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.