Another good day - Magpie, Pidley

Peg 32

There were 12 of us in this Fenland Rods match, which was our annual  rover. We had been allocated pegs 1 to 20 on Magpie, and 28 to 34 on the island. I fancied peg 34 on the end of the island or, failing that, 33 or 32 provided I had a spare peg to one side; failing those, then 10, 11 or 12, as our recent matches have been won from 11 (Tony Nisbet) and  12 (me). And if all those were taken I’d have gone for 20, end peg with a bush opposite.

My swim before the start. I found  aerator was moving the water around quickly,
so I waited until it had been stopped for ten minutes before putting any more bait in.

Out of the 12 I drew out 11, so was next-to-last to choose a peg, and Allan Golightly had already  bagged 34, and Mike Rawson 33 (although he told me later he was thinking that 33 was on the end of the island). Dave Garner, Tony Nisbet and Kevin Lee were already esconced on 10. 11 and 12, and with only John Smith left to choose a peg  I took a chance and took 32, where I had 200 lb last year. John had already loaded his trolley and pushed it onto the bank at peg 5, so I didn’t think he’d want to wheel it round to the island! He actually took peg 3.

Peg 32 has boarding along the side to both side, though to the left I could fish to proper bank, and I concentrated on the spot where the bank took over.

The aerators were on for the first few minutes and after putting in some caster to the left margin and out at top two plus one, I realised that the water was moving quite fast, and they could end up anywhere. So I put no more bait in until the aerators had been stopped for ten minutes.

Mike Rawson, next to me,  had a
couple of fish approaching 10 lb.

I opted to fish towards the left, away from Mike on my right, as the wind was forecast to be Westerly, over my back. In fact half an hour after the start it was coming from the North into me, and was quite stiff.  That left me fishing into the wind, which was not ideal.

The start

Allan Golightly was on 34,
the peg I would have picked.

In the first few minutes I took two nice roach on banded caster from the side, and then put out some cubes of luncheon meat, plus hemp and caster, on the longer line via a bait dropper, to get the bait down. I had no proper bites from either swim for ages, and it seemed that hardly anyone else was catching much, although Callum, opposite on 6, had three very quick fish on a feeder. After an hour I had added just two 3 lb carp.

Things picked up slightly in the next hour and I took about six more carp on luncheon meat from the top-two-plus-one line. Mike on my right suddenly landed a fish that looked to be 10 lb, and not  long after that he added another!

I had been determined to catch shallow, but just couldn’t and with the water not appearing to be very warm, and the wind having a distinct cool feel, I didn’t waste too much time on that, but had a good look in the margins. I put dead maggot into the right margin against the boards and had a bite, then some more, but no fish. So corn went into the left margin, and a near-5 lb carp took it inches from the bank, on the bottom.

Best fish we weighed was this lovely common carp
weighing in at 12 lb 14 oz, and  taken by Wendy.

I concentrated on this spot and slowly my catch rate picked up. The fish were now very warm, as was the water.  I fancied the combination of hemp and caster was bringing the fish in, and I usually threw in a handful of 8mm hard pellet over the top, though I didn’t try hard pellet as bait. I lost a big fish close to the net, and decided to have a try with cat meat so long as bigger fish were around. 

 Cat meat works, eventually

Mel Lutkin's 52 lb 3 oz
from peg 8, opposite the reed bed.

This worked, but the fish were taking a long time to take the bait properly – if I hadn’t known better I would have thought that roach were playing with the bait, but they weren’t – it was always carp. But I had to lift the bait to get a proper bite. Kevin Lee said afterwards he had to do the same. Anyway, I started catching fish quite well, and happened to glance across to my right a few times, to see Kevin playing fish at the same time as I was – the fish were coming on properly.

Mike on my right had occasional fish, but I realised I was well beating him. However, at one point I put in bait after I'd caught a fish fish in the left margin, as I had been doing all day, and got no bites for 20 minutes or so. So I started again in the right margin. I hit two or three  fish there, which came off, but then had a good spell there on corn and then cat meat. I then alternated between the right and left margins, where fish had appeared again.

Kevin Lee, the winner with  170 lb 12 oz.

In the last half hour I kept catching well but lost three big fish in succession at one time, which probably cost me the match. My fish were mainly a minimum of 3 lb with the occasional one to 6 lb. I lost one huge fish, probably foulhooked, which actually took my purple Hydro out to the aerator 16 metres away – while I was hanging on to my top two! That fish came off, but I didn’t foulhook many – I landed just one.

However, to avoid foulhooking them I often had to wait until the hooked themselves.. They could be playing with the bait for ages before finally taking it. A very interesting day, and I hadn’t used a lot of bait – less than two tins of corn, less than a tin of hemp, half-a-pint of casters, plus a few dead maggots and hard pellets.

Me - second with 155 lb 14 oz. 

Dave Garner, third with 83 lb.

Tony Nisbet, fourth with  80 lb 15 oz. Tony
used a 4mm expander, and it seemed to me
that his fish were of a much smaller
average size than mine.

The weigh-in

Allan Golightly was first to weigh of the three of us on the island, and he and Mike both had weights in the 50s. 

My three nets totalled 155 lb 14 oz, and this kept the lead round to Kevin Lee on 12, who needed 38 lb in his third net to beat me. It weighed 53 lb, and knocked me back to second spot. Kevin was also Golden Peg, and he showed me where he had caught his fish – the same spot as I had fished when I won a match there. Dave Garner was third and Tony Nisbet fourth from pegs 10 and 11.

I was quite pleased that I had fancied those pegs 10 to 12. So a good day’s fishing all-round.

Next match tomorrow on Beastie Lake, Decoy, where I'd particularly fancy pegs 2, 8, 9, 18, 26, 29 or 30, with 18 my favourite.