I just manage to frame - Cedar, Decoy

Peg 15

I would have chosen a peg from 1 to 6 or 21 to 26, as the fish in Cedar are often at the car park end. But – as several mates reminded me – the wind was blowing towards the far end and peg 15, one from the corner, could hold a lot of fish. The wind was blowing into me, slightly from the left, and increased during the morning, so fishing to the left was not only difficult, but cold. The forecast was for 22 Centigrade, remaining at 22 in the wind, but that was rubbish, as I soon had to put my jacket on.

My swim, one away from the corner, had no shallow margins.

I was fishing under a slight handicap – my main Browning pole is being patched up, so I fished with my Browning Sting, which does not have pullers. It’s not possible to put in puller bungs as the top twos are so thin in diameter, though I could get side pullers fitted. Also there are only seven tops, while my Z12 had 15, which gives me a good choice of elastics. So I also took my 40-year-old stiff margin pole, a Century I believe. This had just two tops (also without pullers), but the fish don’t fight as much on it, because it’s stiff.

I had one cast with a Method feeder and corn, with just a liner, and after ten minutes I brought it in and had a quick look on the pole where I had been throwing a few grains of corn, prepared to go back to the feeder if there wasn’t a quick result. So, out to about five metres with corn, feeding with a small pot, and a small F1 came second cast, followed by a 3 lb common and another F1.

                                                                 I feed 8mm pellets, to discourage the roach

Martin Parker with 88 lb 1 oz on peg 4.

I then put in some 8mm pellets and corn just out from the  bottom of the shelf, about eight feet out, and had a look with cat meat using the Century. I had several unhittable bites – the fish seemed to be playing with the bait for all of a minute before finally shooting off with it, and I missed the first few. But after about 20 minutes I managed to hit a 3 lb F1.

Mick Ramm had 127 lb 4 oz
on peg 7, and was runner-up.

The rest of the day I spent alternating between the Sting at five metres, taking the occasional F1 on corn, and the Century near the side, taking mainly barbel, which ran to at least 5 lb and fought like demons. Bream to 2 lb also came to corn on the longer line, and one around 3 lb jumped out of the water at least three feet  before throwing the hook.

I would have liked to fish a shallow swim, but there were none in the margins.

I lost several fish during the day, hooked for about four or five seconds, and probably foulhooked, though I waited until I was sure the bite was a ‘proper’ one before striking. John Smith told me afterwards that the fish were pulling his elastic out sometimes...and he still failed to feel anything. At one point I played a definitely-foulhooked very big fish for several minutes, only to eventually lose it when the hook pulled out.

Callum uses the weighing mat to rest his net on before weighing.

Hemp seems to bring the fish on again

Halfway though the match Peter Barnes , two to my left on 17, walked past and said he had just four fish. I had about 30 lb at that time. I could easily see Callum, opposite me, and he seemed to be struggling, so I decided I would be happy to beat them both.

Sport fell away a little then, but hemp seemed to bring the fish back and I had a good 90 minutes, mainly with barbel on cat meat, leaving me with about 80 lb with an hour to go. At that point I started my third net.

A disappointing last hour

Unfortunately things slowed down again. I tried corn on the longer swim and immediately took two roach, so I then concentrated on the meat swim, and when that died I was forced to try close to the reeds to my right, where the water was almost as deep as the main swim. This nearside swim brought a couple of barbel, but that third net held only 12 lb an hour later when I weighed in.

Afterwards, Peter Harrison, who took 124 lb 7 oz on a feeder, of which about two-thirds were barbel, told me he used worm. Why didn’t I think of that? I had worms with me! It’s possible they would have taken them better than the cat meat, which they seemed to be playing with before taking it. The knocks looked like roach hitting the bait, but I’m sure they were proper carp – the floats would dance about for a minute and then zoom off without a pause, and these were all F1s or barbel or carp – no roach. The only roach I had were on corn.

Winner Peter Spriggs, 137 lb 7 oz, Peg 7.

                                                        The weigh-in

Peter Harrison had 124 lb 7 oz
 on a feeder baited with worm,
two-thirds of which were barbel.

Ted (91) had a good day, weighing 80 lb 15 oz from peg 1. Then, on peg 6, Peter Spriggs put 137 lb 7 oz on the scales for the win. Terry Tribe, who was opposite me towards my left, weighed 110 lb 15 oz. I hadn’t watched him at all, all day, and wished I had, as I might have worked out when the fish were coming on, and noted how far out he was fishing.

 Peter Barnes,  to my left , had a good last hour and boosted his weight to 39 lb 3 oz. 

Afterwards I thought I should have tried the left margin, despite the high wind, as it had been left alone all day. Operator error!

John Smith, like me, had barbel
 to around 4 lb - difficult to land
as they are in superb condition.

The result - lots and lots of barbel were caught.

I ended with 107lb 12 oz, a few ounces over the 50 lb limit in one net, for fifth. The catches I expected, particularly from pegs 21 to 26, didn’t materialise, and I wonder whether I would have done a lot better had I had my pole with pullers as I seemed to spend more time than usual landing the fish.

It looks as if I will be without my Z12 pole this weekend when I fish at Northview on Sunday. But I have just spent some time working out what rigs to put on what elastics, so I’m actually quite confident and looking forward to it - the forecast is for cloudy with possibly some rain.