A better day on Elm, Decoy

Thirteen of us fished this club match, with a chilly start which soon warmed up, thanks to a very light wind, which was forecast to come from the East but which was mainly Northerly. I fancied the pegs three-quarters of the way down – around 8 to 10 or opposite on 15 to 17; just shows how much I know!

Peg 20 was my home for the day and as I had the previous day, bait-droppered maggots in the margin to my right, hoping to attract barbel. I started, however, on a Method feeder with a bunch of three maggots and within ten minutes had a 3 lb carp. Next cast a small roach came in, and after another ten minutes with only liners I had a look in the maggot swim. Roach were continually pecking at the bait and hitting the float and after catching three roach I turned to my left margin.

The bank has fallen in here, giving a shallow little bay, and I had been putting 4 mm pellets in there, into about two feet of water which rapidly dropped off to four feet. Clouds of mud were coming up, and carp were swirling, and I soon had a 3 lb carp on expander, followed ten minutes later by a five-pounder. That was the worst thing that could have happened, because I wasted the best part of an hour trying for more.

I took several fish from that tiny bay in front of the reeds.

Eventually I had a look at eight metres, where I took a 3 lb carp on a 6mm expander over 6mm hard feed pellets. But nothing more came in the next half-hour, and I sat sitting there, with at least two hours gone, with about 13 lb in my net, while Bob on my left had had several on a feeder and Trevor, on 24 in the corner, was catching fish regularly.

I had fished like an idiot...

To be honest, I had fished like an idiot. I should have either stayed on the feeder or simply fished the deep margin positively. So I put in a big pot of corn and cat meat in both deep margins. I had caught on cat meat the previous day, so it was reasonable to assume, that particularly since the day was warmer, fish would be prepared to take it today.

A couple of fish came in from the right margin, and I started alternating. Sport picked up, and I had a really good hour at one point, taking barbel to about 5 lb and carp to 10 lb. A bigger mirror carp, which I had played for some time, suddenly shot under the platform, went behind the leg, and came out to the side – I briefly saw it before the hook pulled off the line. I was using mainly my heavy gear, with a 2 gm float, so the weight took the bait down before the roach could knock it about.

My home-made paste was amazing!

I found that I had to put a pot of bait in before every fish, and had to keep alternating swims; it seemed that although the water was well coloured the fish were unsettled by hooked fish. I tried some home-made paste, and had three fish almost as soon as it hit bottom. Then sport stopped completely. At least it showed my paste works! You can’t catch fish if they aren’t feeding, but when they were it was amazing how quickly they took that paste.

I tried in the shallow swim, and was about to change back when I suddenly had three fish in a row and lost a couple foulhooked. Then back to the deep swims, and I landed a 12 lb mirror which had my lost hook in its mouth! At that point I went for a third net. Another quiet spell followed, and the last half-hour saw a good spell when I put about six more fish in the net on cat meat – this net went 36 lb 13 oz. I was playing a five-pounder as the match ended.

The paste I had made was a bit sticky, and it took a lot of time putting it on the hook. I have made an adjustment to it, and hope to use it next match.

I lose my phone

I took a picture of the swim, packed up and took the bait bag and pole holdall back to the car, unlocked the car, took off my jacket and some of my sweat shirts, and went to follow the weighers-in, only to find  my phone missing. I walked back to my trolley, searched everywhere, trundled it back to the car, and assumed the phone had fallen from my pocket as I had leaned over to take the keepnets off my box and stuck them into the bank.

A search around with my hook and landing net brought nothing, and I left off to weigh in my fish – unbelievably I was leading with 127 lb with two anglers to go – both of whom had a lot of fish. I wandered back to the car with my nets, despondent – as you can imagine. But thank goodness some om my mates have brains – as I got back to the car I heard a mobile ringing!!!

The result - several nets were knocked back to 50 lb.

Mick Rawson had dialled my mobile...and there it was on the driver’s seat of the car, where I had put it when I took off my jacket and sweat shirts. Happy is not the word!!!

Bob Barret on my left would have beaten me but he was over in both nets, which were knocked back to 50 lb each, nearly all fish coming to feeder, cast into the nearside margins – a tactic which has ben taking a lot of fish on the strip lakes. Trevor, with four nets, won with 152 lb, nearly all taken at eight metres (five sections) on hard 6mm pellet feeding just half-a-dozen pellets with a pole pot each cast.

So I was an undeserved runner-up, and with my next match also on Elm on Sunday, I have been sorting out the rigs I hope I need – for fishing cat meat. I don’t care what peg I get. I am brimming with confidence (and hope to get more pictures).