I'm the Nearly Man again - Beastie, Decoy

Peg 5

Twenty years ago pegs 3 to 5 on Beastie were the pegs most anglers wanted to draw. Now there are so many other feature pegs on the water that 3 to 5 are no longer considered fliers. But I’ve never warmed to them – they face roughly west so in cold weather they remain cold, with a bit of a bank behind to stop the sun. As the sun moves round they are  in the shadow of trees, and are often facing the prevailing winds.  This match was no different – although it wasn’t cold, the sun shone on the water, but not on me.

However, Terry Tribe confirmed that it’s still reckoned to be a barbel peg, with barbel hunkered down under the tree to the left, where the bank is undercut. So I put in dead maggots there right at the start, though I started by casting out a Method feeder towards the aerator 40 metres away.

The aerator on the corner of the island had carp moving around it, but after
just one quick bream on the feeder I changed to the pole, mainly in the margins.

One bream came on the second cast, and since the presence of bream often means that the carp are not yet feeding I put down the rod and had a quick look over the maggot swim. The result, in the next half-hour, was three more bream, best 2 lb, but no barbel. So it was on to the long pole for half an hour, at about nine metres, with an 8mm pellet, and this produced another two bream, best 3 lb.

The other main swim I had pinpointed was the margins towards the right, where another tree overhung. I’d been putting corn in here, and when I dropped in I got no takes for 15 minutes, but eventually started getting liners. I knew these were fish inspecting the bait, because my special little method clearly shows this, while most other set-ups would not.

My first carp - a 12-pounder

Then, suddenly, my corn was taken and the 20 elastic streamed out under the tree and threatened to encroach in Peter Harrison’s swim on peg 6. I shouted a warning, but the fish never got quite as far as that, and a few minutes later I netted a 12 lb common carp, hooked in the mouth.

I suppose about two hours had passed and Mick Linnell, on my left, said he had one carp and a bream while Terry Tribe, on peg 3, had five carp. If they were as big as mine that meant I was way behind already (I found out later that they were smaller).

Peter Barnes was on my favourite peg 18 on Beastie,
but lost seven big fish when  they shot under the
bridge  to his left. He's not  the first person to have
that happen  on that peg, and he won't be the last!

I then went out into the right margin on cat meat, hoping for more big fish, even  though recently it has appeared that the fish are preferring smaller baits, and cat meat has not been the best bait. 

Another biggie!

However, half an hour later another 12-pounder lay in my landing net, on a new (for me) elastic – Middy Hi-Viz Flourescent Micro-Core Bungee elastic, rated 18-22. It’s very reminiscent of my favourite Middy White 18-20 solid, which they don’t make any more. It’s powerful, but seems to have just that extra stretch in an emergency, which gives me time to put on another section while a solid might bottom out suddenly (as happened later!).

At this point I was still getting little touches, and suddenly realised that the sun was so bright that it was creating a very dark shadow on the water of my pole tip. To lift the bait meant putting the tip right over the float and I was sure it was putting the fish off as the margin here was only a little over three feet. So it was back to the left margin which was in the shadow of a tree.

Peter Shilton shows the sort of beastie
most of us contacted on the day.

Here I took another bream, and changed to worm bait, which brought two more bream and an F1 of about 3 lb, and a couple of small perch. But I never had a barbel there. Then a lull and as there was now some cloud cover I went back to the right margin. A couple more F1s came to corn, then a carp of about 4 lb. And with a couple of hours to go I hit a big fish there which was obviously foulhooked and took me out to the middle of the lake before pinging the hook out.

Then another big fish, about 13 lb, came to corn and another small carp or two. But proper bites were few and far between. Nearly all came after I had lifted the bait. With about 50 minutes to go the wind had become stronger and it was proving difficult to keep the bait still. I have always believed that perfect presentation anywhere in the swim on commercials is better than an imperfect presentation where you think there may be more fish. So I decided to put in corn, cat meat and hemp  on a top-two line right in front of me.

Mick Ramm with the biggest fish we weighed - 17 lb 13 oz.

