A good day but...

Magpie Lake, Rookery Waters, Pidley, peg 2

This was a club match and the main talk before the match was that peg 11 had won the previous two matches, with weights approaching 200 lb. Considering the fish run mainly to 4 lb, with not much over that weight, it shows the calibre of the locals who fish here. But I was not unhappy with peg 2...in fact I wasn’t bothered where I fished as for me it’s a day’s fishing with the bonus of having friends nearby. And I was on the £100 Golden Peg.

However, putting my competitor’s hat on, I was worried that Tony had drawn peg 11, and he has proved to be one of the most adaptable anglers in the club during his two years with us. A quick word with Alex from the shop and I decided to do what he suggested, and I what I had already virtually decided on, which was to start near the lillies and come inside later.

So a pot of pellets went out near the lillies, at 11 metres, where odd fish were moving, and within five minutes I had hooked a good one, which promptly pulled off. I strongly suspected it was been foulhooked. So I put in a few more pellets and indeed fish started moving under the surface, so on went a shallow rig with an expander. This brought some tentative bites, and one fish around 3 lb which hooked itself, so I put on a rig with band for hard pellet.

Over the next 45 minutes, with me feeding loose pellet, I landed about five more and then the wind changed to come more sideways and there was a lull. I took advantage of this lull to have a look inside, and soon had one fish in the margins, which were about four feet deep, on a small cube of luncheon meat. It ssemed there were fish there, but I decided to leave it for a moment but keep feeding meat while I looked in the lefthand margin – with no result. So it was back out on the shallow rig for two more fish and then another look in the righthand margin.

This brought regular carp to 4 lb for the next three or four hours, mainly on a small cube of luncheon meat, with odd fish on my heavier cat meat rig. But they never came quickly – each fish had to be worked for. At one point, though, I had three bites on the drop, and lost all three in less than five minutes! I actually believe I should have fed more meat – I got through just fewer than two tines of meat in the whole match, and half a tin of hemp and a few pellets. However, I did put in some of the bait with a bait-dropper, to discourage fish from coming up in the water.

With an hour to go I dumped a pint of dead reds near the left margin, but had no bites. To check the float shotting I dropped the rig in the deeper water farther out, with six dead maggots, and hit a 4 lb fish immediately! But nothing over the dead maggots. So back to the righthand margin, and still odd fish came – I wasn’t sure what weight I’d got as here you use three nets and distribute the fish equally, and I guessed that I had about nine good fish in each net, averaging just under 3 lb.

Then, with 30 minutes left I fed the right margin and dropped my rig into the left margin with meat (which I had not fed there) and hit a fish within a second or two; next drop-in was the same and for 25 minutes I had fish after fish, though they took a bit of landing. With five minutes left I hit another...and lost it. Then, unaccountably, the swim dried and I had no more bites in the last three minutes. That actually cost me the match!

I had seven tops out, so wound them up and sorted out my bait try (I freeze any left-over bait) and the weigh-in had already started. I wandered up to the scales, leaving my gear still to be packed at my peg, because I like to watch the weigh-ins. Tony had weighed in 110 lb 13 oz, and Les, next to him on 10, had 100 lb – a great performance. The next three swims saw 67 lb top, so they were still top up to me. My first net went 39 lb; second one 39 lb 6 oz, and I needed 32 lb 7 oz to equal Tony. Lots of murmerings as the onlookers worked it out, and my last net went...31 lb 15 oz! I was 8 oz behind.

I went round to see the last three weigh, and Wendy, on 34, had 68 lb – all on a feeder down the side. A great performance which we were all delighted with. Kevin, next door, has won the club championship more times than anybody else, and his peg 35 is a consistent one on this lake.But he managed around 45 lb, catching only three of four fish on the inside. So Wendy, Les’ wife, was fourth!

So that lost fish cost me £100 but I had a good day. I should have tried a larger piece of luncheon meat on the hook – I had some with me – and think I probably underfed. But I was pleased to catch a few fish shallow on banded pellet, as I’m not good on this method, and have booked a day with John Whincup, in August, to improve.

A Grumble
When I started matchfishing virtually all the competitors used to assemble at the end, when the results were announced and the pools money paid out. Now it seems most club anglers have to dash home to their wives or to have their bread and jam at an appointed time, before the pay-out if they haven’t won anything; and anyone who wants to know the results has to find the person who has the sheet (if he hasn’t already left).

