Difficult fishing, but I'm happy - Oak, Decoy

 Peg 9, Saturday, August 21

Some welcome news
On the home front, my consultant at Addenbrookes has said that following an "Almost Undetectable" PSA reading I can stop the three-monthly injections, to combat my prostate cancer, which have been causing me problems. The side-effects are well-known: hot flushes (which I get every two hours) and severe loss of muscle strength. It may take a year or more before they stop, but it's something to look forward to...and he has promised me a scan on my lungs, to see how much the metastases have increased, within six months. I believe this is known as Stage 4 Cancer, but they've caught it fairly early.

A little more good news
My mate Mike Rawson, who uses Drennan Tuff Eye floats, like me, had confirmation that Drennan have stopped making them. Sure enough I made a visit to Benwick Sports' website and there they were: Gone! A quick call to the shop and they confirmed they still had some on the shelves, so within an hour I was on my way there. Sure enough they still had some, so I cleaned them out of 0.5 gm, added one or two more smaller and a couple of 1 gm models, and came away with about 15 - A Happy Bunny.

The reason I needed more is that when I lose a fish at extreme distance and the rig flies back, sometimes the tip of the float breaks off where it is inserted into the body (there are four different-coloured tips for each float) and I have found it impossible to drill out the remaining piece.

The match
Now the important bit - 30 of us were on Oak Lake for the Ellis Buddle Memorial organised by his son Shaun, with the medals donated by Di and John at the fishery. It's a 30-peg lake so every swim was taken except for 27, where there's currently no platform, so Bob Allen, who drew it, sat on Cedar 26.

My left margin - looks really nice but it didn't produce.

The field was split into six teams of five with pegs 1, 7, 13, 19 and 25 in one team etc. The day was overcast all day with torrential rain and thunderstorms forecast, so I set up my umbrella holder on the rear right leg of my box ready to combat the storms. In fact, although there was a little rain halfway through, which saw umbrellas sprouting up like mushrooms all along the bank, the heavy stuff didn't come until we were packing up, and even then it was not torrential. I didn't need to put it up.

A strange day
But it was a strange, muggy, day - fish were showing all over the lake, jumping, humping like whales, and swirling, and they often came though my swim - but going so fast there wasn't any time to try to mug them, even if I had tried (which I didn't). My left margin looked lovely - with ten inches in the side, then a shelf at two feet, then dropping down to four feet.

My right margin - the fish were under the overhanging blades.

The right margin was dodgy - a lump of coarse grass stuff about two feet from the platform, but I kept flicking a few grains of corn down through the strands which lay across the surface, hoping that the cover they offered might eventually hold a fish or two.

Opposite, the angler on 23 spent the first part of the match slapping, and I saw him hook three or four, though at least one came off. So they obviously would take a bait, but it must have been hard work. On 21, also opposite, Philip Allen, in the same team as myself, also had a good start, taking several fish on paste at about top-two-plus-two. I started at the same distance, using expander or corn, but had only tiny liners.

Richard Chase with one of the few barbel taken. 

An unexpected fish
After about half an hour I adjusted the shot on my float and I thought one had pinged off, so I dropped the rig out in front of me to check the shotting. Before it had even started to cock, the float shot away. I struck, and hit a big fish. The red elastic I had in (probably about a 12) shot out, kept going,  and eventually turned just under the surface way past Peter Harrison, who was on my right. Luckily he was fishing farther out and slowly the fish came back under his pole, alongside my bank.

I played that fish for at least ten minutes, and gradually realised that although it wasn't fighting like a foulhooker it must have been. Then it drifted into the grass to my right and I could clearly see it just under the surface - at least 10 lb. I had almost guided my net underneath it and was preparing to lift when it suddenly shot out in a semi-circle and shot straight under the platform, where it snagged me, and the rig came back minus the hook.

Rod Melnyk, third with 76 lb 11 oz.  

Fish on Peg 8
Soon after this, Peter Harrison on my right on Peg 8 hit a fish, fishing about six sections out In the next hour or two he added about three more; meanwhile the lad on my left also hit a couple of good fish. I was still fishless after two hours.

Then I noticed that Peter was fishing a worm, so I put one on. Sure enough in the next couple of hours I landed three fish on the worm, about 8 lb, 8 lb amd 6 lb, but the elastic was stretching so far and I was taking too long to get back to my top two. I also foulhooked one which pulled off in seconds.

Bad mistake
So I changed to a purple Hydro elastic - big mistake. I had deliberately tightened this elastic down to deal with barbel hooked close-in, near snags. I had a bite within a minute on five sections, struck, and was horrified to see the elastic hardly came out from the tip There wasn't time to add any sections, and the fish pulled off.

Immediately I changed to a 17 yellow Preston hollow, which I knew would be reasonable, but never had another bite in that swim. I had some quick looks in the left margin, but in my experience if there are fish in the shallower water you're going to get some indications very quickly, and I had none.

So with two hours to go and not much being caught anywhere else except in Peter's swim, where I saw him play several fish, I went into the margins again. The left margin still didn't produce a sign of a fish, so I concentrated in the grassy spot on my right, using a rig also with Preston yellow 17 elastic. This allows a fish to run, but quickly powers up. Very similar to the old Middy White 22/24.

