One of those ‘could-a, should-a’ matches

Horseshoe Lake, Decoy, peg 8

As they say in the Fens, this was a Large Morning – cold, bright, no wind, so the world seems bigger than normal. Twelve of us fished on Horseshoe, where the three best weights the previous day came from pegs 18, 13 and 10 – but we were pegged from 1 to 13.

As forecast, it was cold, with a light Northerly breeze into my face, but this was cold as well, and after getting to my peg, dressed in thermal vest, thick T-shirt, sweat shirt and a fleece, I went back to the car for my hoodie. So I wasn’t expecting much, even though Peg 8 in a corner is often THE peg to draw in the Sunmmer. I’d never been fortunate enought to draw this before, though!

It’s very deep in a small spot on the left margin right against a bunch of sedge grass – a good six feet I reckon – so I made up a heavy and light rig for this. You don’t normally have much margin on this peg as 7, 8 and 9 are very close, but peg 9 had been left out so I had a platform to fish to about ten feet away. My other plan was to fish ten metres out, in about seven feet of water, as the water is clearing and it's a good starting point at this time of year..

Fifteen minutes on the pellet feeder were biteless, and I dropped in the left margin with a piece of cat meat.  Terry Tribe, on 10 to my left, had two fish on a feeder and suggested I cast right across to the corner.  I was prepared to do that, but he didn’t know I had had a liner in the margin swim...and I didn’t tell him! Shortly after, I had a 2 lb tench and then a 3 lb barbel, then a 1 lb tench, all on meat.

Bites died away so I went onto corn and had a fantail goldfish-looking fish, and then went out onto my 10-metre line. This produced an F1 within seconds, but then nothing for some time. From then on I alternated the two swims but felt I was falling behind Terry, who seemed to be getting a lot of fish from the long pole line he had started. I also had a look with meat next to the platform to my left, but apart from one tiny liner it produced nothing.

Strange time losing fish

Suddenly everything went haywire, and I lost about ten fish in a row from the long line. The bites I struck at were all the same – the float was shotted down to a pimple so that the grain of corn or tghe expander sunk the float if it was off bottom, so I let it drift until the bait just touched bottom and the float just showed. Each time the float sunk steadily – all in the same way. Generally the fish came off after three or four seconds – just when I had assumed it was hooked properly.

I had had some liners earlier so, assuming the fish were off bottom, I took off a shot and fish the corn a foot off bottom. No bite at all! So I put out a shallow rig with banded pellet – still no bites. As soon as I went back to the full depth I got those bites again. Occasionally a fish stuck but still they came off. A switch to the inside swim into which I bait-droppered some dead maggots saw me hook a very big fish on meat which I played for a minute or so before that, too, came off. Then one or two F1s and another barbel came to a bunch of deads. Then back to the long line.

I played around with the float depth, changing depth by half an inch at a time and eventually started landing the odd fish, mainly F1s around 2 lb to 3 lb. But not many. Just before the end I moved the float up by half-an-inch and hit three fish quickly, losing the last one, before the match ended.

Peter was on 13 and took this
 carp approaching 10 lb.

 

Bob was on my right. I took his
 picture because he's good looking!

The weigh-in

The catches were mixed, from DNW to a few pounds, and several barbel caught, which was a surprise , being so cold. As widely expected our organiser Trevor on peg 2 had a good catch – 36 lb 12 oz and I weighed 34 lb 6 oz, which surprised me as I though I had just over 20 lb. I assumed Terry had 50 lb or 60 lb, but in fact he weighed 39 lb 8 oz, so a couple of those lost fish – perhaps just the one big one – could have seen me beat him.

Winner, though, was Mick Linnell on peg 11 with 46 lb 15 oz, including a 4 lb 13 oz barbel which we weighed, taken mainly on a long pole.

Conclusion

I was fourth, and unexpectedly took the last prize, so I actually framed! But those lost fish easily cost me the match. The bites were all similar, and I believe they were proper bites but that the fish were just nudging the bait and the hook was pricking the outside of the lip. Most of those I landed were hooked on the edge of the lip, and often the hook fell out in the landing net. The liners were completely different – often with the float rising slighly before slashing down..

Perhaps I should have tried expander in the margin swim, but a lot of fry were playing about near the surface and knocking the line, so I kept to meat and corn, I should have tried, though, as I had the feeling that fish were there in that deep spot all the time. Perhaps, also, I should have had anther drop in to the platform on my left; generally if a fish is willing to take meat they will do it within a minute of the bait going in. And perhaps I should have tried maggot on the hook on the long line, although I hadn't put any maggots out there.

 

Winner Mick with a 4 lb 13 oz barbel.

But all-round I can’t be unhappy – Mick (1^st) is a former member of the Peterborough National team and a vastly-experienced matchman; Terry (2^nd) is a former National Champion and fishes several matches a week if he can – his forte is straight legering corn in the winter  which has won him a lot of matches. Trevor (3^rd) is possibly the best angler in the club and would do very well in Opens if he chose to fish them. So fourth in that company has got to be satisfactory...even if I did say afterwards I should have won it!

The result, on what looks like being the first day of Winter.

A nip in the air, but I do OK!

Six-Island Lake, Decoy, peg 8

Two missed matches were the result of an attack of Vertigo – to which I am prone – and it took a week to disperse. By the time of the final Fenland Rods club match I felt well anough to fish. But  you can imagine the jeers and remarks which fell upon me when I drew peg 8 – I had won from it two weeks previously.

However, I still don’t rate the peg as well as several others – 1, 4, 9, 10, 16 to 19 and 24 and 25. But yet again peg 9 was not pegged, which I was pleased about. I spoke to Chris Saunders, a regular winner here at at Pidley before the match as he was pegged on the neighbouring Four-Island lake. I knew he had won a match on peg 9 a two or three weeks earlier and he agreed it was a cracker, especially at this time of year as there are so many options, including fishing into two cut-outs in the lefthand bank with a long pole or casting to the aerator with a feeder. But that was all theory – I had a job to do.

