Thrashed! – Elm Lake, Decoy

Fifty of us fished four lakes in this individual Winter League and Elm 10 stuck to my fingers. It was, I guess, one of the pegs most of the anglers there would have wanted, as last year Elm 9 provided the winner of the first two matches in this series, and it has been a noted area all season. There was hardly any wind, the weather was mild – and I could fish 14.5 metres comfortably (that’s the maximum length allowed on the strips here).

John at the fishery suggested looking at about four sections, fished shallow with maggot, while Jon Whincup’s advice was to fish as far out as I could, with pellet, and that’s how I started – a few expanders and micros potted out to 13 metres plus a half-butt, giving me the option of adding a metre if the fish backed off.

Even before I had my rig in the water Wayne Shepherd on 9, to my right, had a three-pounder in the net. I looked like a barbel to me. Minutes later he foulhooked a barbel and landed it. That made me wonder whether he was using maggot, and after 45 minutes without a nibble I changed to maggot, but fished a little to the right, towards peg 9. It was several inches deeper here.

Cedar produced top weight of 144 lb 5 oz.

Meanwhile Wayne was steadily, though slowly, adding fish to his net – about one every 20 or 25 minutes. After two hours I managed to land a 4 oz bream! An hour later I landed a 4 lb barbel, and a little later another 4 oz bream, all on maggot. A change to pellet brought a hooked fish which came off after a few seconds – it was definitely foulhooked as I hit it well off bottom, although I was, at that time, fishing on bottom. I tried off bottom for a while, with no result, and gave it a good half hour four sections out with maggot, also without a touch.

Surprisingly Six-Island, which is on the shallow side,
fished very consistently, won with 118 lb from peg 9.

Eventually I foulhooked a 5 lb mirror, which I landed. But Wayne, and all the other anglers I could see, were now catching good fish more regularly, while I fell further and further behind. Even the anglers on the opposite bank were now catching. I considered putting out a leger, but I was presenting the bait perfectly and would have had to cast to almost the same spot anyway, as 14.5 metres is getting on towards the middle of the strip. I also tried corn, a standard Winter bait.

My lightbulb moment

I knew that, in the past, peg 9 had always had the edge on those around it, but today there seemed no reason why I couldn’t catch. Then it happened!

With just two minutes to go Wayne was playing a very big fish – around 10 lb, and as he landed it I went out to 14.5 metres and put my expander bait in about two metres closer to his swim than I had been fishing before. It was still less than halfway to his peg, but not a place where I could have reasonably fished all day, as it would have been too close to him, and I had a spare peg to my left.  It was even deeper here – I estimate a foot deeper than in front of me.

Shed a little tear for me, surrounded by fish.

Within seconds, almost before the pellet had hit bottom,  I had a bite and hit a good fish, which came off after a few seconds. And that was my match finished – except that I now had an probable explanation of  why I couldn’t catch – the fish in this area were hanging about in the deeper water.

Wayne weighed 72 lb, and confirmed that he has caught them all on maggot, using a tiny pole pot to put in no more than about eight maggots at a time.  Rob Goodson, nearly opposite me, won the lake with 85 lb.

Beastie fished very hard.

My 9 lb 8 oz was last on the lake, but I was heartened by that last incident – I knew I had been fishing OK all day; and in Winter strange things can happen, after all Jon Whincup was last in his section and two from last on Beastie, a lake he knows like the back of his hand. So I just look forward the the next match on Sunday, although I would like to try to fish Elm 9 one day, just to satisfy myself that I can catch fish.