Eleven of us fished Pegs 1 to 15, with each of us picking out a peg to go into the hat. And to be honest I didn't fancy Peg 3. On Tuesday the better weights had come from the far end - 9 to 15, apart from my Peg 1, where I was second. But I like a challenge...(!)
We had trouble parking as other matches had driven down to the lakes early and nicked most of the spaces for Oak Lake - they had the draw on the bankside, whereas we always have the draw in the main park. It looks as if we will have to change our system. But the walking is OK, and I was lucky enough to squeeze between two vans close to my peg.
An angler on Cedar, just behind us, told us that a Maver Golden Reel match had been held on the previous day, and that Peg 3 on Cedar had caught 350 lb-lus...for third spot! It would have been full of top anglers, and they would probably have caught a lot of fish, so immediately we suspected that weights might not be huge. Saturday had been blazing hot, while today was cooler, and cloudy, though with a nice breeze.
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| My left margin - nice-looking but there were snags around the reeds. |
My margins looked nice, particularly to the left, but I started shallow as fish were topping. That brought nothing so after 20 minutes, having seen an angler opposite catch a fish out from the bank, I started on six metres, with expander over hemp and hard 6mm pellet, and I never had a bite. Then into the left margin, next to the reeds, but there were a lot of straggly leaves and roots there and I was snagged a couple of times, and didn't get a bite of any sort.
Out again, fishing a bunch of deads on a four-feet tail, and immediately I hooked a fish which came off. A quick look in a very shallow spot just to the left of my platform felt good, and I put in hemp and dead maggots, but not a bite. Then corn took a hard-fighting golden common from the left deep margin. Three hours gone and I had 5 lb, while on Peg 1 Dennis Sambridge had had several fish, from the end bank to his right and, I think, from his left margin.
The angler opposite was now catching the occasional fish from his shallow margin, but the swims on that east bank, which have the prevailing winds into them, have much nicer, bigger, shallow margins than our bank. My right deep margin was a bit higgledy-piggledy because of the grass stretching out, but a drop in there suddenly brought a bite from a fish which pulled off my purple hydro set tight. So I put that rig on to a Middy 18-20 hollow, which has more stretch, and in the next hour or so hooked several more, from both margins, most of which came off, after stretching the elastic right out to the middle 20 metres away.
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| My right margin - bumpy. Most fish here came a metre out from that untidy clump of grass. |
At one time I know I had hooked seven and landed two. I tried cat meat and to my surprise got some bites which I missed. Back to the left margin and corn, where I landed three more, two of which were hooked on the outside of the lip, which not only told me that the fish were finicky, but I suspect it was the reason why all the fish were difficult to land. Now it was Fish 9 - Me 5, and there were just 90 minutes of the six-hour match left. Dennis on 1 was way ahead of me, having landed about 10, I thought.
On my left I had seen Allan Golightly land only two or three fish, and Peter Spriggs, beyond him, didn't seem to have been very busy either. The weather now alternated from bright, blazing sun to heavy cloud, with a few spots of rain thrown in. Perhaps a big wind would have livened things up.
A quick look in the shallow swim brought nothing - but what happened later makes me think I didn't do it properly. More of that in a minute. In fact, in desperation I turned to my mussels, of which I had perhaps 30. I chopped ten in half, cupped in the bottom halves to the right margin, and put a 'lip' half on the hook, more in hope than expectation, fished dead depth. Five minutes later - a fish! With 30 lb estimated for my first net he went into the second net. That was followed by two more, but my dwindling supply of mussels was now down to about five.
I had to supplement the mussels with hemp before each drop, and then went a few inches overdepth, with strung-out shot to give a slow fall on a tight line. This worked well, including one taken on the drop, though two fish were hooked well inside the mouth - the mussel is light and could doubtless be sucked in by a big carp from two feet away. But it meant that they fought extremely hard, and I lost some more. I think that may have been down to a precarious hookhold on a tiny sliver of flesh in the mouth, rather than being hooked in the lip. They were all from about 5 lb to 10 lb.
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| To my right Dennis Sambridge on Peg 1 started well, but my last fish overtook him. He finished fourth. |
Five minutes left and I had no mussels left so put on a grain of corn and - wonder of wonders - hooked a fish which I was still playing when the match ended. It was about 10 lb, and ended in my landing net.
I had lost 14 fish in total. And though one was definitely foulhooked I don't think most of the others were. I landed three or four which I was convinced were foulhooked, as I played them, but either they were hooked on the outside of the lip of the hook came out in the landing net. I think they just weren't taking the bait properly - and that was borne out by what the others had caught (or not caught) and by what they told me later. I think I landed 11.
I admitted to 60 lb to 65 lb, and Dennis was first to weigh, 75 lb 9 oz. My '30 lb' net went (from memory) 36 lb 6 oz and my last net, which I estimated at 35 lb, went 42 lb 9 oz - Total 78 lb 15 oz. That last fish had taken me above Dennis and, in fact, above Kevin Lee on 9 who had 77 lb 13oz, leaving me second behind Peter Spriggs, the winner with 85 lb 4 oz.
Petr told me he had had a late run in his shallow swim, 12 inches deep. Now I always take any good amount of meat or corn home to freeze but at the end of this match I had put a small amount of excess bait into my shallow swim, including a couple of handfuls of dampened micros . Within three minutes fish were churning up that area!!! Obviously I should have had a proper look there during the blank spells towards the end of the match. Stupid Boy!
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| We weighed Mel Lutkin's best fish at 17 lb 8 oz. |
The weights towards the far end were not very good - on Peg 13 John Smith had his first bite at 2.30 pm, after four-and-a-half-hours without a bite. He said he had about 24 lb, but did not weigh. Now John is a good angler - he's a former Div 1 National section winner on the Welland, while my best was a third in section on the Trent. Next to him, Mike Rawson didn't get a bite until 45 minutes later, landing just two fish, so perhaps that end really was devoid of feeding fish.
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| To my surprise the higher numbers, which had produced good weights on Tuesday, fished very hard. Mick on 15 had just two fish, while John on 13 had four. Mel had about five. |
I was very pleased - not just at second spot, but because I had at least hooked enough fish to easily win. Just two of those would have seen me top. I like to think that getting the bites was down to the feeding and presentation, and as I have said before, better to have hooked and lost than never to have hooked at all.
Next match Wednesday on Six-Island, where I understand the Golden Reel match was won. but it's the shallowest of the lakes here and anything could happen. Then to Rookery Farm at Pidley on Sunday, where we are fishing Magpie Lake. I haven't fished there for over a year. I have no pre-conceived plan - it will be all down to watercraft on the day I guess.
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