Wet, Wet, Wet - Yew, Decoy

Peg 24

It was raining lightly when we started this Fenland Rods match, with just ten competitors. And to be honest there’s not a lot to report, except that it rained for most of the first five hours and the platform was set down at least a foot from the bank, which made it awkward to put my gear down there. In addition the back half of the platform was underwater. You can imagine how muddy my waterproofs were by the end.

 It started calm, and rather nice, really. I had a shallowish area to my right, and put in some pellet and corn, but started out at 11.5 metres where, to my surprise, I never had a bite for half an hour. Into the side, and this produced a foulhooked barbel on corn after only a few minutes.

By the time we packed up the rain had stopped, but the wind had increased.

I hadn’t seen anyone else catch, so I was quite pleased, In fact I found out later that some of the anglers to my right did, in fact, find fish very early one, including Tony Nisbet, who found carp in the deep margins.

Dick Warriner - like all of us he had had his
umbrella up and hunkered down against the rain.

I dropped down to the next little shelf for two good carp in the next hour, and then out to the deeper water, where two more carp came in, best around 14 lb, one on cat meat. But then I had not a bite in the next two hours, during which time Mel Lutkin, on my right, had about six fish on cat meat in the deep water, and Dick, next to him, also had a fish or two.

Heavy rain for a time

Two hours to go and Tony had already been for a third net, and I tried a new swim at three sections, which produced two carp around 7 lb quite quickly. But then no bites for an hour, and the rain really lashed down at one point. Then Tony came along for a fourth net and told me he was catching long on five sections. 

I had already put away four of my sections, and had just four in use, and I didn’t fancy clambering off the platform, around the umbrella, to get any more, so I made do with four, put out some hemp and corn, and immediately hit a big F1 and another good carp. Then, thankfully, the end came. I had nine fish.

I managed to snap Allan as I made my way back to the car.
He finished second - the latest in a run of really good results.

The weigh-in

I had almost packed my gear away by the time the weigh-in started – which was unusual for me. Tony very kindly pushed my trolley to the car, and as we passed Allan Golightly he was weighing his last net and I managed a quick photo. He had four nets. I unloaded some of my gear before getting back on the bank with my camera. I had already been weighed in – 69 lb 9 oz, which amazingly was second down to me. I was gratified to see that I had managed to beat Mel and Dick on my right, as I was sure they had more than me.

But three of the last four swims beat me, so I finished fifth, which I was happy with. Tony won, as I had guessed, with 163 lb 7 oz, with Allan a good second with 136 lb 14 oz – he’s had some really great matches this season. I wasn’t surprised the far end pegs beat me, as they tend to have an edge.

Kev Lee with a munter.

John was third, taking most of his fish on a waggler.

The winner Tony Nisbet, who used mainly corn

Not huge weights, but excellent in the circumstances.