Tony Campo, three pegs to my left, with three cracking carp.

Bites!
After half an hour gentle feeding with hemp and corn I got a bite! I was on a top two and reached for the third section, but by that time the fish had bottomed me out and pulled off. I was furious with myself so I tried again, with Number Three section attached, although it was awkward fish so close with the third section attached, and eventually had another bite.

This one also shot out, taking me again by surprise, but I managed to attach the next two sections in time, and after that first mad run I was able to get back to the top two, and use the puller kit, in less than a minute. The 17 yellow was just perfect. This fish was not far short of 10 lb - a lovely pristine common And ten minutes later I had another fish on, which fought even harder - a 6 lb golden mirror.

Organiser Shaun Buddle does his impression of a 
demented leprechaun with his 38 lb catch To be fair
it was chucking it down at this point, as we weighed in.

A little later fish Number Six came in at a little over 10 lb, and it went into the second net. That was followed by a mirror about 4 lb, which took the bait as I pulled in gently along the bottom, also on corn.

The perfect landing technique (!)
This was a classic landing procedure - unlike the others. I pushed the pole tip under the surface, waited until it slackened, and gently pulled back to the top two, keeping the pole tip low. Some gentle pulls on the puller and the fish drifted along just under the surface and straight into my waiting net Why can't they all be like that?

With 40 minutes left I hit another, but when I turned round to grasp the end sections the wind had blown them to the ground, out of reach, and I lost that fish, which pulled off.

Leon, on my left, with what looks like a double-figure fish.

An Executive Decision
At that point I decided to give the right margin a rest and spend ten minutes in the left margin, returning to the right margin for the last half hour, as I was certain the fish would return when I put in hemp and corn. I had a bite in the left margin while dragging the bait along the bottom, so it appeared that the fish were still around and willing to at least consider taking a bait.

I was about to change over when the match ended, at 3.30 pm! I hadn't checked the finish time - entirely my fault - and I should have realised that collating the team results needed extra time. I'm sure it cost me a fish or two.

My estimates: I estimated I had 50 lb, that the lad on my left probably had at least that, and that Peter on my right had 70 lb to 80 lb. How wrong could I be?

The weigh in
I was astonished to see the first few typically weigh in just two or three fish. It had obviously been harder than I imagined. I said to Peter: "Have you got about 80 lb?" He looked at me like an indulgent headmaster might look at the School Idiot.

Peter "I told you I didn't have 80 lb!" Harrison.

"I've got about 40 lb" he said. I thought he was kidding me, but no - he had just one net in and weighed 39 lb 8 oz. I had seen him lose one big fish, so he must have lost some of the others. I couldn't see properly because of the high grass between us. 

I weighed 57 lb 3 oz and the lad on my left, Leon, totalled just 33 lb. So I had beaten the anglers either side, which is always nice to do, and my weight was top down to Tony Campo on 12 who had 62 lb 1 oz.

Could our team win?
I was second top weight on that bank and when I looked at the weights I thought my team would have a chance of possibly winning, as Rob Allen on the Cedar peg had 49 lb, our Peg 3 Jim Allen had 22 lb and John Garner added 15 lb. Even better, Philip Allen on 21 had 83 lb 13 oz. Total 230 lb 8 oz.

The rumour was that Mick Raby, last to weigh on 30, had a good catch. He actually needed about 78 lb to beat us and did it in style - 90 lb 8 oz, from the deep margins to his left, leaving us runners-up. 

Mick Raby, overall winner with 90 lb 8 oz. Good to see him back on the bank.

It must have been an especially happy result for Mick, who has not been on the bank for weeks because of a problem with a blocked artery which has left him believing he might never fish again. But he says he is feeling pretty good at the moment, and is keeping his fingers crossed. If I couldn't win, then I'm glad he did!

Four-fifth of the winning team - l-r: Shaun Buddle, Mick Raby, Richard Morris, Richard Della
(or those two might be the other way round). Tony Campo had to see a dog about a man.

Conclusions
I finished fifth and, looking at how difficult it was, I was actually very happy indeed. I lost that first big fish after playing it for ten minutes, and three fish which I think were properly hooked, all my own fault. But my approach has always been: First get your bites; then hook your fish, and I had obviously managed to do this, in the afternoon, when those around me were struggling. Landing them all when they are shooting off this quickly will never be easy. 

The (equally soggy) East bank sheet.

The (soggy) West bank sheet.

I look forward to meeting some of my old mates again next year in the Ellis Buddle memorial. my next match is probably not for another ten days.

Singing in the rain - Yew, Decoy

 Peg 9, Monday, Aug 16th
A great practice day with John Smith and Mike Rawson at Fields End, Doddington, near March, saw us all catch plenty of carp. But my highlight was catching on a big pellet waggler cast 40 yards out, which brought only five chub and one carp - not a lot, but there's a special thrill when you cast out and the rod is immediately nearly wrenched from your hands before you have time to lay it on the rest.

