A difficult Autumn day - Decoy, Cedar

We thought we were on Oak, but it looked like a mistake somewhere at our end, and we were happy to fish Cedar. I would have chosen a peg at the car park end – 22 to 26 or 1 to 4 – but ended on 19, towards the far end, and on our £100 Golden Peg.

The night had been cold, but things were warming up and there was a nice breeze, into my face. However the sun on my left  made it difficult fishing that side. I started on The Method with maggot, as it looked like being difficult, and put in a few pellet and corn at six pole sections; but within a minute Dave Garner, on peg 7 on the opposite bank, landed what looked like a barbel, which made me think it might not be as diifficult as I had feared, if the barbel were already prepared to feed. 

So after 15 minutes I tried the margin to my right, where I bait-droppered maggot and hemp, and fished with a 0.14mm rig straight through to one of the newish Guru black fine-wire hooks (I forget the name) baited with a bunch of deads.

No prize, but I caught a couple of good barbel...

...as did Kevin, to my right.

First drop-in saw a 2 lb F1 in the net, followed by a 3 lb mirror. But then I could get only knocks from roach, some of which clung to the maggot before dropping off and I could see they were about ten to the ounce. In the next 45 minutes I had a couple of roach and a gudgeon, but on the opposite bank they all seemed to be catching, while Mel Lutkin, opposite me, seemed to be landing a 4 lb carp or a barbel every ten minutes.

The opposite bank was bagging!

A look in the longer swim brought two 2 lb carp to corn, but it took an hour to get them, and during the next hour I managed just a barbel and another 2 lb carp from the margin swim on maggot. So halfway through the match I had about 14 lb while Mel opposite must have had 40 lb or 50 lb, Dave Garner to his right also had several fish, and Tony Nisbet on 13, in the far corner, had also been catching regularly.

Mel had a great start, but had to wait some
time for each bite. He ended with 97 lb.

Tony fished peg 13 - and
it wasn't unlucky for him.
 He won with 106 lb 11 oz.

Later I found out that John Smith, on peg 4, had also had a great start: “I might as well have gone home at 12 o’clock” he told me. Yet to my right Kevin Lee, after taking the odd fish early on, was really struggling, like me. Odd fish now came from my two swims on corn until I had a look down in the deep-water margin to my left, where a barbel on corn made me swap over to cat meat. This brought intermittent carp to 5 lb and several barbel also to 5 lb, some foulhooked,  until I changed to a heavier 1.5 gm rig, which instantly upped my catch rate.

In the last hour things started getting better, and with half-an-hour left I hit three fish very quickly and looked to be headed for a cracking last 20 minutes. But then the wheels came off – I must have missed 15 bites on cat meat and I lost six fish, all after being hooked for about two seconds; I’m not convinced they were all foulhooked. With 30 seconds left, in frustration, I dropped back into the right margin and promptly hooked my final 3 lb barbel which I landed after the whistle.

Bill Foster calculates all our
weights and records them on the
board (gotta keep in with him!)

Dick, fourth from peg 24

The weigh-in

I estimated I had 60 lb-plus, which I was sure was definitely beaten by Les Bedford on 1 with 78 lb 4 oz, Dave Garner with 89 lb 8 oz (including a carp of 14 lb 4 oz), Mel with 97 lb and Tony with 106 lb – these all taken from the end bank on about 13 metres.

So round the end of the lake to pegs 15 and 17, both of whom had struggled to 40 lb-pus, and I was surprised to weigh  77 lb 2 oz, which was beaten on my bank by Dick Warrener on peg 24 with 83 lb 14 oz. He hooked five good carp in his first five casts, though the biggest one came off at the net.  I finished sixth, but if I had managed to land just a couple of the fish I had lost I would definitely have framed.

The result. This club has just one match left this year.

I should have had a look in my lefthand margin earlier; and I should have tried worm to see if the fish took it better at the end, when I was getting dodgy bites on cat meat. It seemed the fish wanted to feed but weren't taking the bait properly. 

Still, I was second on my bank with four of the top five weights coming from the opposite bank, so I can’t be anything but happy. And everyone else was happy as it was a Golden Peg rollover. But, Boy those barbel do fight!