I lose too many fish - Buttonhole, Wisbech

Peg 20

I’ve fished peg 20 before – it’s opposite a corner of the central island, but the island has been worn away slowly and to reach it would now probably need more than 16 metres of pole. So I decided not to attempt it.

The sun was scorchingly hot – 33 degrees was forecast- but I was pleased when I found as litlle as 18 inches in the margin to my left and almost 5 feet to the right. So I had options. However I started on five sections in front of me and within five minutes was playing a 9 lb common carp. A three-pounder followed a little later, and then another three-pounder.

 

Mel, to my left on 19, struggled all day.

Meanwhile John Smith, to my right, had landed three or four very big fish – one which looked as if it was into double figures, came through my swim foulhooked in the tail. It was a wild carp – bloody angry by the way it was thrashing about on the surface!

For the next hour I had a look to my left about a metre from the bank in two feet of water, and put in a pot of dead maggots next to the righthand margin, hoping to get a barbel on a bunch of deads. But I never had a fish, though I did loose one from the left, probably foulhooked. Then John came up to me and said he’d had nothing after the first half-hour, and had about 28 lb. I had about 15 lb plus a couple of small rudd on corn.

John admires his biggest fish at 14 lb 14 oz.

Bites suddenly come

So I put in a load of bait, followed it with some pots of water over the top and suddenly started to get bites from the left margin, about a metre from the bank. In the next two hours I had about five fish from 1 lb to 6 lb on corn or cat meat, and lost another three or four. Then out to the five-section swim without putting in any more bait, and two fish came in two casts on cat meat, and an occasional roach and rudd on corn.

Wendy, fourth with 81 lb 15 oz from peg 7.

Cold cherryade 

Then Chris and his wife, Bev,  the fishery owners, came round with glasses of cold cherryade – very welcome in the heat. As they came round I was struggling to free my rig from an underwater snag which a good fish had just taken me into. I lost the fish but got the rig back. But the drink was very welcome.

A beaming smile from Clive, who finished seventh.

Still John seemed to be struggling, and I’d seen Mel on my left get just two good fish early on.Now he had just one more. With two hours to go I went to the right margin and had a 2 lb bream first drop, then a lull. And in the last hour I had four or five to 8 lb, and lost some – one broke me. Mel to my left had two late fish, and I saw that Kevin, on the open bank peg 24, suddenly seemed to start catching also. He told me later that a switch from his left margin to the right, with 30 minutes to go, produced about four quick fish, but he had earlier lost five fish around double-figures at the net.

The weigh-in

At the end I had about 15 fish, but must have lost nine or ten. I admitted to between 50 lb and 60 lb. The opposite bank, peg 2, weighed in first, and came round the end of the lake, by which time there were three weights over 80 lb. with Tony Nisbet leading and Wendy Bedford second – taken on her usual feeder. Then to Allan Golightly who had never won a Fenland Rods match, on peg  15, and we were delighted to see him weigh in 90 lb 2 oz to take the lead.

Allan Golightly - winner with 90 lb 2 oz from peg 15.

 Clive Foster, not a regular framer, did himself proud with 55 lb 5 oz, and I wasn't sure whether I could beat that. In fact my fish went 63 lb 15 oz, which I was pleased with in that it beat the two anglers either side, though if I had managed to land just half of the fish I lost I would probably have been in the lead. I finished sixth.

Last to weigh, but Kevin couldn't quite
catch Allan and finished with  87 lb 5 oz.

Then to Kevin, who couldn’t quite catch Alan, and weighed 87 lb 5 oz for second spot. So well done Allan on his first win. A hot day made easier by the welcome from Chris and Bev, who also made us tea before the start . Then Alan told me had had caught fish in nine inches of water and I kicked myself for not having a look right against the piling to my left, in about 18 inches, even though I had a rig made up. I hadn’t seen any fish move there, but I definitely should have tried. To be honest it probably cost me the match.

The result - the fish were all in great condition.

My next match is Wednesday on Magpie at Pidley, followed by a rover on Magpie in the Fenland Rods match on Sunday. Thank goodness the forecast is for temperatures to drop – these hot flushes from the hormone treatment are really debilitating when it’s that hot. I’m glad I’m not a woman (though I have been called an old woman at times).