Two hours fishless...then, Bingo! (Oak, Decoy)

Tuesday, July 4

Oak Lake, Decoy, peg 3

I fancied a peg on the Eastern bank for this 11-entry Spratts club match, as it faces the prevailing Westerly winds and bank erosion has left most swims with a nice shallow margin somewhere. In the event we all fished on the West bank and all 15 pegs went into the bag.

I like this idea – we all had the same wind, could cast right across if necessary, and putting all the pegs in meant that some of us would be fishing right next to another angler...rather than the modern thinking of giving everyone a spare peg (which for me is not proper match fishing). That meant we could actually talk to each other!

Also, putting us all on this bank is probably fairer than pegging us all opposite, as the peg on the bird hide has such a good reputation, particularly if the fish will feed in the margins. So I settled down to enjoy, at the very least, a decent day’s fishing.

It has been so hot I welcomed the light, cool North-easterly breeze we had at the start, though I would have preferred a peg opposite the bird hide – around peg 8. But we all agreed that conditions were pretty good, even given the fact that there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Peg 3 was drawn out as the Golden Peg, but I had no expectation of winning from here against the standard of opposition in Spratts club.

Nice margins, but no fish

I found reasonable margins each side, and put in a few expanders on one side and hard pellets on the other, and kept feeding these swims while also potting out pellets and hemp at five sections – about 8.5 metres. I could actually fish easily at six sections – 10 metres – but as always gave myself leeway in case the wind got up or I wanted to fish farther out.

We started with a nice breeze, but it soon turned nasty.

Amazingly, though there were fish topping, and an F1 humped its back out of the water in my right margin, I couldn’t get a bite. I stayed in the margins for half an hour, fishing full depth, half depth and all depths in between, and tried down the slope. Nothing. Out at 8.5 metres I still couldn’t get even a liner, but with fish topping I decided I must be able to catch shallow. Half an hour of this, feeding pellets very accurately, still brought absolutely nothing.

Cold wind

By this time the wind had increased from a light breeze to a full force 6, making presentation difficult even at 8.5 metres. Almost two hours gone and, still biteless, the wind was very cool and I walked to the car to get a long-sleeved shirt, and then wandered along the match length. Just three had caught fish – Mick on Peg 1 had one carp, with Peter Harrison having four on a Method feeder casting across right to the margins beside the bird hide. He always seems to catch fish using the The Method. Peter Spriggs, meanwhile, had four on pole at four section on his special home-made paste. All the others I spoke to had not had a touch.

Ted (90) was in the corner peg,
but had less ripple than the rest.

John on his first trip
since a major operation.

As I watched, John Garner hit a fish on a feeder...and then got a call on his mobile. I went to take a shot of him with bent rod in one hand and a mobile to his ear in the other, but he managed to drop the phone on his box and attend to the serious business of getting in his first fish before I could take a picture.

The fish switch on!

Back to my peg and I rigged up a Method feeder, with an 8mm hair-rigged banded pellet and cast out, more in hope than expectation. First cast was three-quarters of the way across; next cast was within a few feet of the far bank, and after five minutes I got a drop-back and was in business. This first carp was around 7 lb. Unfortunately the band was ripped off as the fish moved around in the net, so I re-tied another on a size 12 Kamasan Animal on 0.23mm nylon – quite strong.

Next cast, another drop-back, another fish, around 6 lb, and another band had to be re-tied. Two more came, and I had to re-tie the band every time. But at least I was catching. The band stayed in place for the next two fish, then another re-tie job...I then realised it was the band that was ripping off, caught in the mesh, and not the nylon breaking. Nothing much I can do about that. Luckily it takes only a minute to re-tie from scratch.

After I had taken seven fish on The Method I noticed Bob, on my left, take a fish close in, and Peter, on the next peg, playing a fish on the pole. It was almost impossible now, in the increased wind, to fish my original pole swim, so I cupped in hemp, corn and pellets at about six metres and dropped in a 1gm float with meat, prepared to go back on the feeder if nothing happened immediately.