Action from our day at Fields End as John Smith battles a carp on waggler gear.

As usual I messed about experimenting, and for the first time in yonks also caught fish on paste. I used to use it all the time, but in the last 15 years I doubt if I've caught a dozen fish on it. Anyway, I went home and now have three different types of paste in the freezer for the coming matches. Another good lesson was catching by laying on up to a foot, which brought fish when a bait just touching bottom didn't work.

Mike had a brilliant day, taking around 150 lb, which must have massively increased his confidence, while John ended with a real purple patch taking fish after fish on a waggler and paste.

Yew Lake
And so to peg 9 on Yew Lake in the 14-entry Spratts match, when we were particularly missing Terry Tribe who is in hospital, and Mick Raby, who I know has heart problems. 

My building site on Peg 9 on Yew. You can see how close the reeds on the right were.

The wind was, eventually, as forecast, and blowing from the North West over my left shoulder, though at the time I would have preferred to be opposite with the wind in my face and a good ripple. In fact there were two or three showers during the match, and I was then grateful to have the rain on my back. However, this peg had not much in the way of margins - a bunch of big, overhanging reeds to the right about seven feet away, and a corner bending away six feet on my left, with another bunch of reeds just beyond it.

John Smith, third in this match with 64 lb 3 oz..

I do like a longer margin, which gives the option of chasing fish along the bank as they move off, but I had to hope that the right margin offered enough cover for the fish to hang around (if they were there in the first place). 

The start
Although overcast and warm with a wind is great conditions for fishing, I didn't see anything caught in the first 20 minutes. I baited up with pellet and hemp out at eight metres, and put a few grains of corn in the right margin, which at four feet was deeper than the longer swim. Nothing out long, on expander or hard pellet, so I had a look in the margin, and surprise, surprise, a ten-pound common carp took the bait and eventually, after the 17 Preston yellow elastic had been stretched halfway across the lake, it resided in my net.

Mick Ramm on 11 battles a big fish early in the match.

A great start; however that was soon dashed when Shaun Buddle, to my right, had three quick fish on a long pole. Then fish started to move on the surface and I guessed that Trevor Cousins, in the corner on 15, would be bagging on his mugging kit - he's like a magician when using that.

Out comes my

feeder rod
Two hours gone and with just that one fish, I had been thinking of picking up my feeder rod because I had seen both Joe Bedford and Wendy Bedford, his sister-in-law, catch on a feeder. So after spending a penny I wandered up to my old school chum Mick Ramm and asked him how many fish he had. The answer was just one, but he said Wendy had had four or five. 

It was thanks to Wendy catching fish on a feeder
that I went back to my peg and took two quick doubles.

I sprinted back to my peg (well, hobbled, actually but sprinting sounds more exciting), picked up my feeder rod which was already to cast out, and put a washed-out yellow wafter on a flat bed Method feeder with micros out towards the middle. Twenty minutes later two more double-figure carp were in my net. Yeeeee Hah! The takes were hesitant - the tip didn't smash round as you would expect, but slowly curved round and held there

Another 20 minutes without a fish and I had another look out at eight metres, where I had just a couple of liners, but no fish. So into the right margin, where I had a tiny knock or two, showing me that there were fish there. From then on I spent most of my time there, but every now and then rested that swim by having a look into the left margin, on a top two, which brought a fish on cat meat that came off seconds later heading for March, probably foulhooked.

Peter 'The Paste' Spriggs ended fourth with 63 lb 12 oz.

A great last half

Gradually I started getting proper bites on corn, with laying on several inches better than just touching bottom. Cat meat didn't work at all, and the bites on corn were also very hesitant - a proper slow dip, then another, then sometimes the float would sink slowly, while at other times it just held beneath the surface. I think I had only one proper shoot-under. And the fish were mainly around 10 lb.

The strange thing was that there seemed to be no pattern; although I put in hemp and corn regularly, it seemed that often the fish would hang around for several minutes after I fed. Normally the bigger fish come in, clean up in a couple of minutes, and wander off; but today they seemed lazy.

Anyway, by resting the swim from time to time I managed to keep adding the odd fish. With 30 minutes left I started on a third net with a fish I estimated at around 15 lb. Ten minutes later I landed another of the same size And ten minutes after that one about 10 lb went into the net. A possible 40 lb in that net

My last net - three fish for 'only' 31 lb 12 oz.

Long, tiring fights
I was taking a long time to land these fish, but I got the impression that others were also having the same trouble. The good thing is that apart from the fish lost on cat meat I lost only one other, also almost certainly foulhooked. Waiting until the float stayed under for several seconds was the key to hooking the fish properly, though every single fish was hook just in the lip. The fish appeared to be picking up the bait and holding it in their lips while wondering whether to eat it.

Literally two minutes to go and after landing that double-figure fish I saw the size 16 hook had been bent out of shape. I kept thinking while I was catching that I ought to change to a size 12 for fish this big, but hadn't liked to change a successful rig - you know how it is. But now I reckoned it was too late to change, so on went another grain of corn, and down went the float again! Another big fish was on when the match ended.

