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.