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)