No Xmas cheer for me

Cedar Lake, Decoy, peg 4

This was our annual Spratts Christmas match, with big prizes. I’ve fished it for about 15 years and never yet done any good! Today was no exception...

There were 13 of us, so we fished the 13 pegs on the left-hand (Western) bank of Cedar, which gave us a very slight back wind from the left – handy because it was a very strong, bitterly-cold NNW, and the chill factor was forecasted to be around 1 Degree. It felt a lot colder.

 I fancied pegs 1 or 2 as this strip lake tends to fish better at the car park end, but at this time of year anything can happen. The far end pegs, from about 10 onwards, had shelter from the wind and the surface was quite calm, in contrast to the rest of the lake, which had a big ripple on it and made it quite impossible to fish much beyond 10 metres.

Don't be fooled by the blue sky - it was bitterly cold.

Uneventful

My match was pretty uneventful – half an hour on a small groundbait feeder with maggot across the far side brought just a few taps and nudges; then 20 minutes trotting down the side with maggot in the huge undertow didn’t bring a sign of a bite. I tried putting a pole out to five sections (about 7 metres), but came inside when the wind got up, to four sections; and after an hour fishing here with maggot over maggot and hemp an 8 lb mirror obligingly took the bait.

Mick Raby on my left had had three or four fish out at 9 metres, but was having to sink the end metre of his pole to hold it reasonably still; and Bob, on peg 2, had had a quick burst of action on his feeder-fished maggot across the far side, which included a fish into double-figures. I tried feeder again, but still no joy and eventually decided I had to try a longer pole.

So it was out to six sections (10 metres or so) where I found it difficult to feed and fish via a toss-pot, so put in some maggots with a big cup, went out with a bunch of maggots...and had a 3 lb mirror within seconds. But no more. So back to the four sections, where I could present a bait perfectly, but no more fish there. I even tried a 3 gm rig, which actually set wonderfully stablein the gusting wind, but didn’t bring any bites.

Corn worked for Mick

 Meanwhile, Bob had had another couple of spurts on his feeder – two or three fish very quickly, and Mick, on my left, had also picked up another three or four fish. I found out later he was fishing corn. I did try it and should perhaps have tried it for longer.

My last fish was on a feeder - a 2 lb F1 was on the end when I wound in! Bob had three fish really quickly just before the end, while  Mick had a last throw of the dice on feeder and took two really big fish in the last few minutes. Down at the far end I later found that Mick Linnell had also had a good spell in the last hour on a feeder thrown over to the far bank. But my three carp and four tiny suicidal roach which weighed about 1 oz between them,  were my measly offering to the Christmas Match gods – 13 lb 3 oz which was enough for seventh place, winning me a £50 Benwick Sports voucher.

Good old Ted

Good old (well he is 89) Ted on peg 1 was first to weigh in – 23 lb 15 oz on a feeder cast to the aerator. Just turning up for this match in these conditions makes him a hero in my book. Bob won with 43 lb 10 oz  and Mick, next to me, was second – so a good hammering for Yours Truly. And it got worse when I found that Peter Barnes had, for the second match in a row on the strips, caught on waggler fished past the middle. I had a rod on the bank, all ready to fish an 8 gm waggler, and didn’t even try it. I had found that past my four-section line the tow seemed to peter out, but Peter said that once he had sunk his line he found the tow, and it tripped his bait along the bottom nicely. So it was probably a case of Operator Error...but the cold numbs my brain as well as my hands. That’s my excuse.

I have taken to using the narrow bait boxes in Winter so I can have a
large selection of baits handy...otherwise I forget what I have brought!

The result.

PS. Mick Linnell has politely pointed out to me that though he did fish for Peterborough in the National he spent 15 years with the all-conquering Oundle squad before moving to Stamford Welland. A very experienced angler, who is still winning matches. 

PPS. The calm water at the far end didn’t appear to have given the anglers there any advantage, though it was a touch warmer.

PPPS.  John Garner had one sucked maggot five minutes from the end!!