There's life in the old dogs still - Cedar, Decoy

Peg 15
Eleven of us fished this Fenland Rods match - it would have been 12, but Bob Allen blew a gasket on the way there. Actually there were 14 who would have fished, but as were are allowed only 13 pegs on this lake (14 to 26, the length of one bank) we have arranged to operate a draw the previous week if we are over-subscribed, to see who will be allowed to fish - and since Wendy and her brother-in-law Joe travel together they have opted out of all the matches where we are limited. It's s great pity.

This free maths lesson over, I drew Peg 15 - at the opposite end to where I would have chosen. Cedar tends to fish best towards the car park end, and anywhere from 20 to 26 would have suited me. In the event Pegs 20 and 26 were not drawn, but Dave Garner, our current champion, was on 25, and it was very likely that he would do well there. A very cold North-easterly wind blew over our backs, and there was not much sun.

Nice to start with but the sun went in,  and the wind blew colder as the match went on.

A good start
I started by putting in some dead maggots and hemp in the deep margin to my right, but fishing out at 8.5 metres feeding 4mm and 6mm expanders mixed, with a 6mm on the hook. Within a couple of minutes Mel on my right on the corner, on 14, had hit a fish on a feeder. but any thought of an immediate change of tactics were dispelled when my 0.5gm Tuff Eye sunk slowly beneath the ripple and a testosterone-fuelled 6 lb carp pulled out my 18-20 elastic. These fish have really put on a display the last couple of weeks, and I've never known fish fight like it.

The theory is that a light elastic lets them run out of the swim and that they then don't fight as hard. but when you're fishing on every peg the chances are that they would charge through the next swim - not a chance I am prepared to take. Anyway, the next fish came off  after I had played it for some time, then two more came in before I had a look in the maggot swim, to rest the long swim. This produced three roach, and I eventually went back.

Mel Lukin, on my right, had several fish around double figures.

Slow but steady
The rest of the morning saw me hit occasional fish in that long swim on expander, perhaps once every 15 minutes, with the odd quick look down in the margins, where nothing came except that when I dropped right in against my lefthand keepnet, in about two feet of water, a grain of corn saw a take immediately from a 10 lb mirror. But nothing else there. 

Meanwhile Peter Spriggs on my left had started hitting what looked like good fish - 6 lb-plus - from a swim also at about 8.5 metres, on a lump of something that was either catmeat or paste.

I was still catching the odd fish by continually adjusting my depth by the odd quarter of an inch, to get the  pellet to just touch bottom, when a slight lift of the pole would allow the float to drift to the right, against the wind, for an inch or two. That was when the bites came,. Corn produced just one foulhooked  fish, which I landed, but the corn was too heavy to allow the float to drift properly. Two or three bream also muscled in, the first one leaping out like a trout when hooked. Biggest was easily 3 lb.

I find a nice flat shelf
I feared I was getting behind, especially when, in the afternoon, Mel on my other side started hitting good fish on what looked like paste. Then John Smith from peg 18 walked past to spend a penny (actually one pee) and he said he was struggling, with 37 lb on his clicker, while I had 75 lb on mine. No sooner had he gone than I went to a little flat shelf, perhaps two feet square, on the edge of the reeds, about four feet deep. Just beyond that the bottom dropped off again to about five feet, but I stayed on the shelf.

Alan Golightly won our first match in a snowstorm. It wasn't
 as cold as that today, but we still needed thick jackets.

First drop with a grain of corn saw a 5 lb barbel come in, and a change to cat meat found some big F1s. If I didn't get a bite I got a liner, showing me that the fish were still there - you need that sort of information to keep fishing hard, I find. At this point I expected both Peter and Mel to put out their third nets, but I couldn't see them. I then put out my third net.

A good last half-hour
The last half hour was my best spell, and another barbel (foulhooked) and some carp to about 8 lb came in. With two minutes to go I landed another six-pounder, dropped back, and missed two good bites, which annoyed me as I was sure they were from carp. Then the match ended.

I had lost just two fish - the second one I hooked, and another which broke the hooklength. I have always preferred to fish straight through in summer, but the Guru ready-tied Kaizans and other patterns are so good I've used them rcently on several rigs, though not the cat meat rigs, on which I still use Kamasan Animal hooks, size 12, tied direct. It's the first time I've had a Guru hooklength break.

Next to me Peter Spriggs, who I thought had well over 100 lb, admitted to just 70 lb, while Mel said he had 80 lb.  I thought I had nets I had clicked at  39 lb, 40 lb and 35 lb for about 110 lb, but I tend to underestimate.

Peter 'I've only got 70 lb' Spriggs weighed in 94 lb 10 oz.

The weigh-in
Pleased to report that I wasn't too far behind everybody else packing up - I had five rigs to put away - and I met the scales at peg 22, to be told that Callum, who totalled 100 lb, had been a total of 23 lb overweight in his nets! Dave Garner was leading at this point with 118 lb, taken on his usual waggler gear well out. I wheeled the trolley back to the van and trudged back, camera in hand, so see the fun.

Kevin Lee had weighed 94 lb 7 oz, and it was then to the oldest competitor Dennis Sambridge who at 80 (I believe) still frames regularly, often using his favourite worm tipped with maggot. Today he had four nets in!

He told me he'd again used worm tipped with maggot, and had also caught on pellet, and like many others had caught his fish away from the margins. His four nets went 150 lb 11 oz for the well-deserved win. No-one else had four nets, so the result was now a foregone conclusion (we fish to a 50 lb net maximum).

My hard-won 136 lb 13 oz was enough for second spot.

I must consult a dictionary
At this point I must consult a dictionary to check a spelling. Dick Warriner on next peg 19 packed up early, following a visit to the toilet with an hour to go. The problem was...diarrhoea. Not funny. And it was good to see him feeling much better after weighing. He had 58 lb 7 oz. John Smith had had a very good last hour after his brief visit to my peg, and ended with 81 lb 6 oz.

Now to Peter Spriggs, who had more than his 70 lb estimate - 94 lb 10 oz! And my nets in fact went (from memory) 49 lb , 45 lb and 42 lb, plus some ounces, for 136 lb 13 oz and second spot, with Mel in the corner on 82 lb 13 oz - much less than I had envisaged. We weighed one of his barbel out of interest; estimates varied from 3 lb 8 oz to 4 lb 8 oz...it weighed 5 lb 7 oz! They have really packed on weight.

Dennis Sambridge - worthy winner with 150 lb 11 oz from peg 21.

So the two oldest anglers came first and second. Very satisfactory.

The final result.

My next match is on Elm on Wednesday, and then to Oak next Saturday, pegs 1 to 15. Pegs 10 or 11 would suit me nicely - though the match on Oak fished at the same time as our match on Cedar, was won on 15, fishing the near deep margins to a reed bed on the right right and long to the deep margin beside the lefthand bank.