Sixth but still smiling - Six-Island, Decoy.

Peg 18

Twenty of us fished this charity match, an annual event organised by John Garner to raise funds for Cancer Research UK. Peg 18 is a well-known swim which has won lots of matches in Six-Island Pool, with one of the advantages being that you can fish the far bank on only about ten metres of pole.John at the fishery said that the carp had definitely spawned on Friday or Saturday.

Conditions were perfect for making a big catch, with a warm, stiff Westerly breeze, and cloud most of the day. So I started by putting a few pellets and grains of corn beside the irises growing to my left, where there was a hole which was deeper than any other part of the swim. Then I started fishing across, about a metre from the far bank, where I got a bite or two which I missed; so I assumed they were liners.

My swim - the wind picked up a lot in the first hour so I couldn't fish across.

However, within 20 minutes of the start the wind had whipped up much stronger, and within another ten minutes it became very difficult to hold the pole out. The wind was coming from my right, at about 45 degrees over my back, but the banks here channel the wind down in almost a straight line right to left. That put the end pegs 24 and 25 right in the teeth of the wind, and other anglers agreed that they might be the pegs to win today, especially as there were two very good anglers on them.

Wendy took most of her 53 lb on a
feeder in the first half of the match

In that first hour Wendy, on my left on peg 19, had caught several good carp on a pellet feeder and corn. I had my feeder rod with me, but couldn’t believe that I wouldn’t catch on a pole in these great conditions. So (stupidly) I plodded on, and had a look at the iris swim. First drop in I hooked a good fish which came off a few seconds later. Then nothing. I must have fished there for another 45 minutes before eventually dropping in in front of me on a top two.

Two hours gone and I have 5 lb...

First drop in on with sweetcorn saw a 3 lb carp come in, then a 1 lb crucian and a couple of smaller ones. Two hours gone and Dave Garner walked past to his car, saying he had 20 lb; I had about 5 lb and had so far lost three carp and landed one.  He told me afterwards that indeed he really had 20 lb – just two double-figure carp! I estimated that Wendy already had at least 30 lb.

I kept moving from the iris swim to the short swim, with occasional looks in the shallow margins, which were about 18 inches deep and produced nothing. After three hours of the match I had about 8 lb, and after four hours I had 12 lb. Struggling wasn’t the word, though by now Wendy’s catch rate had really slowed.

It was good to meet Kevin Beavis again. He
used to be a regular in Fenland Rods matches.

Then, I suddenly started to catch occasional carp on the short swim in front of me – mainly F1s on pellet set to trip bottom as the rig was carried against the wind by the underwater tow, and carp to 4 lb on corn. I had about seven fish quite quickly before a lull. Just 75 minutes left now, and I had yet another look in the margins with my top two. I sort of did it properly – potting in some bait and pouring water on top from a height to cause a disturbance...and it worked.

Fish from the margins!

A minute later I saw swirls to my right, went in with a grain for corm, and hit a 7 lb mirror. From then I concentrated on the margins, moving from the left one to the right one and back again. Sometimes baiting up brought fish in, but a lot of times it didn’t. However, I kept putting the occasional fish in the net. The best one, about 10 lb, leapt twice out of the water like a trout, making a huge splash which had me almost  jumping off my box, but it stayed attached. Things were picking up.

Dave Garner's first two fish
weighed about 20 lb between them!

Six minutes to go on my watch and I hadn’t had a fish for several minutes. I’d been catching a few yards from the platform, and in desperation I threw a handful of 8mm pellets down within a yard of the platform, followed it with a lump of cat meat on my heavy rig, and immediately a six-pounder took it. That went into the net, and with three minutes to go I repeated the performance and immediately hit a five-pounder, which I was putting into the keepnet when the match ended. A mini-Grandstand finish. I thought I might have 85 lb, and reckon I must have added more than 50 lb in the last 75 minutes.

                                                        The weigh-in

Will Foster checks the weights.

Dick Warrener on peg 2 weighed first – 97 lb 4 oz, which led round to me, though I knew I couldn’t beat that. However pegs 8 and 9 both had over 90 lb. With the wind into that corner I wasn’t surprised, though I was suprised that the weights were so low in what seemed perfect conditions. I weighed 82 lb 2 oz, and Wendy 53 lb 2 oz – she said she couldn’t be bothered to set up her pole, though she had it with her. Had she done so and fished the margin I guess she could have had a very big weight; but the same applies to me – I couldn’t be bothered to set up the feeder when I saw her catching on it. I clearly should have done.

Neil Garner - fifth with 82 lb.

Pegs 24 had three nets in, and Peg 25 had four, and both beat me. Neil on 24 had 85 lb 8 oz and Kevin Lee had a huge 194 lb 15 oz – and he was over the 50 lb limit in three nets. So Kevin won easily, Dick Warrener continued his excellent run of results to finish second,  and I was sixth.

Looking back

When I looked at the results I wasn’t disappointed at sixth spot when I realised that the top five weights came from the two corners where the wind was blowing in – 24, 25 and 2, and then 8 and 9 on the bottom part of the lake. So I was best of the rest, and happy (though I should have at least had the feeder rod out some time in the first four hours).

Winner Kevin Lee's best fish was a cracking,
 scale-perfect double-figure  common carp.

The result - £782 raised for charity.

Best news was that the match raised £782 for Cancer Research UK, and someone will be winning £50 for guessing the winning weight (or nearest to it). I don’t know yet who that is.

Next match this Friday on Cedar, when I will definitely have a feeder rod made up and ready to use. Pegs 20 to 26, towards the car park end, will probably be favourite. But there are lots of fish here, including lots of barbel, and if the carp don’t feed the barbel might, so I will have maggots with me.