Oh, dearie me!

Midweek club match, Elm Lake, Decoy, peg 23

I have to be honest and say that before the match I did not fancy my draw at all. In fact it’s possible  I moaned a bit and called it the worst peg in the complex! I’ve fished it before (obviously) in a festival and did badly – mercifully I can’t remember the details; but I remember Afe Edgeley, a cracking matchman, coming last in one of the festival matches from the same swim.

Elm has 24 pegs – 1 to 12 down the West bank and 13 to 24 back down the East bank. I would have much preferred 24 to my left, as at least I would have had a corner to fish to. But it was not peggd today. As a general rule the best weights tend to come from the far end of the strips, so I moaned that I was also at the wrong end. Thirteen fished (unlucky?) I was not optimistic.

Peg 23 had no margin when I last fished it – it’s an almost straight drop down to about 6 feet of water (Elm appears to be probably the deepest of the strip lakes) and to the right there’s a tree which means you can’t fish along the bank that way. However, since then the prevailing Westerleys have caused bank subsidence on some of the lakes, and on this occasion I managed to find a small area, ten metres to my left, which was only 18 inches deep for a foot or so out, before dropping away. I carry a small pair of hand shears with me, and cut the bankside grass so I could see into a bit of this small hole if I stood up. Sort of desperate, really.

A handy little tool.

This will be a short report because I had to leave before the weigh-in to play a bowls match. The water had a decidedly greenish tinge from some sort of algal bloom – as did the other strips – and scum was collecting at our end, blown there by the light North-Easterly. The sun shone all day.

I started in the shallow margin to my left mainly so I could reassure myself I had at least tried it, and, to my surprise, using a 6mm expander, hooked and landed a 5 lb mirror first drop-in, followed by a 3 lb barbel also on an expander. To rest the swim I then came in the side, at the bottom of the shelf in the deepest water – about a metre out from the reeds, and hooked another carp first drop-in, on corn followed by a 2 lb barbel, also on corn. So 12 lb in the first 15 minutes!

Of course it didn’t continue like that so I alternated between the two swims, but took only two gudgeon from the shallow one in the next two hours (one of my favourite fish, and a sign the water is in good condition) , and odd carp from the corn swim. I then had a drop in to the right margin on top two, using cat meat, without putting any feed in, and foulhooked a barbel. So I fed cat meat and hemp here and took another three or four small ones quickly. But the carp swim then went dead.

I now want to avoid being last!

A little over halfway through the match, I had an estimated 35 lb and Peter Spriggs went for a third net! Followed, in the next hour by John, the other Peter, Terry and Trevor. I had at least started on my second net by now, but my target was to avoid being last, and hopefully  beating Mick Linnell – a former Peterborough National angler, on the peg to my right. Despondent was not the word.

With an hour and a half to go sport suddenly started to really pick up, though in only spurts, and I had to feed before every fish. However, with 45 minutes left, and an estimated 40 lb in each net, including a couple of barbel approaching 5 lb, which took forever to land, I went for my third, shortly followed by Peter Spriggs and John going for their fourth!

When I sat down again I continued to catch well –  carp to about 4 lb, and the occasional 2 lb barbel – on cat meat. But I had to tease the fish into taking the bait – they seemed to be playing with it and wouldn’t take until I dragged it along the bottom. Lifting it produced no response. Strange. Two of the last fish were bream of 1 lb and 2 lb - I have noticed that when the carp disappear there's often a bream or two there, presumably cleaning up. Anyway I reckoned I had 22 lb in that last net when the shout went up to end the match. I had lost only three fish all day, none of which I think were foulhooked.

I had to leave my catch to be weighed, and estimated my nets held 40 lb, 40 lb and 22 lb, so I might have broken the ton. Mick, to my right, estimated he had 60 lb, so I then knew I was not last.

The result

I spoke to John later that night and he told me what had happened at the weigh-in. The following relies on my memory of that conversation...the main weights being: Terry on peg 5 had 109 lb most on a straight leger with banded hard pellet, John on peg 8 (four nets) had 127 lb 10 oz, Trevor on about peg 11 had 116 lb, Peter Spriggs (four nets) on peg 15 had 137 lb and won, the other Peter on 20 had around 120 lb for fourth. Then came my catch – last to weigh.

John spared me the exact details but apparently I was way, way  over in my first two nets and had a lot more than 10 lb deducted, my total weight being given as 127 lb dead for third! If the disqualified fish had been added I would have won!

I thought the fish felt heavy in the landing net, but dismissed it from my thoughts at the time. So they must have weight almost 50% more than my estimate – solid fish in great condition. And at the end of the day I had a good day’s fishing from what used to be a crap peg(!)

I love Elm peg 23 now - one of the best pegs on the complex...

0(^ _ ^ )0

A grandstand finish

Club match, Kingsland Small Carp Lake, Coates, Nr Peterborough

I like this time of year when temperatures have dropped and it’s often a case of fishing for just one fish at a time – more like Winter League fishing but with the fish bigger. I fished Winter Leagues for about 40 years – when winters tended to be much colder and snowier than they are now.  I promised myself when I stopped fishing them that I wouldn’t commit myself to travelling to match draws in the dark, shivering all day, and driving home in the dark...yet I’ve entered the Tony Evans individual Winter League at Decoy this winter. How stupid am I?

Actually I did several stupid things in this match at Kingsland. The details will follow. This lake is like a long rectangle and not permanently pegged, but all 17 swims were taken, with 1 to 7 along top side of the rectangle, peg 8 on the right-hand end, 9 to 15 back along the bottom side, and 16 and 17 on the lefthand end.