The hook held out and five minutes later the 10 lb fish was in the landing net and I plopped it into the second net, which I had clicked at 37 lb. but I thought that might take it over the 50 lb limit, as I almost always underestimate the weight. Fingers crossed. I had about 14 fish, with just three around 3 lb, 4 lb and 5 lb, with the rest all approaching 10 lb or above. I had used one tin of hemp, about two tins of corn and perhaps half a pint of 6mm feed pellets.

The weigh-in

Mike Rawson on 3, who has been having some indifferent results, obviously benefitted from our practice session to weigh in 45 lb 12 oz, beating the two on his left. 

John Garner took a good pic of me, so I repaid the compliment.

I said I had something around 140 lb, and was amazed when Shaun, who said he had 40 lb, weighed in just 36 lb 2 oz after those early three fish. He lost one or two after that, apparently, and couldn't catch in his margin.

My nets went 43 lb 12 oz, which was a little less that I had estimated; then 44 lb 9 oz, which was about 5 lb less, and the last net with three fish weighed in at just 31 lb 12 oz - 9 lb less than I thought. They were weighing really light, and that was the case all round the lake. Trevor wondered if they have spawned for a second time, which is quite possible as the water has been warm for weeks. So my estimated 140 lb ended, so I was told, at 119 lb 1 oz.

Peter Barnes had a huge carp in his 46 lb 4 oz.

Trevor on 15 told me that far from mugging lots of fish early on he hadn't had a fish until 12.45 pm, almost halfway through the match, and he ended with 57 lb 10 oz. Meanwhile Wendy was right in the mix with 52 lb 6 oz, all taken on the feeder with her special cocktail of hair-rigged corn with maggot on the hook itself - it always seems to work for her. One more double-figure fish and she would have been in the frame.

My weight led easily round to Bob Barrett, in the end peg on the far bank, who also had three nets in and totalled just 113 lb 5 oz, all on a feeder. He's so good at that, often putting it down the margins, a tactic which always seems to pay off. So that left me as the winner from a swim I really didn't fancy, even after seeing it, thanks to that last-minute fish I landed after the match ended. 

Bob Barrett - runner-up with 113 lb 5 oz, all taken on a feeder

Do we have VAR?
Afterwards I checked the adding-up of my weight and it came to 120 lb 1 oz! *

Why? Was VAR in operation? Was I caught offside? Or perhaps deducted 1lb under the Fair Play and Financial Rules, perhaps for spending too much on bait? Or was I showed a yellow card for diving? I will have to watch my step in future!!

For those of you who don't know the strip lakes at Decoy, 1 is opposite 30 (these were not included in our match), and 3 is opposite 28 etc, so the results below show this:

THE RESULT

28 Bob Barrett        113 lb 5 oz     2nd             3 Mike Rawson        45 lb 12 oz
26 John Smith        63 lb 3 oz        3rd            5 Joe Bedford            15 lb 10 oz
24 Peter Barnes      46 lb 4 oz                          7 Shaun Buddle         36 lb 2 oz
22 Martin Parker     DNW                                9 Mac Campbell        119 lb 1 oz*      1st
20 Wendy Bedford   52 lb 6 oz                       11 Mick Ramm            32 lb 7 oz
18 Peter Spriggs        63 lb 12 oz    4th           13 John Garner            38 lb 11 oz
16 Bob Allen              52 lb 10 oz                    15 Trevor Cousins         57 lb 10 oz

My next match is the Ellis Buddle memorial on Saturday, a team even on Oak. As I have previously written, Ellis was a great inspiration to me, fishing with his oxygen cannister beside him while inhaling it. He had emphysema, brought on, he told me, by smoking. But once we had him settled in his swim, with everything to hand, he used to fish like a pro.

If I have a preference it will be for a swim on the East bank, where the prevailing Westerly winds have caused the banks to collapse in some places, giving beautiful long stretches of shallow margins, which fish often visit in the afternoon. 

Decoy trim my bush! Elm Lake

Peg 12, Elm Decoy, Saturday, August 7
My luck continued the day after my third-placed performance on Six-Island Lake, when corner Peg 12 was drawn for me on Elm, eliciting a groan from the others, as I had won a Spratts match on that peg about three weeks earlier. Thunderstorms were forecast, and at the start we had sun and the wind was much, much less than it had been the previous day, though it became quite cool at times. 

 Peg 12 on Elm, The water had a greenish tinge, but there was a nice, steady, warm wind.

But a surprise awaited me when I got to the swim - the bush under which I had caught fish had been trimmed back. It was still in place, but no longer hanging several feet over the water, which was fine with me as the roots would still hold fish no doubt. But it meant that I couldn't easily pick out the exact spot I had caught fish in, and it also meant that the angler on 11, the other side of the bush, could now fish much closer to my peg.

Callum is on a run
That angler was Callum Judge, who has really been in form this season, and he started like a train! I put out a feeder, but within 15 minutes Callum had landed two good fish from his lefthand margin, near the roots of that bush, and I couldn't resist changing to the pole. However I had the presence of mind to start feeding regular small amounts of corn into a swim about eight feet from the bank, to my left, in front of some pipes. I did that for two hours.

