I never got properly started – Magpie Lake, Pidley

The Over 60s match on Magpie Lake attracted 22 anglers, and I fancied a swim with some sort of feature apart from the margins – 1 to 5 where there are lillies or reeds in the open water; possibly round to 10 where there’s a reed island at about 20 metres; and then 25 to 36 most of which are on the island and several of which have lillies or reeds. In the event my sticky fingers pulled out 22, which I really did not fancy because it’s open water. And it was just about the only swim which never had a touch of sun all day thanks to the tall trees behind me.

That's the nearest the sun came to my swim. This was just before the start.

Not much happened – I started with a small Method feeder and maggot to the island, where I had a couple of liners in the first 30 minutes. A look on the pole at 13 metres saw two or three bites, all of which I missed. I had to assume they were liners as the maggots were not touched. After two hours it was really cold, in the South-Easterly breeze, which was blowing into me from the right, so I had a cup of hot Bovril and wandered up to the angler on my right. He had had just one carp, on the Method cast across.

The far-bank cut-out produced just a couple of liners. Some lucky
anglers were blessed with sun on the all day!

In the next two hours I managed to lose two carp on the pole, and then landed one after I had shallowed up to a foot off bottom. It was about 2 lb. I also had other bites, but am fairly sure they were liners. I tried hanging a piece of punch bread a couple of feet deep, with no result – you need to do this next to a feature for the best results. The margins produced nothing to maggot.

Three fish on feeder!

Then in the last hour, shivering with cold (despite having on seven layers of clothing plus my Goretex jacket), I reverted to feeder and took three carp from the open water on Method and maggot. They weighed 10 lb 2 oz and placed me tenth, with 11 anglers DNW-ing, though I suspect most had perhaps one or two fish.

The match was won by Will Hadley with 100 lb 12 oz on peg 34, fishing a 16-metre pole to the reed island and hanging a piece of bread two feet deep. He must have been very cold, as the wind would have been into his face from the right, though he would also have had some sun on his back.  Next three weights were from 9, 11 and 13, which would have had a backish wind.                                                  

So that result was probably as much as I could have expected from that swim, and at least I beat the anglers either side. No match this weekend, but I will probably go to the next Over-60s on Raven on Wednesday.

                

Christmas cheer - Cedar, Decoy.

Our Spratts Christmas match was on Cedar Lake at Decoy, and with 13 fishing we took the 13 pegs on the West bank, 1 to 13. I wanted one of the early ones, because these often have the edge on this lake, but Number 11 stuck to my fingers. The weather was cloudy – we didn’t see the sun all day - with a cool South-Easterly breeze into our faces from the right.

John Garner got proceedings underway 45 minutes before the match started when he cast out a feeder, with hook attached, to the far bank to clip up...and hooked a carp. Halfway through playing it to the side he realised he hadn’t got his landing net made up. I walked over, phone in my hand, and had to decide whether to put his landing net together or take a picture.

I took the picture.

This is what happens when you cast out, with hook attached,
before the match starts, and you haven't set up your landing net.
John Garner demonstrates the one-handed no-handle method.

Excitement over, and when the match started I put out some micros and corn to 12 metres, flicked some maggots into the deepwater margin to my left, and looked up to see Rob Allan, on peg 12, playing a 5 lb carp. Out went my Method feeder but after 30 minutes nothing had taken the corn bait; Rob hadn’t had another bite; John was fishless on 13 in the corner; and I hadn’t seen anyone in the three pegs to my right catch either.

Margin fun

A switch to the 12-metre pole line didn’t see a single touch, so with 90 minutes gone I tried the margin, on a top two. Tiny roach were obviously intercepting my maggot bait on the way down, but I caught a few to 2 oz before a 2 lb ide came in – foulhooked. It was fun catching at least something, but after a gudgeon or two, and some more roach and perch and a good fish lost in the first few seconds I felt I had to go out to 12 metres again.

In the next couple of hours Rob had two or three fish on a feeder cast right over, Peter Barnes on my right had one or two small ones on feeder and maggot, and I managed a roach and a 2 lb bream, followed, after a long interval, by a 7 lb carp and another of 3 lb.

Back into the side, and all the catcheable fish had gone, so the 12-metre line called again. I had to alter my depth to get the corn just touching bottom – half an inch too deep and I didn’t get a bite; but when I got it right three more carp from 4 lb to 2 lb came quickly. I tried fishing off bottom with corn and expander,  but never had a touch. Then a lull, and with an hour to go I reverted to the Method, with corn, cast right over. Three carp came in three casts, best about 6 lb, but the last half-hour was fruitless.

Camera - Action! This is Peter Barnes on the peg to my right. 

Clearly beaten

I had no idea how the low-numbered pegs had got on, as there was a bush in the way, but when I walked back I saw that from Mick on 8 up to Ted on 1, most had two nets in, clearly beating my estimated 28 lb. I wasn’t surprised, as these were the pegs I fancied drawing. The secret to doing well at fishing – as it is at poker – is to take advantage of any luck you get. So good luck to them – you still have to catch ‘em.

Winner Terry Tribe, no doubt
already thinking about the golden
 coin Martin Parker would
be handing over to him later.

Runner-up Peter Harrison -
he  has the Method sussed.

Terry Tribe, on peg 5, fished a method which has won him many Winter matches – corn on a straight bomb, catapulting a few grains over the top, and totalled 98 lb. Peter Harrison on 6 was second, fishing the Method all day with hair-rigged corn, and weighing 93 lb. Both have those methods down to a fine art, and fish them with confidence.

Down along the bank  to me, and afterwards I was actually pleased with my 31 lb, as it was top weight in the last five swims, and it won me a £50 Benwick Sports voucher and a little cash – our Christmas match gives prizes. The only think marring the day for me was raising a toast to absent friends, remembering member Peter Parlett, who died at the ridiculously early age of 61 earlier in the year.

During a match you can forget such things, but afterwards there’s always the sense that someone is missing.

Some good news

This was my first outing with my new Frenzee HGV Mk 2 barrow, and it was OK. Easy to steer, and actually quite quick to assemble. I managed to get to my peg in just one journey. Very pleased.

My next match is probably in the Pidley Pensionsers (Over 60s) next Wednesday on Magpie. No idea which pegs I fancy as at this time of year the fish get together and play hide-and-seek with us.

Left - the result. Note that somehow Peter Barnes, on 10 was placed in peg 9, and Bob Barrett on 9 was placed on 10, but their weights are correct.  Perhaps a visit to Specsavers for someone is in order...You can't get the staff nowadays! 

Unforgettable (with apologies to Nat King Cole)

I’m a classical music man – my favourite all-time singer is Paul Robeson and my favourite composition Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. But I am also keen on Shirley Bassey, Matt Monro, Ray Charles...and Nat King Cole, whose song ‘Unforgettable’ was a regular on the many radio request programmes during my formative years.

That’s a tenous link to the Pidley Pensioners’ match I fished on Wednesday, but the match was unforgettable for me because I can’t remember fishing in worse conditions during the past 20 years. It wasn’t the frost, or snow, or even rain – it was the sun! Low in the sky with hardly a cloud in sight, and blasting the water in front of those of us unlucky enough to fish from pegs 12 to 17 on Raven, and I was on 17. It was impossible to see properly from the start at 10 o’clock right up to the finish at 3 o’clock. And  the wind shook the shadows of the trees on the far bank across my swim from left to right all day.

The match for me was actually forgettable – half a dozen perch on maggot to stop me falling asleep and finally four small carp on corn from the bottom of the far shelf in the last hour. I was awarded 4 lb 12 oz...and wasn’t last! Several didn't weigh and I spoke to one angler who never had a bite. Raymond Poolman, next to me, had the right idea;  he fished a feeder all day and never even got a pole out of his van. Even so he said the sun was a real nuisance.

The match was won from peg 11, on the first corner,  by Roy Whincup, who took all his fish on either three or two sections. And all of the anglers I spoke to said they caught most of their fish from the deep water – not the far-bank shallows where most Raven matches have been won.

So a disappointing result, but I don’t think I could possibly have framed from there. I hope I forget about it quickly.

I scrape a win – Decoy, Oak Lake

A strong cool Autumn wind welcomed the 12 members of Spratts club on Oak, blowing directly down from peg 1 to 15. We were all pegged on the West bank, and Trevor on 15, in the corner, was Golden Peg. I was peg 13, so needed wheels.

Problems before the start

I have been having back trouble pushing my Octbox with a single wheel. The culprits are old(er) age, and the hormone treatment I am on for prostate cancer – it has taken a lot of my strength away, and since I shall be on it for another three years I decided to get rear wheels for the box. Last week they arrived.

