A Topsy-Turvy match - Damson, Decoy

Peg 10
Overnight the wind changed from Westerly to North-East, and at the draw I was so cold I went to the van and put on a sweat shirt; then I went back and put on another! I fancied the first four pegs, which often seem to produce more, and better fish. Tony got Peg 2, and Kevin the last one, 18, in the corner, and the only one on the West bank.

Next to me, on 11, was Rob Allen, who said that the West bank tends to produce bigger fish, and indeed I know that on a lot of matches where the whole lake is used, these pegs from 18 to about 24, often produce the best weights. But thankfully our club doesn't use them because on some there are anything up to a dozen steps to negotiate down to the water. Peg 18 had just five steps and is a nice-looking peg...and today I think we all suspected that Kevin might do well.

A nice looking swim, with an island in front. But I fished the pole all day.

Nothing for me in the margin at the start
Like most, I normally start in the margins here, for the first hour. They extend out about six feet, down to about three feet deep before dropping steeply down to seven-feet plus. I started on a banded pellet, putting in 4mm pellets, but never had a take. I had expected fish to immediately attack the bait, as they usually do. In fact they always do - it's known for it. My margins were horribly bumpy, but even in the side, which was no more than nine inches deep, I could see fish moving, but I thought that the sudden wind switched could make the fish  tentative.

Mel Lutkin, who organises our annual presentation
evening, was on Peg 8, two to my left.

However, next door on my left John Smith started like a train, fishing right against a bunch of reeds to his left. and had six or seven fish that appeared to be over 1 lb in that first 15 minutes. I changed to expander pellet, with no result, and then to corn, which brought two fish about 1 lb and 2 lb.John was still taking fish and I estimated he had 12 or 15. I was a long way behind, and Rob on my right also had some fish. I could see several other catching, so I was in a terrible position already.


I concentrate on the margin
I had intended to go long, to top two plus two, at this point, but because John was still catching I put my head down and concentrated on my left margin, in a tiny hole on a top two, as the right was so shallow and bumpy. Paste, and then cat meat, brought occasional fish to 2 lb, and after two hours I estimated I had 20 lb, but John had two or three times that. Then came a terrible hour when I took only one 1 lb fish, and must have lost 15 or 20. I don't think any were foulhooked. A nightmare. And fish were moving about under the surface all day.

So I reluctantly swung to the right margin, on the edge of the drop-off, next to a bush, and had three small carp on a 6mm expander very quickly. Then nothing! A little over two hours left and I went out to the bottom of the drop-off at two sections plus a bit, but there was nothing there, either. So with a piece of cat meat I went out to top two plus two, without putting in any bait, and a 4 lb carp obliged!

Me with that 12lb 12 oz lump of a grass carp.

The next two hours I spent mainly on that longer line, and very occasionally a decent fish came in, so with a little more than an hour left I estimated In had a little over 40 lb.  John, I estimated, must have had well over 100 lb. Then a tiny little bite saw me hook the bottom...except that the bottom moved. Slowly and ponderously something took elastic, then drifted back in, and then went round in circles. It was ten minutes before I saw it - a long, lean fish.

It wouldn't expend any energy on fast rushes, so I felt I had to try to scoop it out when it came past. Three times I lifted the net under it, only for it to turn away and slide over the rim. Eventually, 15 minutes after hooking it, I got it coming towards me head-first for the first time and into the net it went. I had to shake it down the net before I could lift it out - a big ole grass carp.

We weighed it later at 12 lb 12 oz, and if it had been a deep-bodied common or mirror I reckon it would have easily weighed 18 lb-plus.

I end on the longer line
Meanwhile John had slowed up, though still catching the odd fish, and I also had one about every seven or eight minutes, though they were all 2 lb to 4 lb, and all on cat meat, as paste didn't get a bite. At one time I put out my pellet rig, but this produced only a roach. Two more very good fish came adrift, which was to cost me. The last fish came in with two minutes to go, and by now John had started to catch again, a few feet farther out.

Socially distancing at the weigh-ins.

I had by now realised that he had managed to find a good two feet of water against the rushes, while all my bank was bare, and shallow, except for the remains of little bushes. I think my bank had fallen in, to make the margins very shallow indeed, while the rushes had stopped that small piece of John's bank caving in.

The weigh in
I was convinced that I was probably almost last, as Rob on my right had had several good fish, and I wondered whether John had won, as he must have had two or three times as many fish as me. I reckoned I might have 70 lb, which is normally a poor weight on Damson in Summer. I'd seen Mel, on Peg 8, take several fish on the long line. And with fish moving off bottom all day, and giving liners all day, I assumed Tony on 2 would have had a big catch on his favorite pellets.



Surprises

John Smith's 86 lb 3 oz - half of what I thought he had caught!

I took my time packing up in what was now a very hot afternoon, and went back to the van, meeting and passing the weighers-in on the way. I got to Tony and asked him what he had weighed. I heard "...seventy seven." I asked :"One hundred and seventy seven?" "No - seventy seven. I struggled." You could have knocked me down with a fevver. If Tony had struggled, then John must have won. But then John told me: "Kevin had got five nets in!" So he was now huge favourite, as I hadn't seen anyone else with more than three nets in. And I was obviously well down the list.

Flabbergasted!
Trolley left at the van, and I walked back just in time to see Mel Lutkin weigh in    80 lb 12 oz and took a picture. Then to John and although he had three nets in the water, one was empty. He weighed in only two nets and had just 86 lb 3 oz. I was flabbergasted. My gast had never been so flabbered! I would have sworn my life away that he had approaching 150 lb minimum; indeed I had wondered why he hadn't gone back to his car for a fourth net.

A look at his fish as I took a picture told me that, in fact, a lot were smaller than I had assumed. But had I now over-estimated my weight at 70 lb? Were they weighing light?

Joe Bedford, who celebrated his 90th birthday last week,
 says he  still looks forward all week to his fishing.

First net was 39 lb, and the second 44 lb, for a total of 83 lb 14 oz. In fact I was lucky, because I had stopped clicking that second net with half-an-hour to go, assuming I wouldn't get anywhere near the 50 lb maximum. If I'd had a ten-pounder at the end it would have gone in there(!) Peter The Paste became Peter the Photographer for a minute, and snapped me with the grass carp - pity I didn't hold it so the tail showed!

I'm in third place up to me
I then looked at the weighing-in sheet, and saw that Peter Spriggs had also beaten me - by 5 oz, but I was third. Unbelievably, if the rest had struggled I had an outside chance of framing.

And so to Rob, next door, who said that, like me, he had struggled all day. But he did well to put 78 lb 6 oz in the net, mainly on the longer line. That big grass carp had swung it for me, though in the 15 minutes it took to land it I might have had another fish or two. I was still third.

The four on the North bank had definitely struggled, best being Dennis Sambridge with 55 lb 11 oz. And finally Kevin weighed his five nets - a magnificent 227 lb 1 oz, all except one fish taken on three sections on cat meat over pellet and corn, best fish about 9 lb, and the average weight of his fish was way above what anyone else had caught.

For once the low-numbered pegs on Damson didn't  dominate the rest of that bank.

Winner Kevin Lee had much bigger fish than the rest of us in his 227 lb 1 oz.

So I ended fourth, for a seventh frame in a row. Just one of those later lost fish would have pushed me to second. I should have gone long, as I had planned, much earlier.

Next match should be Thursday on Oak, though thunderstorms are forecast. Any peg on there will be OK for me - though the area around peg 9 and opposite on 20 have form, recent matches have seen the top weights come from the car park end.