Cold and hard on Willows, Decoy

Peg 16

Fifteen of us fished this Spratts mid-week match, from 15 to 35, and I fancied any of the following pegs which were included – 15, 24, 25, 27, 29, 31, 13, 34 and 35, with 25 the best-known flier on the complex.

With just two pegs to be drawn and John Smith and myself still waiting, peg 25 was still in the bag, together with 16. Then: “Mac Campbell, 16!”

I didn’t fancy it, largely because it’s next to 15 (as you would imagine) which is a well-known peg on Willows. Still, I had a job to do, and I know, from speaking to anglers after matches, that more often than not they catch on peg 16 fishing down the track, at about 8 metres.

Sixteen metres wide, but the wind was too strong to fish that length.

A run-away trolley

First setback was coming down the bank with my loaded trolley. It’s fairly steep, and although I aimed it across the path it ran away from me, with me still hanging on to the handles, hit the far edge of the path, swung back, and turned over, spilling everything onto the grass. I was still running behind it and somehow managed to run past my box on the ground, round the rest of the stuff, missing the trolley itself, and keep on my feet. I managed to avoid falling over and,  with the lake looming, ran in a graceful ark along the edge of the water, towards an astonished Peter Barnes sitting on Peg 13, and finished still on my feet.

Trevor, next to me, found barbel on a feeder.

Looking back I was very lucky not to at least trip and break an arm or leg. But the only damaged transpired after I got home – a strap holding the battery in has broken.

So it was down to Peg 16, with a North-easterly blowing in from the front right. I was horrified to find that I had left all my expander pellets behind, so concentrated on corn, at two-plus-three with a 0.5 gram Drennan Tuff-Eye float. Within a minute of the match starting Peter Spriggs, to my right on 22, was playing a near-double-figure fish, and Trevor on my right on 18, had a small fish first drop.

Martin Parker on my left on 15 also started well, with several reasonable fish in the first hour.

A terrible start

But I couldn’t find anything and a look in the margins with maggot brought me just three small perch. However, once a ripple appeared I did manage to catch a fish an F1 about 1lb, and a 3 lb common. Trevor hadn’t had much else on a pole and after seeing Terry Tribe on 20 catch on a feeder he also put one up, casting to the far bank.

Peter The Paste weighed in 20 lb 15 oz after
 landing that big carp in the first two minutes!

From then on to the end of the match he kept hooking the occasional barbel there, and I had the occasional 1 lb F1 – about one every ten minutes. A look out to 13 metres kept me about three metres short of the far bank, but I had four or five F1s there, all around 1 lb. If the wind had dropped a little I would have gone back to the van and used the extra extrension to 14.5 metres, which would probably have been better.

I was now getting indications on every cast, but they rarely developed into a proper bite, and the only fish I hit were after I had waited for at least three seconds after the float disappeared before striking. I used all sorts of shotting patterns, even to the extent of putting shot on the bottom and laying on ten inches, but the hit rate didn’t improve. I had to drag the bait along to get a bite of any sort. I definitely now had the impression that it was a difficult day for everybody, and that a quick switch overnight to the North-Easterly wind was probably the main cause.

 Accuracy was a 'must'

Ted (92) with his biggest carp,
taken on a feeder down the edge.  

I alternated between the two swims, putting in about 8 grains of corn at a time in a tosspot. I had to get the bait right over the loose feed to get a bite. At around 2pm the wind started to get really cold, and it was like fishing in Winter. I decided to carry on putting fish in the net rather than try a feeder, but Martin had a very good last half hour, adding about three more good fish. I tried cat meat, but never had a knock.

Last-minute change works wonders

The last half hour had brought me only one fish, and I had about 25 in total. Then with three minutes left (I looked at my watch) and at a loss knowing what to do I decided to do what has brought me fish in the winter previously...why didn’t I think of it before???

I pushed my bulk shot down to within about four inches of the hook. I dropped it back and 15 seconds later the float went under and I hit another 1 lb F1. Drop in again – and another fish straight away. And the match ended. I am convinced that if I’d done that earlier I would have had a lot more fish. I don’t know why it worked, but it certainly did.

 

John Garner's third-placed catch was only
 1 oz behind Trevor Cousins' runner-up catch.

The weigh-in

Round the back of the lake, from 27 onwards, the anglers had back wind and it felt ten degrees warmer. Alan Porter on 35 was first to weigh, with 42 lb 9 oz, but Peter Harrison on 34 had 68 lb 10 oz, which in fact won. When I asked him what bait he’d used he said; “Everything I had with me.” Next was DNW Rawson, and then John Garner on 48 lb 13 oz for third.

John has a million-to-one incident On 25 John Smith had had a rotten day – the wind here was  very cold and stiff, and a freak occurrence took  place. He was fishing a waggler, cast over his right shoulder, and at that moment a gust of wind blew the line behind his ear, hooking his hearing aid and pulling it out of his ear. It carried on, described a lovely dive into the lake about eight metres out, and disappeared – apparently hearing aids can’t swim. Obviously that unsettled John – as it would me, if that had happened to me - but he stuck it out to the end. I said: HE STUCK IT OUT TO THE END. He totalled 36 lb 2 oz.

John (minus one hearing aid) with a barbel from Peg 25.

Round to Peter, who could add only 10 lb to his first big fish and weighed  20 lb 15 oz. Trevor weighed in 48 lb 14 oz for second, I totalled 36 lb 7 oz  (obviously my fish were all a little over 1 lb), and Martin on 15 was fourth with 43 lb 10 oz.

The winner - Peter Harrison with 68 lb 10 oz.

The result of a tight match.

I should have done better

So I ended sixth on a very difficult day, but if I’d made the switch earlier I am sure I could have done better. And I didn’t get any of the bonus carp or barbel that most of the others caught.

Next match on Cedar, which is a rod-and-line-waggler-only match. I’m not really set up for it, but will rig up a pellet waggler rod and one of my feeder rods. However, I don’t expect to do any good, as several of the others regularly fish waggler. Then next Thursday it’s Beastie, which I love as a match can be won anywhere, though I prefer some pegs more than others. Give me 18 and I will be happy.