Barley Lake, peg 18
I hadn’t been looking forward to this match, as the previous
time I had fished the Vets’ National here it had been very peggy (and I’d been
pegged in the worst section of the worst lake). But after myself and Martin Parker
from Peterborough had watched anglers the previous day, and followed the weigh-ins,
we both decided that there could be a fair rnumber of fish caught everywhere in
the Wednesday match. The fact that baits are limited to maggots, casters,
worms, pellets, corn and luncheon meat (no luncheon meat to be fed and fishery
pellets only) did not seem to have adversly affected the weights, bearing in
mind that these were probably mainly club anglers.
Several anglers topped 100 lb on High and Front Deans,
fishing in hot, sunny weather, mainly no more than three sections out. We also
noticed that the better weights came from anglers drawn away from the aerators.
Owner Mike Mason told us he had been running the aerators non-stop for eight
weeks because of the hot weather.
The National itself the next day was actually fished in much
cooler weather most of the time, compared with what we had had thrown at us in
Cambridgeshire the previous couple of months. It was still hot when the sun
came out, but there was a slight breeze, although it couldn’t make up its mind
which way to blow – one minute it would be from the right, then the left, then
behind, then it would die away. I found it made consistent presentation very
difficult as Barley is only about 20 yards wide, and in such a small area the
top tow was quite severe when the wind came from either side.
The match
With 18 pegs (two nine-peg sections) on Barley it meant that
there were only two swims not pegged. My section ran from 12 to 20, and the
pegs here are only about eight yards apart, so I decided I had to use strong
elastics to prevent any carp running into the swims either side of me. My three
main elastics were Purple Hydro, Red Hydro, and Blue Middy 20 solid.
There was an air aerator next to the far bank opposite the
angler to my right, bubbling air up through the water, and a big brown cloud surrounded
it. My theory is that since the aerator
had been on for eight weeks any food matter had already been disturbed and that
it was no longer a magnet for the fish, and I decided that unless I was
desperate I wouldn’t fish across. I had
a pellet feeder ready to use, but didn’t use it.
Liners!
I started three sections out with pellet, in about five feet
of water, and pricked and lost a fish first put-in. I then foulhooked a 1 lb
carp under the chin second drop. I netted this, dropped back, and kept on
getting liners. So within five minutes I turned to my shallow rig, with banded
pellet, fishing it for 15 minutes from a foot deep down to almost four feet,
but never had a touch.
I’d put a few grains of sweetcorn in my lefthand margin. I
didn’t really fancy fishing here because the bottom was bumpy and sloping down,
whereas the righthand margin was a little deeper but flatter. However, I often try
early on in the areas I don’t fancy, because if I don’t catch I’m not then
disappointed – I know it’s probably flawed logic, but it works for me.
And to my amazement a fish took my corn first time, jumping
out three times before sliding into my landing net – a 2 lb bream. In the next
hour three or four more airborne bream came in, plus some smaller ones, two or
three nice roach, and a couple of 1 lb
carp.
Right margin works!
As soon as bites died away I went to my righthand margin,
fishing corn over pellets, and immediately found a 3 lb common carp. I carried
on getting missed bites here – no more than two feet from the bank in two feet
of water – but it wasn’t until I put a half-inch cube of luncheon meat on that
I started hooking fish. Within an hour I had about six, to 5 lb-plus.
Then I foulhooked a six-pounder and it screamed off to the
left through the next angler’s swim while I held on and gritted my teeth, pole
tip well under the surface. It turned and promptly ran into the swim to my
right. I had called out to my neighbours, who either moved theit tackle so we
didn’t tangle, were just lucky! I know not which, as I couldn’t see them
because of bushes.
A difficult spell
I landed that fish, but then the clouds moved away and it
became quite hot, and sport died. I spent the next two hours alternating
between the three-section swim, which produced one 3 lb fish, my lefthand
margin, which didn’t produce a bite, and the right margin, which produced about
one more.
My left-hand neighbour had had several early fish on a
feeder cast to the far bank, and I considered doing this now; but he now seemed
to have stopped catching, and was alternating between pole and feeder, so I
knew he was struggling. I was getting indications that the carp were still
around, so I struggled on. At this point, though, I could hear splashing in Dick
Clegg’s swim, two pegs to my right, and suspected he would be thrashing me. The
angler on my right started packing up with an hour to go.
