Peg 33
There was not much wind for this 12-entry club match, and
the ‘back’ part of Willows was completely flat calm, except for the flaming
ducks, which whirled around all day and were a real nuisance. Peg 33 is only a
short walk, but there is a slope down to the platform, so you can’t spread out
your tackle at all, and by the time I had got everything in place I was so
knackered that I decided to fish just a maximum of top two plus three, and
leave the feeder rod in its holdall.
The water had a greenish algae tinge, and didn’t really look
inviting. I mentally decided simply to try to beat Rob and Bob on my immediate
right, on pegs 34 and 35. There were six pegs in this part of the lake, with
the other six from 15 to 25 (the flier which Trevor had drawn). Last year this
match was won on 15 on the feeder.
I had a deepish (three to four feet) swim on my left by the
reeds which I fancied; the right margin was shallower. I plumbed up at top two
plus three all around and found the depth hardly varied, and decided to fish at
45 degrees to my left, towards the reflection of a tree, so I could pinpoint
where I was feeding.
 |
| The surface was flat calm...until the ducks appeared. |
Maggots went into the right margin, in the hope of barbel,
with corn and pellets into the left margin and a few pellets out at 8 metres. Before
I had managed to put a float in the water Rob on 34 was landing a fish from the
margin, which he told me later was a tench. It took me a few minutes to get a
bite from the longer swim on a 6mm expander, which turned out to be a 1 lb
carp. Then another, and then I hit a big fish.
After playing it for two or three minutes I realised it was
foul-hooked. Five minutes later it surfaced and I could see it was about 8 lb
and hooked somewhere in the belly region. Five minutes later it unexpectedly
surfaced by my keepnets, but I couldn’t bring the landing net back in time to net
it before it set off again – straight into the landing net mesh. The tackle
briefly snagged, the hooklength broke and it was gone.
I should have known better...
I put in a little bait and had a look in the left margin
with corn and meat, with
fish moving nearby in the reeds all day. I should have known better, of course –
you can rarely catch much when fish are bumping the reeds a couple of feet
away. A 1 lb carp was all I managed there, though I had a lot of tiny liners
caused by fish swirling their tails. The right swim, where I baited with a
bunch of maggots hoping for barbel, brought only small roach when I first tried it.
For the next three hours I plugged away on the longer swim (with regular looks in the left margin) ,
adjusting the float by a quarter of an inch at a time until I had dead depth.
Then lifting the bait an inch resulted in an occasional bite from fish
which varied from 1 lb to nearly 10 lb, including about five fish of 6 lb-plus. Corn didn’t produce a bite.
 |
| Bob Barrett was on end peg 35. I was too late (and too tired) to photograph any of the others. He weighed 34 lb 10 oz. |
With 75 minutes left I put some corn into the right margin,
and this brought some small carp, three bream to about 1 lb, and a larger 5 lb
carp. The bites were tentative, but I knew there were fish there as I could
spot the liners. By the end I was getting a bite every drop in.
I had seen Mick Linnell, on 28, take three early fish on a
feeder cast to the island, and after that he stayed mainly on the feeder, so I
assumed he was catching really well and would beat me easily. In fact he told
me afterwards that he couldn’t get a bite on the pole so had to stick to the feeder most of the day.
At the end I estimated I had about 42 lb in one net and 44 lb in the other.
The weigh-in
It took me a long time to pack up and get the trolley back up
a steep little slope to the car, and the weigh-in was well underway by the time I had loaded up the car. I walked round to
be greeted by Trevor saying he had 109 lb and was nowhere. He was actually
third, with all three top places from the early pegs. Peter Barnes struggled on
peg 27 between the islands, and I was amazed to see Mick Linnell weigh in just
39 lb 14 oz. Ted (91) on peg 30 had had a good run in his right-hand margin towards
the end and put 53 lb 13 oz on the scales. My nets went 44 lb and 46 lb for a
total of 90 lb 7 oz, which turned out to be fourth overall and top in the six
pegs in this part of the lake.
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| The result. The top three weights came from 15 to 25. I was pretty chuffed to be the best of the rest, but should have caught more. |
I was quite pleased, because if I had managed to ignore the left margin, which looked so good but produced only one fish, I could probably have had enough to get at least third. Martin Parker was the winner on peg 15 with 135 lb 13 oz, his best spot being the margins, late in the match.
Next matches
Next matches are on Kingsland Small Lake Sunday and then Damson next Wednesday. I
expect big catches from Kingsland, where I had my best-ever match catch of 221
lb. Even if sport is slow to start with it’s a place you have to attack from
the start, so I expect meat or paste over pellet corn and hemp to be my plan,
or possibly surface fishing if the weather is warm and the wind is right. If it’s the meat I will be on strong gear,
using rigs of up to 12 lb breaking strain and Animal hooks.
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