A toast to Absent Friends

Today (Friday the 13th) we should have been fishing the annual Spratts Christmas match, ending with the presentation of the special prizes for which we have been paying in during the season. Traditionally they have included lots of really good stuff - rods, a bicycle (once), tool kits, coffee machines - you name it and we've won it. 

And traditionally I jump in before we all depart, to propose a toast to those who are no longer with us. Here is my contribution this year: I raise a toast to:

Neil Drake. A gentle man who would nevertheless threaten to refuse to weigh us in if we weren't waiting with our net ready when he came round with the scales. He never actually carried out his threat! His fishing improved by leaps and bounds after he joined. Neil organised charity matches and had the full pole repair kit at home, so would often be called upon to repair our pole sections.

Ellis Buddle. A former lorry driver, he suffered from emphysema and would sit all match attached to his oxygen canister. But once we had him settled on his basket, with everything to hand, he was happy as Larry. And he still used to frame. This year is the first we have not been able to fish his memorial match.

Brad Oughton. Brought up in a rough area of Wisbech (I lived nearby), he turned out to be a good 'un. A terrible angler (though he did once frame in a Winter match on Kingsland) he had a heart of gold, and would not leave a match until he saw everyone had started their motor and moved off. His first name - Brad - was not short for Bradley as everyone assumed. It was Bradford (he reckoned that was where he was conceived).

Peter Parlett. Taken from us two-and-a-half years ago at the ridiculously early age of 61. A co-organiser of the Christmas match, he used to spend a lot of time buying the prizes. A regular framer, the one thing he enjoyed as much as angling was going to watch his grandson box. I have a bird bath in my garden, won at the Christmas match, which he carried to my car for me as it was heavy. So I am reminded of Peter every day.

Bryan Lakey. Was troop leader when I joined the Scouts and he lived in my village. The only man to win the National and the Woodbine, he was my best fishing mate and we fished our first Nationals together in 1961. After his regular travelling companion Syd Meads died, and he stopped fishing the biggest matches and Irish festivals, he stayed local, and we always had a £1 bet with each other at Decoy. He was the happiest angler I ever knew - always making us laugh on the bank. Only two anglers were able to attend his Covid-limited funeral earlier this year, and I was proud to be one of those invited.

The strangest of days - Magpie, Pidley

 Peg 25
I was scraping ice off the windscreen and had to spray de-icer on the side door of my van to open it before I could go fishing; less than two hours later I was standing on the bank at Pidley, at Peg 25, waving away mossies which had already bitten me. Things got worse during the day.

All masked up,  Tim (Dick Turpin) Bates
draw me a flier.

But it had been a good start when Tim draw me Peg 25 - a peg most would have killed for. It's next to a bed of lillies, and after a frost that's the only sort of swim you would normally expect to catch much from on Magpie. There are four swims in this bay next to lillies - 25, 26, 27 and 36, and there are more the other side of the bridge - 2, 3 and 4. And with virtually no wind it was easy to place a bait wherever I wanted.

Unfortunately the sun was bright and low, and several pegs, including 26 and 27, plus 1 to 10, suffered terribly with the sun in the eyes.

No decisions to make
Once the sun had moved round a little I had no real decisions to make, as dobbing bread next to the lillies was so obvious even I realised it. BUT things didn't work out for any of us. In the first four-and-a-half hours, fishing mainly up to 10 metres,  I managed to hook just six carp, losing two. Two came to maggots on the bottom and two to bread punch hung at about three feet. They ranged from 5 lb to 2 lb. 

Rob Heath on 22 was sixth with on Peg 22 with
this 40 lb 8 oz catch.

But I had missed a lot of bites, and could see the others round the lillies doing the same thing. Strike after strike saw missed fish.

With an hour to go I went out to 13 metres - any farther was pointless as it would have meant fishing across the lillies, and got several bites on bread. Just four fish were hooked, all around 3 lb, and all safely landed, bringing my total to eight, plus a couple of rudd.

On my left Ron had four, and had lost five; Ken on 27 had nine and had lost several; `and Kevin Samds on 36 had five, having also lost some. And all those I spoke to said that, like me, some had been hooked on the nose or the outside of the lip. That led me to the inevitable conclusion that the fish were nudging the bait, rather than taking it in.

The weigh-in
I was amazed to see that some good weights had come from open-water swims. Two pegs to my right Alan Owen had fished maggot long and weighed 69 lb 12 oz for second; and on Peg 12, which few would have rated before the match, Vic German had 71 lb 6 oz, for the win. He had been fishless for the first three hours, then found fish on hung bread in open water.

Alan Owen took his runner-up catch of 69 lb 12 oz fishing long
with maggots, in open water.

My eight fish weighed 23 lb 10 oz, for eleventh in the match, while Ken Gammon, two to my left,  ended with 28 lb 8 oz; and Kevin Sands on 36 ended with 23 lb. Ron on 24 didn't weigh his four fish.But some good fish were taken, despite the frost - Roy Whincup on 18 had just three for 22 lb 14 oz!

So the top five were:

    Name                Peg    weight

1    Vic German        12    71 lb 6 oz
2     Alan Owen        23    69 lb 12 oz
3    Andy Fosbury      16    52 lb 2 oz
4     Mick ?                7    45 lb 2 oz
5     Steve Tilsley      20     44 lb 6 oz

The full result.

My first selfie...that's the left side (honest).

Mossie Madness
Everyone I spoke to had been bitten. I don't tend to get many bites, but the Mossies really had a go at me. I had six bumps on the left of my face; my left ear ballooned to twice the thickness, and both hands started to swell from bites on the back of the hands.

Who would ever think you'd need insect repellant in November?

By today (two days later) the bumps have hardly gone down. Perhaps I have the Dreaded Lurgy? 

I hope to get out in the next few days, perhaps to check how Alan Owen did it on Peg 23, fishing with maggot.

Fenland Rods Championship result

 As expected Dave Garner won the cup - Well Done that man! We presented it to him at the penultimate match in the assumption that he had won - it would have been embarrassing if he hadn't! I don't know how he does it. He won no fewer than six matches. A well-deserved victory.

Full result here: