A difficult match at Northview

Northview, Gedney.

Overnight the temperature dropped, and a cold wind welcomed the 14 of us in this Fenland Rods match. My peg (13 on the day) was the second one in from the entrance – it would have been in the corner of the original lake, before the extra bit was added a year or two ago.

I would have preferred the wind blowing into me – pegs 15, 14 and from 1 to 6, because on that opposite bank the margins are deeper than on the roadside, and in the cold wind I fancied the fish might want to find the deeper water, at least until the temperature warmed.

The wind was cold but at least it was over my back. I plumbed up
next to the island at 13 metres but never tried it.

However, I had fancied trying shallow with caster, and my back wind was ideal for this. I started on the bottom in about four feet of water to my left ten feet from the bank with a 6mm Sonubaits sinking expander. One carp and another lost foulhooked was my catch in the first 45 minutes, and I tried out at three sections. Here I took three or four bream to about 2 lb, and tried throwing caster out and fishing shallow.

A grim first two hours

Carp were turning under the surface, but all I got were two roach. Going down I suddenly managed to hook, and land, two more carp about 3 lb on pellet. So after a little over two hours I had three carp and John Garner, to my left had one. He also said that Kevin Lee, to his left, wasn’t catching much. Then I knew that it was likely to be hard.

On the opposite bank they must have been very cold. I could see they were all muffled up against the wind, with hoods over their heads. And I didn’t see much caught there, either. I couldn’t see beyond peg 3, though. The wind veered slightly to the left now, causing me to rule out going over to the island at 13 metres, where I would have had trouble presenting the bait properly.

John, on my left, struggled all day
as I did. But this golden
carp raised his spirits just a little.

I now started foulhooking fish, virtually all of which came off. I wasn’t the only one – all those to my left had the same problem. I also lost five 2 lb bream which hurtled out of the water when hooked and threw the hook! I looked for deeper water than four feet, but couldn’t find any within 11 metres, so concentrated on the little dips I could find – the bottom here is very bumpy.

Dead reds sort of worked

The rest of the match was spent mainly at three sections and at five sections, and when I put some hemp and dead maggots in by baitdropper it kicked the swims into life – though not a lot! However it did bring occasional carp, plus some more foulhooked which came off, all on a bunch of dead reds. It was the only way I could get fish. Just one, my best at 7 lb,  came from deep margin swim near the reeds to my left, where it was almost three feet deep. My best hour was the last, when I landed about six carp, the best that seven-pounder.

All day I had tiny indications that fish were playing with the bait, or hitting the line somewhere just above it. I put it down to the sudden drop in temperature. My pellet felt like ice when retrieved.

To my right and in front of me the margin was no more than ten inches deep six feet from the bank, and from time to time fish would come in here and kick up clouds of mud and wave their tails at me. Of course I tried to catch them, but they wouldn’t look at a bait, and I foulhooked just one, on cat meat, a bait which I kept trying but on which I never had a bite. Those margin fish seemed to be just enjoying themselves, like they did at Kingsland earlier in the week.

Difficult to land

The water was so muddy that it was impossible to see fish to net them until they were right on the surface. So trying to scoop them out as they came bast just under the surface was impossible. Consequently they took a long time to land – nearly all were in beautiful condition, solid and fit.

Wendy Bedford with husband Les' fish
as he was in the car on oxygen. Just
look at the quality - fin and scale-perfect.

A complaint!!

One or two of us had asked, at the draw, if the start and finish could be made more obvious – shouting is the usual method. So, unbeknown to me, Kevin, who is official timekeeper, crept up behind me at the start and roared “START” in my ear. I jumped a foot in the air, but immediately saw the funny side, and had a good laugh. At the end he did it again, taking me by surprise, a split second after I hooked my last fish, a four-pounder foulhooked in the tail.

That fish took me several minutes to land, and consequently I missed the first few being weighed. I estimated I had about 55 lb of carp and 10 lb of silvers, and in fact that wasn’t far out as they totalled 70 lb 3 oz.

The winner

Over on the far side Dick Warriner and James Garner found fish in the deep water, with Dick telling me he had at least six feet. It was a clever decision to go out there early in the match, as I suspect most of the rest of us opted to try closer, and with the wind in his face he must have found it quite difficult at times. Dick took fish steadily all day, his winning 133 lb 14 oz coming on cat meat  – something which didn’t work for me. A very good win on a difficult day...Dick is now one of the anglers you expect to probably frame in almost every match.

 I was on 13, next to John Garner, while John Smith was
opposite me on 1. The weighers-in 
clearly should have gone to Specsavers!

I ended seventh, though only 4 lb behind the fourth man, so just one of those 20 or so lost carp could have given me several more club points.

Such a pity that this water is going to be closed to matches in the next year or so, the owner concentrating on pleasure anglers, with unhooking mats being currently required on the other two lakes, and I imagine the same rule will apply here.

My errors

I made two mistakes, I think. I should have tried a Method feeder over to the island, and I should have fished positively for a time with cat meat on a proper strong rig in another spot somewhere, possibly to my right, instead of just putting cat meat on my pellet rigs. Not sure whether it would have worked, but I should have tried. Then I realised I was top of the six pegs at my end of the lake, so perhaps I did OK after all.

Next match Thursday on Horseshoe, Decoy. I have casters for those lovely F1s, and will try shallow for them if I can. But the fluctuating temperatures may spike that plan!