Peg 4
An apology
Firstly, I left my phone behind, so no pictures. But I got a
draw I quite fancied, in the first 5 swims., which I have found tend to produce
bigger fish than the others. The weather was fairly calm to start with, but a
cold Easterly breeze sprang up, luckily it was behind us all except Trevor on
the end bank, 14.
I wasn’t going to make the same mistake as I had the
previous week and ignore the shallow margins, so I plumbed up about four feet
deep – and no sooner had the plummet hit bottom than the float dived away like
a bite, and came back to the top. That showed me that there were fish there.
So I started there, with a 4mm expander on the hook, and
took two fish in the first two drop-ins. Then another about five minutes later,
all around 1 lb. But then they vanished. And by now Peter Barnes on my right
was hitting fish one after the other, on a feeder cast to the far bank, which
had had the sun on it for an hour or two. I should have followed suit, but
decided to stick to the pole.
Six sections out works again
In the next hour or so I found a couple of fish at three
sections, and one more inside, and did not catch a fish on the four-section line.
By now I had about 9 lb, while I estimated Peter had the better part of 25 lb.
Then his bites slowed up and I went out to six sections, which I should have
tried earlier, and started to find the occasional fish, which were nearly all over 2
lb.
I couldn’t see past peg 6 properly, and thought I was now
doing OK. John Garner, on my left, had the same peg he had had on Sunday, when
he had won; but today he seemed to be struggling. I carried on fishing at six
sections, and when bites slowed I changed from 4mm expander to 6mm, and found
two or three bream around 1 lb. Then a switch to frozen sweetcorn on the hook found
carp again, and when they slowed I adjusted the float by about an inch at a
time down the line. Instead of dragging two inches on the bottom I was now just
touching bottom and that brought another small flurry of bites.
A decent last hour closer in
With an hour to go I saw Mark Parnell on 6 take fish quite
close in - his float was about four feet from the bank - so I switched and fished four feet deep, letting the bait fall in
towards the shelf, and then dragging it along slowly if I hadn’t had an early
bite. That induced three or four fish to take. In that last hour about eight fish came – four
on sweetcorn including a 3 lb barbel, and I then switched to a small piece of
cat meat – from the small Gourmet tins – and took two more barbel and a couple
of carp. The best one was a near-5 lb golden mirror which I was playing when
the match ended.
I lost just three
fish, which unaccountably came off as I was playing them very gently. I think
they were just lightly hooked, as the bites all day were very tiny in the cold
water. (Just one of those would have seen me frame in fourth place). Trevor put
me on to the Gourmet cat meat a year or two ago. The chunks are very small, but
hard, and stay on the hook better than larger pieces. On waters where there are
barbel I fancy they may be a good change bait in Winter, when larger baits are
not working.
The weigh-in
I weighed 50 lb 14 oz – top weight to me, and Peter Barnes,
who had had a terrible last half of the match on a feeder, weighed 34 lb 5 oz. On
Peg 6 Mark Parnell beat me with 52 lb 1
oz with that late flurry. Then in the last seven pegs three weights topped that
to knock me down to fifth spot. Best of all was Trevor, on the last swim, Peg
14, with 98 lb 2 oz...and he was Golden Peg! He fished all day at five or six
sections, using corn.
Runner-up Peter Harrison took most of his 75 lb 7 oz on a
feeder. Another interesting day for me when no fish were giving themselves up and
when every bite had to be fished for. But
I should have had a cast or two on feeder early on when I could see Peter doing
well. Bob Barrett's fish in Peg 1 were almost all no bigger than about 1 lb, taken close in. It seems that the better fish at the moment are farther out.
Next match
Next definite match is on Six-Island, the most temperamental
of the Decoy lakes as the water cools, as it’s the shallowest. Everything will
depend on the wind, and whether it’s a cool one or warm. If it’s a cold Easterly
then back wind on 1, 2 or 3 will suit me!
The weights:
Peg 1 Bob Barrett 32 lb15 oz
Peg 2 Ted Lloyd 21 lb 2 oz
Peg 3 John Garner 32 lb 15 oz
Peg 4 Mac Campbell 50 lb 14 oz
Peg 5 Peter Barnes 34 lb 5 oz
Peg 6 Mark Parnell 52 lb 1 oz 4th
Peg 8 Peter
Harrison 75 lb 7 oz 2nd
Peg 9 Mick Linnell 45 lb 13 oz
Peg 10 John Smith 38 lb 8 oz
Peg 11 Terry Tribe 50 lb
Peg 12 Peter Spriggs 60 lb 5 oz 3rd
Peg 14 Trevor Cousins 98 lb 2 oz 1st
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