Why? If that’s so important why go matchfishing – why not go pleasure fishing so they can pack up when they wish? I must say that at many of the bigger matches this tends not to occur, and anglers do go back and watch the pay-outs, and the results are at least available.

Personally I think it’s a discourtesy to dash off home without congratulating the winner with a round of applause – but even our organiser does it, and I know that I am regarded as being strange because I like to see the results and discuss them (as we used to) before going home. And I know it’s widespread because when I ask other anglers who won such-and-such a match they were in, half of them can’t be certain of the weight, who caught it, the peg number, or the method used.

I once did a feature with a Bedfordshire club (sorry guys, I can’t remember the name) who even had a small ceremony at the draw – each member’s name was called out, he came forward and drew, and his peg number was announced. So everybody knew before they went to the bankside, where everybody else was drawn. I’d like to see that as well.

Anyway, by the time I had packed my gear in this match almost everybody had gone home so I didn’t photograph the final result (I know I should have done it on the bank immediately the weigh-in finished, but I was discussing fishing!) I’m always almost last to pack up, and the weigh-in always starts in this club before I’ve got half my gear away. I have an Octbox, which means a few minutes extra taking down the back and dealing with the side tray, and putting on the handles and wheel, so I will never be fast.

I had seven tops out in this match – left margin, right margin (different depth), heavier cat meat rig, long line full depth, five-metre line, and two shallow rigs. And these obviously take a fair time to put away. I know a lot fish with only a couple of pole rigs, or they start packing away 15 minutes before the end, but I dont believe that the timetable for packing up should be dictated by the angler who does it the fastest.

I fish with another club who deliberately don’t hurry to start the weigh-in, and that’s great. However, I’d still like to see that final little five-minute ceremony when everyone gathers to see and discuss the result. And it would improve their knowledge...and results... no end.

Vets National

We watched the weigh-in on Covey Lakes yesterday and I would like to draw here. Last time I was on Spey, which I’m not complaining about as I was second on the lake and won my ten-peg section (Mark Addy won the other) . But Covey is more open, and you can see what other anglers are doing, while Spey is more overgrown, and anyway today there’s not much colour in Spey, while all the other lakes are a nice brown. There are 11 lakes in all, six Coveys, and five others. The talk is that Covey 5 and 6 are the lakes to draw.

The Tuesday match, held in bright sunshine with not much wind, was won shallow on caster, but it’s obviously possible to get big weights from the margins. That suits me. So to our B&B about five minutes away, after having a good meal at the Toby Carvery near Leigh.

The match – blow me, it’s Spey 2 for me and Marsh 18 for Martin, and it’s raining! It rained on and off almost all day, and I had a fair walk from where we decided to park the car. But the match doesn’t start until 11 am so even I had enough time to set up. I had leger rods with me but the margins looked good and I didn’t get them out of the bag. And at least I had back wind.

I plumbed up across at the far bank, at 13 metres, but made a decision to go over there only if things were dire – I could see the poles of anglers to my left, so reckoned I would be able to see if the far bank produced (it didn’t seem to). So at the start I did what I usually do –put some bait out long. I decided on the bottom of the near shelf at four sections, and put casters in with a bait dropper; that gives me confidence that the bait gets to the bottom without allowing fish to intercept it on the way down.

There was a beautiful-looking cut-out in the bank three sections to my right which should surely hold fish at some time; it was about two feet deep and I had a look here. Nothing, but I kept throwing in half a dozen 4mm cubes of luncheon meat (cat meat banned here) every couple of minutes for the next two hours.

A drop-in with expander on a size 14 (maximum allowed) on top two to my left brought just the odd knock, so I also started dripfeeding expander in there. Then it was out to the longer line with caster, but nothing happened. The angler to my left on peg 4 (we were on alternate pegs) had had three or four fish, one from the far bank, one in the deep water and at least one other in the margin, so I looked like being hammered. I guessed, after a good look, that he was using corn, which I had with me, but I decided to stick with what I had started on for the moment.

After two hours fishless, I started getting missed bites or liners on the long line after I loose-fed caster so came up in the water to fish caster shallow. Within a few minutes I had five small rudd in five casts, all of which hooked themselves, and I decided to carry on, hoping the carp would move in. At exactly that point the wind moved direction, and started coming from the left, putting a ripple on the water and dropping the temperature slightly – and despite another 20 minutes fishing shallow and putting in loose casters I never had another bite!

