Beastie Lake, Decoy, peg 24
This is my bogey peg – it’s highly rated by the regulars,
but I just can’t frame from it, though I nearly managed it on Monday. I fished
it a couple of times on the trot in the Winter and failed abysmally to make an
impression. Nigel Baxter rates it one of the best pegs on the lake.
The morning was hot and flat calm, and hundreds of carp were
showing just under the surface, sun bathing but not interested in any bait.
Nevertheless Martin, to my left, was soon fishing shallow at 13 metres and
hooking fish occasionally. I started at 11.5 metres (that’s Browning metres, so the genuine length)
with the intention of coming shallow eventually. A 4 lb carp soon came in on
pellet, plus a small bream, and I started getting liners, so came shallow.
Half-an-hour later I’d not had a touch and John, on my right, hit some carp
fishing deep water not far out, so I changed.
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| Flat calm, bright sun, and the fish sunning themselves. |
An F1 came in quickly to corn fished to my right, about a metre
from the bank on a gentle slope, then a couple of roach, and I went out again,
and snared an F1. From then on I rather lost my way, swapping to a swim on the
left with corn and getting the odd barbel on cat meat, then back to the right,
and out again, without ever dropping into any pattern. I went shallow again, had a 3 lb F1 first drop, and then couldn't get a bite, although I was feeding accurately. However, bream to 2 lb came
occasionally fromk the inside swims, but I couldn’t keep them coming. Stupidly I think I must have
forgotten to click these. I blame the baking, relentless sun.
The lefthand swim, about a metre out, brought a 5 lb carp
and some F1s in the last hour, and I lost a couple of barbel which gave me no
chance, diving straight into my keepnets. The big bugbear was roach – they just
refused to let my cat meat sink. At one point I was fishing a 2gm float with
the shot just two inches above the hook...and still the roach were intercepting
it on the way down, and knocking and
nibbling the bait off. I decided to put a big piece of paste on, but couldn’t
find it, and assumed I had left it at home.
Then, with 34 lb on my clicker and half an hour to go I
started fishing even closer to the bank, to the left, where the water was
little more than a foot deep, with corn. A barbel and an F1 came, which went
into my second net, as I thought I probably 40 lb in the first, and then I hit
a really big carp, which surfaced right next to the bank as I struck into it
and I remember thinking: “I hope that’s not the one I have hooked!” But it
was...
Several times my purple Hydro was stretched halfway to the island which is
about 50 yards away, where the fish surfaced, and I was
absolutely certain that the hook would pull. But it didn’t. I was thankful I had managed to add all my pole sections to 11.5 metres, as without that I would have stood no chance.
When the fish seemed to have lost a bit of energy I
plunged the tip as far under the surface as I could, and prayed. Quietly.
Thirty seconds later I lifted the pole and the fish had come right back. It made
a few lumbering circles of the landing net and eventually obligingly flicked
its tail and swam straight in. It was big, and difficult to unhook, as if you
get them in fairly quickly they twist and turn in the net. But is was hooked
fairly in the mouth and I managed to get the hook out almost immediately,
though it flapped once and almost jumped out of the landing net just as I slipped it into the keepnet.
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| My last gasp carp - all 16 lb 1 oz of it. |
Martin weighed 102 lb 2 oz, mainly F1s, and told me he had
been using a jigger rig. I’ve made a couple up myself, but didn’t think about
using one. It might have made a difference. I reckoned I had perhaps 60 lb with
the big carp. Wrong! My first net weighed 59 lb 8 oz, knocked back to 50 lb.
How did that happen? The big carp was weighed at 16 lb 1 oz, and I totalled 73
lb 7 oz, which should have been 83 lb if I hadn’t been such an idiot. Trevor had
enjoyed himself on peg 3 using a pellet waggler all day and casting to within a metre
of the island for his 88 lb, which took third spot.
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| Trevor loves his rod and line. |
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| Peter Barnes, unplaced today. |
So I was fifth, but if I had clicked properly and added just
one more decent carp, or landed just one of those two late barbel, it would
have placed me third. And I had my paste with me all the time – lurking in my
bait bag. A day I made a lot of mistakes, one of which was failing to fish the
simplest line of top two plus two, which I am still annoyed about. The
next day I bought a bigger bait bag, so my stuff is not as cramped, and I
should be able to access it all more easily.
 |
| The result - someone should have gone to Specsavers as Peter Harrison was placed fifth! o( * ! * )o |
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| Winner Peter Spriggs - 144 lb 10 oz on top two. |
This weekend sees me on the match lake at North View,
Gedney, which I like very much. It’s been kind to me and is easy to fish – you can
get the car to most pegs and the banks are flat and grassy.
DECOY – WHAT A GREAT
PLACE
I love fishing Decoy. The fishing is so good, with no duff
pegs in the complex, the shop holds all the baits I might need, plus some
tackle, and I’ve always found owner Di very helpful. So how about this for
service: Di’s partner John, who serves in the shop, rang me this week. I’d had
to miss last year’s three-day Decoy festival for the first time in years. I
forget why – probably a hospital appointment. Anyway, invites always go out to
last year’s competitors, so I didn’t get one, but mentioned to another angler
that I’d have to miss it this year.
John heard about our conversation and took the trouble to ring
me to say there was a place available, and would I like it? After a quick
consultation with ‘Er Indoors and a check on the calendar I had to admit that I’ve
got a lot on that week, so I had to regretfully refuse the offer. But what
other fishery would think about a regular and actually ring to ask if they’d
like to fish? That’s class for you.
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