Difficult in the cold wind - Cedar, Decoy

Peg 2

This was the fourth memorial match for Ellis Buddle, organised by his son Shaun, and 20 took part in teams of four. My team looked strong – Peter Harrison, Mick Raby, John Buckingham (twice a winner) and myself.

With a strong, cool,  North wind blowing straight down Cedar towards the car park I guessed that the car park end would probably fish best – it tends to anyway, whatever the wind. But my peg 2 was on the West bank, whereas the opposite bank tends to be better – it has better margins. Still, if I had to be on this bank then I was at the best end, I thought.

Peg 1 would have been preferable, as there’s an end bank to fish to, but Trevor Cousins had this. And being realistic I felt I would do well to finish second in my five-peg section.

By the end of the match the wind had started to die away (of course).

I had intended to put out a feeder early on, but decided to have just ten minutes on the pole, to see whether I could pick up an early fish. So dead maggots and hemp went into the left margin, and 8mm pellets and hemp with a few grains of corn went out on a top-two-plus-two line, which was as far as I could easily fish in the wind.

I didn’t catch anything for a while, but stuck at it, inside, as the angler on my left had a big carp in the first five minutes on cat meat fished into a small cut-out in the reeds about two feet deep. I hadn’t got a cut-out that I could reasonably fish, so had to bait on the slope against my platform to the left, and fish a bait swinging into it. When that didn’t work I had to go full depth, about four-and-a-half feet, which eventually produced a 3 lb carp on a bunch of deads. By this time, 45 minutes after the start, the angler on my left had had four big fish, and Trevor had had a big fish on the feeder and two more on pole – one in his margin and one against the reeds near the end bank.

Trevor's first weigh - I knew he had me beaten.

A terrible first two hours

I was getting thrashed and went out onto the longer swim but never had any indication there. There was a tow against the wind, but I couldn’t pick it up all the time as heavy gusts were moving the surface water so quickly at times. I had nothing for the next hour, though I could see evidence of liners a lot of the time in the deep-water margin.  I tried a very shallow swim to my right which was more of a bump rising off the bottom, but the sun shone straight into my eyes and I had to give that up. 

Eventually, after more than two hours, I started another swim in the deep water just a little to my right, out of the glare of the sun. Meanwhile Trevor had had two or three more big carp approaching 10 lb each.

Trevor - always smiling.

Rob Melnyk - hadn't seen him for ages!

Then I had a bite on a bunch of deads to my left, and a little later a near-10 lb carp on cat meat to the right. The rest of the match saw very occasional fish coming – always just after I had fed – and I lost about five, probably foulhooked. One 10 lb carp I foulhooked in the tail, but managed to land it. Trevor was also catching the occasional fish, but I knew I was behind. Two barbel and a tench also ended in my net, but there was no pattern at all – most of the bites came as I drew the bait to one side – only one came after I lifted it.

Roger Archer was on the Eastern bank
on peg 20- more barbel were caught on this
bank than on the opposite side of the lake.

Cat meat took about seven or eight, maggot two and corn two. At one time I put on a worm and immediately had a fish on which came off, but the worm was untouched so it must have been foulhooked. Next drop-in the same thing happened. I did then get a 4 lb barbel on worm.

Two fish hooked themselves ...but both threw the hook. The last hour was bad – one fish, with another good bite missed literally one second before the shout went up to end the match. I estimated I had 90 lb and Trevor estimated he  had 120 lb (we were both well out).

Michael Ramm, opposite me, played an obviously-foulhooked fish for a long time. When we weighed it in it was 17 lb 4 oz – hooked in the tail!! Three pegs to his right I could see Mick Raby, in my team, with three nets so I guessed he would have won his section.

John Buckenham was second in
his section with 60 lb 12 oz.

The weigh-in

Trevor weighed  99 lb 15 oz, and mine went 78 lb  4 oz, so we had both overestimated out weights. He won the section so had 1 penalty point and I was second with 2 points. As I followed the scales along the weights tended to fall off a little towards the far end and I was happy with second on my bank. Peter Harrison was second in his section with 45 lb 10 oz on a pole.

Mick Raby - winner with 103 lb 14 oz - a sterling
performance which gave our team 1 point.

One of my oldest angling mates, Barry Gibson
with a cracking double-figure mirror. He was
in the winning team last year.

Round to the opposite bank and the weights tended to get better as we moved along. John Buckenham did well to come second in section on peg 15 with 60 lb 12 oz, and Mick Raby won the match on 22 with 103 lb 14 oz, giving us 7 points total. BUT Trevor’s team also had 7 points (two firsts, a second and a third) and beat us to the team prize by 6 lb. So well done to them.

Mick Ramm with a 17 lb 4 oz mirror
hooked in the tail!

Tight at the top - the top two teams tied on 7 points and
won on weight - 288 lb 8 oz to 282 lb 2 oz.

Three of the winning team - left to right: Rob Melnyk, Trevor Cousins, Roger Archer (Bob Barrett went AWOL).
 Overall winner Mick Raby is on the right.
Thanks to Shaun Buddle for organising this event, ensuring  Dad, Ellis, is not forgotten.

For the record I finished fifth, which I was happy with from that peg. I’m there again Tuesday and again hope for a peg from about 20 (though Bob Allen had a big weight from 18 today) to the corner on 26. If not, then 1 or 13 will be OK.

On Northview tomorrow, which has no permanent pegs but I would like a peg on the roadside or close to the new end section.