Callum was soon into fish taken from the margins his side of the bush.

I had plumbed up to try to find the hole I had caught in previously, under the bush, but now that I was able to do it more accurately I found that there wasn't a hole. In fact there was a hump in the bottom, several inches high, and I had actually caught beyond that. I put in a few grains of corn, dropped in on top, and immediately had a 5 lb carp. But then I couldn't catch a fish - for an hour! 

Getting thrashed
Callum, though, carried on catching good fish, with a couple that looked to be around 10 lb; and at the end of the first hour I still had just that solitary fish and I thought Callum must have 45 lb. In fact he told me later that at that point he started using his second net, and at the weigh in there were only 35 lb in that first net. Still, I was way behind and didn't look like catching up.

But as my margin swim was only about ten feet from where Callum was catching I carried on, and slowly started to contact fish, though they were only around 3 lb. After the second hour I estimated I had perhaps 30 lb, and Callum was still way ahead of me, catching fish that all looked to be 8 lb-plus. At that point I had a quick look in the swim I'd been baiting near the pipes.

The pipe swim produces
First drop in with corn and I landed a fish which wouldn't come off the bottom and turned out to be a 3 lb barbel. Hoping to get a carp I changed the bait to an expander, and promptly foulhooked something that came off seconds later, with my 18/20 elastic stretched to about 20 yards. So back on the corn, and the next fish was indeed a carp, about 4 lb.

I took about four more fish and rested that swim, still feeding corn, and now hemp and 6mm hard pellets, and took a fish from the margin again. After an hour the fish suddenly started to get bigger - up to 8 lb. I foulhooked one more (I assume) and it snagged me in the branches of a tree about 20 yards away growing on the end bank, Having no other option I simply had to pull the elastic back and eventually it shot back...complete with float, shots, and minus just the hook How lucky was that?

Still smiling - Dick with part of his catch (one
third of which was back in the lake.)

A minor tragedy for Dick
About that time Dick Warriner came up to borrow the hook I bring with me. Three or four years ago one of his nets, containing fish, had fallen into the water and he had lost every fish. Now it had happened again! He'd put in a third net, screwed a bank stick into a net containing about 40 lb, and stuck it into the bank at the side of him. Unfortunately the bank stick had slowly fallen down, with the inevitable consequence. Again he retrieved the net, but not the fish. It didn't cost him a frame place, but it is always unsettling when something like that occurs.

Catching Callum

I thought I was catching Callum slowly, and lost hardly any fish, which always helps! Then he shouted out that a foulhooked fish was in danger of coming through my swim, so I took the opportunity to drop a meat rig into the left margin, which was not attractive as it had a difficult, bumpy slope. However while the rig rested there it gave a little shiver as if a fish was interested in the bait. So I tried the pipe swim with cat meat and took a 10 lb mirror. 

Alan Golightly had 83 lb 3 oz. He lent me a fleece
before the start, which I put on a couple of times when
the temperature dropped..

After that I fished meat for a couple of minutes, and if I didn't get an offer I swapped to corn, which brought a carp more often than not. My catch rate was now definitely rising, provided I kept feeding little and often.  I alternated between the two swims until the end of the match, catching another couple of barbel, best 4 lb, one F1 of about 3 lb, and lots more carp to almost 10 lb. Yet again I couldn't catch with a stationary bait - it had to be lifted or dragged.

I had one or two slack spells, during which it seemed that Callum, who now had a second swim about five metres out,  always struck into a good fish - most disconcerting - and I was convinced he was well ahead of me. I started on my fourth net at 3 o'clock and was putting a 10 lb fish into it when the match finished, and I had 40 lb on my clicker for that net.

So ended a most enjoyable match for me, though I was certain that Callum was ahead of me.

Dave Garner, who would make a good butler,  holds an umbrella aloft
to shelter Callum as he writes. The rain stayed away all match,
and started as we began to weigh in!

The weigh-in
On Peg 1, where there was much less ripple than at our end Kevin Lee, after a slow start, had found fish against the end bank, near an overhanging bush, and had weighed in 151 lb 11 oz. Four pegs along Peter Spriggs had weighed 160 lb 13 oz in the deep margins on paste, against the end of the reeds, and I though that Callum probably could match that.

John Smith, though, had five nets out, which would obviously beat me - but no. He had changed nets at about 35 lb, because it's much easier to take them out than if they have a full 50 lb in them The result was that he had four nets at about 35 lb, plus one smaller - total 156 lb.

Dick's best barbel, which probably weighed almost 5 lb, though
 I have this year weighed fish from this lake up to 7 lb 12 oz.

Dick weighed 90 lb 6 oz, ruing the loss of 40 lb. Then Callum brought up his four nets, and to my amazement they totalled only 126 lb 6 oz, which also surprised him. The general opinion was that the fish were weighing 'light', so I thought my estimated four nets at 40 lb might be optimistic. 

