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.