Unfortunately when I came to push it all along the bank it veered to the left. The problem appears to be a small amount of play in the front frame where the single wheel is fixed. I suppose three years heavy use has done it. Anyway, it didn’t work properly, even when I tried to re-distribute the load, and every few yards I had to lift the back and re-position it.

 I then made a separate journey carrying my pole holdall and bait bag, which are heavy. I got to my peg eventually, absolutely knackered, and decided I would just fish a pole and have a gentle day and not worry about the result.

At the end of the match things were even worse, and by the time I had got halfway back to the car I actually felt ill with the effort and had to stop. Luckily John Garner offered to push it back to the car, where I had a rest.

By the time I had partly recovered, the weighing-in was well along the bank, and my mates then told me I had missed the chance of pictures of big fish in the first few pegs. Thanks, lads!  Anyway, after we had all weighed John and Peter Spriggs helped me carry the last bits of gear back to the car – that’s what mates do.

I am looking at getting a four-wheel barrow, like most sane matchmen have. So back to the match...

 

Peg 13 on Oak. The strong wind was coming from the right.

A slow start

I started at top two plus two, which is where I could most easily fish, putting in some micros and thawed sweetcorn. You will know that when sweetcorn had been frozen and thawed it becomes soggy and light. In that strong wind I hoped to find a tow against the wind, and I did. Peter Spriggs on my right was fishing paste, so I knew his bait would be static. If he started bagging I would change baits, either to normal corn, or cat meat or paste.

On my left Terry Tribe found fish on a feeder (I think it was one of the new hybrid Methods) cast right across, using maggot. He had three before I had my first one, which turned out to be a 5 lb mirror. I had seen a few tiny indications on the float, so I knew that there were fish there. In my experience, if liners all look similar (which these did) it’s because fish are actually interested in the bait, even if they are not willing to take it properly.

Peter Harrison  with 26 lb 13 oz - I knew he was
struggling when I saw him get his pole out! 

Peter on my right had two or three early fish, and I assumed I was in for a beating. But then another, smaller, fish came in. An hour gone, and Terry now had four to my two. After a long fishless stretch my liners stopped and I briefly tried caster down the side where I had been flicking casters. I didn't see Terry get any more fish, and he had also tried pole, so was obviously struggling. Eventually I made the effort to put up a Method feeder – the new Preston interchangeable system has made me more amenable to fishing rod and line now. It’s a brilliant system.

Fish on the feeder!

I decided to cast to the middle of the strip lake, because in the Winter fish are almost always found well out on the strips, and often none will come into the margins. Several little flicking liners came, and on the second cast a 5 lb fish took my hair-rigged corn. A little later I managed, somehow, to foulhook a good fish which came off at the net. Then a little later a 2 lb F1 came in.

After a blank spell I went back to the pole on the four-section swim, still putting in only small amount of micros, corn and hemp. There appeared to be a very shallow dip in front of me, about half-an-inch deeper than the rest. After a lot of experimentation I got the depth exactly right, so the corn was tripping the bottom on the shallow section and the float tip was just above the surface. Then when it came to the deep section the float went under, though I could still see it. Then, when it came to the end of the dip the float tip came back, and that was where I got bites, a few feet past where I had fed.

Peter Spriggs was on my right. He works
wonders with his home-made paste.

I missed several bites, as did Peter beside me, but I managed about three fish, including one foulhooked and a ten-pounder hooked properly, before trying the feeder again. It was getting quite cold now, and I didn’t expect things to get any better, so I tried just a couple of drops in the deep margin, with no result.

The wind drops a little

Two more fish came on the feeder and with an hour to go the wind started to decrease a little, so I went back on the pole at five sections and started a new swim. The dip was there as well, and once I got the exact depth I managed another three fish in that last hour, best 7 lb and the last one a 2 lb F1, again a few feet upwind of where I had fed. Terry also started catching again in the last hour casting his feeder less than halfway, as did Peter. I wasn’t sure whether I had missed any fish they might have caught, because I had been staring so intently at my float.

My clicker showed 34 lb, and although I’d had an interesting day’s fishing I was sure I’d been beaten.

I'd recovered enough to show my winning
49 lb 8 oz  catch - but couldn't raise a smile.

The weigh-in

I missed the first few to weigh, and saw that John Garner was in the lead from peg 2 with 44 lb 7 oz mainly, I think, on feeder.Terry asked me what weight I thought I had and I said about 35 lb, which was the same as his own catch estimate. Peter Spriggs had about three fish late on corn, at about the same distance form the bank as I had finished up, and weighed 38 lb 7 oz.

