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.