I catch 200 lb – Elm, Decoy

Peg 16 (The Golden Peg)

My plan, before the match, was to start on a feeder, because we’d had some really cool nights, and the forecast was for a light wind, and some sunny intervals. But when I arrived at my peg in this 11-entry Club match, I felt that perhaps fish might feed close-in at the start. So I set up a rig at 8 metres, two cat meat rigs, a light for the right margin where there was a three-foot flat shelf and another for the right margin where I had found a hole a couple of feet across.

You can see that the ripple was all at the other end. I took out nine tops,
set up seven of them and used six different ones during the match

A ball of dead maggots went into the right margin, at top two distance, and I threw some micros to the left margin at top two plus one; but I started with a few 6mm and 4 mm pellets at five metres. Out went the rig, and within seconds I saw Kevin Lee, opposite to my right on peg 11, playing a fish which looked like a barbel.

Obviously I kept an eye on Kevin, and blow me! Within seconds of dropping back he was playing another fish. I made the decision to bring my rig in and put in some cat meat and corn in the deep water out at top two distance. I had a liner immediately and five minutes later a barbel came in.

Over the next hour I had a few fish, perhaps 20 lb, but I estimated Kevin already had nearly 50 lb. To my left Tony Nisbet, who almost invariably fishes pellet if he can, was also into fish. I looked like getting a thrashing, and the Golden Peg looked like being a roll-over again (I had it in the previous match).

Kevin Lee started off like an express train,
with two fish in the first five minutes, and
 I was certain I  was going to be thrashed!

 I had had one fish on my first drop into the right margin on meat – a barbel, which I had expected – after trying maggot and getting a roach. Now I tried the left margin, where I had been throwing corn, and hit a good mirror, about 8 lb. One more fish came there, and then a lull, so I went to the deep water on the left and had a carp and a barbel on meat.

I swapped swims all day

That was the pattern all day – a couple of fish from one swim and then I had to swap swims. In a effort to avoid the barbel, which take so long to land, I put corn on a lighter rig down in the deep water, and hooked a 10 lb mirror immediately. From then on I stayed mainly with corn, with the left margin almost always producing. After two fish there I would drop a piece of meat down the right margin, catch a barbel, which went to 4 lb, and then revert to the left margin on corn, with occasional looks at the deep-water swims.

I found it best to put in bait immediately before dropping in whichever swim I chose, rather than putting in bait and leaving it, which is the classic tactic. The fish were definitely responding to bait going in. I have been using mainly 6mm pellets with corn  in the margins now the weather is a little warmer, and this worked on this occasion. I left meat out of the left margin in the hope that it would disuade barbel, but in fact had one or two on corn.

Tony was on my left and also found
fish immediately.He used pellets all day.

I went for a third net at 12.15 pm and my first three fish on my return, taken in my first three drops,  weighed almost 30 lb! Then there came a lull and I noticed that both Kevin and Tony also seemed to have lost their fish. It took about three-quarters of an hour before I found the fish again – by putting in hemp. The anglers towards the other end were struggling a bit, despite having a ripple, while the water at our end was flat calm. I went for a fourth net at about 1.30 and by three o’clock had an estimated 40 lb in it, including two more double-figure carp on corn from the left margin.

A most unusual incident

Deciding to put one more fish in this net before going for a fifth, I suddenly hit a big fish which eventually came to the surface several yards away and it looked to be around 10 lb. As I gingerly dropped the top two and let the elastic retract to draw the fish closer to me, another big carp appeared beside it and hung there. But I didn’t know which fish was hooked, so I had to net them both!

I’d seen Trevor Dew do this several years ago on Six-Island lake, but I’d never done it myself. So with two fish in the net I had a bit of a job lifting it (there were four keepnets in front of me) but was pleased to see that the biggest, around 12 lb, had my hook in it. The other, at about 8 lb, I put back, after calling to Kevin to tell him what I’d done.

They do say "If you want to get ahead get
a hat" so I took it literally! The big fish
was the one that took my net over the
50 lb limit and came in with another.

Overweight in that net

Unfortunately I realised that that would bring the fish in that net to over 50 lb – but there was nothing I could do about that. It was now 3.15 pm and I went for a fifth net. Kevin seemed to be still catching, but not as fast as me, and he went for a fourth net soon afterwards, at the same time as Tony.

 A carp about 8 lb greeted me on my return, but sport was definitely slowing now, and a couple of F1s and a couple of barbel went in. With five minutes left I hooked a 4 lb barbel, and assumed it would be my last fish; but seconds before the match ended a grain of corn tempted another 8 lb carp, which I played very gently and landed it a few minutes later.

Callum weighed 73 lb 1 oz and
still came only eighth.

I lost four fish all day, which I was happy with – the odd foulhooked one is inevitable, though my Special Method (if conditions allow me to use it) largely avoids foulhookers as I can differentiate between proper bites and almost all liners. I tried some special home-made paste, which had worked so well in the Spratts match earlier in the week on peg 20, and had a fierce bite even before the bait hit bottom. I turned out to be a foulhooked barbel, so I didn’t try it again.

The weigh-in

It did seem that my end of the lake had held more feeding fish, though the anglers at the other end nearly all reported an upturn in the second half of the match, and especially in the last 45 minutes when sport at our end seemed to slow. Wendy, opposite me, weighed 93 lb, all on feeder,  and said that she took more fish casting into the middle of the lake, rather than the margins, towards the end.

Dick Warrener on peg 22 took two-thirds of
his 90 lb 2 oz in the last half of the match.

Kevin had four nets, but was overweight in two, as he often is, and weighed 182 lb 2 oz. I was fairly certain I had more than that. My first net to be weighed was the one I knew I was over in, and it weighed 54 lb, so knocked back to 50 lb. Another weighed 49 lb 10 oz (!), and the final one 26 lb – total 207 lb 7 oz, my biggest catch from Decoy.

Tony was third with 165 lb 3 oz, and Wendy a very popular fourth. So the best catches came from the end where there was no ripple, which was unexpected to me, especially as the best weights last Monday came from the other end. Just shows what little we anglers know! But all-round it was a good match, with 90 lb not framing.

A good result after a couple of cold nights.

Next match Tuesday on Willows at Decoy. I don’t mind where I draw, as the forecast is for light rain and no wind. So if I need to, I can put my umbrella right over the top and do my impression of a gnome. I like the margins on Willows, though it is the most temperamental lake on the complex.