I fancied pegs 8 (which has won more matches here than any other), 7  which I have never drawn, and 9, 15 (both in corners) and 17 – all of which have been kind to me in the past. I’ve also done well off pegs 6 and 10. In fact I drew 12, slap bang in the middle of the bottom side. The light Easterly wind was blowing roughly into peg 7, though it swung round a bit during the match to blow, very lightly into peg 9. There was hardly a cloud in the sky, and it got really warm. Altogether a very pleasant day.

First mistake

I started off making the first stupid mistake within a minute of the start. I put some chopped-up cat meat and corn four metres out near my right margin, a little away from the dense reeds, then bait-droppered some corn, pellets  and luncheon meat out into a swim about 6 metres out, and put out a piece of cat meat into the margin swim. I was using my old margin pole – heavy but stiff, with three short sections. Immediately I was into a carp which shot back between my keepnets before I could say: “What happened there?”

Stupidly I hadn’t got any extra sections added and paid the price. The rig, on 0.23mm nylon at 10 lb breaking strain, came back minus the hook. So on went another Kamasan Animal hook size 12 (maximum allowed) but no more fish came, though it became obvious that this season’s carp fry had all gathered in the margins and were playing havoc with both the bait, which they nibbled to death, and the float, which they attacked with equal vigour. I actually caught four fish no more than half an ounce each, on cat meat!

Fishing out was better

So it was over to my 6-metre swim, where the next half hour saw me take a 5 lb and a 4 lb carp on a small cub on luncheon meat. The fry were not a problem this far out, so I persisted here but got no more fish. Back to the right margin, but still no luck. So after two hours I felt I had to look to the left margin, which was awkward because the sun was reflecting off the water here. The fry were a nuisance again, but a couple of carp came to the small cubes of luncheon meat, then to a piece of cat meat, fished about six feet away from the reeds.

My lefthand swim - I fished next to the little piece of black,
dead reed sticking up, as I assumed there was an old
reed bed around it, providing cover for the fish.

I could see Dave on peg 7 absolutely hammering fish on his waggler-fished cat meat (he uses very little else). At one point I saw him land four in no more than 15 minutes, though they didn’t look more than about 3 lb each.

When I stopped getting bites and the occasional fish to the left I had to keep looking at the 6-metre swim. Once again, as I have found almost all season, I had to feed before the fish would come in. After three hours or so, with about 25 lb in the net I was tearing my hair out, particularly when Tony, on 17, went for a third net! Although the wind was blowing towards me, putting a ripple on the lake, the ten metres or so nearest to our bank was still calm, with no ripple at all. Frustrating, as with the sun I fancy a ripple would have helped a great deal.

I also had two problems with carbon splinters in my hand (that’s a problem with old carbon) each of which took a good ten minutes to remove, using a size 12 Preston PR378 clamped in the jaws of my forceps to dig underneath them, finally pulling them out with the forceps. Leaving them in would have meant them starting to turn septic and hurt within minutes – so I had no choice, really. I’ve tried leaving splinters in before, and they always cause problems in my softish skin! I carry plenty of plasters in my car but didn’t need them on this occasion.

One interesting little cameo came when I watched Dick on peg 8 play a big fish. It was on for some time, then suddenly the fish surged to his left, the fish came off, and the pole hurtled straight over Dick’s right shoulder, thrown up the bank in disgust. I imagine he said something like: “Oh dear!”

A bit of luck

Back fishing and I had a stroke of luck, when I lifted the rig out of the 6-metre swim to find a fish on the end – and it weighed about 10 lb! I was using my old trusty Browning Sting for this swim – because I like it, it’s strong, and if it were to break on a big fish (which is always a possibility here) it wouldn’t be the end of the world as I have a spare at home. So I gave it some wellie on the Middy white 22-24 elastic (almost the only length of this lovely elastic I have left) and it went in the net.

A 3 lb fish from the lefthand margin went in that same net, and I decided to use the second net from now on, as I estimated I’d had about 38 lb in the first one. But it took some time before anything went in there. I still can’t make out whether the carp were scaring the small fish away from the cat meat when they wanted to eat it, or whether the carp were selecting the pieces the small fish were not attacking. But occasionally I’d get what looked like a proper  bite or a liner, with no small-fish indications. But no more fish.

More stupidity

I was still having problems with small fish ruining the cat meat and, having got through one tin, I went to my small cool bag, which I always take, holding two tins of cat meat and an ice pack. Lo and behold, there was a tin of the old Coshida. I opened this and there was my answer – bigger lumps which were very firm, thanks to the ice pack. Why didn’t I think of that earlier? First drop in with a big lump saw a three-pounder take straight away.

Even more...

At this point, with 45 minutes to go I saw a dead reed in the margins no more than six inches from my platform being pulled about, obviously by a carp. I dropped some corn down, followed it with my rig on top two of the margin pole, right beside the platform, and within 30 seconds I had a fish on. Half a second later the fish had shot under the platform and I was well and truly snagged. What a stupid thing to do! I had absolutely no chance of getting out a carp of any size fishing that close to the platform, which has a very big, substantial metal frame. I managed to grab hold of the connector and pull for a break. Forty-five minutes to go and I was despondent – lost my favourite rig and was probably almost last in the match, as the anglers both side of me were landing fish, as I could see the splashes.

James, to my left, has has weights of over 200 lb in our matches (one on this lake) so I guessed he was also probably thrashing me. Dave in the corner was still landing fish, having gone for a third net. And I had to decide whether to pack up, as I felt like doing, or put on a new rig. I chose the latter, realising realised fish were now right in the margins, against the reeds.