The wind was Northerly and very cold, and it was sort of over my back, meaning our side of the lake was almost like a millpond all day. I was cold but the anglers opposite, where there was a good ripple, must have been colder! And as Six-Island is the shallowest of the lakes I fully expected it to be difficult. As I plumbed up in my righthand margin the line definitely moved, showing there was at least one fish there. That was enough for me, and after 15 fruitless minutes on a pellet feeder I wound in and had a look in the right margin which was three feet deep. Again there were movements of the line and after ten minutes a 5 lb carp took my lump of cat meat and ended in my keepnet.

In the next 45 minutes two more followed and after a biteless spell I turned to the left margin, slightly deeper than the right, where I put in hemp and corn and a little cat meat. Again there was a quick response with a couple of barbel and two or three F1s, and carp to 6 lb. After two hours I had nearly 40 lb on my clicker. But then followed 90 minutes without a bite from either margin, which was incredibly annoying as every time I put in a pot of bait great clouds of mud came rolling up in the margins...but I literally could not get a bite or even a liner!  Mel, to my right, had had a few good fish to about 5 lb early on and our secretary John, to Mel’s right, had fish of 10 lb and 9 lb in almost his first two drop-ins (though I didn’t know that at the time).

Change of plan works

Two hours to go and time for a change of plan. I put in a bait-dropper of dead maggot at three-sections out, where the water was over four feet deep, and followed it with a bunch of deads. As I half expected a barbel was the first fish to take the bait, but it took another hour of hard fishing – lifting and dragging and continually moving the float – to add another four fish. Then the wind warmed a little and the sun came out, which wasn’t much help at all – I would rather have had a ripple.

The last 90 minutes saw me keep trying the right margin without success, and the left margin where every 10 minutes I would get a bite, mainly F1s and mostly on a single grain of corn, some of which I missed, a couple of which I hooked and lost, and about six of which I landed. The last fish was 5 lb and came in a couple of minutes before the end of the match. I dropped back hoping desperately for a final fish (as you do) but this time it didn’t come.

Me with my best carp. The sky was
clear and a cold night forecast.

The weigh-in

Afterwards I felt I had caught as much as I could (apart from the lost fish), and was a bit surprised I had got bites at all, as it all felt very dead. I had no idea what the others had caught as I had been concentrating so hard on my own swims. My nets went 36 lb 4 oz  and 49 lb for 85 lb 12 oz – top weight from peg 1 to me, and it held as top right along the far bank where the cold wind seemed to have put the fish down – though the anglers here weighed in very creditable catches, around the 40 lb mark.

So round to peg 17, where Dennis Sambridge weighed 90 lb. This peg, opposite the gap between peg 4 and the island,  always seems to produce something – I remember drawing it just once and winning and this season it has seemed to usually fish well. So, put a good angler on a good peg and you must fancy his chances. Well done, Dennis! He caught a lot of his fish right down beside the platform – something I must remember now the colder weather is here. My platform was set well back and it would have been difficult for me to do that.

Callum, having a good season.

I was second, and very happy with that from a peg I did not fancy particularly. And I felt I had not missed many proper bites. But it must have been the wind that kept the favoured pegs 18 and 19 from producing any amount of fish. It was certainly the start of the cold-weather season, which so often means fishing for just one fish at a time and being patient.

The result. Considering the conditions, a decent load of catches.

My mate Alan - a good bowler
as well!

I have a match tomorrow on Horseshoe, but the forecast is for temperatures to drop almost to Zero tonight, so it is likely to be hard. 

           

An inch was golden

Kingsland Large Reservoir, Coates, Cambs

The three irrigation reservoirs at Kingsland are not permanently pegged and, as usual, our match (13 entries) were put on the Eastern bank of the large lake. I was peg 6, in the middle, in the peg against the lifebuoy. The wind was from the west, a little over the end bank to my left, and the first two swims (and the one on the end bank itself) were very calm, with hardly a ripple, but from peg 4 the water became quite rough after a short while.

Even before the draw I had resigned myself to fishing for third place, as Trevor and Peter always try to surface fish, and nearly always end up first and second. And when Trevor drew peg 2, in the calm water, I made him hot favourite to win. He didn’t disappoint!

I didn’t take my Browning Z12, preferring to give my old Browning Sting an airing – slim, light and strong - as the fish here run very big and there are lots of bankside reeds. I also rigged up my old margin pole.

Bad start/good start

The water was well up and the lake was surprisingly deep close in – a good six feet by the reeds and seven feet further out.  I didn’t hear the all-in and was several minutes late starting and, having put some cat meat and pellet by the side of the reeds I put out a rig on the Sting at about seven metres with 6mm banded pellet over a pot of pellets. Within a minute I hit a fish which, in two seconds flat, tore off parallel with the reeds and weeded me before I could stick another section on the pole.

 

My swim. If a fish gets in those reeds it never comes out! This was before the start, but the wind soon increased in strength.

I had to get off my box and walk halfway towards Peter, on my left, and, using my special hook I managed to reach through the thick reeds, hook the rig line and pull the rig free minus the hook. I then realised I had almost certainly foulhooked the fish so determined not to use banded pellet for the moment. A bad start.

So it was onto the cat meat line, and the margin pole, where I hooked and landed three fish around 5 lb each in the next half hour. I played them well out because of the reed beds, and did not break down to my top two until I had seen the fish so I wasn’t caught out by bringing a really big one in too quickly. A good start! But try as I might no more fish came from that line.

Steady sport

On to the long line with sweetcorn just touching bottom and this brought me another six fish on corn in the next two hours. At that point Trevor came for his third net (!) I got up and had a word with him, and Peter and Mick, either side of me, who admitted to four and three fish respectively, so I realised I wasn’t doing too badly.

The Sting doesn’t have pullers, and it made me realise how useful these are when landing fish. Actually I didn’t need one as the top I used had 20 elastic through three sections and this was just about right for this size of fish. I must use this pole more often, as it is a delight to use, though the tips are slim and the 20 elastic was fine playing the fish, when under pressure, but didn’t retract properly when the fish had been landed. I will have to chop some off the tip and fit a larger bush.

