I probably should have won - Beastie, Decoy; and we remember Bryan

Peg 13
A very strong South-Westerly greeted the 17 of us who fished this Spratts match on Beastie. But before the draw we did something perhaps more important - we held a minute's silence to remember Bryan Lakey, who fished with us up to about five years ago. Bryan was the only man to win the National Championship (on the Middle Level) and the Embassy (in Denmark), and with the winnings of the latter he bought a shop in Wisbech and turned it into a tackle shop.

I regarded him as a special friend - when he was on holiday before one National I used to check on his breeding gozzers at his home. And every Friday in Summer I used to pick up four pigeons, at 2/6d each, which we shared for our gozzers. When his daughter got married he trusted me with looking after his tackle shop all day. Not everything was priced and some locals probably got some real bargains that day!

When I had an attack of Vertigo while fishing he packed up and drove me home. A real, proper, mate. He moved to Market Deeping to be near his daughter three years ago and I lost touch, only to find his wife, Sheila, a few months ago, and then to be denied seeing Bryan, who had been in a care home for two-and-a-half years, because of Covid19 restrictions. He died because his body just gave out. He was 81. And the world I live in is poorer for his passing.

The draw
So on to the draw, and the first name out was Peter Harrison, followed by first peg out - 30, a bit of a flier and there were some groans in the watching , socially-distanced, group. The other pegs I really fancied went flying out of the bag - 2 to Rob Allen; 18 to Mick Linnell; and 9 to Mick Ramm. My dreaded peg 24 went to John Garner, with an appropriate comment from Trevor, who had obviously read my last blog.Towards the end came: "Mac Campbell - 13". I was not unhappy with that, as it has won a lot of matches over the years.

Peg 13 - facing Peg 8, where I could see Peter Spriggs catching carp.

A back wind greeted me at the peg, but because it was so strong we all had to be careful what we laid on the bank; even before the start my landing net, with handle attached, was blown in, though I managed to grab hold of the handle.

This swim has deep margins, with a very shallow plateau next to the platform, to the right, where matches have been won in the Summer in the past. Today it was the only part of the swim not to have a wave on it - it was basically flat calm, shielded from the wind by the bank. So I doubted that fish would be feeding there today.

First two hours
I started on top top plus two, with a 6mm expander over hemp and hard 4mm, and had a 1 lb bream, then a smaller one, and then a roach. But already Peter Spriggs, on 8 in the corner opposite, had caught some carp out in front of him. I persevered, but eventually had to come in to the left margin, next to tall reeds, which were blowing over the water, and making it difficult to fish against them. However, using corn I managed to find several bream to 2 lb-plus. A quick drop in to the right deep margin under an overhanging tree also brought a 2 lb F1.

Middle two hours
After two hours I had an estimated 25 lb but bites had dried up, and I had another look out at 7 metres, without a bite. So I put a heavier rig out to the deep right margin, with cat meat. Immediately I had bites, but didn't hit any of them, I pricked one fish momentarily and came back with a huge scale, so I knew carp were willing to be there. I persevered with cat meat but caught only three or four carp, to 3 lb, in that two hours, plus another couple of bream. With two hours to go I had a little over 40 lb. Martin Parker, behind me and facing the wind, said he had about 30 lb.

Like me, Mick Raby had a lot of bream.

Last two hours - Bingo!
I had seen Peter, opposite, land several more carp, so things were getting desperate and I decided I simply had to try the shallow water, which was less that two feet deep.  In went hemp, corn, and some handfulls of pellets, about eight feet from the platform and two feet from the bank, with water emptied from aloft to ring the dinner bell.

The Dinner Bell
This is a phrase used a lot on videos, in articles, and on TV fishing programmes. It's obvious what it means, and I am sure that the first person to ever use that phrase in relation to fishing was Tony wood, captain of Barnsley Blacks, in an article I did with him up on the Stainforth and Keadby Canal in the 1990s, prior to a National Championship there. Kevin Wilmot and I had never heard the phrase before, so we used it as the headline. Not a lot of people know that!

