A difficult day on Beastie

Beastie Lake, Decoy, Peg 15

This was a midweek Open, with 16 fishing, and in a cool Northerly wind (which turned North-Easterly later) my peg and the one on my right, 17, had back wind. Our margins were flat calm, contrasting with most of the other swims which had a big wave on, and unfortunately the sun shone brightly most of the day and. So I didn’t expect a big catch, but I had a job to do.

In these circumstances all I ask is that I don’t make a fool of myself - these Open Match anglers are so good it’s frightening.  I set my targets today at: 1) catch some fish and 2) don’t come last. And it didn’t start well when the angler on 17 took two carp around 5 lb each with his first two casts on a Method feeder, put out to within a foot of the island some 40-plus yards away. Even with a line clip I’ve never been able to cast like that every time – awesome to watch.

I started 10 metres out, where there was a tiny piece of ripple, and eventually caught a small bream on a 4mm expander, and then a 4 lb carp. My righthand neighbour had now gone several casts without a fish, and when he saw my carp on he changed to a pole. But another 15 minutes saw no more fish for either of us, and I had a look in the margin, where it was about four feet deep.

A barbel obliges

In went a little cat meat and some corn and within a couple of minutes a 4 lb barbel obliged. From then on I concentrated on this lefthand margin swim with meat, hoping for more barbel, which prefer meat to corn or pellet (though they will take both) and in the next three hours managed about ten bream around 2 lb, three or four F1s, two 3 lb carp, and a 2 lb tench. But there was no pattern – I’d take two fish quickly, then wait 20 minutes without a bite. No 17 also seemed to be struggling – I saw him back on the feeder (one one retrieve I could see his bait was bright red so I assume he was fishing a pop-up). He also put out a pellet waggler to the island with uneering accuracy to within two feet of the grass, time and time again, but without any result.

Like me he eventually concentrated on the margins, cupping feed up to the platform between us. I didn’t feed there, but if I had seen him catch a fish I am confident that fishing my side of the platform, without having put any bait in, would have produced fish taking cover there. In the event I didn’t see him take anything there, though he took several fish, mainly to his right, from the margins. I had to pull the bait slowly to get a bite; leaving it stationary produced only a couple of fish all day.

Sport was slow, though I could hear the angler behind me on peg 12, which was in my 5-peg section, landing occasional fish. He had a head wind, but I would have preferred that to our flat calm in the sunshine. With an hour to go I estimated I’d 40 lb, and had noticed that the bream seemed to prefer the slightly deeper water away from the reeds. So I decided to start a new swim, a metre to my right, level with the front of the platform, where the water was just a few inches over four feet.

Immediate success

Immediately a 4 lb bream came in, and in an effort to attract a bigger carp I opened a tin of original Coshida I had in a cool bag – this had bigger lumps than the new Tesco cat food, which has been re-branded and has smaller lumps than it used to. But I’ve got only a few tins of original Coshida left so I’ve got to look for another brand that has big lumps. Anyway, unbelievably, first drop-in with the Coshida saw a 10 lb carp take my bait and it was in the net in little more than 30 seconds! Every fish, including the bream, either came in very easily or out up a really hectic fight.

Keep the pole tip down

I nearly always plunge the tip well under water as soon as I can, and if you can get it down far enough, below the fish, the fish tends to come to the surface – just as if you lift the pole the fish tends to fight against it and go down. It’s logical, really. And once the fish is on the surtface it’s sometimes possible to hold it there and let the elastic draw the fish over the landing net. It worked with the ten-pounder.

Two or three more bream came from that swim, and a final look to my left margin again saw an 8 lb mirror come in just before the whistle. That took much longer to land than the bigger one. A good last hour for me, and I estimated 60 lb total. 

Rob Goodson, one of the Decoy regulars, and a cracking angler, weighing in
from peg 9. Peg 8 is in the background, and the angler there  had a lot of calm
water in front of him in the North-Easterly wind.

Packing up

My righthand neighbour took one net out of the water and laid it on the bank – so I knew I had beaten him as the net maximum is 50 lb. Then he tipped back the rest of his fish, packed up, and was gone.

I’m not in favour of going home without weighing in. It seems to me to be a bit of an insult to the anglers who have worked so hard to beat you – and it doesn’t give a complete picture of how the lake has fished. The only time I’ve not weighed in has been when it’s raining, to save the scalesmen bother. I note that some weights lower than mine weighed in, even though they must have realised they could not win anything. Good for them. 

Kevin's take on DNWs

There were two DNWs in my section – I’ve no idea about the other one; perhaps he had beaten me. But I just love the comment made to me by Kevin Ashurst in Ireland many years ago: In his broad Lanashire accent, with a smile on his face, he uttered the immortal words: "If you haven't weighed you haven't catched!"

Peg 12 behind me, won the section, and the angler on 18 beat me by 1 lb 2 oz. But this was the lowest-weight section. I lost four big fish, partly because I was caught unawares and couldn’t always get an extra section on in time. Funnily enough the fish that stretched my elastic farther than any of them was a turbocharged 3 lb F1! The others could have been foulhooked, though I suspect not. Fish were swimming around under the surface, so they could have fouled the line, but they were moving so fast I couldn’t pick up a mugging kit in time – and hanging a bait in the water is banned here; you have to allow the bait to sink naturally.

The result

 

Andy Stepney admires that near-15 lb
common from peg 29.

Conclusion

My two nets went 69 lb 10 oz, and I was actually very happy. I thought I fished a fair match, and didn’t disgrace myself. When the angler next door caught on a feeder early I was half inclined to pick up my rod, which was ready and waiting, but decided to keep fishing to my strengths, which is precise presentation on the pole, while keeping an eye on him! I have much less confidence in the feeder than I do in the pole, even though my biggest weights on natural waters almost all came to leger or feeder.The best weights today came from the main lake in the wind, with Andy Stepney on 29, which had a really strong head wind, taking second weight from the margins including a fish which must have neared 15 lb. I note that peg 8, which is a lovely peg in the corner, also struggled – but he also had a sheltered swim and calm margins. Rob Goodson, on 9, had predicted that the low numbers – 3, 4 and 5, would be favourite, and in fact 4 won it with 175 lb.

My next match, hopefully, is on Snake Lake at Head Fen, near Ely. I am about to start my treatment for prostate cancer, so fingers crossed that doesn’t affect me too much. At some point that will have to be suspended, or hopefully quickly completed, to start treatment on the touch of cancer on both lungs. I’m optimistic, but wish me luck.