A purple patch

In went a handful of corn five feet to my left, near a piece of bare bank, and some cat meat, and within seconds I was playing a carp of about 8 lb. Next drop-in saw a near double-figure fish on which took a few minutes to land, and straight after that one about 5 lb. Twenty minutes left now. Next drop-in a big fish was on, and I had 19 minutes of trouble landing it! It refused to use any energy by making strong runs, but just plodded about, refusing to come in. I would pull one way strongly and it followed me, but still hugging the bottom. Pushing a pole tip well down under the surface usually encourages a fish to come to the top – not this one. It was ten minutes before I saw my float!

There was no question of bullying it – it was like a sack of potatoes with a tail, which it swished every now and then to stay out, and when it was anywhere within a couple of feet of the net it just turned away and dived. By the time it was in my landing net – a good 10 lb of it – there were 30 seconds left – just enough time for me to drop in a baited rig. I doubt whether the cat meat had touched bottom before Time was called. Oh for another 60 seconds.

The weigh-in

My Octbox is brilliant but it, and the accessories I use, which include a backrest, take longer to dismantle than other boxes, and the weigh-in had already started by the time I had it up to the top of the bank and ready to load. I left it there as I like to watch the weigh-ins – I learn a lot from talking to the anglers. More of that in a minute!

I got to Dave in time to take a picture and see that top weight to him was 56 lb (from our oldest member Joe, aged 87!), which surprised me immensely, as I had envisioned most anglers having getting-on for 100 lb. The first two pegs, which often don’t fish well, didn’t produce again. Dave’s three nets weighed 145 lb 4 oz, and he was a little over our 50 lb maximum in two of them! Then to Dick on peg 8, who totalled 77 lb 12 oz and told me he had lost some (as I knew).

Then to Callum, whose biggest fish, a common,  we weighed at 16 lb! It had a cut on its back which we assumed might have been caused by an optimistic cormorant, having no other explanation. The big fish were circling under the surface all day, as they tend to do, and are an obvious target for circling predators. Then to Alan, on my right, who had had a good finish and ended with 55 lb. I weighed 46 lb in my first net (way over my esitamte) and my five fish in the second went 39 lb 8 oz. I hadn’t clicked these because I had assumed I had no chance of getting 50 lb in the last hour. How wrong could I have been? Then to James who, surprisingly, totalled just 59 lb, but he told me had had lost several. I had lost just two fish all day – the ones that had snagged me under the platform.

Callum with his marked 16-pounder.

Fourth man Dick.

 

Runner-up Dave, 145 lb 4 oz.

Kevin, who has been Club Champion more times than anyone else, on 15, had struggled. Tony on 17 had four nets, and they went 171 lb 12 oz. A great day’s fishing...and all caught on corn! Stuart on peg 4 is a very good angler and had told me, while we walked round, that he had got on better with corn, which the smaller fish had left alone. Why didn’t I try that?

So I finished third, which I probably didn’t deserve, having made mistake after mistake. But I shall tell everyone I fished brilliantly...as you do!

Tony brings up a net. By now
the wind had dropped to
almost nothing.

PS. I went back to my platform after I had loaded the car, armed with my trusty landing net handle with screw attached, and managed to dig out my lost rig. The line was still attached to the platform frame somewhere below the surface, but I got the float and most of the line back. One little triumph in a day of negatives.

Winner Tony.

 

The result.

My margin pole

My margin pole must be the oldest in use. I was given it secondhand in the 1980s by Roger Mortimer who worked with me on Angling Times and used to use it for eeling but had no further use for it. It’s a Century blank, I believe, and very, very heavy.  But since I normally use it only up to about five metres maximum that’s not a problem. The top two is only about four feet in length, so the elastic doesn’t stretch much, but it doesn’t need to...

The reason is that this pole is stiff, and fish don’t fight as hard when hooked as on modern poles, which bend. It’s the bending and the rasping of the elastic on the pole that fish don’t like. That’s why handlining can bring fish in so much more quickly – it’s banned on most waters but we did a test once with an angler (can’t remember who it was), who proved that just holding the elastic sees a fish calm down. Pointing a top two directly at a fish, avoiding any bend, has the same effect. The fish slows down.

The whole point of using elastic is to let the elastic do its work. If you hold the pole steady, not moving it, a fish tends to slow down and swim in circles. Put pressure on it by pulling the pole back and the fish responds. Of course to net the fish you need to pull back eventually, but I believe too many anglers play fish as they would on a rod and line. The secret with big fish, after the first run, is to try to calm the fish down and bring it slowly within netting distance before you make that final pull.

Easier said than done, of course!

Trials, tribulations, and a nice surprise

Kingsland Silver Fish Lake

Actually, this is no longer a Silver Fish lake – they largely vanished some years ago. But when it was, it was fantastic – chub catches over 100 lb, with lots of bream, tench and crucians. However, there are carp there now, and it’s going to be a great match lake.

The reeds are a bit of a problem – in my swim they went out ten feet from the bank both sides. So it’s a question of playing fish out in the open water before bringing them in to net. I didn’t fancy my swim at all – this was two days after the Yew match, when the cold wind affected sport and uyou needed to be away from it to catch. But it was certainly not as cold on this occasion, though it was into the three of us on this bank.

So eventually I got my stuff ready – it’s a bit of a problem at Kingsland, where the platforms – admittedly very good indeed, with plenty of space – are all down a small steepish bank, though there are steps of a sort, and usually a concrete slab behind you. But as you get older it takes so long to get down to the swims – I had to unclip all the draws on my Octbox before taking the frame down to the platform and clipping the draws back. That’s not a complaint about the fishery  – that’s life (hey, a good name for a TV programme?)

