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.
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.
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.
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| Magpie Result |
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