Peg 20 was just two away from where I was pegged on this lake ten days earlier, so I knew where Dick had taken his fish - just off a tuft of sedge grass. But I didn't expect the fish to come in that close very early in the match, in fact in the blazing sun, with black shapes all sunning themselves out in the middle, I suspected any real action would be in the last hour.
I had originally fancied a lot of pegs - a dozen or more, but every one was drawn before mine Why can't I draw a swim I REALLY, REALLY fancy? However, when we got to the lake I decided that just the swims facing the wind would be favourite; unfortunately that didn't include mine. The wind was blowing into two corners - 25 and 9. On my bank, which ran from from 16 to 23, it was from right to left, a little over our backs, and I sort of decided that I would be very happy to be top on this bank.
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| A bit of ripple at the start, but hardly a cloud in the bright blue sky. |
I started by trying to mug the basking and swimming fish, without success. I am not good at it, and lost confidence after 15 minutes of having my expander ignored by a dozen or more fish. There seemed no point in feeding pellets to fish that weren't interested, and in fact Trevor, who eventually won, didn't feed a thing all match!
After I gave up the mugging I went down the track, between me and the island, and in the next 30 minutes took carp of 2 lb and 4 lb on the bottom on a 6mm expander, just feeding a tiny pole pot of expanders and a few micros. Then I went out to 14 metres to the point of the island, and within minutes had hooked a fish on a grain of corn, with no loose feed. But stupidly I tried to break the pol down in just two operations, and with a high bank behind me this was so awkward that obviously I must have slackened the line and the fish came off.
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| Mick Linnell sat facing the sun on Peg 24, which I didn't think would compete with 25 because of the wind direction. He ended fifth with 40 lb 13 oz. |
A few minutes later I hooked another, and this time took the pole apart section by section, and landed the six-pounder. Then the wind picked up and I had to revert to the track swim. Two hours later, without another fish, and having had a quick look in the margins, I made the decision to put in dead maggots and hemp on a top-two line, and lay on with a big bunch of deads, hoping for a barbel.
The barbel came. Just one, although it took half an hour to get the bite, and it weighed 5 lb. I then concentrated on this swim, taking three or four more carp around 5 lb, and a solitary roach, and hooking, and landing, two scales which put up a good fight for a few seconds.
With less than an hour left and precious little action from the others around me, I put in a big handful of micros, some hemp, some expanders, and some halves of mussels into the 12-inch deep margin to my left. Within five minutes all hell broke loose there. Double-figure fish rocketed in, rolling like porpoises, and churning the bottom up to a thick cloud. At any one time I could see six, waving their fins and tails at me, and there must have been another half-dozen beneath them. It was like a mad-hatter's tea party.
In went my piece of mussel on the size 12 hook, and the rig swung about from side to side as the fish bumped against it. The float lay flat, slid off one way and then the next, but never shot under, How the fish managed not to foulhook themselves was amazing. The minutes ticked by and still I hadn't hooked a fish. So I took it out, dropped it a few feet away, towards the open water, and immediately it slid away and I was into a big fish.
That ten-pounder came in fairly easily. I had no evidence to support it, but I guessed the fish was knackered after spawning. That was until it lay in the landing net, when it went crazy. I then had to suppose that it was my brilliant technique in playing it that had got it in so quickly! 😂
Half an hour left and I tried it again, but they had all wised up and although I lured them back for another rollicking party, nothing took the bait. Obviously this lot didn't like sea food, and they were taking the Mickey....
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| The sun had got his hat on all day - as had Peter Harrison, on Peg 10. |
Two late fish
So a final decision - 15 minutes left and I had to make something happen. More cut-up mussels went into the top-two swim in front of me, in about three feet of water, and my bait, on a long tail followed them. Another ten-pounder obliged, and with three minutes left I recast and this time the bait was taken by a plump, silvery 2 lb F1. End of match.
I now guessed that there wouldn't be many really big weights, as Terry Tribe on 22 to my left had been struggling, as had Joe and Mike to my right, and Peter Barnes, opposite on Peg 3. I caught up with the scales to see that Bob Barrett had managed 32 lb 14 oz on Peg 4, which would have had some wind into it (pegs 4 to 9 should have had wind). That made me think that perhaps things had been even worse that I had anticipated
Down to 9, where John Garner, who has been doing well recently, had struggled to 17 lb 10 oz, and Peter Harrison opposite on 10, which has been fishing well this year, had just 31 lb 2 oz. To be honest that still represents a good day's fishing when compared with the matches we used to fish on the Fen Drains, when 1 lb an hour would probably be enough to frame but everything is relative, and Peter is one of the best anglers in the club.
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| Peter The Paste sat to the winner's right, on Peg 13 and weighed 52 lb 9 oz. I didn't bother with a picture of Trevor, as I've taken so many before. He shouldn't win so many! |
Peter The Paste now leapt into the lead with 52 lb 9 oz, and then Trevor Cousins weighed in on Peg 15. This swim was almost flat calm, certainly the calmest on the lake, yet Trevor had mugged 95 lb 10 oz. Every fish was taken on a 6mm hair-rigged hard pellet, and not a single piece of loosefeed had gone into his swim. It was a superb performance - I don't have the confidence to stick at it for hours until the fish decide to start feeding.
Trevor said that the last five put-ins saw five fish come past, fairly close in, and every one took the bait and was landed. He was fishing about 15 inches deep, with four feet of line from pole tip to float, and said that when he dropped in the bait he used to watch the fish drop down
In the early part of Trevor's match most fish refused to take the bait, but as the match went on more and more grabbed it. Even so, with his fish averaging perhaps 6 lb, he would have had landed only about 16 all match - fewer than three an hour. That needs patience, which I don't have. But he must have judged that his catch rate was probably sufficient to win the match, which it did.
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| Peter Chilton on 25 with 86 lb 11 oz was the only angler to make a real challenge to Trevor Cousins' top spot. |
Peter had had the occasional fish shallow in the first half of the match, but made up ground with five lumps from the margins in the last hour, and weighed 86 lb 11 oz for runner-up spot.
I was happy to come third out of the 17, and felt I had scrapped around pretty well on a day when the fishing was obviously very difficult. And I will remember that tea party for a long time. It looked as if the big fish were so highly turned on and tuned in that they automatically ignored my bait in the shallows. Next time I will fish it in the deeper water.
It has also given me even more confidence in fishing mussels. My tin of Vitacat, in a cool bag, went unopened. There is life after cat meat!
THE RESULT
4 Bob Barrett 32 lb 14 oz
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