Good old Ivan

I had the feeling that fish were on my line all the time, and moved two small shot down towards the hook – the nearest just four inches away  - which brought a fish or two, but it was hard work as the wind was getting stronger. Then I thought about Ivan Marks – as I often do. I knew him reasonably well – well enough to be on first-name terms – and remembered a line he wrote about roach fishing on the Welland: ‘An inch can be golden!’

With nothing to lose I pulled the float down an inch to see what would happen. I dropped it back, and I immediately got the feeling there was a tow against the wind, which I hadn’t seen before. By this time I had changed to a small piece of luncheon meat, which was a little lighter than the corn, and it seemed to be skipping along the bottom very very slightly.

So I pulled the float against the wind, in the direction  of the possible tow, and then realised there was a very slight incline, about an inch shallower than the rest of the swim, and the bait was definitely touching bottom again in places, despite being an inch shallower.

A beautiful, scale-perfect three-pounder.

I find the fish

Just the other side of where I had been potting bait in (ie the upwind side) I started to get occasional  bites more quickly and hit every one. In the next couple of hours I had about ten, from 3 lb to 8 lb. The luncheon meat on the hook had been dunked in a Creamy Bream additive (or something similar) I had never bothered to use before, and coloured red with food dye, and it really worked. As usual recently I found I got a bite only after I’d potted in some loosefeed, with hemp added as this seemed to bring the fish on.

I kept trying the inside line with cat meat but never had another bite, which was surprising as big fish were swiming around there and tasting leaves from the surface, as they tend to do on this lake. You can often catch up in the water here on even the coldest days.

A good last half-hour brought another three or four fish, and apart from the first foulhooked fish I lost only one all day, which happened just before the end when the fish dived under my landing net and  caught the hook on the mesh! Really annoying. Anyway I was playing a fish when the shout went up to end the match – I heard that shout!

Winner Trevor with double-figure friend.

The weigh-in

The end three pegs were all still in calm water and, as I had expected, Trevor had carried on catching on the surface with his expander pellets and weighed in 132 lb 9 oz  of fish to double-figures. In fact most of his fish were  7 lb-plus, unlike mine. This was obviously going to be the winning weight. Before Trevor there were two weights of 40 lb-plus, and I was admitting to 70 lb-plus so guessed I had a chance of third, always assuming Peter Parlett had got a big catch from the surface, as he usually has here.

Peter Parlett with a big common.

Big fish

As the weigh-in went on I saw even bigger fish – Peter Spriggs, next to me had one we weighed at 15 lb 7 oz, a beautiful common, and he had obviously started to catch me up as he totalled 74 lb 6 oz, which made me think he might have ‘done’ me. But most of his fish were quite a bit bigger than mine and as usual he caught most on paste.

Peter Spriggs with his 15 lb 7 oz mirror.

My first net went 40 lb 1 oz (I had 36 lb on the clicker), but the second net, which I hadn’t bothered to click towards the end, being more intent on catching fish, surprised me with 50 lb 8 oz – knocked back to 50 lb as per our own rule. So 90 lb for me, with more to weigh, and no-one beat me down to Peter, on peg 11 or thereabouts who then told me had hadn’t been able to surface fish because of the conditions. As I had seen myself, any floating baits were taken downwind in 30 seconds or less. He still managed 73 lb 11 oz on traditional tactics. So I ended second, which I was exremely satisfied with –                                                                   thanks to Ivan Marks.

The result - not in peg order.

Another cracker, from John.

Best forgotten

Magpie Lake,  Rookery Waters, peg 2

This was the Wednesday ‘Pidley Pensioners’ match and I was cock-a-hoop at peg 2. As Frankie Howerd would have said: “ My cock had never been so hooped!” The day was gloomy, and quite warm for the time of year, with not a breath of wind all day, but light rain on and off. A strange sort of day so dark that at times it was difficult to focus on the float.

Peg 2 has form, and had lilly pads at 10 metres, and when the temperature drops at this time of year the fish hang around the pads for cover. I had Will Hadley on my right on Peg 1, and he knows the water better than I, so I kept an eye on him. Before the match started I managed to get my pot unscrewed from the top two as I was shipping out to check the distance to the pads, and it sank, so I had to traipse up to the shop to get another. I was a little late starting, and Will had a fish shallow, fishing to his lillies,  at least 14 metres away, before I had properly started.

 

My swim. The lillies are at 10 metres, and the far bank about 20 metres away. Not a breath of wind all day!

So I also started shallow, over to the lillies, with banded 4mm pellet, and had two in the first 20 minutes plus a couple of knocks. Then a blank spell and I went down to the bottom underneath the pellets I’d been feeding and had a 3 lb carp straight away on 4mm expander, but then nothing for half an hour. So I put in maggots in the deep water two metres from my righthand bank and had a four-pounder first drop-in. But then all I got were tiny nibbles, or liners.

Lost fish

So it was back to the long line for an hour for two more fish. Meanwhile Will was getting two fish to my one from the bottom, and I estimated he had at least ten. The next two hours saw another three or four fish from my long line, plus four lost, including one which weeded me in the lillies; I don’t think any were foulhooked, because I played them for some time.

With an hour left I concentrated on the side swim with a bunch of dead maggots and had two fish immediately, though one was hooked in the tail. In the last half-hour I lost six, and once again I don’t think they were foulhooked. All day I was getting the tiniest of bites on pellet long and on  maggot near the side, and suspect the fish were just mouthing the bait. The bites didn’t look like liners, and the expander was usually still in place when I struck and missed. But the ones I hit looked just like the ones I missed!

Will had a great last hour, landing about ten from his long line swim, and weighed 39 carp for a winning 103 lb 2 oz. My dozen fish went 41 lb 4 oz for 11^th out of the 18, and I have been mulling over what went wrong on a noted swim. The only other angler I could see was Alan on 29, who landed just two fish, so I actually thought I may have done alright. And those last six lost would have pushed me right up the  table towards a framing position, because my fish were averaging around 3 lb 8 oz apiece.

