I get a good peg - for a change! Willows, Decoy.

 Peg 24, Willows, Sunday, June 27
I was very happy with Peg 24, which always seems to produce fish. On my last match on Willows Terry Tribe came fourth from it. Sometimes it's better even than 25, which is the 'flier', though today our Club Champion Dave Garner was on 25. Ten of us fished this Fenland Rods match, in a cool North-Easterly, which was over my right shoulder, and thick cloud almost all day.

I started on a feeder, cast to the island, and had two quick 1 lb carp on a wafter with micros. Then. stupidly, I added another yard on my cast and put it right into an overhanging bramble, which cost me the feeder when I had to pull for a break. I re-rigged with my last Preston banjo feeder, and soon had another 1 lb fish. 

Peg 24, with 19 on the left, where Peter Spriggs' tackle is on the bank.

Not happy with Preston
Incidentally, it turns out that Preston no longer issue the banjo, and that their new offering, a similar affair called The Hybrid, while having been reviewed in Match Fishing, is not actually yet available. I was so annoyed I considered throwing away all my Preston ICS system and going over to Guru, but didn't actually do it. I might do that yet, though, after which I might never buy anything from Preston again What they have done is unforgivable - sharp practice.

Fish on the pole

By the time I had my third small fish Dave on my right had landed two better carp on waggler and cat meat, so I thought I'd try the pole, and went out to 10 metres, on an expander, where I had about five small fish fairly quickly. Then, to start a second swim, I came in to the aerator on my left, where I found fish immediately off the front of it, in about four feet of water. The first fish, about 3 lb, took me straight through the gap between the aerator and the post it is tied to. I hung on, thankful I had my tight, extra-strong, bungee elastic in the pole, and, to my amazement, the fish came back through the gap and into my waiting landing net.

Kevin Lee, on 21, had his better fish towards
the end of the match in his right margin.

From then on I concentrated on that swim, typically  taking two or three 1 lb fish quickly, and then finding that they had drifted away, only to reconnect with them a few minutes later. Occasionally a bigger fish would take my corn bait - the best was about 8 lb.

 I also lost half-a-dozen, which I am sure were simply lightly hooked, and brought up several twigs - I know the area near the aerator is snaggy, but that's why it holds fish. So I kept putting fish into the net until, with an hour to go and 80 lb on my clickers, things really slowed down.

I should have immediately gone back out to 10 metres, or, better still, as the wind had got stronger, gone out on a short line in front of me. Instead I kept plugging away, without much of a result, and after seeing Kevin on Peg 21 start taking good fish in his margin I eventually tried the right margin. On previous occasions when I had fished this swim the right margin had been very productive, but now a bunch of reeds protruded and I could fish only a top two, and the wind was playing havoc with my presentation, even with cat meat. It was as deep as the main swim - about four feet. The left margin, between me and the aerator, was also deep, and looked dead.  But it would have been much easier to fish, and I should have been putting a little corn in their earlier, and had a quick look every now and again.

Alan Golightly, on 31, with 30 lb 5 oz.

Two fish from the margin
Back to the aerator for nothing - I later realised the fish had probably dropped down to the deeper water a couple of metres farther our, but my brain didn't register that. So with 25 minutes left in went hemp and cat meat to the right margin, and I fished it hard, and this brought several knocks and bites, which I missed. When I managed to hold the rig still I got a proper bite on cat meat which turned out to be a 4 lb carp, and the last fish was a 3lb barbel which I was playing when the match ended, and I was able to shout 'Fish On' loudly enough so all the others could hear me. Just a bit of psychological warfare!

Those knocks and half-bites, and the beautiful dive-down bites I missed, I later realised, were almost certainly from barbel. Peter Spriggs said he had the same problem. It seems that barbel, with their underslung mouths, have difficulty in targeting baits sometimes - a bit like carp trying to take surface baits. They always have trouble getting it exactly right!

Part of my second-placed catch, including barbel.

The weigh-in
Peter The Paste was first to weigh - 103 lb 10 oz, mainly from the shallower margin, which won. Kevin came in with 77 lb 3 oz, and I totalled 92 lb 9 oz, while Dave, to my right, had  66 lb 14 oz. He fishes a waggler and on that peg, with an island on it, the waggler limited his options - you can't fish at distance right next to the island in the same way as you can with a pole. So the boy done good.

The back of the lake had less wind, though it was much warmer, and top here was John Smith on Peg 35, which is at the start of the narrow section going under the bridge to peg 1 on the other side. He did well to get 48 lb 5 oz.

  So I came second.  Perhaps I should have won, but when you are putting fish, even small ones, steadily into the net it's difficult to consider changing tactics. - one of the conundrums which makes fishing so fascinating.

John was top in the back five swims, which were more sheltered.

Good to see the barbel
It was good to see several barbel caught. Of course they don't breed, so numbers will drop every year as they die naturally. But the searing heat we had in May must have reduced their numbers even further. However they seem to do well on Decoy. I wonder whether the new owner (when things are eventually finalised) will consider another stocking.

Next match is Sunday on Cedar, where there have been barbel for some time. We are on the East bank, sheltered from any East winds, but having any warm Westerly in our faces. Could be a good'un.

THE RESULT

PS. There's something to be said for paying sections, especially when you can divide a water up into obvious areas, as you could for this match. Grebe AC used to do it when I fished with them - it cost us £1 extra in pools. But would it produce more arguments?