There’s a steep slope on all these lakes, and particularly this one, so I started at a comfortable eight metres, which was still on a slope as the water kept getting deeper as I plumbed farther out.  A 6mm expander over pellet and hemp brought a 5 lb mirror first drop-in, on Preston Green 13 Hollo elastic. Then a 4 lb common. Then...nothing. I put in some bait near the reeds and had a quick look with small cubes of luncheon meat, which brought some 2 oz carp.

So it was back top the eight-metre swim, where I took odd fish to 2 lb, finding, as I have all season, that I had to put bait in after every fish or I didn’t get a bite.  Then I had another look in the side with my old margin pole and 18 Latex, and took a 5 lb carp, and with two hours to go I reckon I had about 25 lb.

Big fish under the surface

I had had a walk up to Peter next door, who loves surface fishing here, after about an hour and he had said he was catching. So I imagined he was absolutely whopping me now, especially when I saw the odd Chum Mixer float by as I guessed he was catching well on the top. Big fish were circling around just under the surface so I tried half an hour shallow fishing with small cubes of luncheon meat, as they sink slowly. I hit one fish which came off, but had no other touches. So I eventually decided to come back inside.

Snagged

With about 90 minutes remaining I started to catch the odd fish, though because I had to hold them so hard, to stop them sprinting along the side of the reeds and snagging me, several came off. One incredibly-strong fish shot down to my right and snagged me about 15 yards along, which was a bit of a tragedy as I had five sections of pole out and a lot of elastic stretching into the reeds, with no hope of walking beating my way through the reeds as they grow so far out into the water.

Unsure what to do I held it tight for a couple of minutes, trying to work out how I could reach the elastic, when I fancied I felt a kick. Sure enough within the next couple of minutes the fish slowly came out into open water and I resumed the rest of the fight, though at one point it got back into the snag, but came out again. Amazingly that fish weighed about 3 lb, but it was long and slim, like a wildie, so that must have accounted for its incredible energy.

Later I had another wild carp which thought it was a barbel and took ages to net.  I’m wondering if these fish are the remains, perhaps, of a small population which has been in the lake for years? I’ve never seen fish like them in the other two lakes. Pity I didn’t think to take a photograph. I know they were wild – in fact by the way they fought I would say they were b****y  livid!

I lose my top two

With an hour to go another fish from the eight-metre swim started to run along the reeds to my left and I saw with horror that the Number Two section was not properly on the Number Three – there was a definite dog-leg. So I shipped back as fast as I could to adjust it, but as I went to grab it the top two shot into the corner of the reeds, and lay there about ten feet out. I could reach the end with my long landing net handle with hook, but couldn’t see the elastic.

I didn’t fancy wading out to get it, as you never know what’s on the bottom, so I had to leave it there. I found that the Number Three had developed an L-shaped crack in the top, which is why the Number Two hadn’t slid down far enough. So after wondering briefly  whether to go home or carry on what seemed like a hopeless quest (I was sure I had blown it), I pulled myself together and carried on with the margin kit.

Suddenly things changed and provided I fed after every fish – a little chopped cat meat, corn and hemp - the fish started coming. One of almost 10 lb took my cat meat...and came in within 30 seconds! Strange how the bigger fish can sometimes give in so easily. The secret was to hold the pole low, so the fish came to the surface, and slowly keep it coming – but you have to net it first time.

The last half hour saw me take four or five more fish, some on cat meat with a couple on a small cube of luncheon meat, but I still guessed I might be last, as I had the feeling that everybody else would have caught plenty. By this time my top two had completely vanished, so no hope of getting it back.

I estimated I had 38 lb in the first net and wasn’t sure about the second as I started it so late I hadn’t bothered to click, thinking I couldn’t possibly come near the 50 lb limit. So I guessed 65 lb total. Mick Linnell, ex-Peterborough National angler, weighed 84 lb 6 oz from our peg 1 (no permanent pegs on Kingsland) and he was top weight round to Peter, who weighed 87 lb 6 oz. He told me he went for a net with 40 minutes to go...and never had another fish! And he’d had only two fish from the surface, not the shed-load I had imagined.

I was last to weigh and my first net felt heavier than 38 lb. In fact it went 47 lb;  I think I must have forgotten to click a couple, which I often do, which is why I usually stop at 40 lb clicked. The second net weighed in at 41 lb 6 oz – much more than I had imagined – but enough to give me a surprise win by just 1 lb. So rig, elastic and top two lost, but a win is a win...

The result. Sorry I took no more
pictures.

Ellis remembered

Yew Lake, Decoy, Peg 3

This was the third Ellis Buddle Memorial. Ellis was a member of our club but died three years ago., and was a great inspiration to me. He would sit there, fishing, with his oxygen cannister by his side and the pipes up his nose to help him breath. Smoking did for his lungs. But he still used to frame.

I remember one day on Kingsland Silver Fish Lake when hecame second with about 65 lb of chub, beating former National Champion Bryan Lakey on the next peg, and Bryan was more made-up than Ellis himself. On another occasion, on the main Kingsland Carp Lake it was a hot day, sport was slow,  and I wandered along during the match to see Bryan; on the way back to my peg I heard this plaintiff “Mac, can you help me?” from Ellis. I slid down the bank to him and saw his problem – he had an 18 mirror carp in his landing and couldn’t lift it up to unhook!

Somehow we managed to lift it up, unhook it, and get it into his keepnet, though you can imagine how difficult that transfer was! Anyway, he was always grateful for the help he was given – lifting his gear out of the car and putting it back, as he hadn’t enough strength left in his later years to do it himself.