The result - quite tight for the middle placings.

The inquest

Will has told me, very generously, that often pegs 1 and 2 fish differently, as if the fish tend to bunch up in front of one of the swims, so if 2 fishes 1 doesn’t, and vice versa. I said I wondered about the bait, as Will fished banded 4mm pellet all day, and my 4mm expanders were much bigger than a 4mm hard pellet and I couldn;t get a bite on 6mm expander. He said he has definitely been doing better with banded, and that on more than one occasion recently he caught on banded and couldn’t get a bite on expander. I will be bearing this in mind.

But apparently Chris Saunders caught on cat meat so it couldn’t be just that.  I couldn’t believe, while fishing, that the fish would look at a big lump of meat, and I should definitely have tried it – I had lots with me.

So I get a known swim and blow out.  Probably won’t be the last time!

O(* ! * )O

Tomorrow I’m at Kingsland Large Carp Lake, where I am taking my old margin pole and my put-in Browning Sting because the fish there are big and there are lots of reeds in places – not a water where you want to hit a 20-pounder and have it weed you! If I break either the margin (30 years old) or Sting (I have two) it won’t be the end of the world!

A comedy of errors – and I still won!

Six-Island Lake, Decoy, peg 8

Those weather girls – they appear with immaculate make-up, all smiles, impossible waists, and spotless skin, promising you perfect weather, 70 degrees with little wind and waving their arms gracefully around where you are going to be fishing.

They lie.

That was the first error I made – I believed them. All of them. But you know the old saying about falling into a lake of sewage and coming up smelling of roses? That was me. Here followeth the next errors...

I wasn’t late getting to the draw for the club’s only cup match, but I didn’t hurry. There were 20 of us.  I gave Mel the money and the completed menus Mrs Mac and I wanted for the club’s Christmas dinner, then drew out peg 8. Not one I wanted – I would rather have had 1, 9, 10, 16, 17, 18, 19, 24 or 25. Or even the other pegs on the South bank, 10 to 15, as they tend to fish better than those on the Northern bank, 5 to 8. I described 8 as a Nothing Peg after I had drawn it. I’d have whooped with joy at 9, which allows you to fish all the way along the end bank. But no, I looked at it again and  it was still peg 8!

Delay

Suddenly, after everyone zoomed off down to the lake I realised I was the only one who hadn’t collected his nets – and I also had to go to the shop and but a pint of dead maggots first. By the time I’d done that and driven to the car park the others were almost all trundling down to their pegs.

It was hot!

My Octbox, great though it is, takes a bit more getting ready than having a simple trolley to dump stuff on. By the time I’d got it ready and loaded up with bag, cushion, accessories, margin pole, three-rod holdall, three half-butts, and pole roller everyone else had left. And boy, it was hot, a gleaming sun, with absolutely no wind. The water was like a mill pond.  Already sweating, I wheeled my stuff past peg 1, where sat James – he’s won this twice out of the last three years, from memory. Or it could be three times. He’s good!

There he sat, box on the platform nets already in place, side tray full, putting his pole together. I carried on, round to peg 8, dumped it all, and went back for my second load – pole holdall and bait. As it was so hot I decided to leave my hoodie and Goretex jacket in the car. I wouldn’t be needing them – the girls had promised!

 

My peg 8, looking towards peg 9 and the end bank. A cracking peg, but it was not included (thank goodness).

Muddy?

 Back to peg 8 and it was still dead calm. And I was a good 15 minutes behind everbody else. The edge of the lake looked, at first, as if there was an algal bloom, running in a strip alongside our bank, from peg 9 in the corner right up to peg 4. But Alan next door confirmed that it was mud. Not big clouds of the stuff, like carp snuffling around, just a strange strip a couple of feet out as if the wind had stirred the margins, but there was no wind.

And then I realised that peg 9 hadn’t been pegged. What a waste – but then I thought that it gave me a better chance of doing well – a decent angler on peg 9 would normally beat all those to his right. And there are a lot of decent anglers in the club.

Good start

No time to think about that. I was a bit late starting, and hadn’t put my margin pole together, but that wouldn’t take long, if I needed it (I should have done it of course). The obvious place to start was at nearly16 metres, across to the island, and I had carefully plumbed up and had got a rig ready for that, but I decided to have a look down the side, in the mud, which was fast disappearing. The sun was low and on the left, so at the moment it was difficult to fish the left margin. First drop-in to the right next to the reeds in almost four feet of water with a piece of cat meat just off bottom saw a couple of tiny touches!

Probably roach, I thought. But I remember the day on Heyford, many years ago, when I was pegged next to a bridge, nobody was catching, and I started getting nibbles on a small expander from what I assumed were roach. This went on for half-an-hour and I was determined to catch a roach to see how big they were. I eventually did, and it was a four-pounder...disguised as a mirror carp. I never caught a roach, just more carp which gave the tiniest bites, and I easily won the match. Lesson remembered now.

Here comes the wind

Anyway I dropped the cat meat to the bottom and immediately hooked a five-pound mirror. Ten minutes later a three-pound common came in. Then the girls started to play me up – there came a light breeze which within ten minutes became a very strong breeze, and clouds completely obliterated the sun The temperature must have dropped by ten degrees in five minutes. I changed rigs to a lighter one but it was difficult fishing a sensitive rig into the wind. However a piece of corn eventually brought a third carp and 20 minutes later a barbel.

Now the wind was around Force 4 or 5 and I had to fish almost in front at top-two plus one, which produced nothing. It was now too strong to fish at the full 14.5 metres plus a half-butt, towards the island, which I had set up for before the start. So into the left margin, but not a bite. Then I made the decision to fish at top-two plus one a little to my left, with the wind rather than against it.

