I’m Golden Peg...but, Ooops

Yew Lake, Decoy, Peg 2

There were 13 of us for this club match, pegged down the Western side of Yew strip Lake, pegs 1 to 15, and I didn’t fancy my chances from Peg 2. I tend to favour the pegs from 9 down to 15 and back up the other side, 16 to 21, in Summer and Winter. Of course there are times when the car park end is best, and Mick Linnell, drawn next to me on 3, told me of a match a year ago when this club match was won from 28 and 29, putting a feeder over to the opposite bank where we were now pegged. Then I went and drew the Golden Peg – which was my own!  “It’s going to be a rollover” I shouted, only half joking.

Good start...bad start

The wind was very strong, and gusty, over our backs, but it kept veering from North-West round to South-West, which I have found the fish never like, especially in the bright conditions we had today. I made a  good start with a 2 lb F1 hooked within five seconds of my dropping in with 4mm expander on four metres. Ten minutes later in came a 3 lb F1, then 25 minutes after that a mirror of almost 10 lb, followed by a 1 lb bream and an 8 oz carp.

I then sat for THREE HOURS without a fish, as Mick, on Peg 3, caught odd carp on a Method feeder cast to the far bank, and then to the middle. I tried it for 45 minutes without a touch, using a pop-up and then a white Bandum. I also tried inside with cat meat, and went back to the 4-metre line, all without result. Meanwhile 90-year-old Ted on my right had started well, started getting barbel on a feeder or straight lead, dropped beside the reeds on the end bank. Then he, also, had a bad spell.

If I hadn’t been able to see the carp cruising around I would have thought there wasn’t a fish in the place!

 

Mick Linnell, former Fletton Ex-Service team man,
fished a feeder almost all the match. He sat on my left.

Three more

Suddenly, at 2.30 pm, a barbel took a grain of corn on the 4-metre line, followed by another, and then a 4 lb carp, all in 20 minutes. I had accidentally left my maggots at home, so couldn’t change to maggot bait, which the barbel love. I should have tried a small piece of meat...but didn’t!  Then nothing for half-an-hour. In desperation I added another section to the Browning Sting I was using (it has short sections) and started a new swim a little farther out, putting in a few pellets, a few grains of corn, and some hemp. Result!

 

Ted is aged 90...though you'd never guess it. He sat on my right.
The bending reeds show how strong the wind was.

In the last 45 minutes five more carp around 4 lb came in, though in  the meantime Mick had carried on getting occasional carp to 5 lb on his feeder, and I knew he had me well beaten. Unfortunately Ted, who had been way in front of me in the first half of the match, also went a long time without a fish, adding another  right at the end.

Mick Linnell - a good result
from that peg.

Peter Spriggs - caught mostly on
his 'special' home-made paste.

Two had been for a third net, so we knew we were well beaten at our end – even Terry Tribe, former National Div 4 winner, had struggled on Peg 5, as had regular framer Peter Spriggs, on 4.

I totalled 49 lb 4 oz, thanks to that last 45-minute spurt. Winner was my old schoolboy colleague (we went to Junior school together in the 1950s) Mick Ramm, who got a sincere handshake from secretary Trevor Cousins, who finished runner-up.

So as I had forecasted, the Golden Peg was a rollover.

Bob Barrett, in fourth place
with 95 lb 12 oz.

Terry Tribe's best barbel must
have weighed almost 5 lb.

The weights

I show the result sheet, but below are the weights in peg order. You can see the gradual increase in weights from the Southern end down to the far Northern end, though as I say, that’s not always the case. It was also noticeable as we weighed in and talked to the anglers, that while we in the low numbers hardly had a touch in the side (I didn’t even have a liner), those towards the other end did, and winner Mick, in the corner,  caught all his fish on the inside swims to both left and right.

Feeder accounted for a lot of the fish as well – Trevor, 2^nd, caught all his on a feeder cast right across, using corn. Some of the anglers told me they think that the far side is a little deeper. Where we were, there was no more than about four feet of water in the deep inside run, and little more than three-an-a-half feet farther out, which probably makes this the shallowest of the four strip lakes.

Bob Allan with one of several
double-figure carp landed.

John Smith was third. He is also
secretary of  Fenland Rods AC.

THE WINNER, Mick Ramm,. 108 lb 15 oz...
and he was almost 5 lb over the 50 lb limit over in one net!

Peter Harrison took his fish
on a feeder fished right across.

Trevor Cousins, runner-up,
and always smiling.

WEIGHTS IN PEG ORDER

Peg 1 – 28 lb 8 oz

Peg 2 – 49 lb 4 oz

Peg 3 – 75 lb 9 oz

Peg 4 – 50 lb 7 oz

  Peg 5 – 44 lb 15 oz

Peg 6 – 80 lb 3 oz

 Peg 7 – 76 lb 14 oz

 Peg 8 – 101 lb 5 oz

 Peg 9 – 58 lb 13 oz

 Peg 10 – 99 lb 4 oz

  Peg 12 – 95 lb 12 oz

Peg 13 – 58 lb 5 oz

    Peg 15 – 108 lb 15 oz

The result - we all fished on the Western bank.

My next match my be tomorrow (Wed) on Pidley, or if not, it will be a pairs match on Elm , Decoy at the weekend. I get the feeling that this is one of the more consistent lakes at the moment, largely because it seems to contain more barbel than Oak and Yew. Peg 9, or thereabouts (or opposite on 16) will do me fine. There are 12 pegs down each side here.