So Ellis leaves me with great memories – which is more than this match did! The temperature dropped heavily overnight and the wind was Northerly with a little bit of East in it, which meant that the end pegs, from about 10 to 15 and 16 to 20 on the other side, were calm, and the rest had ripple, with most at the car park end, and my bank had a slight headwind; so my swim, end peg, was the coldest in the match. And it felt it – I was shivering towards the end. It was, as always, a drawn-team event, with five teams of four (I didn’t fish last year’s match, but was 2^nd in the first one and in the winning team).

A slow start

As it was so cold I started with a Method feeder, with just a couple of liners, but no fish. Then on pole at 11 metres, on a 6mm expander over 4mm pellets, with no signs of a bite for half an hour. So I had a look down the side in the deep water, where there was a considerable tow, using a 4mm expander over 4mm pellets. No result. Two hours had gone by. Back to 10 metres, and then I remembered that once I had had fish by putting on an extra section...and it worked! First drop-in a 5 lb carp came in. But no more, though I did foulhook and lose one.

Two hours left and I was cold and desperate, the wind had got up and was so strong I couldn’t even fish 10 metres any more,  so put in a bait-dropper of dead maggots right in front of me and tried tripping a bunch of four reds trough. The tow was quite pronounced – I’ve fished the Trent on occasions when the flow was less than this!

...and a slow finish!

Two hours of hard work brought two carp with two lost, and a 2 lb tench at the end, plus a tiny perch. John Buckenham, opposite, who had won the first two memorials, had one on a pole and half a dozen on the Method, so I didn’t feel I had done too badly. One of the lost fish snagged me about ten feet from the bank, and I had to pull for a break. My guess is it's an umbrella stuck in the bottom, as my hook was definitely not on the bottom, but a fair way above it. Anyway, Di knows where the snag is and Decoy will have a search around for it. They are very good with that sort of thing.

My five fish weighed 16 lb 6 oz, which was towards the bottom, but at the weigh-in I couldn’t believe the difference between my end of the lake and the other end – it was ten degrees warmer down there, with virtually no wind, and my mate Peter won it in the corner on peg 15 with 74 lb 13 oz. He was in the winning team, so well done, Peter. My team was third, with the two best weights towards the calmer, warmer end.

Just for the record the only DNW was next to me on peg 4 – probably not a very experienced angler but I felt he fished a tidy match, concentrating on the bottom of the shelf and fishing to the end of the match without a fish.

Richard Morris was in my team and
was third with 40 lb 10 oz,
 including this cracking mirror.

The result.

Looked in the margin too late!

Willows Lake, Decoy, peg 28

This was a 13-entry club match. I knew peg 28 – opposite the island in the ‘back’ half of the lake, and Terry confirmed that, as I thought, it is snaggy, and that I’d need to fish a metre short of the island. So I found a nice spot there which was a few inches deeper than the surrounding area, and decided to start fishing shallow there as the wind seemed warmer than the previous day. Then I intended to go down and fish a banded pellet, or an expander, on the bottom.

It’s not often I start fishing shallow, but I was delighted, after half an hour, that I’d lost an F1, landed one about 2 lb, and also caught a 4 lb mirror, all shallow. But then the wind got up, and although I then had a succession of bites nothing came of them and I assumed they were probably roach. But because I’d been feeding this line – 11.5 metres out – for an hour I didn’t want to give up on it completely, as I reckoned I could just about hold my rig out there most of the time.

However, to rest my arms I had a look in front of me, at three sections out, with corn, and quickly found a couple of F1s. A change to cat meat brought a couple of carp, and I decided to concentrate on this swim for the moment, feeding corn and hemp and fishing cat meat. My righthand margin had a nice hole against a tree stump, but it was difficult to see because I had put up my umbrella right on the edge of the bank as the forecast was for rain during the day, and I couldn't easily fish there. My left margin had no real feature apart from the bankside reeds so I hadn’t fed this. I had the occasional 3-4 lb carp, and odd F1s so decided to stick it out there rather than go across at 11.5 metres because the wind became quite gusty.

With an hour-and-a-half to go I estimated I had about 30 lb, which was not likely to be enough to frame even if sport was bad, as peg 25 – the flier – was in, and Terry, ex-Div 4 National winner- was on 24, which is probably the second-best swim on the lake and had produced the winner the previous day. So I had to make something happen, and put in some cat meat and pellet down on my left. First drop-in and my float zoomed away and a 4 lb mirror came in.

Snagged

Again I had to feed to get a bite, but fish started coming, though I took the odd one from my three-section swim to rest the margin swim. I foulhooked four – one, probably a barbel, shot straight into the marginal reeds and I couldn’t even see the end of the elastic; it was buried deeply in the reeds. I produced my long-handled landing net handle with hook on the end, wound it round the elastic, and heaved, but it was fast.

So I had to crawl along the wet bank and grab the elastic – doubled Preston 8 Slip – and try to pull for a break. Nothing gave and I thought I would have to cut the elastic. Then it suddenly started to pull away, and after another minute hard pulling I actually got the whole lot back – float, shot, and hook, though the hook was broken. How it managed to not break is still beyond me. The line is the old Silstar Team Match, which I use on many of my rigs – marvellous stuff. I simply cut off the hook shank, tied on another, and started fishing again within a minute!

Heavy rain kept coming in for a few minutes at a time, and although it hit me a little, I managed to keep most of my gear dry behind the umbrella, while my Octbox try has a lid which folds down and keeps bait and accessories dry. Carp from 1 lb to 5 lb then came steadily to the end of the match, mainly from the left margin which was about 3.5 feet deep, and mainly to cat meat. One 5 lb carp jumped clear of the water twice like a trout, and all seemed to be turbo-charged, probably because of the wind and the cooler temperatures, both of which put more oxygen into water.

