Hot and frustrated!

Snake Lake, Head Fen, nr Ely, peg 24

Only ten club members were available to fish, on a water I love. It’s an average of 14 metres wide, and only about three feet deep, but recently-cut grass and reeds were floating up and down in the light Northerly wind. I don’t mind this inconvenience as the fish use the floating weeds as cover. In fact I had no lillies or other feature in my margin, so I stuck a piece of forked twig into the water and scooped out some of the floating weed and lodged it in place, creating, by the end of the match, a small mat of cover on the surface.

Appointments at hospital had curtailed my fishing recently, so I took the opportunity for a few hours on the lake the previous day, settling on peg 17 and winkling out nine or ten carp, best 10 lb,  in three hours, mainly from the margin. Match day had similar weather – very hot with hardly a cloud in the sky – but the carp had decided to spawn and it was little short of a disaster all round.

What happened there?

To cut a long, sad, hot, story short I managed to drop my pellet beside two cruising carp after about three hours. The pellet sank, one fish dropped down as it prepared to suck it in, I peered intently to to see whether the fish gave any indication of moving the float...and the next thing I knew was the pole almost wrenched from my hand as the elastic flew across the lake, and up one of the channels that link the winding body of the snake. I gritted my teeth, and the line snapped. It all happened so quickly it took me a few seconds to realise what had happened. I said something like: “Oh dear.”

Kevin, to my left had hooked one fish which he lost - probably foulhooked - and so far that was the only other action near me, though when I looked across the lake to peg 18 I had seen Tony land a couple of carp. A quick wander round to see the other lads told me that fish were in short supply, with Tony ahead.

The next hour was spent biteless, until I changed to maggots fished down the track, and managed about 25 small perch. I kept hoping that the carp would muscle in on the perch, but they were more interested in other matters. Several times I tried bread hung about a foot deep over the far side, but the floating weed prevented me getting close to the bank and, unusually, I didn’t get even a liner.

Talk about last-minute!

Twenty minutes from the end Mike, on my right, who had about five little perch in his net, hooked a carp on maggot in the margins and landed it. I changed immediately to maggot under my little raft of cover, and within ten minutes Mike had another. Then, five minutes before the match ended, the unbelievable...a thought I had a bite, lifted the pole, and a near-6 lb carp stretched the elastic. This time I was perpared, caught it off balance, curbed its first run, and managed to scoop it out. One more drop in, and after 15 seconds the shout went up to end the match.

The sad result on a carp-filled commercial. But how
 boring  it would be if we always caught loads!

The weigh-in didn’t take long: Tony won and Mel on permananet peg 15 was second after losing some fish. John, on 17, which I had fished the previous day, had wandered round to us halfway through the match, fishless, gone back, and started hooking carp. Unfortunately every one had hurtled round the corner to his left and buried themselves in the lillies. His total at the end was half an ounce (one tiny perch). He told me he had easily lost enough fish to win the match probably several times over.  That was surprising, because he fishes really strong gear, so the fish must have been charged up with testosterone, or the fishy equivalent.

Kevin, our club champion more times than anyone else, was a DNW, I weighed 7 lb and Mike, on my right, snatched third place from me by 4 oz! So much for those who say that fishing carp-filled commercials is like hooking ducks at the Fair! Two weeks ago a match was won here with 190 lb.

Next match should be on Kingsland Small Carp Lake, the scene of my 200 lb catch a couple of weeks ago. But the incessant heat and bright sun doesn’t bode well – I hope we get a strong wind. I’m inclined to fish cat meat unless conditions are perfect for surface fishing with floating expanders. It’s usually best to fish to your strengths.