A difficult day on a snagpit

Decoy Lakes, Damson, peg 13

This was a midweek match, and 15 of us fished. Damson holds a lot of small fish – up to 1 lb or so – and although there are apparently lots of bigger fish I’ve never seen many caught in a match.  Peg 13 is in the first corner, but I didn't fancy it much, because there was no ripple, but a fair amount of thickish scum between me and the corner. I plumbed up a swim near the corner, but never tried it.

On previous occasions as soon as bait has been thrown into the water small fish have attacked it like piranhas for an hour or two; then it’s usually been a case of trying to catch fish in the side. The lake is the deepest one on Decoy – I found about seven feet at 6 metres, and in fact I started by putting in pellets at that distance, hoping to catch up in the water. I couldn't fish much farther out as Peter, on my righthand bank, and I would have crossed over each other. 

But was confident, fresh from my day with Jon Whincup, that it would work. But it didn’t work. Apart from the odd swirl there was very little happening. The sun was bright, and with hardly any wind things didn’t look good, but at least I had a try, and two fish hooked themselves in the first 25 minutes or so – one an 8 oz F1 and the other a small rudd.

So it was back to the method most of the other anglers were fishing – top two in the side. However I wasn’t confident about that. I’d already had my plummet snagged while plumbing to my left, and to the right scum actually stopped my light rigs getting through. There were the remains of trees on the bank, and trees have roots in the side! But most of the bites I had were close to the side, where the scum was thickest. Carp were sipping the scum almost all day, but as soon as they saw a bait laid in they swam up to it, had a quick look, and scarpered!

Peter, across the corner, started very well and at first I thought he was fishing paste, but when I saw him use a baiting needle I knew it was cat meat. So for most of the day I fished cat meat as close to the bank as I could, where the water was about two feet deep, or a piece of corn a little farther out, where the water was just a little deeper with no scum on the surface. But there were snags here as well, and several times I had a bite, struck, and found myself immediately snagged. I tried fishing corn off bottom, above the snags, and I think, in view of how Terry fished, I should have stuck at that. I kept dropping in to my left and put in some corn there but never had a bite.

To cut a five-hour story short I kept winkling out fish, mainbly around 1 lb, with three beween 3 lb and 4 lb, all day, on corn and meat, with the odd one on 6mm expander, for 73 lb 4 oz, but I always felt I should have had a lot more. I think if a ripple had appeared,as it did in some swims, the fish would have fed better. I had dips on the float all day, some of which werecertainly liners, as carp were swimming around all the time. But some were definitely fish playing with the bait, as often there were 20 seconds of movement of the float which finally developed into a proper bite. I had a really good spell about 1 pm, but sport tailed off towards the end.

Terry had a magnificent 158 lb 8 oz, fishing 4 mm banded hard pellet on top two down the side, starting off the bottom. I really should have started like that. More than once this year I’ve been beaten by someone fishing pellet off the bottom down the side. And that performance is the best I have seen this season.Terry is about my age, no longer a perfect physical specimen, indeed sometimes he can hardly walk because of leg trouble. But when that comepetitive instinct is aroused Boy, can he fish! He was end peg on the far bank, so had the longest walk, and I doubt whether he’d ever fished on that bank before, so it was all new to him.

I ended seventh, and once again my long-handled landing net with hook on the end came to my rescue on the many times I was snagged. Most times I managed to get everything back, but I did lose a few hooks. Fishing further out and deeper would have got me away from the snags, but I don’t think I would have found the fish there. The problem with this small-fish fishing is that  you can’t really afford to lose half an hour (as I did at the start, and later when I tried to my left) trying another spot as there are no bonus fish to bring you back.  I averaged 12 lb an hour, and you can see from the weights that another 12 lb would have made a difference to my placing.

So I think I didn’t fish it very well. I must get it into my head that carp tend to be off the bottom for most of the day. I don’t fish pellet as much as I did a couple of years ago, when I could hardly go wrong. Back to the drawing board!

Superb performance by Terry Tribe.

My swim in the corner.

A hectic three days on Decoy

Oak
I love the little two-day festivals at Decoy arranged by Mellor, from Telford. There were 20 in this Saturday match on Oak and Yew, some from that part of the world, and some locals. I was drawn on Oak 23, a cracking draw, as most of the pegs on this Eastern bank of Oak have proper margins, caused by the prevailing Westerleys aroding the banks. Peg 22 is a real flier, where the bird hide is situated, but my peg looked fine. A three-feet deep margin that extended out four feet from the bank to my right, and about eight metres long, and a smaller margin to my left which ended in a bunch of reeds eight feet from me. Both dropped away quickly to the deep water ten feet out.

The wind was very strong, into our faces and slightly from the left, and cold. In fact halfway through I had to put my Goretex jacket over my two sweat shirts to keep warm. I started putting a bait dropper of dead maggots out in the deep water, and kept throwing pellets into the right margin. After half an hour I had not had a bite on the maggot, which surprised me. So it was down into the margin, where I started with a smallish float, around 0.3 gm and expander. On reflection this was propably far too light, because the wind tow was dragging the rig back out towards the deep water, against the wind.

But I started catching fish here, from 3 lb upwards, and was glad I had a heavy elestic – purple Hydro – as high winds can play havoc when you’re trying to land fish on light elastic. I tried cat meat and the result was similar, just odd fish. Soon I started feeding corn, as it is heavier and I hoped it would not be swept away by the tow. But now I saw Danny, three swims away, catching fish really quickly. He’s a very good local who frames a lot in Opens, and I couldn’t work ouit what he was feeding. He told me afterwards he fished pellet all day – I think he fed hard pellet and fished expander. But I could see his float so I know he was fishing a stationary bait. That makes me think I should have put on a much heavier rig to beat the wind.

My best fish was approaching 15 lb, and I had a couple more on 10 lb, and some barbel rowards the end on meat, and lost three or four big fish, possibly foulhooked. I ended with 100 lb 3 oz while Danny won the match with 220 lb. I had good spells, so with a bit of luck I could have won the four-peg section by default, as I needed another 22 lb. At one point Mellor walked past me to get a net, which takes around 6 or 7 minutes including the walk to the car and back. As he walked past I hooked a fish, which turned out to be a 9 lb carp. I landed this one and was just netting a 4 lb barbel as he walked back with his net! You don’t need many spells like that to boost your weight!

Me with a 15-pounder. It was a bit rough!

Danny, the winner.

I found fish right against the reeds to my right, where I had not fed, but couldn’t fish there all the time as the wind was blowing the trailing reeds about and it was impossible to drop into the same place every time. I was reasonably happy as I’d had a great day’s fishing, but I certainly should have done better from that swim. I think I may have fed too heavily, as Danny appeared to be just throwing in a few pellets every cast.

Oak result.

Yew result.

Beastie
Next day there were more anglers fishing and I was on Beastie peg 6. My section was 6,7,8 and 9, and realistically I had little chance of beating those, which all have good features. But a job to do! And it started off well, with a 2 lb bream on corn first drop in at about ten metres. The wind was much lighter today, and I had nice-looking side swims, so I was enjoying myself, particularly when I added some more bream, then two 10 lb carp. But then bites dried up completely so it was time to look down the sides. However I had seen the angler on my right take several fish on a long pole right over to the platform opposite, which used to be peg 13 and is now not used. He told me afterwards they were mainly carp, with three barbel. But at that point, about 2.5 hours in, he had a huge weight advantage over me.

My righthand side towards a tree looked nicest and I found some carp to mainly 4 lb or so on cat meat, and then barbel put in appearance. From then on until an hour from the end I caught occasional carp, biggest almost 15 lb, and some barbel. One screamed away down to my left and snagged me about ten feet from the bank about 12 metres to my left! So it was up off the basket to try to get something back.

My long-handled landing net with hook came to my rescue again, and I wound it round th elastic, hoping the elastic would break rather than the top two. I pulled as hard as I could, but suddenly the bottom moved and I could feel the fish, so I had to unwind the handle from the elastic, and after a couple of minutes oc contortions undoing the whole caboodle everything was free and the fish appeared to be still on. I dropped the handle on the bank, unshipped several sections of pole, and walked back to my peg with the fish still on. Whatever it was attached to had come away and eventually I landed a very irate 4 lb barbel foulhooked in the tail!

The last hour or so saw bites dry up, and I’m not sure why. Nothing came from the lefthand bank. But I finished with 92 lb 10 oz, which was last in my section, but a respectable weight on the day.The angler to my right was second with 142 lb 9 oz. But the angler on peg 9, who went for a net after about three hours, saw his swim completely dry up and he finished with 96 lb 9 oz.

My peg 6 on Beastie.

Low numbers result

High numbers result.

One interesting point. Bob Fayers on 29 told me he saw Steve Own, on peg 30, go for a net at 4.15, with just 15 minutes left. He would have taken at least three minutes to get to the net station and get back. In that 12 minutes he landed six fish for 27 lb! I find that incredible.

Jon Whincup
Next day I had booked a day with Jon Whincup fishing shallow, which has always been a weakness of mine. I’ve known Jon since I wrote the very first feature he ever did, fishing on Ravely Drain about 20 years ago. For those who don’t know, John won two of the Big Three matches last year, picking up over £100,000, buit he’s always been a top class act.

We chose Horseshoe as there are more F1s there, and the wind was roughly over our backs and rain threatened. He showed me the two rigs he would always start on – one about 18 inches with all shot below the float, and the other just six inches deeper with one Number 10 or so, halfway down.

Fishing shallow is pretty simple, you’ve just got to do it right. Consistent feeding is the key, and I’ve always had a proble using a catapult in my left hand. The bait goes out, but it spreads, yet using the same catapult in my right hand sees the pellets fall properly, in a tight bunch.

We fished at 13 metres feeding 4 mm pellets and fishing a 4mm banded pellet, and Jon raced ahead at the start. I wasn’t worried about catching a lot of fish, but wanted to see how Jon did it. In fact he didn’t do much different to the way I fished, but his feeding was more accurate. So I put the pole on a spray bar, fed with my right hand, and immediately my catch rate doubled! Feeding accurately really was the key. The fish were mainly F1s around 8 oz to 1 lb.

At one point I put on a rig with banded pellet and fished the bottom, and took two fish in two casts. Jon had said if I got fish on the bottom underneath where I had been feeding they would probebly be better, and indeed they were – about 2 lb each. Right at the end, after I had packed away my shallow rig and stopped feeding, I had one last drop in with the deep rig...and got another good one.
When bites on the shallowest rig slowed up he instantly went to the deeper rig, and this always seemed to work. So that six inches or so makes a big difference. I was using a Connectajust so I simply pushed the float up and let more line out to do the same thing. Jon said one fish I took was a carassio, which I had never seen – it looks like an F1 but seems different – a smaller tail and rather deeper and more silvery. So I got him to take a picture.

I know how deadly it is to be able to fish shallow – Jon dominated matches at Decoy for years doing it. So money well spent as it showed me I was not far away from being able to make a reasonable fist of fishing shallow. And it really gives you confidence when someone like that can’t see a lot to criticise – except my inablity to feed accurately lefthanded!

Caught shallow.

One thing, though, stuck. He said that the conditions would never stop him trying shallow if he needed to – not even a head wind or strong side wind. He fishes as far out as he can easily can, knowing that the rougher the water the closer fish will be willing to come.

Carassio.

A day when ounces counted

Cedar Lake, Decoy, peg 26

This was a midweek club match, and 14 fished. My peg was in the corner at the Car Park end of this strip Lake, and while the four strips (Elm, Cedar, Oak, Yew) tend to fish best about two-thirds of the way down from the car park, Cedar is the one most likely to produce the top weights from the Car Park end. So far as I know no-one has fathomed out why. Anyway, I was not unhappy with the draw (actually I’m not unhappy with any draw at Decoy) even though the light Southerly wind was blowing down to the other end and all was calm at my end of the lake..

I prodded around the margins before the match and found two spots, to my left, where there was a hint of a shelf – the closest was about 20 inches across, between two sprouting stumps of old bushes, and went about a foot out before plunging down. But I decided to leave that, and plumbed up four swims – one out at 10 metres, another on a plateau near the lefthand end of the lake, where the depth was only about 3 ft, the margin down on my right where it was almost 6 ft, and a metre farther out, where it was six inches deeper.

Just after the match started the wind increased and turned through 90 degrees so it was right in my face – a lovely ripple but not easy to fish shallow now if I wanted to, which was a pity because fish were moving under the surface. So I decided to concentrate on the margins for the moment, and started down on the right, with catmeat over corn and hemp. This produced a couple of F1s and a lot of liners caused, I am sure, not just by fish hitting the line, but others actually playing with the bait. But because there were fish near the surface I put out a shallow rig in the side with a 6mm expander.

This immediately produced a pricked fish, then a missed bite, then a fish properly hooked. It was a 2lb F1, but the rig had a size 18 PR22 on it – a very light-wire hook. So I played it gingerly and while doing so promised myself if I landed it – and even if I didn’t – I would change the nrig for something a bit more substantial. I did manage to land it, and wound that rig back on a winder so I wouldn’t be tempted to use it again. Then I got out another rig with a stronger PR 478.

That didn’t bring any more bites in that area, which made me wonder about the rate of fall of the pellet – something which I experimented with next morning (see below).

Anyway, occasional fish to 4 lb or so came from the deep margin to the right, and I couldn’t see anyone really bagging, so I stayed there and halfway through the match I estimated I’d got about 30 lb. But I needed to make something happen, so I threw some expanders into the little cut-out to the left and followed them up with my new shallow rig, set at the depth of the shallowest shelf – about 18 inches. Amazingly the float dipped and a 5 lb mirror was hooked and landed. Things then picked up and slowly my catch rate increased, with a couple of carp from the shelf and then a couple of barbel, which had moved in, from the right.

The barbel were a real menace, the occasional one coming in quickly if I caught it off-balance, but most just refusing to give in – as they do! But at least I was putting fish in the net. The, at 2 pm, Peter went for his third net and I extimated I had 40 lb in one net and 14 lb in the other, so I was well behind if he had around 90 lb (50 lb limit on this fishery).

But while he was gone I managed to land a 5 lb carp and hook a 4 lb barbel, which I landed just after he had returned, so that reduced the margin a bit. Then Martin went for another net, and I suddenly saw that Trevor – who wins more matches than anoy other angler in the club – had three in front of him already. But I had a job to do, so concentrated on catching anything I could, from both swims, and suddenly my clicker showed 36 lb. One more fish and I went for another net at 2.45 pm, at about the same time as John, in the next swim.

The last hour and a quarter saw fewer fish than I had hoped for, and I remember the last fish was a foulhooked barbel of around 4 lb which I clearly saw hooked in a pectoral fisn, but I lost it after playing it for four or five minutes. No time to re-cast, and I wondered if that lost fish would cost me. My clicker showed 36 lb when the match ended. Apart from a brief look at my close-in line in the deep water I hadn't even picked up the other rigs I had ready.

I followed the scales round, as I like to do. Peg 1, opposite me, saw My Man Of The Match, Ted, weigh in 104 lb 14 oz. I’ve mentioned him before – he’s 89 and I have so much admiration for him. How many other 89-year-olds can regularly catch that sort of weight, without any help? We had a re-add for Terry on 5, and he finished 3 oz short of Ted! Then came Trevor, with four nets, who totalled 166 lb 1 oz – obviously a winner because no-one else had four nets. He had fished corn down the steep sloping shelf to his left, at about five feet deep, laying the rig out and letting it fall into the shelf. Very simple. And they all came from his lefthand margin - he had three quick looks in the righthand side, but never had a bite there.

Ted was second-top weight on that bank, and we came back along my bank. Martin, former Vets National winner and my regular travelling companion to that match, jumped into second place with his 123 lb 10 oz, But he was overtaken by Peter on 20, who totalled 135 lb 6 oz, no doubt taken on his special home-made paste, but he had 6 lb docked from one net...which was to prove costly.

Next to me John Garner overtook Martin with 124 lb 7 oz. I was admitting to 115 lb to 120 lb, as I reckoned I had 39 lb in the first two nets and 36 lb in the last one. Well, I was well out – my last net had 44 lb-plus; my first net had 49 lb 8 0z (!) and the second one had 42 lb...totalling 136 lb, and beating Peter into second spot by 10 oz. So a good day was had by all. (Well, all except Peter).

Experiments
Some of the carp from the shallow margin swim had come to the shallow rig fished just a foot deep against the grass in the lefthand cut-out, while at other times I had to fish full depth and lay the rig in against the slope. But I noticed the expanders seemed to be falling like stones, and wondered if a slower fall would have worked.

I have always been perplexed by writers describing expanders as being light in the water – ie not heavy, whereas I have always found them to be heavy. Certainly when I’m fishing sensitively (as I usually do) an expander – and especially a 6 mm version - will sink my float if it’s not resting on the bottom. That’s how I know when I’m touching bottom.

And I was sure that in this match |I would have caught more if I could have got the expander on my hook to sink slowly. The rules say you have to have a foot of line below the float, so if the fish are in the top foot of water the pellet has shot past them in half a second. I was amazed, when I dropped a 6mm expander into a bucket at home, how quickly it sank – like a small pebble.

So next morning I experimented. The expander has to be completely soaked, because a hook will not easily go through the kernel of a half-soaked pellet. But with a fully-soaked pellet a size 16 fine-wire hook is noty sufficiently heavy to sink it; so it needs squeezing. I found that it seems to be necessary to put the pellet on the hook and squeeze each one – you can’t do a batch. I always have a tub of water on my side tray, so it will be a question of checking each pellet before use. It will take only secionds to check that it has a verty slow rate of sink – time well spent. I hope.

I guess the same reasoning will apply to a 4mm expander, but this season seems to have seen a roach explosion on all the waters I fish, and I have found a 6mm has a better chance of missing them and catching a carp. So recently I’ve been sticking mainly to 6mm on the hook.

Next event for me is a two-day festival on Decoy, followed by that day out with Jon Whincup.

An easy day - but no win

Kingsland Small Carp Lake, Coates, nr Peterborough

This was a midweek club match, which is always, now, on this venue, won by Peter or Trevor surface fishing. They like to try something different, not allowed on most commercial fisheries where matches are held. So I decided I would have a go myself as I’ve never fished a match on the surface. Nine of us fished, which is fewer than normal, probably because of holidays and the forecast!

But the day before this match I changed my mind because the forecast was for rain on and off all day, and I didn’t fancy trying a new method in those conditions. So I decided to enjoy myself fishing cat meat near the margins, and left my main Browning Z12 pole at home, and took a margin pole and my Browning Sting, which I love using. It’s a put-in pole (ie the Number Two goes inside the Number Three) so it’s light – much lighter than a conventional pole because the sections have a much smaller diameter - and strong.

I started five metres out, but never had a fish there, and I fed a margin line each side where I eventually started to pick up fish from 1 lb to 5 lb on cat meat. I had liners all day from fish off the bottom, but as usual they wouldn’t feed off the bottom. Neither would they take small cubes of luncheon meat. I could see Peter and Trevor catching fish from the surface, but I didn’t try that, although I saw lots of big fish cruising around my swim, and sucking the reeds stems.

To cut a long story short I had 95 lb of carp but I estimate I lost twice that amount either foulhooked or which just came off. Several times I got fish close enough to see they were hooked in the mouth, but they eventually pinged off. A couple broke me. At one time, when I had hooked about six fish in 15 minutes without landing one I felt like packing up! I was using my favourite Middy 20-22 and a Latex 18 in my margin pole tops, in an attempt to stop the fish getting up a head of steam. But I fancy I will have to go heavier.

One thing was that the Sting has such thin tops (that’s the diameter, not the walls) that I’ve never put pullers in. It may just be possible, so I will have to have a look at that. It would have helped, I am sure, when landing these big fish. When I first got the pole, over 20 years ago, pullers had hardly been thought of, so I never thought about it when elasticating the tops.

The result was as we had all guessed – Trevor, fishing expanders oon the surface and on the hook, weighed a magnificent 283 lb 5 oz (his sixth weight over 200 lb on this water) and Peter, fishing Chum Mixers, weighed 222 lb 8 oz. Martin was in the favoured swim which is on its own, on one end bank, and took 110 lb 2 oz while I was fourth. Trevor uses Red Hydro and Peter said he uses a Preston 25, which I will have to ask him about as I can’t find an elastic rated at 25.

No complaints – I had a relatively easy day, having known I was not likely to win fishing conventionally. And because there was not a lot of wind I managed to keep fairly dry under my umbrella, though some of my gear needed drying out when I got home. There's another club event at decoy on Cedar on Thursday, and then I have a two-day event on Decoy at the weekend. This weekend I've nothing on (at least no fishing) except a Golden Wedding celebration on Sunday. Not mine - mine's in four years time.

Operator Error on a good peg

Six-Island Lake, Decoy, peg 18

I was delighted to draw peg 18 as it’s undoubtedly won more matches on this lake than any other. I’ve drawn it once before – 15 years ago soon after the lake was dug; I moaned about it being the narrowest swim on the lake...and won the match! With 49 lb from memory. But a win is by no means guaranteed, as the wind tends to dictate the fishing on Six-Island.

This was a club pairs match, and several anglers told me after the draw that they were certain I would win. Err...they were wrong!

I decided to leave my rods in the car as the Southerly wind was not strong, and I guessed I would have no trouble fishing the pole all day. Just before the start Terry Tribe told me to go for the far shelf, even though it’s little more than a foot wide. I plumbed it up at about three feet, and put in a few pellets and pieces of corn; but I started in the deep water next to the reeds a few feet to my left, after putting in a few pieces of cat meat and corn. With cat meat on the hook I hit a 3 lb carp within 30 seconds of dropping the rig in, and it finisghed up in the keepnet.

I spent the next 20 minutes here, while twice putting a few more pellets and corn out to the far shelf, but although there were fish there giving me liners I didn’t manage to catch any, but lost couple, probably foulhooked.

So out to the far shelf, about three feet deep, where I got several more liners, and managed to land a 4 lb carp, but lost two or three others around 4 lb, not all foulhooked as I managed to get them to the surface and could see they properly hooked. So I tried in the deeper water off the shelf and immediately hooked a five-pounder, which came in OK; but again I foulhooked a couple and lost them.

I tried fishing over the shelf shallow and caught one more carp, then a 4 lb barbel on corn in the deeper water; then the wind changed from almost southerly to North-East and bites dried up. I managed just one fish from down the track, and the match was half over by now.
So it was back to the lefthand deep water near the reeds and I alternated here between cat meat and, later, maggot after I had put in a pint of dead maggots. But several more fish came off, mostof them properly hooked I am guessing by the way they fought.

One incident confirmed to me how stupid it would be on this swim to fish for good carp and barbel with light elastic, as recommended by so many experts.I hit a strong fish on my favourite Middy 22-24, played it for a minute or two, then broke down to my top two and used the puller. Now the tops are about 8 feet long, and I had about a foot of elastic out of the end, and the rig was at about 5 ft with 1 ft of line above it...so 7 ft to play with.

When the fish – obviously a big barbel, made a dive straight towards for my keepnets I pushed the top out as far as I could, which is probably 7 ft over the platform. The nets protrude about a foot...so I had absolutely no way of stopping that fish running between them and breaking me. Which it did.

OK, I should have played it out in the middle for longer – but while I can’t speak for the barbel on other waters, I can assure you, Dear Reader, that the barbel here are never beaten until they are in the net! Given a bit of luck I might have stopped that fish running under the platform (I did with two or three other 4 lb barbel) but with light elastic, below 10, I would have had no chance at all!

So I’m happy with my stong stuff. A few other barbel and carp came intermittently up to 20 minutes from the end, on meat and maggots, when in desperation I put a handful of corn and cat meat in the side to my left, in less than 18 inches of water, where I had not seen a fish move. A pot of dead maggots followed.

More in hope than expectation I adjusted the rig I’d been using and dropped in with a bunch of dead maggots and got a good bite immediately, which I missed. Next drop in I hit a fish which came off after a few seconds. Then I adjusted the meat rig I had, dropped in with cat meat, and hit a 4 lb carp straight away!

I had it in the net with five minutes left, lifted the landing net in, and when it was just over one of my leepnets it fell off! The net and fish landed in the keepnet, and I had to sruggle to unhook the fish with a disgorger while I held the line with the fish in the water; then pull the keepnet up and grab hold of the landing net.

I had had trouble with the threaded ferrule on the landing net handle, which had broken, but Alex at Rookery Waters, where I purchased it, had Araldited it back, to see whether it would hold. Now I had my answer – I will have to ask him to get the manufacturers to send me a new section, as it is only a few months old.

So then I had to get up and screw the landing net into a spare handle I always carry. By the time I had got the spare handle from the holdall on the bank behind me and done that I had just time to put the rig back into the side swim when the all-out was called. Frustrating.

To cut a long weighing-in short the lake had not fished well. I weighed 60 lb 6 oz, which was 7th overall, third in my half, but my partner Alan had also had a bad day with 20 lb, so we couldn't have won.

The inquest.
This is the imortant bit. I guess I must have lost at least 15 fish...though most of the other anglers had similar trouble. I’ve no idea how I could have avoided this. For my down-the-track swim I put bait in with a bait dropper, which gets the feed down to the bottom immediately. But at least I can console myself with the knowledge that I at least hooked enough fish properly to have won the match. They fought ibncredibly well, probably because while the fish were still warm the temperature had dropped several degrees, and cooler water holds more oxygen than warm water, so they were turbo-charged.

With light elastic I could not possibly have prevented most of them diving ninto the far bank reeds, which most tried to do, or swining round into the tick rushes at the side. So I am happy that my choice of elastics – black Hydro, purple Hydro, double 8 Slip, and Preston greeen 13 Hollo, were OK.

One other mistake by me- this club starts at 9.45 am and I am virtually never ready. I had intended to set up my margin pole with two shallow rigs, ready to have a drop-in the margins at any time during the day. But I hadn’t had time to set them up. If I had, I am convinced I would have looked sooner in the side (even though it was only 18 inches deep) and everything would have been set up exactly right. When the fish feed close to me I am always confident of making up ground on anyone else in the match.

