I blow out

Yew  Lake, Decoy, peg 16

This was another two-dayer with friends from Telford and Sheffield, with an assortment of locals, and in fact many of the anglers I had not seen before. So there might be some new friends to be made. What was not new was my luck at the draw. I had this corner peg much earlier in the year and made a mess of it. And I was now told after the draw it had produced the winner just the previous week.  To be honest, though, I still didn’t fancy my chances – correctly as it happened!

 

My corner peg 16 on Yew. The high reeds on the left
meant I couldn't see along the bank.

It’s a lovely margin peg for warm weather, with a two-and-a-half feet deep margin on the left up to the reeds, which are about four feet away, then a drop of a foot to another ledge, then a bumpy slope down to the main depth of around 5 ft. To the right there is a shallow margin next to the reeds which run right round the corner, though today I found lots of old reeds floating about and sticking out from the bank, and decided I couldn’t fish right next to the reeds. However I found a clearish bottom about 4 ft out on a top three which was almost 5 ft deep. Meanwhile Shaun Coaten, a big-weight specialist from Peterborough, had told me to fish the two margins and out at 10 metres to the reeds on the end bank, and when someone who knows what he is talking about gives you that sort of advice it’s stupid to ignore it! 

I did as I was told

I plumbed up at 10 metres to find deep water about three feet from the end bank, and started there for the first 20 minutes with pellet and corn, but never had a touch of any sort. Several  looks in the right margin using pellet and corn also saw nothing, and a drop in to the left shallowish margin eventually saw a bite on cat meat which I missed. The wind, which was into me from the left, was quite cold and it picked up as the day went on.

After three hours I had not had a fish, and I suspected the angler opposite on peg 15 probably had around 40 lb, taking fish steadily perhaps every 15 minutes. I was not a happy bunny. At this point I decided to put dead red maggots, with a bait dropper, into the deepest water I could find, a little to my right at about 5 metres out, hoping to attract any barbel, which love the maggot. After a few minutes I got a bite, hooked a fish on a bunch of five dead reds, and several heart-stopping minutes later netter a 3 lb barbel foulhooked in the pectoral fin.

Fifteen minutes later in came a 2 lb F1, also foulhooked! Obviously I concentrated on this swim and after another half hour I started getting bites, some of which were probably  liners, but at least I was putting something into the net, with half-a-dozen carp from 2 lb to about 4 lb. One fish, probably a barbel, snagged me in front several feet out, where there was a drop-off. Or it could have been an old branch on the bottom. I got my rig back eventually, but the fish had gone. It was not turning into my lucky day.

The margins pick up

With no more than 20 lb in my net and an hour to go I had another look to the right, in the deep-water margin and suddenly the fish were there. I put in corn, plus some expanders with the idea of having something lighter to waft about if the fish came in, and baited with corn or cat meat. That produced about eight fish from 2 lb to 5 lb, two of which came in the last ten minutes. So just as my swim picked up the shout went up to end the match. Typical!

The result

The angler opposite had 61 lb 6 oz, so his swim must died on him, and I weighed in a miserable 41 lb 2 oz. Nigel Baxter, on peg 18, to my left, had taken 138 lb at about 8 metres on pellet and corn, for second on the lake. Unfortunately because of the high reeds I hadn’t been able to see him; if I had I would have been tempted to just fish well out in front of me into the main lake, rather than keep religiously to Shaun’s advice. Understand that his advice was given in good faith, and I should have realised after a while that the cold wind into my corner peg had perhaps pushed the fish well out.

The winning peg was 13, with 165 lb 8 oz right opposite Nigel. It is true that this area, roughly in line with the bird hide on the bank, tends to produce good weights most of the time, but frankly Nigel could probably have framed from any peg on the lake, as he’s that good. I was sort of slightly mollified by the fact that I hadn’t finished last on the lake! But I have no doubt that most of the other anglers would have had more than I did. Still, there was another match to come on Elm and Cedar the next day to look forward to.

Stevie Owen with barbel.

Yew result.

Oak result.