Fraser’s Fishery is a cracking place – two small lakes near
Ely, totalling about 30 pegs, and every Tuesday there’s a Pensioner’s match. I’ve
fished Fraser’s four times in the summer, in club matches (with three wins and
a second), but thought I’d try a Winter match for a change. I think there were
eight on Emily’s, and nine on Mark’s – each lake treated as a separate match.
Fraser himself is so welcoming, and the anglers are all
Norfolk boys – so I can understand them! I knew a couple of them already –
surnames don’t matter here, and all the results – including those put on the
website each week, give just the first names! The car park is right next to the
two lakes, and the longest walk – over flat grass, is no more than about 70
yards. I love it.
I drew the ‘toilet’ peg 10, on Emily’s, so-called because it’s
just in front of the toilet. Two or three locals told me it’s a good peg – the
fish are caught right across to the island at about 11 metres, and to the
right. I plumbed up across, and in one spot my pole started shaking as fish hit
the line!
 |
| Peg 10 - the island is 11 metres away. Mark's Lake is just the other side. |
Obviously I started fishing across, as the wind, from the
left, wasn’t particularly strong. I dobbed bread, fully expecting an instant
response, but after half an hour I had had nothing. I decided to give it
another 30 minutes....but then I unexpectedly found myself attached to a reed
on the island. I tried shaking the rig free but must have shaken it too much
because...’Bang’ the Number Four section broke, with a crack you could have heard a mile away.
I have a problem!
The top three-and-a-half sections fell into the water, but
were still attached to the reed, and well out of reach and I didn't have a spare pole with me. I walked round to
Fraser, to check that I could take the boat out at the end of the match, and
free it. He said of course I could. I was a bit despondent, of course, and
thought about sitting there for the next five-and-a half hours until the match
finished. But after I’d put the back sections safely in the holdall I wondered
about fishing a top two, rather than completely waste my time. A sort of challenge.
Everyone I could see on my lake was fishing long, so I didn’t
hold out much hope. But I remembered that Fraser had been fishing close-in when
I spoke to him, so decided to give it a go. After a few minutes composing
myself I put in some maggots next to the bank and fished a special little
method I use – if I can’t get a fish like that then I am convinced there’s aren’t
any there.
Fish!
But after about 30 minutes I had a bite on double
red maggot and landed a 3 lb carp! Another 40 minutes didn’t bring any more, so
I fished around in my holdall and took out a short Number Three I remembered I
carry with me. It’s not more than 18 inches long, but it would have to do. I
started another line in front of me, partway down the shelf – I couldn’t reach
the deepest water.
After about 20 minutes I fancied the float moved, and just
after that I hit a fish that turned out to be a 4 oz bar of soap – a little tench.
Twenty minutes later a 2 lb barbel came in, and I started to think I might
actually avoid coming last, as I hadn’t seen much else caught.
I decided that if there were barbel about I would be better putting bait in with a bait dropper, as the swim was over five feet where I was fishing, and the wind was strengthening. Then, in a spell of about 45 minutes, four chub came to the
net, best over 2 lb, and the gentleman to my left told me he had just one small fish. But the
next hour saw no bites at all.
The match had started at 9 am and it was now
1.20, and I had an hour and 30 minutes left, so had another look down the side,
putting in casters and fishing maggot. First drop-in I had a 2 lb carp, and in
the next 30 minutes I had three more, lost one big fish which pulled off (causing me to change the elastic to a lighter grey Hydro) and
then a 2 lb barbel.
The match finished at 2 pm!
An hour to go, and I was rebaiting when someone shouted,
loudly, and everybody started packing up. Apparently before the clocks change
the matches finish at 2 o’clock, altering to 3 o’clock when they change. I had
looked at the website for the times (9am to 3pm) but should have checked, of
course.
Actually I rather like the system there – they don’t weight
in until virtually everyone is ready, so everyone can follows the scales – very
civilised. The early finish still means you can still start driving home in the
light, even in December.
I took some stuff back to the car, and was amazed to see
that Fraser himself had the boat out and was retrieving my pole. He had a
triple bypass last year, but sensibly took it easy. What a great bloke.
I was first to weigh, 26 lb-plus, and it held all the way
round to Robert Edmondson, who had a similar number of fish, but they weighed
23 lb to give me top weight on Emily’s.
From memory Mark’s Lake had three 30 lb-plus weights – I had
seen on the website that this tends to produce the best weights when both lakes
are fished.
Very happy
So I gained a bit of confidence, beating locals
fishing short when I had expected to be able to fish long. Next Sunday sees the last Decoy Winter League
match – the day after the AT Winter League final. It’s a rearranged match - an earlier one was cancelled because the lakes were iced over. Perhaps I can
avoid coming last on the lake? Perhaps my luck has changed.
I took my broken pole
to Will Hadley in St Ives on the way back and he hopes to have it mended by the
weekend, otherwise I will have top use my shorter, 12-metre Browning Sting,
which will put me at a disadvantage on the strips.
PS. Today (Wednesday) I spoke to the angler who fished Six-Islands Peg 1 on
Sunday (the peg where I had bombed out the previous week in a headwind
rainstorm). He told me he had found that at 14.5 metres the sunken island was a
good deal higher than I had found at 11.5 metres. A lesson learned!
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