Pulling in heavy nets is debilitating for me, so Dick obliged (he's but a spring chicken). My last '40 lb net' went 44 lb; the next almost 49 lb, and the next two about 42 lb each, for a total of 178 lb 11 oz, and I had won. I tend to underestimate the weight of my fish so I stop clicking at 40 lb, and will continue to do so. If a system works why change?

Look at the difference in size between 
my fish and Callum's (right).

Our retiring chairman John Smith can 
catch fish with his eyes closed...

Conclusion
There are 11 lakes at Decoy, and though the four strips - Elm, Cedar, Oak and Yew are similar the other lakes all present different problems. And because it's almost always windy in The Fens, with the wind liable to come from any quarter and liable to sudden changes in direction, no two days are ever the same. The previous day the wind had probably set the fish feeding but it made presentation difficult, while today everything slotted into place - a nice steady blow, warm water and plenty of cloud to lower the light levels. Every day is different, even on the same peg!

THE RESULT

I'm mighty pleased that on a peg I fancied I was able to take advantage and win. Lets hope that they keep coming along. Next match on Yew in a week's time. My pick would be Pegs 20 or 21. Fingers crossed...

I get bad wind - Six Island, Decoy

 Peg 9, Six-Island, Decoy, Friday, August 6th

I reckon that the old saying about buses also applies to swims. You go weeks without having a peg you really fancy, or would have chosen yourself, and then, bugga me, they start coming along one after the other. BUT the old saying doesn't point out that there's a catch - there always is!

Corner swim 9, before the storm came upon us.

Take the peg drawn for me in this 16-entry Spratts match. I  must have fished that lake, which has 25 pegs, a hundred times in the last 25 years, and only once have I ever drawn Peg 9, and I won from it. Every time I have a match there I hope to draw Peg 9..unless the South-West wind is really bad. Which it was on Friday!!! It's not a particularly noted swim - just that I have always fancied drawing it again.

My right margin - most fish came the near the bush.

I remember, many years ago, when Peg 1 on Willows was noted for usually producing barbel, and I drew it on a day when frost had turned the grass white and there was absolutely zero chance of a barbel taking a bait. And while history didn't repeat itself exactly, Peg 9 on this day was certainly not easy to fish. The wind was blowing a hoolie right into the corner, and sometimes right into my face, and two or three bouts of torrential rain were so fierce that I heard someone talking afterwards who assumed it had been hail.

A good start on the feeder
But I'm not complaining, as I like a challenge (though preferably in the dry). To be honest the conditions were good for fish feeding - it just felt right. And within five minutes I was playing a fish hooked on a Method feeder with a washed-out yellow wafter. Another ten minutes without a bite and as Shaun on my right had a fish close-in I switched to the pole, with a 0.5 gram Tuff Eye float and corn, on about three feet of water.

The sun came out at the end (Sod's Law).
Here Wendy shows a good fish taken on feeder.

The right margin looked good, with a small bush and a nice clump of grass. but it meant fishing into the wind. Nevertheless during the times when the gusts abated I managed to catch fish - good ones from 4 lb to 6 lb. Shaun also had some good fish close in, and also about seven metres out. Opposite, John Smith had a sudden purple patch, taking two or three fish one after the other, before apparently starting to struggle.

I turn my back

When the heaviest rain started I was playing a fish, but my 30-year-old Goretex jacket with torn lining still kept me dry. It was impossible to fish to the right during that storm (and there was no way I was going to risk putting up an umbrella) so I turned my back to the rain and had a look in the left margin, against a line of reeds, where the water was a bit shallower. That brought just an odd touch on the float, but no fish. But it also completely flattened Shaun's umbrella. Somehow he resurrected it for the next downpour, but I fear the damage my prove to be terminal!

Alan Porter on Peg 6 had 65 lb 10 oz mainly on a feeder.

Then it was out at ten metres to the end bank, on my left, and in the first two casts two carp came in, of 4 lb and 2 lb. But after that seemed that some undertows suddenly started, and the float was being pushed all ways. In any event no more fish came. I had tried fishing a stationary bait in the right margin, and never had a touch; but when the bait was allowed to drift around I had bites. However I couldn't control the rig sufficiently well towards the end bank, and gave it up.

My big mistake

During the lulls in the wind and rain I picked up another fish or two from the right margin, and eventually turned to the left, where I had been dropping in corn. I had half-a-dozen fish there in the last two hours, including two or three on cat meat (which I had to move about to get a take), but I made the mistake of fishing too close to the marginal reeds. I am now sure that the fish were dropping down into the deeper water six or eight  feet from the bank, as I found out at the end that a lot of the anglers had most of their fish in the deeper water. Indeed the fish I caught seemed to be moving out slightly, down the slope but I didn't take the bull by the horns and target them properly down in the deep water.

Shaun landing his last fish, which beat me!

And here it as - all 7 lb 12 oz of it, landed after the match finished.

All day long I had tiny touches on the float which I am certain were carp mouthing the bait. They looked a bit like roach bites, but in my experience roach tend to jag the float about, and these were gentle dips which, when they eventually turned into proper bites, invariably produced a carp. Trouble was so often they didn't turn into a proper bite.