 I should have looked down the margin much earlier. If I had, I believe I could have won the match, as by the end the carp were taking a bait as soon as it hit bottom. In fact I was playing a good carp when the match finished. Still, you can't legislate for every possibility. One thing I noticed - while the carp and barbel were coming a metre from the bank, the only time I caught a fish right beside the reeds it turned out to be a bream. It was also good to see a couple of tench put in appearance. They have been conspicuous by their absence in the last two or three seasons.

Terry was over in one net and won with 99 lb 12 oz, while Trevor on 22 in the bay had 84 lb 8 oz and I was third with 76 lb 15 oz, which I was pleased with as it was top weight in the back swims (ie beyond 25). I couldn’t see anybody else fishing as my umbrella shielded me from the anglers on my right, but they all struggled. I would have preferred peg 29 or 30 as there is a deep hole between the two which I have always found to hold fish, but Mike on 29 told me he hadn’t had a touch there. Peg 35 is also known as a flier, so I was pleased to beat that as well.

The results.

 

Me - wet and windy.

Tactics

At this time of year, when temperatures are dropping, I have found it pays to fish a new swim properly for at least half an hour before giving up on it, because while putting bait in may interest the fish they often seem to take longer to actually decide to eat the stuff than they would in high summer. By properly I mean starting feeding lightly, looking really hard for any indications, adding feed if the fish are there, but then resting it for a couple of minutes if I prick or hook a fish. In other words not just playing at it - you've got to really do it seriously.  

Mick and I went to school together
from 1949 to 1953!  PS: The carp
did have a nose - operator error!

Getting it right

I often take 20 minutes before I am certain I have the rig set up exactly right. I fish a special method which is very sensitive and takes a long time to get perfect. But when I get it right it gives me absolute confidence that if there are fish there I will eventually know, even if they don’t feed properly. Knowing that fish are around your bait is a real confidence-booster and really increases your concentration.

Martin with a near-5 lb barbel from peg 31.

A-roving I did go

Cedar Lake, Decoy, Peg 26

This was my first-ever Rover – the club decided at our last AGM to have just one. Cedar has 26 swims – 1 at the car park end down to 13 along one side of the strip, and 14-26 back up the other side; and the Car Park end often tends to fish a little better than the other end. I picked out peg 9 so would be ninth to choose a swim.

Peg 1 went to Tony, a very good angler, who immediately picked Peg 1. This has reeds in the corner, but bare bank just past them which can be reached with only about four sections of a pole. It’s the obvious choice, especially as today there was a cold wind which would be slightly behind him. But the wind was blowing down towards the other end, which must have influenced the next anglers to pick pegs, as they opted to go down the strip in the wind.

I was ninth to choose and was amazed that swim 26, in the opposite corner, was still available, so I had it! Bushes along the car park bank meant that there was no ripple, and that part of the end bank, to my left, is reed-lined, which makes it difficult to fish in the edge. But I had fished it a few weeks before, and know that good weights have come from it since then. Amazingly, even after all 17 had picked their swims, pegs 2, 3 and 4 were left blank. So Tony on 1 looked to be a hot favourite in my eyes.

Three swims

I concentrated on three swims – at three sections out, down the deep margin to my right, and in the tiny cut-out five feet to my left where there was a shallow swim, though no more than a foot of it before it dropped down in a series of little shelves.  And before I had had a bite Tony was into fish from a swim his end bank about three feet deep. After a short while I saw he had lengthened his pole to about 11 metres (has was using one transfer section) to fish farther alonng the end bank and he never wavered from that. He had several more before I had my first fish, which was on corn at three sections.

I wondered whether to go farther out and try shallow, dropping down later, but the forecast was for the wind to strengthened (which it did), so I stayed on that line and after 45 minutes had two carp about 2 lb each on corn, though I first tried 6mm expander. After 90 minutes I asked Alan, next door, how many fish he had, and the answer was four. I had five at that point. Tony was still catching steadily and I reckoned he must have had over 40 lb! So in an effort to make something happen I fed the right margin with corn and hemp, and immediately had indications on cat meat. In the next 30 minutes I managed three or four carp, and was surprised not to hit a barbel, as then tend to feed right at the bottom of the shelf.

For the next two hours I alternated between those two swims, taking a fish every few minutes, and it was noticeable that if I left the outer swim without feeding it, next time I dropped in I got a bream. It seemed the carp would come onto feed very quickly buit would leave it just as quickly, and the bream would come in to mop it up.

I try the shallow margin

I had had an occasional drop-in to the left shallow margin swim, with no result after putting in just half-a-dozen grains of corn. So with just under two hours to go I put in half a big pot of corn, hemp and a little cat meat. Within a minute fish were swirling in the side, so I put in a my shallow rig at 18 inches deep, with the Maver Invincible floats I love, and hit a five-pounder immediately. After that the fish seemed to drop down the shelf and I kept adding six inches at a time until I found more fish. However I always like to rest swims, especially if it’s cool (and it was!) so I alternated between the two margin swims for the rest of the match, taking carp and, later, the odd barbel on cat meat from the deep swim, and just carp on corn from the shallow swim.

Tony seemed to have longer periods of inactivity and I began to wonder whether I could catch him. He went for a third net with about an hour to go, and I followed a little later. I was playing a fish at the end of the match, and it turned out to be a good one at about 8 lb. I recall losing just three fish, all foulhooked I believe, by the way they swam.

Scale problems

Tony was first to weigh, totalling 103 lb, but the scalesmen began to wonder whether the scales were playing up, and by the time they had got round to peg 20 or so it became obvious that they were! Nets of 40 lb or so were showing 21 lb on the digital scales. Mike got a spring balance out of his car but the scalesmen didn’t realise it weighed 30 maximum (two revolutions) for another couple of pegs, so everything over 30 lb appeared to regsiter as 32 lb.

I can’t remember in the end how my nets were weighed, though I know I split the last two so they were correct. My total was 113 lb and in the kerfuffle I forgot to photograph the result! Tony thought he ghad at least 110 lb, so his weight was probably understated, but I thought I had at least 115 lb so mine probably was also.

Joe is 87 and still catching 'em!

The result

I was declared the winner with 113 lb, Tony had 103 lb, with Stuart on 88 lb and Dave on 84 lb. I would have been happy to see the match declared void, but the final result was probably about right, although the points towards the Club Championship were probably incorrect!

My mate Alan is a good bowler as well.

 

Mike with friend.

Every day is different (as I should know)

Over 60s, Jay Lake, Pidley, peg 38

I was a bit annoyed with myself after this match, because I was given a run-down on a club match (which I couldn’t fish) held there the previous Sunday, and I paid too much attention to how it had fished. Jay is a snake lake and apparently there was not a fish (or hardly a fish) caught in the margins or down the track – it appeared that every fish came from the far side, mainly on feeder or straight quivertip. Afterwards the members said they would never fish there again and asked the secretary to cancel all matches booked there.

For the record it was won with 103 lb, with a 45 lb-ish and a couple of 30s. But unfortunately some anglers seem to think it’s their divine right to catch fish-a-plenty on every commercial water. As someone who once fished 13 consecutive matches on the Great Ouse Relief Channel without getting a bite, and who could almost always frame on the Middle Level by catching 1 lb an hour of tiny roach,  I still think that catching 10 lb of fish in a match constitutes a good day’s fishing...but that’s just me.

Anyway, Will Hadley told me about peg 38 before the match – it’s on the inside of a right-angled bend with stick-ups opposite but I may be able to fish the far bank at 14 metres to the right. He was absolutely right, but with a stong wind behind me fishing to the left or right proved very difficult as the banks channelled the wind down into the corner from both arms of the lake!

Opposite were big reed beds, and the wind was blowing all sorts of rubbish into the corner, meaning I could fish six feet from the far bank – any closer and the line caught on floating reed stems. After starting on a straight lead and losing two hooks in two minutes I tried the pole. I got several liners, but after an hour, using luncheon meat, I had just two small carp. Putting a bait dropper of dead maggots down the track saw five small perch so I put in a few pellets and went back across, at 13 metres.

After three hours I had a couple more carp, best 3 lb, with a couple foulhooked and lost, and then I did what I should have done at the start – fished as I usually do, in the margins and down the track. It took just a few minutes in the margins to get a liner, feeding small cubes of luncheon meat, and then a three-pounder came in. Another liner or two, and I knew there were fish there not yet interested in feeding. So it was down the track with expander.

To cut a long story short I started catching fish, finishing with about eight, best 4 lb-plus, and losing seven more big fish iin a row, all foulhooked. They all felt heavy – I suspect they were all 3 lb to 5 lb. At least I had got the fish interested. Fishing a few inches off bottom did not bring a single liner, but putting a bait on the bottom brought bites. So the fish were obviously playing about with the bait. I weighed 24 lb for eighth out of the 19 who fished. Indeed the fishing was hard, but if I’d done it properly from the start I am sure I could have had a lot more – I lost enough to have won the match.

On this water pegs 30 to 36 have tended to produce fish from the far side – and you can see why – the opposite bank tends to be bare or with sedges – not so many reeds. So you can get right over. So much for basing my tactics on a previous result – I should know by now that every day is different. I have a particular way of fishing margins that is almost foolproof – if there are fish there I will at least know, even if I can’t hook them. And there were fish there!

My corner peg - after the wind had died.

The result (Jay, Sept 6th)

A very good practise

Went today to practise playing fish, as I feel I don't land them as quickly as I could in matches. I went to Magpie, as it's only 15 minutes from my house. I took just a tin of corn, a tin of cat meat, some 4mm and 6mm feed pellets and assorted expanders.


Will Hadley was on peg 28 and I had a long chat before deciding to sit opposite him on peg 25. I then realised this is the swim which produced a lot of framing places in Winter Opens, and I came second on it myself; and Roy won on Wednesday with 184 lb on it. As always I kept strictly to my plan, which was not to just catch fish. The weather was warm, with not much wind, and sunny.

Easy
I fed the deep margin with corn to my left against the reeds, but started in the deep water about four feet beyond that, with 4mm expander over a few potted-in hard pellets, and immediately hit a 4 lb carp on my Preston Green 13 hollow elastic. I let it run for 30 seconds and as soon as the elastic started to retract I kept on a harder pressure than I would normally, did not use the puller, kept the pole low until the fish came close to the surface, then lifted the pole and really refused to give ground.

To my delight the fish came was netted in half the time I would normally take. And so was the next one, at 3 lb. Then a couple came off, but for the rest of the two hours or so I lost no more. A red elastic, also around 13, was on the margin rig and I took several on this using corn; then black Hydro on a close-in swim with just a size 16 PR478 hook also using corn. I had to grit my teeth a couple of times but these fish also came in more quickly than has been the case lately, The cat meat stayed in the tin!

A six-pounder was almost in the net in 30 seconds flat, but somehow it swam away and it took another five minutes to land. However I feel that there will be some fish that don't come in as planned.

Mission accomplished
Before fishing I had a word with Alex Bates in the shop and he told me what I already knew - that telling someone how to play a fish is impossible: it's a matter of feel. And with no match at stake I felt I took chances with the fish today, and overall, despite losing two, it paid off for me.