Within a minute of putting in bait into the shallow margin I fancied I saw a small smudge of smoke come up from the bottom. In went my rig baited with cat meat and I immediately got liners. Over the next half-hour I took about four carp on cat meat, and the rig did a lot of dancing about without diving under as it should have done. I felt that the fish were interested but not taking the bait properly.

The sheltered margin where I took most of  my fish.

So I had a look with corn, and got a proper bite, and a fish, immediately. They took corn much better than meat, and slowly I started quickening up, until I felt things were slowing down. I dropped the rig straight down beside the platform, and in two drops had a 3 lb bream and a 3 lb carp, but then no more.

So I started putting in bait just two feet from the platform, and this worked better, bringing a succession of carp, though none more than 5 lb. Meanwhile the wind was rattling  my spare tops and sections around, but somehow nothing ended in the water. Luckily it wasn't a cold wind.

Mick Linnell, on a very windy 18, had some good fish over 5 lb.

Twenty minutes to go
With just less than 20 minutes left on my watch I put in my third net (I should have had it in at the start of course) and in that 20 minutes the fish were lining up two feet from the platform, and I managed 17 lb, best about 4 lb, plus three lost. They were the only ones I lost, all hooked properly. The fish tended to come to the surface when hooked...and they were the three best of my day. I estimated them to weigh around 6 lb, 8 lb and finally 10 lb-plus. The biggest one I hooked ten seconds before the match ended, and lost 30 seconds after it finished. They cost me the match!

The weigh-in
I am pleased to say that I took my time packing up, without feeling ill, and had my gear back at the van by the time the scales came to the spit, where swims 9 to 17 are pegged. Peter Spriggs was leading on 8 with 117 lb, so the weights were not huge, and with Martin behind me admitting to 90 lb I thought I might have done OK.

Mick Ramm on Peg 9  had only one net in, as had Peter Barnes, two to my left on 11. They had both really struggled. I weighed 111 lb 10 oz, and was 1 lb 7 oz over Decoy's 50 lb limit in one net. Martin behind me did even 'better' - 100 lb exactly after being docked 7 lb, having taken only two nets to his peg, with others in his car (!) Next door, Mick Raby had mostly bream in his 66 lb 5 oz, and on my favourite Peg 18 Mick Linnell had some good fish - bigger than most of mine - for 66 lb 5 oz.

Winner John Smith with one of the better fish in his  126 lb 5 oz on Peg 29, taken on paste.

Martin Parker said that Peter Harrison, on 30, had had fish steadily all day (he could see Peter catching as he was at the other end of the lake). But Peter insisted that John Smith, on 29, had more than him. I was still second round to John, who had had his pole blown in, but managed to rescue it before it sank. He weighed 126 lb 5 oz for the win, mainly on paste from his deep right margin, with Peter Harrison on 30 in third with 115 lb 4 oz. So I ended fourth, but one of those lost fish would have put me third, just the last one would have put me second, and two of them would probably have won me the match. Ce'st la guerre. BUT it's the sixth match in a row in which I've framed, so I'm happy with that.

The result - fairly tight at the top.

Too much bait?
Afterwards John at the fishery told me that an Open (the previous day I think) was won on Peg 2 with 426 lb. The angler used eight bags of 6mm pellet and caught on hard pellet from both sides at two-plus-two. Another angler had had a big weight from my swim using 15 tins of corn. I'm sure that those sorts of quantities of bait, multiplied several times over in one match, do a fishery no good at all. If the fish eat it, it all comes out eventually. But it's still a cracking fishery.

Next match on Damson, where I intend to try to stick to hard pellet all day if I can. Then Oak next Thursday, where the fish are running big - we can expect several of 10 lb-plus. Now to tie up some banded rigs for Damson's shallow margins...