A nice end to the year – Emily’s Lake, Frasers

Peg 16.

New Year’s Eve, and I decided to fish the Tuesday Pensioners match at Frasers – I fished half a dozen last winter. It’s an early start in pitch darkness for me, at 7 am, with an 8 am draw and fishing 9-2, so I can drive back in the light.

Peg 16 stuck to my fingers, and Fraser said it was a good draw – mind you he told the bloke in front of me that his was, as well! I’ve never fished the peg, but I know from looking at results that it is at the end that tends to produce the better weights – from 16 round to about peg 4, where I framed in a match last year. Thirteen of us fished.

A beautiful December day

The day was just beautiful – not cold, and the water like a millpond at the start. Fraser was on 15 to my right, so I thought I would be able to get some idea of how to fish by watching him, as he’s the owner and knows every swim. I started dobbing a piece of 4mm bread punch over to the far side at 13 metres, and soon managed to hook a trailing bunch of twigs and dead reed, which eventually pulled free.

Like a millpond! My fish came at 13 metres roughly in a line to Andy Keel (white cap) on Peg 2.

I could see most anglers fishing well over, so persevered for half an hour for nothing. A fish turned in the middle of the lake to my left (the next swim, 1, was not pegged) so I dobbed the bread in there more in hope than expectation. To my amazement the pimple of a float top suddenly plopped under, and a 2 lb carp was attached.

I have a purple patch

I persevered here and three or four more fish came in the next 40 minutes. The angler on 2 had started on maggot but changed to bread fished right across after not getting a bite. Then he, also, tried coming away from the far bank and hooked a the odd carp – all around 2 lb – but my rate increased and I had a lovely purple patch for half an hour when I was getting a fish every drop in. I’d put no bait in at all, so there must have been a pod of fish hanging  about  - when they went off I went down to three feet and found them again immediately. In that time I had just one fish get away. The rest took longer to land than I would have liked - with the water so clear they kept shying away from the landing net.

By about 11.15 I had an estimated 35 lb to 40 lb, best fish over 3 lb, while the angler on 2 (Andy Keel) probably had 15 lb. But suddenly a light breeze got up, blowing over my back towards Peg 2, and three fish later I couldn’t get a bite. Andy, however, upped his catch rate and within an hour had overtaken me. In that hour I kept dobbing bread, even though I couldn’t get a bite, as Fraser was struggling badly, and had caught only about three fish, on maggot. The anglers to his right didn’t seem to have caught much, either.

The winner, Andy Keel, with  part of his 69 lb 2 oz catch.
all taken on bread shallow.

I did notice that Andy had a bigger piece of bread than I had been using, so I tried using a larger piece of flake, but it made no difference, and the smaller punch had worked earlier, so I simply had to assume that the wind had blown the pod of carp away from my swim.

I then tried fishing maggot tripping the bottom where I had been catching, and hooked a carp immediately, but it came off the tiny 18 hook. I changed up to a big size 16, but no more came. Fishing shallow with maggot and catapulting maggots in produced one roach which came off; and still Andy carried on catching! I had yet another look shallow with bread but the result was the same as before - not a single touch.

Two late fish on maggot

With 20 minutes left I went out again with a single maggot on the bottom, catapulting maggots over the top, and in two drops caught two more carp. But the last 15 minutes produced no more bites. Andy stopped catching  in the middle about this time, so he dobbed his bread over to the far side and immediately had three carp, all around 2 lb. So it seemed that the fish were definitely moving.

The weigh in

As I had suspected, most anglers struggled for a bite, and top weight from peg 10 up to me was 8 lb 12 oz. Fraser to my right weighed in just 5 lb 2 oz, and my fish went 43 lb 8 oz. 

The result - a friendly fishery, where everyone
is just known by their first name or a nickname.

Before I weighed The Vicar (can’t remember his real name) said he tipped me to win when I drew 16, but I assured him that peg 2 had more than I did. And when that angler weighed he put 69 lb 2 oz on the scales – a very good performance in my book. He told me he was using a 10 mm bread punch, so I will have to get something similar in future – not because it was necessarily better on the day, but it might be on another day. He also said that, as I had thought, he’d lost several fish. He was getting them in much faster than I was, and that’s a risk you take when you hurry them in.

Round the bend, Peg 4 was third in the match with 12 lb, with an 11 lb next to him. But five anglers did not weigh – typical Winter fishing on a stillwater.

I was pleased with my second place, as all the other were regulars on the fishery. Not sure when my next match will be – probably this weekend on Decoy.