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.