My best carp – Beastie Lake, Decoy

Thirteen of us fished this club match in a very strong, cold Southerly wind and I drew 17, with the wind in to me from the left. At the start it was not difficult to fish with four sections of pole, but of course the wind always freshens when the whistle blows at 10 o’clock, so I didn’t expect to go any farther out.

Indeed the wind did get up, and I started on top two to the right; I couldn’t fish the margin to the left as it was so windy and the sun glinting on the waves made it impossible. Terry Tribe, to my left on 15, had the same problem. I potted in maggots and hemp, and within minutes I had a 2 lb bream. More bream, from 6 oz to 2 lb, came steadily for the first hour, on maggot bait with a quick look in the near margin not getting a bite. In the middle of the bream a 15 lb mirror caused me many problems, as it was so difficult to control in the wind. Four times it managed to get under the platform, and I could feel the line rasping on something – I assumed it was a barbel.

Terry Tribe was to my left and,  like
me, found bream early, plus
 some barbel later, probably on maggot.

Amazingly the fish came free each time and eventually, after almost a quarter of an hour, I netted it. Then I started to lose bream – they would slide in towards the net and suddenly come alive and dive away, probably because the wind had loaded  the cool water with oxygen. So I changed down to a softer elastic, from 13H down to grey Hydro. This was fine until I hooked another munter carp, which is still travelling South.

I leave my peg and lose the fish

Suddenly I couldn’t get a bite, and that lasted for an hour. So with two hours gone I had about 40 lb. I went out eventually to four sections, during a lull in the wind, and managed another half-dozen bream, then a couple of 5 lb carp on top two. I changed up to a 2 gr rig four sections out and contacted bream again. After landing three I had to drive up to the toilet (the cancer treatment is fine but has messed about with my waterworks and the adjoining works).

When I came back there was another hour with just a small perch on worm (isn’t that always the case whe you have to leave the peg?) I tried a cast on the Method feeder, while I had a cup of Bovril, with no result. Then worm took a couple of bream from the top two line, and I lost another carp on a light elastic.  In that wind with the pole tip in the water it was impossible to feel just how far the fish was away from me, and it broke the line at the hook. 

Me with that 17 lb mirror which took double cat meat.

Fish now in the margin

 Eventually I simply had to have another look in the margin, about two feet from the edge. I put in some cat meat and, using a special, strong 3gr rig, saw that there were fish there. In the next 20 minutes I hooked four or five, landing two to 4 lb. The ones that came off did so after about five seconds, and I don’t think they were foulhooked.

A great last 30 minutes

The water must have been quite turbulent in the side as the wind was now really howling, so with just less than 30 minutes left I put on two pieces of cat meat to try to steady the bait. Immediately I had a 6 lb carp, then another huge fish which I played for at least ten minutes...before landing a mirror we eventually weighed at 17 lb – my best-ever. One more five-pounder followed and the match ended, just as I felt I had them lining up.

Several of the carp were hooked well inside the mouth – in fact I had to cut the line on the 15-pounder because the hook was so deep. I fancy the fish were picking the bait up, blowing it out and then sucking it back in, as the longer I waited after getting an initial bite the more likely I was to hook the fish.

 

Peter Harrison was on my favourite peg 18,
and lost a couple of really big fish. He
finished 4th with 68 lb 2 oz.

The result - check Terry Tribe's weights at the
 bottom. You can't get the staff nowadays!

Check the result...

I was top weight from peg 25 back to me, with 88 lb 3 oz, and although I hadn’t seen Terry Tribe land many fish I knew he would have a good weight. In fact he must have something I haven’t because I watched him weigh nets of  45 lb 10 oz and 31 lb 12 oz and he finished  about 1 lb behind me! Work that out...

I saw he had several barbel, probably from the margin swim and he also said he fished about two feet from the edge. I didn’t get any barbel, though, perhaps because I didn’t put maggot into that swim – just corn and cat meat.

John Garner won with 110 lb 11 oz from peg 6, getting most of his fish also in the side. Several anglers took all, or most, of their fish on feeder, including 91-year-old Ted Lloyd with 53 lb 12 oz from peg 3. Although I used to fish the bomb almost exclusively on the Fen Drains, I now have more confidence in the pole, even though I go to every match prepared to feeder if I have to.

I was pleased with the match I fished, and if every fish had stuck I would have won easily, but it’s difficult gearing up for bream and double-figure carp using the same elastic. I must have changed tops four times during that match. Still, I would have bet against my coming second before the start, so I’m a happy Easter Bunny.

Next match Sunday on Elm, and I am leaning towards putting lots of maggots in the margin at the start to attract the barbel, hoping the bigger carp come in eventually.