To my amazement my net felt heavy and the scales went round to 49 lb 8 oz – I was flabberghasted. As Frankie Howerd would have said: My Flabber had never been so ghasted! Terry weighed 39 lb 9 oz – just 2 oz more than Martin Parker, and I know they always have a £1 side bet. I imagine Martin paid it grudgingly...

Trevor, in the corner, had an early fish but struggled and, like me, kept swapping from pole to feeder, so I knew he was struggling. He weighed 26 lb 3 oz, so the Golden Peg was safe and I had won.

In the end it was actually quite a tight match,
 with six weights over the 30 lb mark.

That win has given me confidence for the final Spratts match of the year, next Friday, on Cedar. There are more barbel there, and it’s possible the odd one will feed in the deep margin on dead maggot. It’s our special Christmas match, with prizes, and the presentation takes place in the restuarant at Decoy. The only problem (and it always happens) is that, because I am so wrapped up against the cold, when I go inside my spectacles steam up! The hormone treatment also gives me hot flushes, so I will be doing a quick strip beside the car before I go in to collect my prize (whatever it is). No cameras please!

Late news
I've just bought one of the new Frenzee Mk2 barrows, on the recommendation of Alex at Rookery Farm Fishery, Pidley. Wish me luck with it.

Fish give us a frosty reception – Six-Island, Decoy

Temperatures dropped the night before this match – Terry Tribe clocked minus 4C early morning – and there was frost on the fields. Eight fished – four at the car park end on pegs 24, 22, 18 and 17, and four at the other end, on 7. 9. 11 and 13.

Bright sun and a cold start, and we knew we would be struggling.

I was on 11, and remember seeing Steve Freeman winning a match here on a long pole to the island. I put up 13 metres, prepared to go to 16 metres if necessary, but at 13 metres it was still a long way from the island, which has rapidly reduced in size in the last few years. So I stuck with 11.5 metres, and had the next section by me if the fish looked like backing off.

Bob on 9 was playing a six-pound carp within a minutes of dropping in, and within another couple of minutes I also had one, about 6 lb. But then, nothing. I came inside, several feet from the bank, where the sun was shining on the water, and eventually found a few roach to 6 oz on caster. I plugged away and suddenly a 3 lb tench put in an appearance, then a 2 lb F1, and a 3 lb barbel, and a couple of small perch. An hour from the end I went out again, and first drop in hit a carp, which came off after about eight seconds. That was the end of my day!

Ted's 20 lb 3 oz - he's 91 in December!

Peter's five fish came to The |Method.

The winner

Round on 18 Trevor didn’t catch a carp until 1 pm, when the sun came round far enough to shine on his swim. He found 44 lb 8 oz, all on worm fished down the track. I had worms with me and didn’t think about trying them.

 

Six-Island was an enigma which none of us unravelled...

John Garner on 22 found 42 lb 6 oz on cat meat and paste – I had both with me and didn’t imagine for one moment that they would work in those conditions; shows how much I know. And on the bank opposite to me Peter Harrison took five carp for fourth spot on The Method with corn – I had a Method rod with me and didn’t try that either.

 Third was Terry Tribe who also caught all his carp after 1 pm – I didn’t ask what he caught on as it was bound to have been something else I didn’t try!!!

The result, for the record – Elm, Decoy

 I didn’t feel like writing up the match that Les died at. But here is the result.

The strong wind and rain died away in the last half-hour.

Les did well, from Peg 1, to come sixth, because the strong wind was blowing into that corner, and there was some heavy rain, as well as hail. I was on the opposite bank, on 19, and found a few fish in the deep margin on caster, loose-feeding caster and hemp. So in the first two or three hours I had a 3 lb tench, a 2 lb F1, and a 1 lb perch, as well as a few small roach and perch. But early on it looked like being hard.

Mel - third with 57 lb 9 oz.

The result.

A foray out to 12 metres with corn over corn and pellet brought five carp to 7 lb over about two hours, but the sixth one, which seemed a lot bigger, broke me. Three more eventually came from that line, plus a 3 lb barbel on a bunch of maggots from the left margin (I was playing it when the match ended) and I ended with 56 lb 11 oz, Kevin winning it from corner peg 13, probably on cat meat.

I should have gone back out half-an-hour from the end, when the wind had died, but was convinced there were fish inside. If the fish were willing to feed out there I could have won it even then.