In went hemp, corn and pellets, plus some maggots targetting the barbel. I should definitely have put them in with a bait dropper as there was no way of knowing where they were going to end up. But the gods shone on me and I picked up occasional carp and barbel here for the next two hours on meat and, later, on bunches of dead maggots. When the wind dropped a little I had quick looks back to the right margin, and sometimes took another fish there. Then the wind would blow harder and I had to abandon it. With 27 lb on my clicker I managed to land a huge fish which I reckoned could be around 15 lb, so it went into the first net and I started on the second net.

The wind by now had moved round so that it had been in my face, then round farther so it was from the left, and finally it went back to the West where it had started.  It really was not helping.

 

John, our secretary and chairman, with a barbel from Peg 14.
 How come the water is sloping?

Tony Nisbet is having a great season.

Disaaasters

Then came the next two incidents that should have dropped me out of the running. First a huge fish hooked on a bunch of maggots stretched my Double 8 Slip elastic right out. It came back a little then went again. I’d managed to add a section and almost fell in stretching out, but before I could add any more the fish went again. I gritted my teeth and it stopped. Then it went again, a big boil appeared on the surface past the island...and the elastic snapped.

Shamefacedly I went to my holdall, took out a top with Hollo 13, made sure I had sections easuily to hand, put on another rig with 0.8gm Maver Invincible float and started again. The fish were still there. A few more and they dried up. So it was into the left margin, right next to the reeds which I could now fish OK because the sun had moved round. This produced occasional good carp and F1s.

Second disaster was on this rig – also with double 8 Slip elastic. When I was playing a 5 lb carp one of the strands broke. I had no idea whether the connector knot would hold and played the fish gingerly on the single strand. After a few hair-raising minutes it was in the net. By now it was so cold I considered going back to the car for my Goretex jacket, but decided to stick it our by zipping my fleece up to the neck and shivering. Afterwards John, who had back wind on 14, told me he was also very, very cold. So much for those smiling weather girls...

Now I also had to decide whether to carry on catching the odd F1 or go back to the longer line where I had had bigger fish. I decided to carry on putting something in the net and after putting the margin rig on to Purple Hydro I managed to keep picking up occasional  F1s up to 4 lb for the last 40 minutes, mainly on corn, as expander didn’t work. But they also took big lumps of cat meat – so much for F1s being finicky! As has happened recently, I had to put a little bait in before every fish or I didn’t get a bite.

 

How NOT to take a picture - into the sun.

Always last to pack up

I’m always last to pack up in this club and had not even loaded my stuff on the box when they came to weigh me in. That’s partly because I had five rigs made up and the two tops with useless elastic in them to pack away. I also have a lot of stuff on my side tray – and a lot of possible change baits to pack away, including worms which I had not even tried (perhaps I should have done).  In Opens I am sort of average at packing up, but club men are so much faster.  I believe they think I overdo it with my gear!

Top weight to me was 84 lb from James; my first net went 42 lb so that big fish must have been near 15 lb. The second, which I had not clicked after 26 lb because it was so near the end of the match I thought held about 30 lb – in fact it was 43 lb. So an underserved win, because the two men I had feared on 18 and 19 had struggled. I had slung a look over my shoulder just once during the match at Kevin, on hot peg 18, and he was playing a fish. Naturally I assumed that he’d been doing that all day. He obviously hadn’t. And another good result for Tony Nisbet (not Nesbit as it usually appears in local newspapers) from peg 11, opposite me, who was fourth with 59 lb.

Conclusion

I genuinely was amazed at how low the weights were, especially as so many pegs had a big ripple on during most of the match. The first few minutes were so important, though. Matt, on peg 13, had a fish within a minute on waggler cast to the island in front of him, but then not much else. Alan on my right had four good fish in the first hour, and was ahead of me at that time.  If I had put put a feeder, or started at 14.5 metres instead of dropping in the side everything could have been turned on its head.

The result.  Another good result for Callum, who was third.

Wendy with a common we weighed at 11 lb.

Six-Island has always been the shallowest lake at Decoy, though today the water was high and it was deeper than usual. My bank had no really shallow margins, unlike the bank opposite where the margins are only 18 inches in places. Normally I would prefer the option of the shallow swims, but today I got lucky with my first drop-in, in that I immediately had a sign there were fish there. Otherwise I might have left the margins until later.

Next day

I have just spent three hours at home renewing the two broken elastics – although in fact they showed no real sign of deterioration – and checking the other eleven tops I carry. As a precaution I re-tied some at the connector end, taking elastic from the bottom of the Stora-pullers, and completely renewed some of the others. So i’m now set up for the Winter. I was able to put my favourite Middy 22-24 in one top thanks to one kind angler sending me a spool. There's just enough to rig two tops from a spool.

PS. Alan next door retrieved my broken elastic  and rig so I got back the float and connector. It had broken a quarter of an inch from the connector, which is always the danger spot. 

Back to Beastie

Beastie Lake, Decoy, peg 2

There were 13 of us in this midweek club match, fished basically on pegs 1-8 and 22-30, and while I would have preferred 8, 26, 29 or 30, I was reasonably happy with peg 2. It has been kind to me over the years, and I remember taking my first-ever 100 lb catch from it in a Decoy Open 15 years ago, while the last time I fished it – with the same club – I weighed (from memory) 160 lb and came second! So all the clubs I fish with know I like peg 2, though it doesn’t have agreat reputation.

The peg has a peninsular going out about 16 metres a few metres to the right, and immediately on the left is a reed bed also going out about 16 metres.  I have always found that the fish will come in here late in the match. The wind was blowing almost straight in – a cool wind, but not really cold. And I was lucky to see Gus Gausden as I was unloading my kit, so asked him for advice. He told me his son, Andy, had fished it a week earlier and had eventually caught close-in on the leftand right. “It’s a nice peg,” he said, “But not one of the best ones.” That sort of advice is invaluable – even if it only backs up what you are already thinking.

Peg 2, before the wind got up! Ten metres took me to the first little cut-out on the right. The main
island is at the top of the picture, but you are not allowed to cast to it from this swim.

I put in a quarter of a big pot of pellet and sweetcorn 10 metres out towards the reeds lining the bank on the right, where there were virtually no margins – just a quick drop to 5 feet of water -  but started on a Method feeder with hair-rigged sweetcorn which produced a couple of tiny liners. So after 20 minutes I went on the pole over my bait, with a 6mm expander.

A couple of small bream came in, then Bill Foster, from my other club, came and sat down beside me before going to fish on Six-Island Lake. He brought me a piece of luck – a 4 lb barbel foulhooked on corn. He also mentioned that Alex Bates had fished this swim a week earlier, and caught a half depth – something I really should have catered for, but with five rigs already up I put off getting a sixth out of the box!

More luck

Bill left and I promptly hooked another  big fish which I lost, so it was then out to 10 metres to the left, in slightly shallower water as this side saw a gently sloping bottom.  I chose to fish about a foot shallower than the righthand swim, a little up the shelf, and within seconds of dropping in with an expander a small bream was on. Then eventually a 1 lb bream and a couple of smaller ones. Next I hit a good fish that stretched my Preston 13 Hollo elastic for about ten minutes and proved to be a foulhooked 10 lb carp, which I eventually landed.

At this point, two hours after the start, I wandered up to see Mick Linnell on my right, on peg 3, who told me he had a small bream and a gudgeon. He was pretty chinklered when I told him what I had – about 16 lb, around 14 lb of which was foulhooked! Not a Happy Bunny. But it showed me what I suspected – things were going to be difficult today, and probably patchy, which actually turned out to be the case.

Back to the lefthand swim with my 0.5 gm TuffEye float and after a fishless period on expander and corn I dropped back with my heavier 1gm rig to the right, after putting in dead maggots, which saw another barbel on a bunch of dead reds. After another fishless spell I baited this swim and went back to the left, which produced a 4 lb carp. Then I alternated the swims, baiting one and fishing the other but putting maggots only in the righthand swim. This went on for two hours, and I added about a fish every 15 minutes – bream, barbel and a couple of small carp - and pricked a couple, probably foulhooked, in fact one left a scale on the hook

Hooks and floats

I am aware I rarely mention items of tackle, because it's so personal. But I use almost exclusively either PR 478 hooks or the stronger Kamasan Animal for the really big fish on cat meat. I am not sophisticated enough to understand why different baits need different hooks. That's not a dig at anyone - just that I can't understand it, so I ignore it. I have always preferred a hook with a good gape, and the 478s or the similar ones which are heavier and stronger (can't remember the number) fill the bill for me.

Similarly I use mainly Drennan TuffEye floats which have four different-coloured interchangeable tips or the Maver Invincibles which have the line going through the body and have a thicker top, and also the old Drennan Carp 7 for a specialist rig I sometimes use which is too complicated to explain here. There are a few other floats which I have collected along the way, such as little dibbers for shallow fishing, of course. But the advice from Bryan Lakey to stick to one float if possible was good - it used to be the Tipo, some of which I still have, which went up to 3 gm, but I don't think these are on the market now. The TuffEye came along and supplanted it, but these go only up to 1 gm.

Dragging was good on the day

There was a bit of a tow out from the margins tending to take the rigs into the deeper water, so I ended up using two droppers, closest four inches from the hook, instead of my standard shotting of just a bulk 18 inches away. This slowed down the drag and seemed to suit the fish better than having it moving along the bottom. However several of the bites came when I actually dragged the bait against the flow!

With two hours to go sport slowed and I looked inside on my margins, with cat meat to the left and expander to the right, but both produced just a liner. However that showed me that fish were willing to come inside and after another couple of fish on the long lines, including a 5 lb barbel on corn, I came inside again with 75 minutes to go, concentrating on the lefthand side about two metres from the reeds on a top two – with section three fixed ready for big fish.

I put in a little cat meat with pellet, corn and hempseed, as I have never believed that putting in several baits in any way causes confusion among the fish.

Good old meat

First fish was a 2 lb F1 on cat meat. I have read that F1s are hard to catch as they feed differently to mirrors and commons, but I have never yet worked out much difference, and they seem to give similar bites to carp when taking cat meat. Perhaps the F1s on Decoy are different. Anyway one of    3 lb came in, and two or three bream to 2 lb and two barbel around 3 lb. Then with 15 minutes left I hit a fish which at first felt like a bream until it came up to the net, then it started swimming a bit, like an F1, then it started tearing out towards the middle; it turned out to be a carp of almost 10 lb – very welcome as I slipped in into the keepnet with five minutes left!

No more fish came and I had to pack up quickly as I was due to fish a bowls match that evening. However the scales came round before I was ready to leave, so I saw that top weight, on 29, was 55 lb. I weighed 75 lb 1 oz, but was told that Trevor had 80 lb.

It turns out that Trevor won off peg 24 with 80 lb 12 oz taken at half depth on a pellet waggler, He had back wind and had seen some big fish turning. He cast about halfway to the island,with banded pellet but didn’t hit any really big carp – his best was around 5 lb. Most were F1s or carp up to 3 lb , with three skimmers and a tench. I was second, which I was chuffed about that since it meant I had beaten the four pegs with features I had really fancied and have done well from in the past. But I can’t remember that last time I drew any of them!

Five minutes to go and this little fella
was popped into the keepnet!

Conclusions

It’s always satisfying to frame, especially when it’s not one of the pegs I would have chosen. I had some luck foulhooking two good fish which I landed, but think I did correctly by keeping something going into my keepnet, even if they were ‘only’ bream on pellet or corn, or the occasional barbel on maggot, as opposed to attacking from the start with cat meat. It was a day when anglers had to make sure they took advantage of any luck. Not an easy day when you see the weights. I am told that virtually all the carp weighed in were on the small side – up to 3 lb or 4 lb. I was told once that the bigger carp in Beastie tend to spend much of the cold weather under the island, where the temperature is more constant than out in the open water, and it does seem that there are fewer bigger fish being caught at the moment.

