I frame but should probably have won - Elm, Decoy

Peg 7

Sixteen of us fished this Spratts match on Elm, and I was quite pleased with my draw on 7, though Peg 9 has been a bit of a flier at times in Winter. However the day was warm, with a little rain and only a light South-Westerly breeze from my right.

My swim. The threatened wild, windy weather never materialised, and the
day was damp and mild, with sunshine on the afternoon. Very nice.

I started at 11 metres and after half an hour came inside to the deep margin. A couple of fish were caught opposite me, but after two hours I had managed to hook just one fish, which was foulhooked and came off. Obviously I alternated from the short swim to the long one and back, and after putting in a load of dead red maggots into the side swim I actually had a liner or two, but no fish. So I put maggots out long, and tried four deads as hookbait there. After another 15 minutes managed to foulhook a ten-pounder in the 11-metre swim, which ended in my net.

All hands to the weighing bag!

Then first drop-in to the side swim saw another big fish in the net. To my right Trevor Cousins had now had a couple of fish in the side, on the slightly-shallower shelf, in about four-and-a-half feet of water. I had one small patch like this to my right, but although I kept dropping in there I had no bites.

The next couple of hours saw me take three or four fish from each of the other swims – mainly on corn but with just one on cat meat. The hemp seemed to get the fish excited as they started fizzing every time it went in on the long swim - but not on the short swim. With an hour to go and bites hard to come by I put out hemp and corn into the deep water to my right and quickly took a double-figure fish on corn and then another even bigger on cat meat.

Peter Spriggs, second,  shows the size of fish we were all catching.

I was now on my second net, with about 38 lb in the first, and suddenly realised I hadn’t started clicking the second net, and couldn’t remember what I had put in it. So after those two big fish I went and got another net, in John Garner’s van, as he was also getting one, and resumed fishing with just over 20 minutes to go.

In that 20 minutes I managed to land a fish about 3 lb, then lost two big fish after playing them for some time. Finally, a second before the all-out was called, I hooked another  about 4 lb which I landed.

We weighed Mick Linnell's best fish at 14 lb 14 oz.

The weigh in

Trevor had been landing fish more often then me, so I guessed he had probably beaten me, and in fact he won with 97 lb 12 oz after being 6 lb over in one net. He took his fish, I think, mainly from his left, right against the reeds, with some from the right, also in the shallower water. My second net held only about 38 lb, and  I weighed 84 lb 12 oz, for fourth,  having wasted that time getting a third net. If I had sat tight I would probably have had another fish, as they were biting well at that stage – I could have easily been second or third with another double-figure fish.

The result - the middle pegs on Elm lake fished best.

To my left Peter Spriggs was second with 95 lb 15 oz, and John Garner opposite on 16 was third on 90 lb 6 oz. So the pegs on the middle fished a bit better than those towards the far end...and the car park pegs fished poorly.

The mobile saga continues

After having had problems last week with my new (cheap) mobile I changed it for a better one, but still haven’t mastered it – hence the paucity of pictures again. Trevor photographed the result for me and sent it to my phone and I spent 20 minutes working out how to send this to my computer so I could use it. Perhaps I should give up fishing and study for a degree in modern technology!

Still, yet another frame place – I’m having a decent run at the moment. Beastie on Decoy tomorrow, which I look forward to. Pegs 2, 8, 18, 26, 29 or 30 please!!