Shaun's second-placed 87 lb 6 oz, all taken on a mysterious home-made paste.

Peter Harrison, with three nets, waits on Peg 18 for the scales to arrive.

Beaten on the bell

I couldn't see what most of the others had been doing, but I guessed that Shaun, fishing paste all day, had beaten me as every time I looked round I seemed to be just in time to see him strike and hit a fish. In fact he was playing one when the match ended. That went into his third net, on its own, and was weighed at 7 lb 12 oz...and that fish allowed him to beat me!

Shaun weighed 87 lb 6 oz to my surprising 82 lb 14 oz. Then the weights stayed below mine until we came to Peter Harrison on 18, who totalled 99 lb 8 oz for the win. That left me in third spot, and I felt that if I had been just a little braver, and had fed a deeper swim close to me I could have possibly won. 

Winner Peter Harrison with his best fish.

Peter Barnes - almost last to weigh. And who could resist
 that happy, smiling face?

So I was happy to a) have a swim drawn for me that I would have chosen and b) framed in difficult conditions, though three of the top five of us were had the wind into us. The next match was to be on Elm lake, where I won on Peg 12 two or three weeks ago. Would Fate be kind to me again (yes it would) and would I cock it up (what do you think?)

THE RESULT

2 Wendy Bedford         27 lb 12 oz
3 Peter Spriggs            59 lb 9 oz
4 Mike Rawson         17 lb 2 oz
6 Alan Porter             65 lb 10 oz        5th
8 Shaun Buddle          87 lb 6 oz        2nd
9 Mac Campbell        82 lb 14 oz      3rd
10 John Smith            56 lb 6 oz
12 John Garner          64 lb 4 oz
13 Trevor Cousins     70 lb 11 oz      4th
15 Joe Bedford           7 lb 13 oz
17 Bob Allen              44 lb 3 oz
18 Peter Harrison       99 lb 8 oz      1st
19 Mick Ramm         12 lb 13 oz
22 Martin Parker       50 lb
24 Peter Barnes         53 lb 14 oz
25 Bob Barrett          43 lb 6 oz

      

A really enjoyable day's fishing - Willows, Decoy

 Peg 11, Sunday, August 1
You know those rare days when, after visiting Specsavers, the England football team are able to clearly see the opposition goal and decide to kick the ball towards it, rather than back to their own goalkeeper? And when the midfielders manage to lure the opposition defenders out of position before thumping the ball across to Michael Owen who slots it into the net? And we beat Germany 5-1, and wonder why it can't always be like that?

Well, matchfishing is like England playing football - match after match things don't slot into place, the fish don't co-operate, the weather turns nasty, and you keep making mistakes. Until one day almost everything goes right...and you wonder why it can't always be like that!

Happy to be on the bank
That was my match on Sunday - one of the most enjoyable matches I've fished for years. It was a humble eight-entry Fenland Rods Handicap on the odd-numbered pegs from 1 to 15 in the big bay on Willows. Pegs 1 and 15 are the form pegs here, but as always I was happy just to be out on the bank. The weather was overcast, with very little wind, but with spots of rain early on, and more forecast later.

Peg 11 - the water flat as a pancake, and  like soup. The angler in the distance is John Smith on 15, under the tree.

I admit I started with a mistake - I had intended to start on a method feeder across to the reeds on the far side about 25 yards away, but when the match started I happened to have a pole in my hands and, without thinking, I put out an expander to eight metres (top-two-plus-three) in just over a metre of water. I realised quickly what I had done, but decided to give it 15 minutes anyway. And in that time I had a small bream.

Corn on the hook beat expanders
Nobody else that I could see seemed to be catching, so I carried on, and got some tiny bites - the sort that tremble the float rather than take it under. Then a 1 lb F1 obliged, and a couple more roach, and some missed bites which resulted in the expander being taken, then a 2 lb F1. At that point I swapped over to a grain of corn.

That was much better, because it allowed me to let the bites develop, without the corn being nicked too often. If I laid the rig out in a line occasionally a roach took on the drop, and once an F1 took it. On the whole it was better to drop the bait in vertically - something Alan Scotthorne demonstrated to me many years ago, pointing  out that it was much more natural than allowing the bait to drop in a curve.

Soon after I started catching I fed in a biggish pot of hemp, 6mm pellet and corn, and the roach seemed to home in on it. So after that I fed just six to eight grains of corn on a small pole pot with every single cast, and that seemed to suit the F1s better. 

Dick, to my right,  struggled to 25 lb on Peg 13.

Half an inch was critical
Getting the right depth on the rig was critical - half an inch was golden, so the bait just touched bottom. Most fish came as I slowly allowed the rig to tighten up against the bait, though scum and debris on the surface made it difficult to see the bites as I had no more than a pimple showing. I would leave it for a minute then lift the rig an inch, then repeat, allowing the bait to move very slightly.. The fish seemed to take a long time to take the bait properly, and I found a smaller grain better than a large one.

At the start the best place was a foot or two past where I was feeding, but towards the end it was better to put the bait right in among the loose feed.

