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.