So it was back to the righthand margin, using a yellow-tipped Maver Invincible float to show up against the reflection of the dark bankside vegetation, and suddenly a 1 lb bream put in appearance, followed by another smaller one. I put in a few more cubes of meatand a few casters and left this swim, and started again four sections to my left, beyond a patch of lilles, where I had plumbed up before the match at about two feet deep; I had it in my mind that this swim, with tall reeds by the side, could be the best – and so it proved. I think it important, especially when there’s not a lot of colour in the water, to rest a swim early so the flashing of the hooked fish doesn’t do too much damage.

I had to change my rig in the lefthand swim from yellow Invincible to a black-tipped Drennan TuffEye (there are four differently-coloured tops with each TuffEye) as the light had dropped and I could see the black better. It was time well spent as I had a bite on meat within a minute, and it was a 3 lb F1. I took another fish from here, fed, and went back to the right – but there was nothing there. No matter, the idea was to rest the lefthand swim, so I didn’t worry. I then remembered that the previous time I had fished here I caught on worm (I hadn’t cottoned on to this before the match) so on went a worm...and up came a perch! End of experiment.

Then it was back to the lefthand swim and two more F1s, then nothing from the right. Then more fish from the lefthand swim, and I felt I had to start concentrating on this one, but still feeding both swims after every fish with half-a-dozen pieces of meat and a few casters. One fish was particularly difficult, even though I was using black double Preston 8 Slip elastic, and after some minutes I still hadn’t seen it, but I got the landing net ready and hoped to scoop it oput. That meant I had to pull the elastic, and when it was near the net I was ready to make a dive for it...when the fish suddenly wrenched the pole down and broke me. Actually I had noticed a wind knot a few inches above the hook and hadn’t done anything about it, so it was certainly my fault. I suspect the fish was a foulhooked barbel, as I had got one of 4 lb.

I tied the new hook by hand, but was prepared to use the hooktier if I had problems with cramp in my left hand while tying it; thankfully I got it right first time.

I was, however, having trouble netting my fish because of the umbrella behind me, so at one point I took the landing net handle apart (it’s a Matrix two-piece put-in) and used it short. When the fish started to get a bit bigger I used the handle long but pulled the two sections apart to put the fish in the keepnet. Why not take down the umbrella? I just felt that I could cope and I was better off keeping my hands fairly dry and warm, and being able to keep my towels handy and dry, rather than sitting in the rain. There’s nothing worse than fishing with cold wet hands – it can lead to mistakes.

I carried on in the lefthand swim, catching perhaps one fish every six or seven minutes, mostly around 2 lb until about 45 minutes before the end, when I looked to my right again, where I had still been feeding every drop-in with meat and caster, and immediately got a 4 lb carp then three or four F1s. Then back to the other swim, and just before the end I lost a fish which pulled off, so that meant just two lost fish all day, which I was very pleased with. The bites were very delictae, and it seemed the fish were knocking the bait before actually taking it, so I had to be patient before striking.

Although I got the impression there were fish around all the time I wondered whether my blank spells were because the fish were retreating into the reeds. The wind was a bit gusty, and seemed to alter its angle occasionally, so that might have affected the fish as they are very susceptible to alterations in air pressure. It was rare to get two fish very quickly, and even then I had to lift the bait and drop it to get a bite.

Anyway, I was first to weigh and totalled 20.975 kilos – that’ s about 46 lb in real money, while the angler to my left, who had started so well, had 14 kilos. He had continued moving around his swim – far bank, then deep, then the margins, and I was pleased I had decided to concentrate on the inside as I got a bit of a feeling for where exactly I needed to be. For instance, in the righthand swim I needed to be about six inches beyond the middle of the cut-out, where the water was about an inch deeper than it was nearer to me. In the lefthand swim I needed to feed four feet from the side but fish 18 inches farther out to get a bite. Don’t know why, but you have to go with what works.

The best bit was that as I trudged back to the car the other anglers all told me I had won the section, that some had not weighed, and others had only a couple of pounds. And indeed I had won the lake, and the section, while Martin had just over 21 kilos, but 29 kilos had won his lake.

The match was won by the legend that is Harry Billing (he had been second once) on Covey 3, fishing past in the margins, while Danny Sixsmith (who won my section on Tunnel Barn Farm last year and was third overall) was second on the new Covey 6 after feeding several pints of live maggots and fishing maggot on the hook. This area of Covey 6 – from pegs 151 to 173 – produced five of the top 15 weights. You needed 26.200 kilos to finish in the top 20, so a good match allround, with 160 fishing.