I can't afford to use 13 H on all the waters I fish - at Kingsland, where a 15-pounder can come out of the blue, and where the marginal reeds are very thick, it could be suicidal. But I now have a feel for the extra pressure I can apply. Because I fish matches almost exclusively I have not felt able to experiment. Today's effort really paid off.

For the record I suppose in something under three hours I had around 60 lb, and had it been a match I would certainly have doubled that, as I walked back and chatted to Will for several minutes, took my long-handled landing net with hook when he was snagged in the lillies ten metres out, managed to wind the hook round his elastic, and get the whole rig back after much pulling.Unfortunately at some point as we grabbed the elastic the end 12 inches of his top section broke. But at least he got it back...and he is the local pole-mender anyway!

Also I changed my swims around several times when I was catching fish, at the end taking fish in two feet of water with my float touching the grass. So as well as testing the elastics I also have a feel for peg 25 on Magpie. Let's hope I draw it again one day!

Close again

Magpie Lake, Pidley, peg 2

This was the regular mid-week Over 60s match, and while the previous day had been hot, there was a marked drop in temperature while rain was forecast. However, the match started in nice conditions – overcast with no wind, and the water was very heavily coloured. Twenty-one fished.

I was happy with Peg 2, as the first 7 or 8 swims here usually hold fish. And there are now margins on the lake!  When it first opened there used to be 2ft deep margins but here, as on all local waters, carp have gradually eroded them; but a digger has been round and taken out reeds each side of most swims on Magpie, leaving a margin of about 2 ft sloping down slightly. My swim had the main margins each side, perhaps four feet wide, then a smaller shelf a few inches deeper  then the main drop-off to 5 ft. Very nice.

I got out a rig for the little middle shelf, assuming that the fish probably wouldn’t come in really close early in the match, but feeding that shelf meant some feed would drop into the deep water. I have been guilty of ignoring the deep water in some matches, but it seems that the fish have fed better there most times this season.  I had a deep rig, and decided to fish to my right, just at the bottom of the slope, as the depth varied no more than an inch or two from here all the way out to the middle.

Started shallow

When the match started I began shallow eight metres out towards the lillies, got a few bites, but no carp – just a small rudd after 30 minutes. That decided me – I had been feeding small cubes of luncheon meat to my right every two or three minutes, and the odd few to the reeds on my left not much more than a top-two away. I dropped in here and first drop-in hooked a 4 lb carp, which I landed after a real fight. Ten minutes later, with no more, I went to my right and did the same thing – a 4 lb carp first drop-in. But no more.

So it was on the deep rig and again I had a 3 lb carp first drop-in on luncheon meat but no more. So 90 minutes had gone with just three fish. I later learned that Chris Saunders, undoubtedly one of the best anglers in the match, did not get his first fish until 90 minutes had gone. At this time the rain started, and never stopped until the match finished, though it was only light rain and I carried on without putting up my umbrella.

Very slowly sport picked up, and I got two or three more from the right, with one on cat meat, then a couple from the left swim. And after about three hours, with perhaps 30 lb in my net I went out to the deep water again. I wasn’t sure what to feed, so I put in a little hemp, corn and luncheon meat cubes and occasionally a little cat meat. But things didn’t seem quite right, and I fancy that there was weed on the bottom and that the fish were feeding just above it. Several times I got a proper bite and hooked a piece of dead stalk, and two or three times I had a trace of weed on the hook.

So I came up two inches, got a few more fish, mainly around 2 lb, and then had to go back on the bottom. Very strange. I suppose I was getting one fish every ten or 12 minutes. Cat meat, which I thought should have worked well, didn’t seem to appeal to the fish as much as the small cube of luncheon meat – perhaps the cooler water made them prefer the smaller bait. Who knows?

I had put up my umbrella a hour previously – I have made up an extra-long spike consisting of a bankstick pole inside an umbrella pole and protruding about a foot. This has strengthend the pole and allows me to insert it just an inch or two up the umbrella, and enables me to get it just a few inches higher than a standard pole when there is no wind. It worked a treat today, with the cut-back bit (it’s a Preston Flat-Back) in front of me.

The margins disappoint

With an hour to go, I saw a fish come into my lefthand bank and stir up mud. So I put in half a pot of dead maggots, put six on a Preston PR 478 size 14, and after five minutes took a four-pounder. I was hoping that the margin here would give me a last-hour spurt, but although the fish were stirring up the bottom I got only the occasional proper bite, and four of them came off! I don’t think any were foulhooked.

I came off bottom and took a fish immediately, but then nothing. And to make things worse I could hear splashings from both sides of me! With just 20 minutes left and having had only two fish since 3 o’clock I went back to the deep swim to my right and took three more carp to 4 lb on meat, with the bait hanging just off bottom, playing a fish as they shouted time.

Peg 1 weighed 80 lb 2 oz and I was pleased to beat him, with 86 lb 2 oz; I was even more pleased to beat Chris Saunders on peg 4 who had 82 lb 8 oz, mainly from the deep water just a few feet in front of him. In fact I was top weight round to peg 20,  where there was 127 lb 12 oz. Roy Whincup (no relation to Jon) won on peg 25 with a magnificent 184 lb 14 oz, and there were better weights than me on 31 and 33, on the island. So I was fifth (the match paid top four) but I’d had an interesting day, and even though it rained most of the time, I had managed to keep most of my stuff dry.

Those top four pegs have produced consistently all Summer, but as they saying goes: You’ve still got to catch them! I do believe that a better angler than me on my peg would have framed. But the bottom line was still that I’d had a good day’s fishing.

Magpie Result