At this point I decided I had to make something happen, so
put in two full big pots of dead maggots into my right margin, and two
bait-droppers full into the three-section swim. A drop in to my right brough an
immediate bite which I missed and a carp surged away under the surface. At
least I knew there were fish there.
Tricking the fish
I fished a big bunch of deads really hard for the next
half-hour and was rewarded ith two more carp in two put-ins. I eventually had
to try the three-section swim weith a big bunch of dead, and was lucky that
twice fish took the bait as it sank, hooking themselves, and both ending up in
my keepnet. Using the strong elastics paid dividends, as several of the fish
came in quite quickly because as soon as I hooked them I dropped the pole tip
under the surface, held the fish until the elastic started to retract, and
gently pulled with the puller-bung as the fish came to the surface.
I have a long-handled landing net and was able to push it
well out, allow the fish to slowly slide over the net and quickly lift it. Of
course not every fish was that obliging, and sometimes it didn’t work. But when
it did I had the fish in within 30 seconds, and I doubt the anglers either side
were any the wiser.
The weigh-in
There’s always plenty of time to pack up, and I was able to
have a quick chat to Dick Clegg, who askled whether I had 60 lb - somehow he knew I had some fish. I said I
definitely didn’t, and I might have 50 lb – 11 carp over 2 lb, perhaps 3 lb
each, plus about 14 lb of silvers and small carp.
Dick said he caught later on (as I had thought), taking about
seven fish away from the margins, as well as one or two in the side, though he
estimated his catch at around 40 lb. As he said that I realised I should
probably have concentrated on another open-water swim during that dead two
hours. I had plumbed up at five sections, near the middle of the strip, but
hadn’t even tried there. A definite mistake. I also thought that the angler on
my left had probably beaten me with those early fish, which looked quite big to
me.
The scales came and my first six carp (three nets used here)
were about 13 kilos. The second felt about the same, but with my silver-fish
net they weighed about 22 kilos – more than I had dared hope for. Total 35
kilos 125 grams (about 77 lb in real money). Dick said that could win the lake –
he’d looked at the weigh sheet, which I hadn’t had time to do. The angler on my
left weighed 24 kilo and indeed I thought had won the lake, with second weight sappearing
to be 28.950 from peg 10, to our right, which Dick thought had a spare peg
beside him as it was on the end of his section.
I plead guilty to under-estimating my weight, but since I
had only to split the carp of 2 lb-plus between two of my nets I really only
concentrated on catching them, not estimating their weight, which I would have
to do on my local Decoy.
Martin beats me!
I was quite pleased to be able to tell Martin (a previous
winner on the Grand Union Canal) that I thought I had won my section, but was
very happy when he said he had beaten me with 43.825 kilos from peg 44 on Back
Deans. We would find out our fate at the presentation.
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| Ivan Capsey, second in the match, with me...plus our medals. |
The best bit
As we waited for the presentation I found myself standing
next to Ivan Capsey, from Telford, who comes over every year to fish at Decoy.
I’d always known him as ‘Cappa’ and never knew his real name. Anyway, the
presentation started, and I found myself not only named as section winner, but
also as the recipient of an Angling Trust Medal for being top on my lake. Four
medals are given, and mine covered Barley and the lake next to it, Hay, where
weights were lower. It’s the second such medal I have won – the first came
about ten years ago when I topped the weights on Bank Lake at Moorlands.
 |
| The top 35 (click to enlarge). |
I gave my half-eaten burger and bottle of water to Cappa to
hold while I was presented with the medal...and as soon as I walked back Cappa
was named as the next medal winnner! So he handed me back my burger and water
and had a medal put round his neck...even better, he was second in the match,
from Front Deans 5 with 59.840 kilos, winning another medal. So we had a
picture taken together!
Winner was Harry Billing on Back Deans 48 with 71.200 kilos,
two anglers (four pegs) away from Martin. Harry had a nice-looking peg in the
corner with a spare peg to his right and the end bank to his left – but he’s a
cracking angler and won the same match last year on Partridge Lakes.
Martin told me on the way home that he hadn’t looked into
his right margin until the last two hours, and then proceeded to empty it. He’d
found out as he plumbed up that there were lots of tree roots there, and didn’t
fancy it. But he reckoned if he’d been brave enough to fish there earlier he
could have won the match! In the event he was tenth, and third in his section,
while I was 18th.
A much better match than I had forecasted, and I would not
hesitate to fish there again.
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