Five fish...for 37 lb

Tuesday, Nov 21^st

Oak Lake, Decoy, peg 9

Peg 9 for me – and it was drawn out as the Golden Peg, to the inevitable cries of: “Rollover!”  See if I care!

There were just nine of us, all pegged on the West bank with a stiff breeze over our right shoulders, giving us a fairly smooth surface on our side of the lake, and it was overcast and cool but not really cold. Actually the water looked good, except that when I had a look behind me at Cedar, with the wind blowing into that bank it looked really very nice indeed with a good wave on. I was happy with peg 9, which was almost down to the bird hide – and because we were all on one bank we could cast right across, which most anglers did at the start.

First I put in a small pot of pellets and a few grains of corn at 11.5 metres. At the start it was reasonable easy to fish at 13 metres, but I was being circumspect (!) in baiting up a section short. So immediately on to a hair-rigged piece of corn with a straight bomb cast across, and I got a lot of liners but no fish.

Lots of changes

First change after half an hour with no fish was to put on a pop-up, still with no fish. Meanhile Peter next to me had a good carp on a feeder. After about 90 minutes I took off the quickstop hook and fixed a straight hook on, with dead maggot – still no fish, and Peter had another. A quick look on the pole line, which I had been pinging pellets  over, did not even bring a touch.

Next change was to put on a feeder, just as Peter had his third, and because I had some soaked micro pellets I put those in the feeeder. Still nothing, as Peter landed his fourth. So some groundbait was mixed and put in the feeder, with some dead maggots, but still no result. The final change, made more in hope than expectation was to put some live maggots on the hook, with a dead on the point...and as I twitched the bait back I felt a fish take it – strike – fish on! Just as Peter hooked his fifth. That fish of mine was almost 10 lb, but I was way behind Peter.

The next hour saw three more around 6 lb each, and after the fourth one I fancied looking at the pole line – and immediately a big fish gave me a bite – it was around 12 lb, and gave a fantastic fight on grey Hydro (I know!). It came in sideways but I don’t know if it was foulhooked or whether the line had caught round its fin because the hook fell out in the net. Probably hooked properly I think. Peter Spriggs, on the other side of me, landed a fish on the pole at the same time, and Peter on my right was also playing a fish.

Peter's last fish had its mouth in a strange place...

No more

The last two hours passed with no more bites, but Peter Parlett upped his score to ten. The wind had got harder and it was quite difficult for a time to fish at 11.5 metres, but I’m satisfied that presentation was OK.  However, I couldn’t detect any undertow, which was surprising in that stiff wind, and neither could I get the rig to drift properly with the wind – it seemed they were cancelling each other out. There was a slight undertow in the deep water in the side, where I fished maggot two or three times without any result at all.

As you can see, the catches were well down on what you might expect from Oak, but there had been several overnight frosts so the water was cold. Bob on peg 1 had one fish, Martin two, Mick one, Trevor three, Mick in the corner two, Peter on my left five or six...with Peter winning next to me with 48 lb. I had 37 lb 3 oz for third. But it was Peter Barnes who showed us all how it might have been won – fishing an 8 gram waggler three-quarters across with maggot or soft pellet for 44 lb and second, and he lost a big one in a snag a little way out from the bank - probably an old tree root. He said he allowed his gear to drift with the wind, which makes sense when I realised that all four of my feeder-caught fish came as, or just after, I twitched the bait along the bottom.

The result. Peter Barnes was on 13 I think. And I was third!
You can't get the staff you know...

And of course,as my ‘mates’ were not slow in reminding me,  it was a rollover...

Next match is the Drennan Winter League organised by Tony Evans on Sunday. He's already told us on Facebook (which I have just joined) the exact pegs to be fished, and all the five-man sections. Now there's a real proper match organiser!!