The result

Peg 2 – 75 lb 1 oz...me 2nd

Peg 3  –  DNW

Peg 5  –  59 lb 10 oz...Terry Tribe, 3^rd, including several skimmer bream

Peg 6  –  DNW

Peg 7 – 13 lb 15 oz

Peg 8 – 48 lb 6 oz

Peg 22 – 51 lb 1 oz...a lot caught late

Peg 23 – 11 lb 2 oz

Peg 24 – 80 lb 12 oz...Trevor 1st

Peg 25 – 14 lb 1 oz

Peg 26 – 11lb 14 oz

Peg 29  –  55 lb 5 oz...Peter Spriggs, 4^th

Peg 30  –  25 lb 11 oz.

Next match

Sunday sees me on Six-Island, which is the shallowest of the lakes on Decoy, and I think all 20 of the anglers registered to fish are expecting it to be hard. I will be thinking of starting somewhere in my swim on a single maggot, willing to step up bait and hook size if I start getting bites. The current forecast is for a warm weekend, so it may pay to be in the wind if it has blown warm for two days beforehand. But I fully expect that last half an hour to be crucial – the secret is to not give up if you’ve got next-to-nothing with 30 minutes to go. The fish here can be big, and three at 8 lb give you a great final boost.

The pegs I usually fancy are 4, 9, 10, 16, 17, 18, 24 and 25 and I would be happy with any of those. But as with all lakes on Decoy it could be won anywhere. A good time will be had by all!

A very tight result on Beastie

Beastie Lake, Decoy, peg 14

There were 19 in this club match and it was probably the tightest finish of any match I’ve ever fished. A cold Westerly wind coming in from my right front greeted me, and the water – as you would expect at this time of year – was clearer than it has been recently. Altogether it didn’t feel that there would be many big weights.

For those of you who know Beastie, we fished from peg 2 to 8, missing out 9 to 13 on the back of the spit, and resumed at 14 round to 30, missing out 16, 19, 20, 27 and 28. As always I fancied pegs 2 (which has always been kind to me although it’s not a recognised flier) 8, 18, 26, 29 and 30, with 26 the absolute favourite. Unfortunately (!) Neil, one of our best members, had peg 26 and even though he doesn’t fish the pole I still fancied him to do well. We shall see!

Peg 14 has nice reedy margins, so a job to do!  I started by putting out some pellet and hemp at top two plus three, but put out a method feeder with banded pellet towards the island (you are not allowed to cast right to the island on this peg). That produced only a 6 oz bream so after 25 minutes I went on to the pole, which gave me a 1 lb bream and two or three around 3 oz. So then it was into the margin, where I fancied I saw a liner or two on cat meat. Then John, to my right, hit a big fish from the margins and eventually, after a long fight, netted it. It looked to me to be at least 10 lb.

 

John hooks a double-figure mirror.

But I couldn’t catch anything, so it was back to the long pole, where a roach and then another tiny bream (which fell off) were the only takers. At that moment John took another big fish from his righthand margin, so I was back to my left margin, towards the point of the spit we were on. In the next hour I managed a 1 lb bream and a 3 lb F1 on meat . The interesting thing was that I could see tiny liners on and off all the time.

 

Ten minutes after hooking it John nets the beastie in Beastie.

A drop in to my right with corn also saw liners, but no fish. Then a 4 lb barbel from the left nearly wrenched the pole out of my hand. So I had about 10 lb and John, who had had another good carp and couple of smaller fish, was probably 25  lb ahead of me. I pricked a couple of fish on the strike, and foulhooked one barbel.

A very interesting experiment

I was still getting liners on every drop-in, and was sure they were knocking and playing with the bait rather than brushing the line. In desperation I put in my Summer Margin rig, with 10 lb line and meat...and got no liners. I fished like this for 15 minutes with no result at all. That convinced me that the fish had been, indeed, knocking the bait, but because of the thicker line on the big rig they were staying away. So I went back to my 6 lb rig, and still got mainly liners.

Now the rain started to fall, and it was impossible to put up an umbrella, and it became very cold. The long line produced nothing and, with two hours to go I had added another carp and a couple of barbel – best 5 lb – from the left hand margin and decided to target the barbel with maggot. This brought even more liners, and another two or three bream – one of which jumped out of the water like a trout -  and a carp and a barbel, which I was playing when the shout went up to end the match. I wish they’d use a whistle, as I often miss this shout!

Tight weights

I weighed in 41 lb 12 oz and was surprised to see that I was last up to this point. Not by much, but still last. John to my right had 45 lb and Mel, to his right, who had fished a Method feeder for most of the day, had 54 lb 8 oz. Alan on 18 had two very big fish in the first half-hour but then struggled his way to 40 lb.

The (rather wet) result.

Top two weights were on 25 and 26, which had back wind. I am convinced that the tiny difference in temperature between a cold wind into the bank and the cover offered by a back wind can often make a difference , and so it seems ...though I can’t ignore the fact that both Neil, who won, and John, who was runner-up, are both very good anglers. So, as has happened millions of time before, put a good angler on a good peg and you’ve got to fancy his chances. You’ve still got to catch them, though!

Afterwards I pondered on why I couldn't persuade those fish to take the bait. But since I will never know, it's not worth worrying about. Matchfishing is often a matter of taking your chances when you get them.

No pictures of my 5 lb barbel as it was raining when we weighed in. 

Look at the weights

Look at the weights, which are very close for a club match on a commercial fishery:

Winner 85 lb 4 oz, much of which came in the last two hours in the right margin;

 2^nd 57 lb 12 oz,

 3^rd 56 lb 12 oz.

4^th 55 lb

5^th 54 lb 8 oz

6^th 51 lb

7^th 50 lb

8^th 45 lb

9^th 44 lb 12 oz (Joe is aged 87)

10^th 44 lb 8 oz

11^th 43 lb 8 oz

12^th 43 lb

13^th 41 lb 12 oz (me)

14^th 40 lb

15^th 31 lb 12 oz

16^th 26 lb 4 oz (lost a new feeder rod, pulled in by a fish)

17^th 19 lb

18^th 11 lb

19^th DNW (wet and cold)

Lucky at Benwick Sports

I recently went to Benwick Sports, which is only 45 minutes drive from me, to get a Number Three section for my Browning Z12 as the other one was split, causing me to lose a top two at Kingsland. They had the section, and I happened to mention that Drennan had stopped making their old Carp 7 floats, and had told me they had introduced a new pattern. I had almost run out of the old 7s, and wondered whether Benwick Sports knew of anyone who might have any.