Peter catching on The Method
prompted me to do the same.

 

Bob was on my left. When he
eventually caught near the side
 I changed back to pole.

Success

I had my bump bar on from fishing shallow, and was able to rest the third section on it to steady the rig in what was, at times, almost a Force 7 wind. This worked very well.

First drop-in I had the signs of a bite, and next cast a carp around 4 lb. Now the fish were really feeding well. After a few more, on cat meat, I swapped to a 2gm rig, and had in mind going up to 3gm or more if this worked better. Moving the shot down to within about six inches of the hook steadied the bait, I suspect, and fish came regularly, half of them lifting the shot and giving what looked like a liner. But all were hooked in the mouth.

From then on it was straightforward, though, as so often recently, I could take no more than two fish quickly without having to re-bait. Again I had an idea that the hemp was helping, and I have lots of confidence in it. And I stuck with the 2gm rig rather than waste time putting a heavier one on a spare top two.

TRAGEDY

At one point I stood up to get a tin of corn from my bait bag, and as I was opening it when a particularly strong gust of wind blew me off balance.

I managed to take one step over my pole, and was about to do the same over my landing net handle when I lost the plot completely, diving over the pole (I hoped) and spawling full length on the ground, banging my knee on some hard gravel, and sending the tin flying.

My first thought was for my knee (at 75, knees in working condition are particularly valuable) which was just bruised.

Then I saw my Number 3 section in two pieces. My Number 4 also had a jagged end, which looked to have brought a halt to fishing the four-section swim.

But on closer inspection the jagged end was, in fact, a few inches of the Number 3, still attached, which had broken in two places. I gathered them up and took them to the car because the wind would certainly have blown them into the lake if I’d put them on the grass.

Luckily I had a spare Number 3 with me and after a short prayer over the demised Number 3 I was back in business.

My best fish lost

I stopped the first net at 40 lb and the second at 39 lb, and after getting a third net from HQ I put on my waterproof jacket, as I was now getting quite cold. In the one hour left I put 23 lb on the clicker.  I admitted to 100 lb-plus.

I was playing what I am sure was my biggest fish when the whistle went – probably a double-figure carp. It just felt heavy and lumbering, and in a frenzy of excitement I shipped back to my top two before I had seen the fish. I like to have an idea of its size before doing this, but didn’t stick to my rule of thumb.

The fish suddenly decided to sprint to my left, towards a bunch of reeds, and it came out, but immediately it shot back and snagged me solid. The match had ended, and I prodded around with my hook and eventually got the whole rig back, but no fish.

 

Peter Spriggs always seems to catch
on his homemade paste.

Terrible estimates

My estimates were way out...not for the first time this season. In my defence, several of the anglers had nets over 50 lb. The fish seem to have become really solid since spawning, when they were weighing light. One fish I estimated at 4 lb was on its back in my landing net and I was surprised by its width – I should have re-estimated it, but didn’t give it a second thought until pulled my nets from the water!

Our organiser Trevor is
always smiling!

My 40 lb net was actually  55 lb; my 39 lb net 57 lb; and my final 23 lb net went 42 lb 7 oz (probably had not bothered to click the last couple of fish). So 142 lb total, but I had caught 154 lb in the final four hours – same weight as two days previously.In the event that gave me top spot...and £80 from the Golden Peg, though Trevor ran me close with 134 lb 10 oz. Luckily that lost fish didn’t cost me. I must be more careful next time.

The result - far better than we imagined it would be
after two hours fishing.

Next match is on Buttonhole Fishery near Wisbech, when I believe we will all be pegged opposite the island, rather than having some in the open water. I have no problem with that, in fact I think it’s much fairer. From memory it will probably be right across to the island shallow (14 metres across approximately) or deep on cat meat down the edge. I’ve got a good record here.