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.