I spoke to Stuart afterwards, and he has the same problem. We both agreed that in future we will get everything ready, even if it takes until 10.30 am, before starting to fish. So basically I think I helped throw wthat match away. It was won with 90 lb on peg 25, some to the feeder, and others to pole in the margin. Well done indeed Bill.

Wind trouble

Six Island Lake, Decoy, peg 6

This was a club match and the wind dictated the results. Six-Island is like a capital L, with 1 to 3 down the right hand edge, and 4 to 9 along the top edge of the bottom rung. Then it’s 10 to 15 along the bottom and 16 to 23 up the left hand edge, with 24 and 25 nearest the car park at the top.

The wind was roughly South-Westerly, from the bottom left to top right, and it was quite strong to start with. I had it almost in my face, but there were big fish drifting slowly round just under the surface, which didn’t bode well. I started at five sections – at 8-9 metres where it was about 4.5 feet deep, after putting in just a few casters and pellets, but didn’t get a touch in 20 minutes. So I had a look with corn to my right margin, where it was 2 feet deep, and there was a lovely little hole cut into the bank. But apart from one sharp liner first-drop in not a touch.

I flicked a single caster to several cruising fish, but not one reacted, so I doubted whether shallow fishing would work. But even while I was considering it the wind got up so fiercely that I felt I had option but to start another swim in front of me at three sections. So I put in three bait-droppers of hemp and caster, with a few pellets and pieces of corn and I concentrated here for the next half-hour. Just one roach obliged.

There was certainly a tow from left to right, against the wind, but most of the time I couldn’t pick it up because the top drift was so strong. And the wind also caused problems in the side – I eventually put the bulk shot to within five inches of the hook to try to steady the bait, as I fancied there was an undertow moving the bait when it was near the side. But although the right margin looked so good still nothing came, and by halfway through the match I had just two roach.

So I went down to the left, where there was a huge snag in the form of a tree stump which looked as if it had been sawn off, and was now just beneath the surface about eight feet to my left. During the next half hour I also found that there were possibly roots waving in the water as I became snagged three times in different spots, which looked to be clear. However the good news was that after putting in a pint of dead maggots and fishing with a bunch, a barbel took the bait! Then the odd F1 came to corn, and when I changed to cat meat a bigger carp or two also came in.

But the wind made it so difficult I couldn’t fish with any confidence, and laying a bait hard on the bottom brought just one carp. But I persevered, especially as I hadn’t seem the anglers around me bagging, though by now my target was not a win – I suspected the anglers in pegs 16 to 23, who had a backish wind, would get on better. The four opposite me didn’t seem to be catching much, so I decided I would be happy to be the best of the eight pegged on this part of the lake.

In an effort to keep the bait steady I changed from cat meat to a lump of paste, but this didn’t work, so I stuck with cat meat for the rest of the match, taking perhaps one decent carp every ten minutes and managing to lure just one F1 from the right margin, but no others. As the shout went up to end the match I was playing the best fish of the day at about 8 lb.

I weighed 68 lb, which was beaten by a 73 lb in my half of the lake, on peg 11, so I was pretty pleased. But as I had suspected, peg 16 had 92 lb, 19 had 97 lb, 22 had 132 lb, and 25 had 74 lb by Mick; this was a good result for him, and the first time he has framed in a match I have fished. He told me he had also had wind trouble, so had caught most of his fish by putting a Method feeder down into his margin swim. Why didn’t I think of that? It seems to be a good tactic at the moment.

By Decoy standards the lake had not fished well, but there had been several matches in the previous few days, and if the Angling Times report is to be believed, there were two weights over 200 lb possibly the previous weekend. But I still suspect that the main reason was the gusty wind, probably Force 6, which plays havoc with the pressure. It didn’t feel right, so I was actually very happy indeed with my 68 lb. One of my better days. But no photographs as I left my ‘phone at home!

Back to Six-Island again on Saturday, in a Pairs match. I just hope the wind has dropped a little as I always felt I could have caught a lot more if conditions had been just that little bit better.