The talk had been that you needed to use light elastic, and I had put a 6-8 through one section, but I had to really hold the fish to stop them getting into the reeds when hooked, so I never used it, and I felt I couldn’t possible have got away with a light elastic. The double Slip was fine, and it was black Hydro in the righthand section. I carry a range, and am quite willing to change if things don’t feel right. Perhaps light elastic would have been fine on Covey if fishing shallow.

So another good result – I’ve had a 15th, two or three tenths, a seventh, and several section wins in Vets Nationals. I’m not looking forward to next year, though, if the match is on Woodland View, Droitwich, as rumoured. The lakes there are so different from each other. The first time it was on Woodland View and Moorlands (together) I won the 40-peg Bank Lake on Moorlands (and won an AT medal) but came nowhere overall. Then the last time I was in the worst section on High Pool, which fished worst of all. But if Martin goes than I suppose I’ll go.

A busy few days

A hectic three days of match fishing started with our club waggler-only event on Willows lake at Decoy on Sunday. I drew peg 14, where it’s about 25 metres to the far bank. Actually I was pleased that this forced me to fish with a rod and float, as it’s so rarely that I do that. So I had three rods made up – a 3AAA long Crystal waggler, a small pellet waggler, and a close-in small waggler (waggler-only means just that – no pole rigs attached to the line). The weather was warmish, but with a bit of a side wind in my swim, and thankfully the forecasted rain did not appear. And I decided just to enjoy a bit of waggler fishing and didn’t expect to win, especially as pegs 24 and 25 were in.

As my mother used to say: “Blessed is he that expecteth nothing for he shall not then be disappointed.”

First disaster was that before the whistle I was checking out the distance to the far bank, and clipped up correctly. As a final check on the depth I whoosed it out – only for it to catch on a the one reed which was leaning out farther than any others. It was right in front of me, leaning towards me, so I couldn’t possible have spotted it. Anyway, even with a shot over the size 14 hook point (instead of a plummet) it still managed to become entangled in the vegetation and I ended up losing the lot! The float hung there alll match, laughing at me...

So on went another float and that was when I realised most of my waggler attachments had perished! So I ended up using a pellet float attachment, as I had a packet of them. These are a link swivel on a wire which is held to the line using two hollow tiny plastic push-on cones. You know the sort of thing. But it seemed to work OK, although it was a bit crude for a sensitive float. After I got home I managed to find a couple of floats in my float tubes which had attachments which had not perished. Isn’t that always the way? Anyway, eventually, a few minutes after the start, I was ready.

I started off catapulting corn out and immediately getting the inside rig working properly with pellet, though I got no bites on it, but it felt right. After about 20 minutes putting out the corn I cast out the waggler and in the next 40 minutes took about three small F1s. I hit a couple of fish which immediately pulled off, so, assuming they were up in the water, I put out the pellet waggler with corn at about 18 inches deep. This brought about five fish, best 5 lb, but there was no pattern to the bites. I alternated between these two rods taking odd fish on the deep rig when the wind blew and the shallow one when it died, when the fish started moving near the top.

After three hours I had about 20 lb, but then Les, to my right on peg 15, started hitting barbel to around 4 lb regularly. Every fish he hit was a barbel and when he had six in the net I guessed he was beating me. But then my cat meat in the side started taking odd fish – a foulhooked barbel, a couple not foulhooked, a couple of 4 lb carp, and some F1s. It brought home to me how versatile the pole is – for instance I couldn’t fish much closer than about eight feet with a rod, and also you can’t lift a bottom-end waggler like you can a top-and-bottom pole float, so I never felt the presentation was spot-on.

Les finished with about 15 barbel (my estimate) and I reckoned he had me well beat. But the scales showed me at 56 lb 15 oz, and Les had 43 lb 12 oz – the early fish had given me that edge over him. But neither of us framed – Callum on the hot peg 25 won with 86 lb 2 oz, and it was his first club match win. We were all really pleased – it’s a good peg but you’ve still got to catch ‘em! I was more pleased than if I had won it myself.

I lost two fish after playing them for some time, probably foulhooked barbel; and I found that playing the barbel with the rod held high for as long as possible was better than applying side strain when they moved away. That was a good lesson learned for when I play them on a pole. Anyway I finshed sixth and quite enjoyed the day using rods...but it won’t become a habit!

