Lots of fish for everyone on Cedar

Cedar Lake, Decoy, peg 11

An unusual start to this annual invitation match. The organiser, John Garner, was unable to attend following a major operation; then we found that a misunderstanding  had ended with the match being booked for Bank Holiday Monday, instead of the Sunday. So our normal Six-Island lake was booked out. However, owner Di accommodated us on Cedar Lake; we kept  the peg numbers we had for Six-Island after breakfast in the pub...and it turned out to be a really great event.

Cedar is the one Strip Lake at Decoy in which the pegs nearest the car park frequently have a slight edge – from 1 down to around 6 and opposite from 21 to 26 – but I was happy just to be fishing. However, it was a bad start for me – Kevin Lee on my left on peg 12 had a big carp on a top-two within a minute or so, while Tim Bates on my right followed up within five minutes with a carp taken shallow. Both then kept catching fish, quickly, while I struggled, taking a only couple of fish at five sections on corn and a couple on cat meat close-in in the first hour – at this point I was getting a real battering.

Peg 11 on Cedar - the strips are all this width. It was head wind all day.

John Smith with a good barbel.

The head wind was quite strong and in fact kept blowing my spare tops off the roost. It also meant that presentation was difficult unless the bait was anchored to the bottom...which seemed to me to be how Kevin was fishing. However, a 10 lb carp on dead maggot from the margin on my right, which was no more than ten inches deep, started a bit of a recovery, and I settled down to fish mainly the left hand deep water with cat meat. A good couple of hours followed, the fish consisting of more carp to almost 10 lb, some F1s, and several barbel to 5 lb.

The barbel are getting bigger

Bargel are like chub – hollow. They always look as if they should weigh more than they do. But I’m pretty sure that the best ones landed today – and I had about three – were all 5 lb or more. I was surprised, at the end, to see how many barbel most anglers had caught. The anglers who had fished farther out most of the time – including Tim, next to me – had more carp and fewer barbel. The barbel love to feed along the bottom of the near shelf. Cedar and Elm seem to hold more than Oak and Yew.

Me with barbel and new hat.

When the wind dropped for a moment I invariably caught a fish, so I had changed to a 2 gm rig with cat meat which steadied the rig a little. Odd fish came off, and I foulhooked just one – a 5 lb carp hooked in the tail!! You can imagine how long it took to get that one in. Kevin went for a third net about half-past-one and I followed 25 minutes later. Within half-an-hour Kevin had gone for a fourth, and about 45 minutes after that, following an incredible spell when he landed several carp around 8-10 lb one after the other, he went for a fifth net! I estimated I’d still got just 26 lb in that third net of mine...

I have to admit I made a complete mess of my swim – I had one cast close in with a new rig and corn on the hook and promptly hooked a 5 lb barbel. Then, stupidly, I laid that to one side and went back on my original rig and cat meat hoping for carp. I should have kept on putting fish in the net of course. And actually the longer swim nearly always produced a fish on corn when I swapped to it. I am afraid I became a little too pre-occupied with the meat close-in, where Kevin was still taking fish after fish.

Fourth net

I went for a fourth net with 25 minutes to go, folowing a quick spell of fish, and an estimated 40 lb in the third net.  But the inevitable occurred – when I returned I managed just one 2 lb F1 and a lost fish at a time when I had confidently expected anything up to 2 lb for a grandstand finish. Strange how often that happens... That lost fish, which felt 4 lb-upwards, would have raised me three places.

The weigh-in

Peg 1 saw Les Bedford take 85 lb. For me he was Man of the Match. Les now has to fish while taking oxygen all the time – his oxygen canister is beside him. A real inspiration. He always gets a peg close to the car, and wife Wendy always has the next peg,so she can help if necessary, and today she took 65 lb on a feeder. That’s what club fishing should be about, of course. His big brother Joe, aged well into his 80s, was fishing, I think, for the first time since his wife died, and almost hit the ‘ton’ with 95 lb 9 oz, and he was over the 50 lb mark in one net.

 

Kevin Beavis - in third spot.

Alan - now a Russian spy!

After Les came a string of good weights from the early pegs, and I weighed 128 lb 12 oz, for 9^th out of the 18  – beaten by 1 oz by current club champion Dave Garner (who broke his rod on a barbel. Well it was a barbel rod! 

Kevin weighed in an awesome 222 lb 12 oz to win (and he was over in at least one net). On the opposite bank in the high numbers Dick Warriner beat his best-ever match weight to take runners-up spot with 180 lb 11 oz. Third was Fenland Rods secretary John Smith, who has made a great start to the season, with  178 lb 15 oz, with fourth place going to Kevin Beavis, a former member of the Fenland Rods, with 158 lb 1 oz.

You can see from the results what a great match this was – we’re all club anglers invited by John Garner, each year, and it’s good to meet up again with those of us who do not fish with Fenland Rods. Eleven weights over 100 lb, with 56 lb the lowest. That’s some club match!

Mick like singing while he fishes!

 

Dave Garner - beat me by 1 oz!

For myself I admit I should have done better. A bad start and a bad finish didn’t help, but there were still spells of several minutes in the match when I couldn’t buy a bite. I suspect I may not have fed enough to keep those big fish rummaging around.Three tins of corn, a tin of meat and half a big tin of hemp plus some pellets is a lot by my standards, but I’m sure more would have done no harm.  I should  probably have concentrated a bit more on the tiny shallow swim to my right – no more than a foot square and ten inches deep, where I had a couple of fish. I kept putting a little bait in and having a look, but had no more.  A big load of bait dumped in might have brought waving tails and I could have been ready with the shallow rig.

How about that for a result? Eleven weights over 100 lb and three over 90 lb!

My next match should be on Elm lake at the end of this week. I’m due an injection this week, and keeping  my fingers crossed it doesn’t have too much of an adverse effect.