait dropper of dead maggots. This produced a four-pound mirror on a bunch of nine dead maggots, but I felt that there was turbulence there which was wafting the lighter baits about, so I went in with cat meat after putting in corm, pellet and hemp with a big pot.

This brought several fish, at about five minute intervals, and eventually I broke off and had a look beside the aerator, using a toss pot with only half-a-dozen pieces of corn at a time, as fish were almost certainly hanging about there, so the intention was not to attract them in, but to get them to have a nibble. Strangely I would get a couple of fish there in one spot and have to move to the end of the aerator for the next couple, then back to the side. My elastic here was Preston green 13 hollow, an elastic I had been put on to by some of the Decoy regulars, and I have to say it suits the fishery.

I have several different elastics, including double Preston slip 8, which Nigel Baxter used to use, and it is indeed another good allround set-up. But I could not ever use just one elastic as sometimes the fish come in better on a lighter one, and other times the really strong elastics stop them picking up speed. Today, with fish obviously trying to spawn, and splashing about in some of the margins opposite, they were charged with testosterone, and the 2 lb F1s fought like four-pounders, sprinting off when hooked, and then coming in and sprinting out again, time after time. Patience, even using purple Hydro, was the only answer and Rob, on 25, said that he knew he had tried to bully some of his fish in, only to lose them.

The rain was still coming down, but thankfully only light, and though I had rigged my umbrella up it was to protect my gear, so I was feeling pretty wet now. I then had good spell for 45 minutes, probably because I moved the bulk down on all my rigs to about ten inches from the hook, to steady the bait. Rob lost several fish, some foulhooked, but I have a margin method which means I rarely foulhook fish – certainly fewer than most anglers, and I lost just two. Then back to the margin, with cat meat and corn.

On one occasion I dropped in a bunch of dead maggots right beside the platform and had a violent take from a fish which went straight under the platform and broke me – obviously a big barbel, which prefer meaty baits to pellet and corn. I did not repeat that experiment! Then my best fish came from beside the aerator – a mirror of almost 10 lb, and a little later a four-pounder, and with 45 minutes to go I went for another net, and Martin on peg 35 – another good peg – went up at the same time.

I was so glad I use the Nisa connectors as they enabled me to wind the line between pole tip and float down to four inches, so I could keep the rig close to the aerator for at least a few seconds, before the tow and wind took it away again. My best bites came when the bait was almost underneath the aerator, and I felt that gave me an edge and that I picked up more fish than I would have if I’d kept my normal 18 inches of line above the float, which was otherwise necessary becasue of the wind.

The best tactic was to hold the bait still for a few seconds and then let it drift slowly, with the fish seeming to just suck the bait in as it went past.

That last 40 minutes saw me concentrate on the right margin, which was about three and a half feet deep (just over a metre) with corn, at dead depth, and in that 40 minutes I landed F1 to 3 lb and a solitary 2 lb tench, for a total of 27 lb. Meanwhile Rob had slowed up, though he was also catching in the margin to his left on cat meat. To my left was Bob, and though I saw him catch a fish or two early on, I hadn’t seen much action since then. So I though I might have done OK.

After packing up Peter told me that Trevor – our organiser, who has a better record in these matches than anyone else, had been for an extra net with two hours to go! So I knew then I had not won. From our part of the bank we could not see any of the others – and things got worse when Peter told me had had an extra net as well!

Martin weighed first – 107 lb 6oz, and he lost a double-figure fish after the whistle had gone...that was to prove a minor tragedy for him. Then came Trevor, who had fished a banded pellet all day at five metres, and who had just three fish over about 1 lb. Strangely some of us had mainly smaller fish, while some of the others had mainly fish over 4 lb. Anyway Trevor weighed 145 lb 4 oz. Peter, with much bigger fish, taken in the margins, weighed 102 lb 9 oz, and Rob next to me, who had started so well, weighed 58 lb 7 oz. Fish were trying to spawn in his swim towards the end of the match, so that could have accounted for his problems in foulhooking fish.

My nets weighed 43 lb, 44 lb and 27 lb plus ounces for a total of 115 lb 11 oz and second place to Trevor. But had Martin (a former Vets National Champion) not lost his final fish I would probably have been relegated to third. So all-in-all it was good to be out in warm weather, though the rain was annoying – no more than that. And 89-year-old Ted was fifth with 64 lb – he really is amazing. Tomorrow I had intended to fish Raven, at Pidley, but the forecast is for rain literally all day so I will probably opt for a bit of tackle sorting ready for the next weekend club match on Elm Lake at Decoy, where cat meat is likely to dominate.

I have a system where I take the rigs I think I am most likely to use and attach them to my rigs, holding them in place with the hook-up elastic. That gives me a start in deciding what to use, and saves a bit of time – I have an Octbox which is great, but it does take a little longer to set up than my old Rive, and I am rarely ready by the start, so anything which saves time is worth doing.