Next day another club match on Cedar Lake, Decoy, peg 12. It was raining with a bit of wind and as there were 13 of us we were able to sit on the West bank, with the wind slightly behind us, from the left. Everyone put up his umbrella and they stayed up for the next three hours.

Martin, to my left, in the corner, had a 4 lb carp on The Method before I had even any bait in! I potted out some hard pellets and corn at about 8 metres, and, as usual, had a look in the side to my left in the deep water (about five feet out) and fished there for a few minutes getting everything right., but with no fish – just one liner. At that point I threw in some corn, and switched to my long line, which resulkted in a bream of 2 lb on pellet, then a smaller one, then a lull.

Back in the side, after priming the long line again, and a couple of F1s and a bigger carp showed. Then back to the long line and I started getting carp on corn, which seemed better than expander. Things were fairly slow, so I started switching back and forth, and as has happened so often this year I had to feed before every fish.

After three hours the rain stopped but the wind moved round almost 180 degrees, so it was blowing into our umbrellas, which is why most of them were taken down, including mine. The odd shower then came along, but nothing too bad. By now I had had a look in my right hand margin, in the shallower water up the shelf, and had a good run of about six fish here on cat meat. I also had a couple of big barbel, and a couple more foulhooked in the fin. But only one foulhooked carp, which left me with a scale. It looked as if the fish, which have been showing near the surface all summer, had decided, at last, to drop down.

I didn’t try maggot, as I wanted to avoid the barbel if I could, so long as the carp were willing to feed, but even so a couple of the barbel took corn! As soon as I had a drop in without a bite I fed and took another carp on the long line – so effectively moved round the three swims picking up fish every few minutes. I went for a third net at 2.30 and hoped to get a good hour, but things failed to really pick up and I was only on the verge of getting another net when the whistle blew.

I was convinced, at the end, that Martin, to my left, had battered me as his fish all seemed bigger. He took most of them in the margin just beyond the two pipes that enter his swim, to his left, one of which was dropping water into the lake all match. The scales started on peg 1, to my right, and Peter was top down to me with 167 lb, all taken on the paste he makes up himslf from some ‘secret’ ingrediants, with the other Peter second on 146 lb. I estimated I had 120 lb, but my fish weighed 138 lb 12 oz, for third, with Martin on 124 lb 15 oz after being 9 lb over in one net!

Busy day tomorrow travelling up to Leigh, Lancs, for the Vets National on Partridge Lakes on Wednesday, with Martin Parker, who won this event several years ago on the Grand Union Canal. My best place is seventh last year on Tunnel Barn Farm.

An inch was golden on the day - and I try a hooktier!

Snake Lake, Head Fen, peg 23?

Two weeks without a match - mainly due to my taking a holiday. But it never hurts to have a break!

This will be a shorter description than usual of the club match as I woke up that morning with a slight attack of vertigo,. But decided to go anyway as I assumed it would wear off. But it didn’t, and it was a bit of a handicap as I couldn’t put my head down without feeling dizzy and sick, so everything took a longer time than normal; and it means I fished in a bit of a haze and can’t remember everything.

The first thing to strike me was that there was a big dead thistle in front of my platform, right where a keepnet would go, which convinced me that the peg had not been fished all year – I know that some pegs are normally missed out on this lake. Also I’m not sure what the permanent number was, as our secretary re-numbered the pegs before we had the draw. So not a good omen, I felt.

The firsts 20 minutes saw Tony, to my right, start hooking fish, some of which pulled off, presumably foulhooked. He was fishing down the track, but I started across, hanging a piece of bread a foot deep in the far bank margins, which produced just one knock, probably a liner. So I had a look in the side with a top two, which produced nothing on a small piece of luncheon meat; then I put some pellet and luncheon meat down the track, and tried cat meat to my left, at the bottom of the shelf, with not a knock. So it was down the track, at about three-and-a-half feet, and I at last managed a carp of 6 lb on luncheon meat.

Strangely I got no other indications, and after two hours I had just the one fish, while I reckoned Tony must have had 10 or 12. Then a fish came to cat meat in the side swim, at about 8 metres, and just one on top two on luncheon meat. I fished a method here which I am convinced I would at least tell me whether there are fish in the swim, and it appeared that that one carp was the only one there!