The gentleman opened a drawer behind the counter...and there were 17 beautiful old Drennan 7s, which I immediately bought! Happy Days.

No cigar, but a good day

Yew Lake, Decoy, peg 7

My ‘mates’ did their best to depress me before we even had the draw – I already knew that a match had ben won on peg 16 the week before I had a bit of a disaster on it. Now Terry Tribe informed me that the day after my debacle the match was won on that peg again! The only source of consolation was that, like mine, most of those fish were caught in the last two hours.

Still, I knew I wouldn’t get that peg today because all 11 of use were to fish the West bank, pegs 1 to 15, with the fierce wind behind us. And not only was it fierce – by the time we had got down to our pegs we realised it was very cold. The first touch of real Winter. So I wondered if the bigger carp and the barbel would feed as they are always the first to hunker down in cold weather. And early on, two flocks of swallows gathered and swooped and glided around, like sophisticated starlings, before heading off South, definitely signalling the end of Summer.

Wild, windy...and cold.

Cock-up round the corner

So to peg 7, and to be honest I would have preferred anywhere from 9 down to 15 as they have a slight tendency to produce more fish. But a job to do! First I potted out some pellet, corn and hemp to 8 metres, and put out a straight leger with a bunch of maggots to the middle. Mick on my right put out a Method feeder to the far bank and was into a fish before I had even tightened up my reel line. But he had only one more on the feeder and within 40 minutes were were both on long pole in five feet of water...with yet another cock-up to come.

After a few minutes I hit an F1 between 1 lb and 2 lb, went to net it, and realised to my horror I hadn’t put my landing net together. The handle was still in my holdall. What a Wally! I scrambled over to my holdall, bucking pole in left hand and unzipping the holdall with my right when Mick on peg 6 came over, grin on his face and his landing net in his hand. He netted the fish for me – club anglers are good blokes – and we settled down again.

No more fish, so I put a bait dropper of maggots down to my left in the deep water (there were no nearby margins to talk of and it was so cold I doubted whether the fish would come up even if there were). This quickly produced a 4 lb barbel, foulhooked in the pectoral fin, one missed bite, and a pricked fish. But I never had another touch there even though I kept trying it.

Adding a section worked again!

So it was out to 8 metres with pellet, but Mick had had several fish to 2 lb on his similar line on corn, including a cracking fish that looked about 10 lb. So I changed to corn and stuck with it for most of the rest of the match. Occasionally I had an F1, biggest just over 2 lb, and again – as I have done a time or two lately – added a section to fish past my baited swim, without baiting there. Amazingly this produced four fish in about half an hour before they appeared to go.

Mick in action - hoods were essential even with back wind.

So back to the 8 metres with my 1gm Drennan TuffEye float. I know this is considered very heavy by most anglers, but it works for me in high winds. Dropping the bulk down to 10 inches from the bait with a dropper five inches away produced a run of three or four fish. Then, after a long blank spell, I considered putting out a lighter rig to see if it made a difference. In the meantime I lost two fish around 4 lb each, both of which made it slowly to the net before darting off and pulling the hook out, and I had another very big fish unaccountably break me – something I am ashamed to admit to.

I considered putting on a different rig for about an hour (!) before actually doing it by picking up my 0.5 gm inside maggot rig with 20 minutes to go and adjusting the depth (it was deeper in the side than out at 8 metres, as is the case on most swims on the strips). This brought four fish for about 10 lb in the last 20 minutes! The difference was incredible, but you never know what the main difference is -  as the shotting was similar and the nylon the same 6 lb Silstar Match Team. Only the float was lighter. Anyway, it worked for me on the day.

Beaten by an 89-year-old

So to the weigh-in with 89-year-old Ted on 51 lb 8 oz from the corner peg which he now usually takes on the strips to cut down his walking. Peter fished his usual home-made paste for 84 lb 12 oz which showed that there were good numbers of fish willing to feed at that end of the lake. I estimated Mick next to me had at least 75 lb, but in fact they went just 60 lb 5 oz, as, like mine, his fish were small. Every other competitor had much bigger fish – lots around 10 lb. Bob Allan’s first four fish to be weighed went over 40 lb! I estimated I had about 20 fish and they weighed 51 lb 6 oz, two ounces behind Ted, who will be 90 this December. Beaten by an 89-year-old...but happy about it!

Ted - still going strong.

Peter with a double-figure mirror.
The fish here are very difficult
to hold for pictures.

Mick and I discussed why our fish – except his solitary 10-pounder -  were smaller than everyone else had, and could not offer any explanation. We both used mainly corn, and  it did seem that some of the bigger fish had come to cat meat or hard banded pellet, which surprised me as it was so cold I was shivering before the end and hadn’t realised the bigger fish would be willing to feed like they did. But obviously the water had not yet been cooled down. But I doubt that the choice of bait was the main reason.

Winner was Trevor, who wins more than anyone else, with  107 lb 1 oz on pole-fished banded pellet, while Terry was runner-up also taking most of his fish on pellet on both feeder and pole. These two fished next to each other – but it would be dangerous to assume that there were more fish there, because they are two cracking anglers.

Trevor our organiser with a fish
we weighed at 13 lb 6 oz. He
has the knack!

All-in-all I really enjoyed the day, having to fish for each fish by changing something – pushing out a foot, or lifting or dragging or stopping feeding – there was always something that eventually worked. Anf that final 20 minutes, when I was averaging 30 lb an hour, convinced me that I should have had more, and should certainly have been able to frame instead of coming 7th. There’s always something to learn.

The result.