I pick a good peg - but don't draw it. Six-island, Decoy

 Following complaints about how some of the matches were pegged, the Fenland Rods eventually decided that each competitor would pick a peg from those available, and those would be the ones we fished. It seems to work very well. We used the system for our first match of the season, the Club Cup.

The draw - Callum draws a name, with Mel preparing to draw a swim from his little black bag.

With a cold Northerly wind blowing across Six-Island lake at Decoy I picked out peg 9 to put into the hat. For some years peg 9 was missed out because one angler had complained it was shallow; well in the left margin it is shallow, but in my book that simply gives the angler more options. I don't think I've ever fished a match on 9 and not won. And today it would have a back wind. A few minutes later, with Peter Spriggs not yet on site, I picked one for him - 17.

Peg 4 - about 11.5 metres to the island but I never went as far as that.

Peg 17 is opposite the island in front of 4, and I've fished it only once, when I won. But I have noticed that is consistently seems to produce fish. And so to the draw...

Gave Garner, our club champion, had 9 drawn for him - a good angler on a good peg. Then 17 went to Dennis Sambridge. Ditto. Perhaps I would get 24 or 25, both back wind. Nope - Peg 4 was drawn for me. I was not unhappy - in Summer it can be very good, especially in the margin.

Dave Garner - had a big fish on within five minutes.
He ended second with 101 lb 11 oz.

Anyway, I set up a feeder, and three pole rigs - a 1 gm to hold steady in the wind, a 0.5 gm as an alternative, and a margin rig just in case! But even before I had settled the feeder rod down on the rest Dave Garner on 9, five swims to my left, was playing a big fish. Just the start I had feared.

After half an hour I landed a 1 lb tench on the hair-rigged corn with a small banjo feeder, and ten minutes later a 2 lb F1. Then there was a lull and as Dennis Sambridge, who was on my right, at right anglers to me, had had carp in his margins I changed to pole. Now the margins on 17 are quite deep, and my swim seemed to be a bit shallower, everywhere - at 3.5 feet maximum.

Joe Bedford on Peg 6 hit some very big fish. Not bad for a 90-year old, heh?

Very strange bites
It took another hour to catch two more F1s on four sections, using corn, and a quick look in the right margin with maggot saw several quick bites which I missed - probably roach. Then corn farther to my right produced the strangest of bites. The float would sink slowly, showing a definite fish, and hold under the surface. But I missed them all. I estimate I had at least 15 bites like that all day - in that swim and the main one - and missed every one. The strangest thing was that most of the time the corn was taken! All I can suggest is that there were F1s holding the corn between their lips but never attempting to swallow it.

Joe  had 42 lb 15 oz on a feeder.

With a couple of hours to go the odd fish came on the four-section line, including mirrors of 3 lb and 5 lb, and some F1s from 1 lb to almost 3 lb. Every fish had to be teased into taking  by my lifting the float or dragging it, and the bites were miniscule. I lost one big fish which I think must have been a foulhooked barbel, lost because I shipped back to the top two too quickly and couldn't stop it diving into the marginal reeds.

Meanwhile Dennis had been steadily catching - one very big fish and the rest looked to be about 3 lb or 4 lb. He was way ahead of me. The cold now was penetrating, even though the wind was over my right shoulder. And fishing to the right was very uncomfortable for me, though I did take two F1s in two drops, but nothing else.

A miniature blizzard
Then, with an hour to go the snow came down - the biggest flakes I have ever seen - bigger than a 50p piece. And poor old Alan Golightly, on 10, and Callum Judge on 13, had it right in their face. They must have suffered.

John Smith shows the size of fish most of the other
anglers had. Mine were much smaller.

Half an hour later, with Bob Allen already packed up, the snow stopped, the wind died, and the sun came out. That produced another two or three F1s for me, plus a 4 lb common, and we were able to pack up in pretty good conditions which had looked very unlikely half an hour earlier. Ninety-year old Joe Bedford insisted on carrying my pole holdall back to the van for me!! Actually I was grateful, as my back was playing up.

Kevin Lee with friend. 

The weigh in

First to weigh was Dick Warriner with 68 lb 2 oz, and I weighed 53 lb 7 oz for seventh. To my left Joe had 42 lb 15 oz of big fish, all on a feeder, Then John Smith had big fish...as did Dave Garner. Their fish were virtually all 7 lb or 8 lb-plus. What on earth had I done wrong? My best was about 5lb.

With 101 lb 11 oz Dave Garner seemed to me to be a likely winner, but no - the anglers all said that Alan Golightly, on exposed peg 10 could have more. And he did - 109 lb 6 oz for the win. He deserved a medal for sticking it out to the end. Very well done. Fenland Rods 2021 Cup Winner. He took his fish on a banded 6mm hard pellet over 4mm feed pellets.

Kevin Lee on 25 told me that he had a last 90-minute flurry, and started his second net with 50 minutes to go. It contained five fish for 42 lb 9 oz! I can only assume that the smaller fish hung around the island which was in front of Dennis Sambridge and myself. In fact had Dennis' fish been the average size of the others he could well have won.

Thirteen fished but two vanished in the blizzard.

I was satisfied that I had fished a decent match, ending with around 18 fish. I just had to accept that the bigger fish weren't in my area. That's fishing. And I couldn't follow the scales all the way round as I hadn't packed up in time, so didn't catch the winning catch. Next time, perhaps. 

 Next day I was due to be on Beastie, but it was clear that some of today's anglers would not be thawed out!