So I had a good look at Tony, who was still hitting oodd fish, and thought he was using corn. On went a piece of corn into the track swim, and eventually carp to 4 lb started coming. I probably had about 8 in 90 minutes, and lost four of five, but I found I had to have the bait on a slight slope. The corn took the float under when it was over the deepest bit of a slight dip, then I eased the rig along until the float just showed and if it wasn’t within an inch of the correct spot (I pinpointed in in the reflections of some trees) I didn’t get a bite. In one slack period I also managed another down the side on luncheon meat – just the one. Then the rain started. It was falling straight down and I was able to stick the umbrella straight up above me, but it took a long time because of the vertigo.

In the 45 minutes of rain I didn’t get a fish, but when it stopped I snaffled another six-pounder from the cat meat swim and hit two more which came off. Then, with half an hour to go, I came down to my top two swim, just to my left, and nabbed three more fish, which went into my secodn net and weighed 15 lb 4 oz.

Packing up was a bit of a blur, as the vertigo hadn’t gone, so it took some time, but I had felt OK actually fishing, as I didn’t have to move my head around much. The scales showed me with 40 lb in my first net, plus the last three - so 55 lb 4 oz total, with Tony having ‘only’ 88 lb – I thought he had well over 120 lb! The match was won by one of our best anglers on one of the best pegs – peg 15, and I was eighth out of 12. One of my worst results (if not the worst) in that club, but Les, on my left, who has been having a really good season, managed just two fish for 7 lb, so perhaps it wasn’t such a bad result after all.

PS. The vertigo carried on for the next three days – unusual, because usually it starts off so bad that I have to spend at least 24 hours in bed not moving, then it goes off over the next couple of days. This time it just seemed to hang around without ever getting worse or better. And I never know what brings it on!

It handicapped me when a fish took me into the far side magin and my hook came off. I tied another, but with wet hands and the vertigo it took a long time – and after catching a fish on it that one pulled off on a fish. So I have made a determined effort at home to use my Matchman hooktier, which I have never used before. A few practices and I hope I have mastered it – but it wastes a lot more nylon than tying by hand, and takes much longer, and because I almost always fish straight-through in the summer I am glad I use the Nisa connectors, which allow me to unwind extra line.

PPS. I wasn't in the mood to take any pictures. Sorry.

A good day on a nice little fishery

Emily’s Lake, Fraser’s Fishery, Little Downham, peg 5.

A hot Sunday, and I knew fish feed in the margins, as I had had a quick sortie the previous Monday, when paste had been necessary to get away from the tiny roach which nibbled anything else. Cat meat is banned here, so I also had some big lumps of luncheon meat for the hook if required. The wind was blowing from left to right and I fancied Tony’s swim, facing the wind, which had a lot of bare bank in the margins. I had a feeling the carp preferred bare bank rather then reeds to feed.

Today the roach seemed to be less of a problem, and I started in the margins, in about 18 inches of water, with luncheon meat, and took five tiny tench in a row which wouldn’t have weighed 1 lb betwen them! It’s great to see these tiny fish – one of my favourites. Then odd carp came, to 1 lb, and after half an hour some two-pounders showed. But I found it essential to feed after every fish – the carp were coming in, feeding, and then going quite quickly. So I kept the feed down to about ten small cubes of luncheon meat on my left, or ten pieces of sweetcorn on my right, followed immediately by my bait. No point in the classic technique of feeding to one side and fishing the other, then reversing it, because by the time I had landed a fish the carp had gone. And I didn’t want to put too much bait in as I was worried it might bring in the roach.

I had rigs ready to fish the deep water and had one drop-in there, for a small roach on maggot. And although I had a far-bank rig ready, at 11-metres plus a dolly butt, I decided not to try there unless I was really struggling. In hindsight I think I got that right.

Anyway, the whole match was a matter of taking two or three fish – the best went 5 lb – from one side then switching to the other side. With an hour to go a 3.5 lb barbel came on meat from the lefthand swim so as sport had slowed I put in dead maggots hoping for more. No more barbel showed, but it did seem to revive the swim a little and I took the odd carp there on a bunch of reds. And boy, did they fight...I would have them gliding on the surface towards the net and time and time again they would turn away with inches to go and start another run. I tried paste once, without result, but had very little problem with roach, so I stuck mainly with meat and corn.

