Well beaten, but not downhearted

Cedar Lake, Decoy, Peg 3

This was a Saturday Open, fished by about 60, most of whom were practicing for the next weekend’s Winter League Final (half on Decoy, half on the drains). I wasn’t particularly happy with peg 3, as it was the peg where I came last on the lake in one of the Individual Winter league matches. At this time of year it can’t compete with peg 1 in the corner, and Danny Carlton, a local regular, confirmed that, as I had suspected,  fish are currently tending to hang around peg 5.

I guess that almost everyone started fishing either on a ledger or feeder, or at 13 or 14 metres on the pole, as the fish seem to be in the middle of the four strip lakes. I started at 13 metres plus a half-butt with a pellet. The match started off badly for me – peg 4 on my left hooked a fish within 30 seconds of dropping in, only to lose it. I think it was foulhooked. Then he had two or three more fairly quickly, and lost some; the angler almost opposite on 24 also hit several fish quickly, also losing some. Meanwhile I had changed to maggot, as they were both clearly using maggot, but I still sat biteless.

I get a bite!

After about an hour I had a bite, and pricked a fish, probably foulhooked. Peg 24 was still taking the odd carp. An hour later I hit a big fish which broke me at the hooklength – it was probably also foulhooked. On went a new hook – an 18  to 0.12 nylon - but it was halfway through the match before I got a fish – a 1 lb tench on maggot. I put in some micro pellets and a few maggots, and while they sank I had a look in the deep water in front of me on a top two. Within 15 seconds I was playing a 2 lb bream...but I could find no more.

Back out I still couldn’t get a bite although I tried laying on, fishing dead depth and, and even tried up to  half depth. In desperation I changed to using the lighter inside rig (a 0.25 gm TuffEye) on my long line, still feeding with a tiny pole cup or with a tiny amount of bait in the big cup when the wind got up. A few minutes later I got a bream, then another, then another. Then an F1 came in, hooked in the mouth, and I realised I might have a chance of getting a respectable weight, as pegs 4 and 24 had really slowed up. They both tried the feeder, but I don't think that brought any fish. In the last 90 minutes I had one more bream and two foulhooked carp of about 2 lb and 3 lb.

To my right pegs 1 and 28, in the corners, had had fish steadily all day. Peg 5 hadn’t been drawn, but I could see the angler opposite catching fish. As I was packing up Danny Carlton, who had been on peg 7, told me he had caught just four fish! So perhaps my nine weren’t too bad.

I was on scales, and you will see that although my weight was low, the fishing was patchy – some huge weights with much smaller weights beside them. Typical Winter fishing, with fish hanging around some areas and refusing to move. I weighed 17 lb 14 oz and my neighbour on peg 4 had 24 lb 15 oz – so I was within touching distance, and he fished a tidy match. Andy Geldart won the lake with  149 lb 3 oz from peg 22, which is the one opposite peg 5, telling me he had laid on 6 or 8 inches. He was still only third in the match! Andy won the same match last year on Yew 21. Put a class angler on a decent peg and  he will always produce.

Gavin Millis with one of the big
barbel which have started to feed.

Andy Geldart with part of his
lake-winning 149 lb  3 oz.

CONCLUSION

Actually I was fairly happy. A good angler would have had more from my swim, but I don’t think I did anything spectacularly wrong. Most of my catch was bream  and the only reason, I can assume, is that the carp weren’t there in any numbers.

 

The top five weights - amazing considering how consistently cold the
weather has been lately. There was a frost on the morning of the match.

When Jon Whincup had sat on peg 1, to my right, he told me he had tried fishing in the open water and never had a bite – he caught all his fish against the end bank. Today I spoke to the angler opposite peg 1, peg 26, and he also said he hadn’t had a bite in the open water, and had caught all his 94 lb 2 oz against his end bank as, I think, did peg 1. So it looks as if perhaps the fish at this end of the lake are tending to gravitate towards that bank.

Yew -  the top weights were almost
opposite each other on 11 and 20.

Elm - the first of the strip lakes.

My lake, Cedar.

Oak produced the top two weights.

Final Winter League match – at least I wasn’t last!

 Beastie Lake, Decoy, peg 4

This was the last match in the six-match individual Drennan Winter League organised (very well) by Tony Evans. And peg 4 was one of the pegs I really did not fancy on the day because of the bitterly-cold Westerly wind blowing into it. It wasn’t too bad at the start but as soon as the sun went in it was murder!

Still, there was a job to be done and after spending the first few minutes having a quick look on my 13-metres line and on a deep-water margin line I picked up my rod and maggot feeder. But two hours on this brought just one tiny roach, while the angler on my left had a big car early on, on a straight lead, and the one on my right didn’t get anything either, so far as I could see.

So after two hours the angler on my right and I both changed to pole – him at 13 metres and me at eight metres. It took him almost half an hour to get a fish, but he then picked up another four or five – I guessed they were bream, while I had a gudgeon and a roach. So it was out to 13 metres and after about half an hour I took a bream on two maggots. The wind was gusting up at times, so I had to feed with a small amount of bait in a big cup, rather than using a small pole pot. 

A surprise barbel

Over the next 90 minutes or so I managed another five bream, all around 1.5 lb, but my neighbour was getting two fish to my one. The wind, at one time, became so cold that even with seven layers of clothing on I was shivering and actually considering spending a few minutes in the car to warm up. But then it eased a little and the sun came out and I decided to stick it out. I had quick looks  on the feeder and on the eight-metres line, but nothing happened. One more fish came at 13 metres  in the last half-hour – an unexpected barbel of 3 lb.

Although I hadn’t seen it, my left-hand neighbour Andrew Paton had changed to a maggot feeder ain the last half of the match and picked up some carp about a rod-length short of the island, which is about 50 metres away, and he weighed 37 lb 11 oz for second on the lake. I weighed 14 lb 14 oz, which was about 14 lb more than I thought I was going to get after a couple of hours, while the angler on my right had 33 lb 6 oz, all bream and a few roach, plus just one carp.

The other two pegs in our 5-peg section were on the opposite side of the lake, where at least they had back wind.  Danny Carlton had 18 lb 13 oz of roach, and the other was a DNW. So I ended fourth in my section, and ninth out of 15 on the lake. The lake was won by Ian Frith on 29 with 99 lb 3 oz of carp, all on a small cage feeder with pellets inside, baiting with maggot, in the open water about halfway over to the island. In fact Ian won the whole match!

Beastie

 

Six-Island

Damson

Horseshoe

Willows

Final results in bottom table

MY FINAL THOUGHTS

Looking back at the class of angler taking part I can’t be too disappointed. After a great start – a 1^st, 2^nd and a 3^rd  section  places in the first three matches – I fell away. But at the age of 75 I have to be a realist and say I need luck to beat these blokes, and don’t feel I fished too badly. At least I caught in every match, and with the water so cold now every fish is a minor success.

The overall winner was Jon Whincup, who drew Horseshoe 1, considered no more than an average peg by the locals, but he managed another section second (and fifth in the match)  using a pop-up with a straight bomb over to the reeds. He never came below section second in the whole series. A popular win, and a great bloke, too.

Doctors and hospital appointments take up most of this week, but I hope to fish somewhere at the weekend – probably in a Decoy Open. Considering the cold winds this area gets, Decoy produces some wonderful fishing in the Winter. Half of the Winter League final is taking place there on Feb 24.

Seventh out of 12

Jay Lake, Pidley, peg 34

Another difficult day for this Over 60s Open – almost freezing though I had the light, but cold, wind on my back. Unfortunately it was a West wind which meant I was facing East, which meant the sun was shining on me and not on the far bank shallows where most of the fish were caught. The top weights (indeed almost everyone who weighed in) had the sun on their far bank.

My swim - the sun never got on the far-bank shallows.

Two hours dobbing bread to the far bank (at 13 metres plus a half-butt) brought not a sign of a fish; then messing about in the side brought seven tiny perch on pinkie and a 4 lb carp foulhooked in the tail. Repeated looks over still brought nothing and the anglers either side didn’t get a carp either.

The result

I weighed 4 lb 7 oz, which managed to avoid being last...which has been a good result for me lately!! 

John Pratt made the very best of his peg 2 to win on dobbed pellet  – well done, John. My next match is the Decoy Winter League on Sunday – not sure which lakes are booked but it’s forecast to be cold, so it’s likely to be a struggle. I am trying to avoid a hat-trick of being last on my lake...