Top-two rig in front felt right

The minute I put in a rig it felt right, and soon I had another double-figure fish on cat meat. With the purple Hydro elastic I got it in quite quickly, holding the pole tip under the surface and letting the elastic retract to bring the fish in after it had made its first run. It came to the surface and I managed to net it first time. It was a strange-looking mirror, dark brown with big  blackish markings like shadows on its back, and some of its scales looking as if they had been taken off and stuck back. But it was in good condition.

 At this point, with 30 minutes left, I went for a third net, and could then see Trevor Cousins, on 24 already had three nets. He was fishing a long pole, and as he had backwind I assumed he was fishing shallow.

Back at the peg  I  soon took a fish of about 4 lb on cat meat, and then changed to corn as it had worked so well. With 20 minutes left hit yet another big fish, but this one didn’t make a long run. It just plodded around, with occasional little dashes. Obviously it wasn’t expending much energy and although I managed to get it to surface several times, each time it got to within a couple of feet of the landing net it swirled away, and it took me 15 minutes to land.

That strange-looking mirror carp of mine was actually in great condition.

With a couple of minutes left I dropped in again with corn and immediately hit yet another big fish. I had a third section on the top two. The elastic was an 18-20 solid which is a bit harsher than the hollows, and before I could add a fourth section the fish, which was well on its way to Peterborough, snapped the line. An annoying end to the match – I hate breaking on fish although I am sure the barbless hook soon works itself out.

The weigh-in

As usual I was slow in packing up, as I had about six rigs to put away – spares and shallow rigs I didn’t use – as well as the feeder rod. I also have to take breathers by sitting in the boot of the car as my back is very painful with all the stooping and lifting.

By the time the scales had reached me I was surprised to see that Martin Parker on 25 with a back wind had only 28 lb 11 oz.  Bob Barret on peg 2 had just  63 lb 9 oz. I love this peg...but  that doesn’t mean I would have caught any more than Bob!

Terry Tribe, who had had such a good start on the feeder, had signalled to me that he was struggling when I got my third net, but Mick Linnell must have had a better time as he had beaten Terry by 69 lb to 66 lb.

These were consistent weights, but I was sure I had more – five double-figure fish, three or smaller ones, two or three F1s and about 12 lb of bream. In fact my fish weighed 96 lb 2 oz, and we weighed one at 13 lb 12 oz – you can’t always tell which is the biggest, but there wasn’t much to chose between the five biggest.

The winner (not for the first time) - Trevor Cousins with 128 lb 11 oz taken shallow.

So round to the rest, and we weighed Mick Ramm’s best fish at 17 lb 13 oz! It was fish like this that gave Beastie Lake its name. It’s good that the fish don’t get much bigger – 21 lb is the best I have heard of. I know Viaduct in Somerset regularly produces fish of 20 lb, but I don’t know of many others. This means that you have the particular problem on Decoy of having to gear up for bream from 8 oz to 3 lb, and F1s to 5 lb, with the chance of hitting barbel to 6 lb and these big carp. It’s always an interesting compromise.

Trevor wins shallow

Trevor, as I had suspected, had fished shallow, first with the pole on banded 8mm pellet, feeding 6mm, then having the same problem as I had had with the sun casting a shadow, and switching to pellet waggler. He took several fish on this, including one 2 lb barbel on the drop, before reverting to pole for the rest of the match. His three nets totalled  128 lb 11 oz, which left him a clear winner.

The anglers around him had struggled, including Martin Parker, who had already paid Terry Tribe his golden coin and left! Pegs 29 and 30 hadn’t yielded anything spectacular, so I finished runner-up for the second time is two days. Very happy with that, and an interesting and challenging day’s fishing.

The result. I had fancied trying shallow, but the facing wind was too strong to do it effectively.

Next match

Next match is the Ellis Buddle Memorial on Saturday on Cedar (a drawn team match), followed by Northview, Gedney, on Sunday (the last match we will have here as he’s not having any matches on any of his three lakes after this year); then back to Cedar on Tuesday. I’ve checked back my recent results on Cedar and would not mind 13 again, in the corner, or pegs 22 to 26 on the Eastern bank, especially 26 in the corner.

For Northview I would like the roadside for a change or any pegs on or next to the new section, though to be honest I’ll just enjoy it wherever I get pegged – good banks, good fishing, and car behind every peg. Most pegs will be in, apart from those in front of the lodges, as 16 have signed up to fish.