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.