A great club match – Decoy, Cedar

Cedar Lake, Decoy, peg 12

Fifteen of us fished on a hot day with just a light Easterly breeze, for a change. That wind seem to make all the difference to the fish, because they fed well, and no fewer than 10 of us topped 100 lb!

I fancied peg 26 in the corner (which I won from last year in the club Roving match), or failing that 6, 7 or 8, or opposite on 19, 20 and 21. Or failing them anywhere in the first half-dozen pegs near the car park, on either bank.

Peg 26 was first out – unfortunately it was not my fingers it was stuck to, but our secretary’s, John. The pegs I fancied went flying out to others, and I ended with 12 down the other end of the strip – next to the corner swim, which had not been pegged. I had this last year, and had had a quick read of this blog before leaving home to remind me what happened on all the Cedar matches. All I could remember was that I had had fish from a four feet deep margin swim to the right of peg 12.

 

A light breeze was most welcome, but the sun shone all day.

Hallellujah, everything was still the same, and I managed a quick barbel on corn after about ten minutes from this margin. The lefthand one was dodgy, with no real flat area, and I never tried it properly. I concentrated on the right margin, feeding half-a-dozen grains of corn every couple of minutes, but started a swim about ten feet out in the deepest water at the bottom of the slope which I fed mainly with pellets to start with.

Slow start (as always)

A slow start brought about four or five fish in the first hour, while Dick, almost opposite on 14, in the far corner, found fish steadily near the end bank. Nothing came from my deep swim to start with, but I found occasional carp and barbel to 3 lb from the right margin, while expander farther out lured nothing.

A good spell on corn inside gave me enough confidence to put in more feed in the deep swim,including hemp, which has seemed to kick-start swims this Summer, and eventually cat meat took some fish here, but nothing big, except for two carp around 8 lb each.

At 1 o’clock Dick went for a third net (50 lb maximum here) and I went half an hour later. But it took me nearly two hours to get around 40 lb in that net – I felt I should have been catching them more quickly, but time just slipped by as I waited for bites I could hit properly. The carp were lifting the meat but not taking the float down, a bit like roach. Often the float slid away gently as fish picked up the bait and swam out towards the middle...they looked like liners but if I hooked a fish it was always in the mouth.

Half-hearted bites all day

At one time I was feeding one swim, taking two fish, and then changing over. This worked quite well for a couple of hours, though the fish still would not give really good bites. At 3.15 I went for a fourth net and managed just 22 lb in it before the end – disappointing, as the wind had turned to blow directly into my bank, and conditions were really quite acceptable, despite the heat.

I lost only one fish after hooking it properly – I had it on for 15 seconds. I pricked just two others, which came off immediately, so was actually quite pleased at the end. though being right at the end of the lake I didn’t know how many others had fetched extra nets.

John Smith had THREE nets all over
50 lb from peg 26 - more than half his
fish were barbel.

I fact my 154 lb 11 oz was good enough for third place, the match won by Kevin Lee on 20 with four nets all over 50 lb – so a 200 lb total, taken mainly on cat meat towards the bottom of the slope. Often the fish will take a bait better if they don’t have to tilt themselves down to pick it up – in fact I had persevered just up the slope for some time in my swim, but found it not as good as presenting the bait in the deepest water. At the end I was laying on six inches, which was better than just touching bottom, but I never had a really good spell all day.

Spare a thought for Dick

Dick Warrener goes round with Kevin on the scales, and they started at peg 1. But disaster...when they got to Dick’s swim one of his nets had slid back into the water. Dick retrieved it, but every fish had gone, and he’d lost an estimated 25 lb. That would have been very close to me, possibly beaten me.

Great result for a club match with 10 out of 15 topping 100 lb.

ALSO Bob Allen had a 50 lb-plus net and could have overtaken me; Tony Nisbet had two 50 lb-plus nets; and John Smith had THREE nets all over 50 lb.

FETCHING NETS

Those anglers had possibly all caught more than me but the 50 lb rule docked their totals. I timed my walk to get another net – two minutes to the car; a minute to drive to the nets; half a minutes to get the nets; a minute to drive back; two minutes walking down to peg 12; then at least another half minute to screw the net on my attach and position it = a total of seven minutes.

So I can understand why anglers don’t want to risk losing time by fetching another net if they are near maximum late in the match. There’s also the problem (as happened to me) that when I returned the fish were not lining up as they had been when I left my peg.In fact my single lost fish was first drop-in after returning the first time.

Anyone at the car park end of the lake takes four minutes less than me each time they fetch a net – my two extra nets took me eight minutes longer than it would someone at the other end; that’s basically two fish when they are feeding well.

So I don’t feel too bad about sneaking in front of the anglers who declined to get another net!

ON Oak Tuesday - anywhere on the Eastern bank will suit me as the prevailing Westerlies have created bank erosion and most swims have some sort of shallow margin somewhere.