Eventually I started hooking the grain through the hard end and pushing the hook right though so only the point was showing - Bob Nudd's preferred method - and this worked best of all, as I never lost the corn if I missed a bite.

Steady but unspectacular
For the next three or four four hours I carried on like this - every ten minutes I would bring in an F1, biggest 3 lb, and I expected some commons or mirrors to muscle in, but they never did. It was steady but unspectacular, and the anglers either side of me didn't seem to be catching much, so I carried on.

Kevin, who has won our club championship more times than anyone else was on my left and Dick, who has been very consistent for the last couple of years, was on my right. I took my cue from them. Three times the rain dropped down and the first time I put up my umbrella, and it stayed up until the last hour. 

During that steady spell I lost just one fish. I did have a quick look into my right margin, where I had been regularly feeding corn, and got a sign of a fish. I didn't waste too much time there, so went out, and came in again a little later, when a roach took my corn bait, so I abandoned that swim for the moment, though I did put in corn and hemp, and a few cubes of cat meat, into the left margin, about four feet from the bank. The most spectacular incident, which startled Dick on the next peg - and me -  was a 3 lb bream which thought it was a trout, leaping out about two feet when hooked and crashing back like a sack of potatoes.

John Smith on 15 found the tree so close he couldn't easily fish the
 waggler he wanted to use. He ended with 32 lb 9 oz...after
a 10 lb carp had hurtled from his keepnet.

The margin comes alive
With about 40 lb in the net, which seemed to me to be pretty good compared with the others, and 75 minutes left, I started on my second net and had a look in the left margin. First drop with cat meat and a 2 lb F1 was hooked literally within seconds. I spent the rest of the match there, with the second fish a lovely 5 lb golden mirror, and a little later a 3 lb barbel. 

Several more 3 lb F1s came in, plus a mirror or two, and towards the end I hit a powerful fish which came out in front of me and made a beeline for my keepnets. I couldn't get an extra section on fast enough and it snagged me. That cost me the match! A quick look in the side to my right, against the grass, saw a 2 lb F1, and I then lost a big fish, obviously foulhooked,  which snapped my hooklength and it is probably still making circuits of the lake. But on a carp water foulhooked fish are almost inevitable in warm weather, so I counted my self lucky to hook only one.

I saw Alan Golightly on Peg 7 catch fish on the pole and towards the end saw Peter on peg 3 land a fish or two, but I had no idea how they had fared overall, though everyone I could see seemed to catch more in that last hour.

Best fish on the last drop
Seconds before the match ended I hooked the best fish of the day, an 8 lb mirror, which I landed five minutes later. I very much like the Preston 17 yellow hollow elastic I had on both rigs. It is a good substitute for the white Middy 20-22 which I loved so much, but which has been discontinued. It was much softer than it sounds.

So ended a match which I thoroughly enjoyed. No terrible mistakes on my part and it went smoothly from start to finish. Why can't it always be like that? Frankly I didn't care where I came in the match, I felt that happy.

The weigh-in
Time lost playing that last fish, and my usual long time packing away - five rigs to dismantle, plus the back to take off my chair etc etc (plus slowing up in old age) meant that the scales came to me before I had packed up. Peter Spriggs on Peg 3 had also had a good last hour and had weighed 92 lb 4 oz, which I didn't think I had a chance of beating. but I was much closer than I thought - the last net went 44 lb and the first 46 lb. Adding on the extra ounces brought be agonisingly close to Peter with 91 lb 3 oz. 

The end pegs didn't produce anything wonderful, and I ended an easy second to Peter. I was most gratified afterwards to see that the two pegs to my right and the one on my left produced the three lowest weights in the match. There's life in the old dog yet!

The result on the day. But this was a handicap event,
 based on last season's final club championship result.
This resulted in Callum Judge winning the gold medal.

The handicap result
This match has gold, silver and bronze medals awarded, on the handicap weights, and it was close! Callum, fourth on the day, emerged the winner with 104.9 lb; I was second on 100.3lb, and Peter, fishing on scratch, third with his 92.25 lb. And Peter won his umpteenth Golden Peg this season, but as he had won the last one there was only £8 in the kitty!

The Great Escape
No - no motor bikes involved - just a 10 lb carp. With an hour to go and his landing net laid over his keepnet top John Smith spotted a movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned and was just in time to see a 10 lb carp, which had been in his keepnet, go for gold in the high jump and splash into the lake, having dislodged his landing net.

It's not the first time this has happened at Decoy - I have heard of several instances in the past few years. John's nets were about 18 inches above the surface. I have seen anglers put a small floating mat on the surface in the net, which still enables them to easily put fish in. Bad luck, John.

Next match on Friday on Six_Islands, followed by Elm on Sunday, both at Decoy. Unfortunately, and not for the first time, the club has had to cancel a match because of insufficient entries. The latest was due to be fished at Frazers Fishery near Ely later this month. With some fisheries having to insist on a minimum payment, clubs like ours, with a falling membership, are likely to fold. We have been lucky that Decoy Fishery have been so helpful to small local clubs like ours. What does the future hold?