Overall I missed a trick, I think. Tony won with over 108 lb 11 oz, all taken on expander pellet eight inches deep about three inches from the bank. I had come down to a foot deep close to the side, using meat and corn on the bottom, and inducing bites by lifting. But stupidly I didn’t try off the bottom with pellet. I have some rigs in my box with tiny floats about two inches long – why didn’t I try them? In my defence I couldn’t see Tony properly, and knew I was well beating the anglers I could see; and I’m not sure whether it would have been as effective close to the reeds (where there are inevitably bits of weed underwater) as alongside bare bank. But I should certainly have tried.

There are Over 60s opens here every Tuesday and I really fancy having a go. Anyway, I was second with 98 lb 15 oz with third weight 44 lb 2 oz, so I can’t beat myself up about it. A good day’s fishing on nice grassy banks with not far to walk. What more could I want?

PS. I again noticed the fish in my keepnet becoming restless at the exact time the swim slowed with about two hours to go!

My fault - never in with a chance

Kingsland Small Carp Lake

This was a club match and I was drawn in the far coner (no permananet pegs here) where a charity match had been won a few days earlier with 160 lb-plus. I was not unhappy with my draw, as I remembered I had fished it previously and caught fish.

There was little wind and I guessed that would favour both Peter, who fished floating Chum Mixers here if he can, and Trevor, who has already had four weights over 200 lb, mainly on floating expanders. I really ought to have set my stall out to fish floaters, but decided to stick mainly to cat meat, feeding mainly corn and cat meat.

I started off by bait-dropping corn out at top 2+1, and then put some cat meat and corn out only a couple of metres out towards the corner to my left, where the reeds are pretty thick – as they are all round the margins. The fish here are big, so there was no point in using delicate tackle – my rig for the corner was 0.3mm – about 12 lb, with a Kamasan Animal size 12 hook. I didn't expect much early on, but gave it ten minutes on the three-section line and then moved to my main swim.

A four-pound mirror came quickly, and then more at ten-minute intervals, so that after two hours I had around 40 lb. To give that swim a rest I went out onto the other line occasionally, but managed only a couple there. So most of the time I was back to my lefthand short swim. And after four hours I had around 85 lb, losing one fish in the reeds. That was strange – I played it for several minutes, broke down to my top two, and up to then it had shown no inclination to stay away from the open water. Then, suddenly, it got its head down and struggled its way into the reeds, with me quite unable to put on any more pressure without risking breaking my top two. The tight purple Hydro just kept stretching, and I wonder now whether the fish was foulhooked.

Anyway, it weeded me and I managed to get the float back usinh my long landing net handle with a hook on the end. Another fish took my rig from my margin pole. This is more than 30 years old and stiff, so the fish don’t fight quite as much, and I am certain that fish was foulhooked as it made a typical run out to the centre of the lake and never looked like stopping. So far the best fish was about 11 lb.

So with just less than two hours to go I fetched another net – only to sit with just one more fish in the next hour. I had left my right margin, deliberately, and now put in a load of dead maggots, which always seem to bring carp in. But this time – nothing, just the odd roach pull. Perhaps it was because this was shallower than the lefthand swim. Then in the last 20 minutes three more fish came from the left swim, and I finished an unauspicious match with 103 lb 10 oz. So a good day’s fishing.

Trevor won with a handsome weight – 237 lb 15, all taken on his floating expanders, with his best fish 14 lb 5 oz. He holds his rig over the surface and tries to drop the bait into the mouth of a surface-feeding fish. Of course this method is banned on most match fisheries, but Kingsland is essentially a ‘pleasure’ fishery and it’s allowed. Peter was second with 161 lb 9 oz, all taken on his floating Chum Mixers and including fish over 13 lb. Mick was third – after a stange experience. He had four nets and went, first of all, to pull out his fourth net – empty! We looked for ages to find a hole in it...then the penny dropped. He had accidentally carried on putting fish into this third net! Our club rule is 50 lb maximum so poor Mick, with well over 80 lb in his third net, lost more than 30 lb from his total, which in the end was 129 lb 5 oz. Ted, who is aged 89, was fourth with a magnificant 113 lb 10 oz – what a performance!!!

Finally, I noticed something which may strike a chord with others – at the time my fish went off the fish in my keepnet became restless and started cavorting near the surface, producing big waves. I’ve noticed this time and time again in the past few seasons. Is it just me, or has anyone else experienced this? Perhaps it’s worth a posting in the Maggot Drowners forum?