Carp are getting hard to find on some pegs - Elm, Decoy

 I recently read a report of a couple in a car who, at night, rolled down a hill without realising it and crashed at the bottom into a hedge. Luckily neither was badly hurt. But what were they doing to not notice that the car was moving? According to the report they were 'cementing their relationship'! 

I mention this because I have been trying increasingly hard to cement my relationship with carp. I want to tell them, to their faces, how handsome they are, and I want to explain about the carp version of the Michelin Five-Star food I am offering - hemp, corn, worms, and the finest pellets. But recently the buggas haven't been listening, and have started staying away from me. However I keep trying, although as I get older I obviously get stupider, as my last match shows.

Peg 3, Elm, Decoy, Sunday, October 17
Nine of us lined up to watch the draw, and all 12 pegs were in. As I wrote in my last blog, I wanted anywhere from about Peg 8 to the corner on 12. Out came the low numbers, and my name stayed in the cocoa tin.  Pegs 11 and 12 were still there, and two or three more. I waited with 'baited breath'. Then out I came - Peg 5. I wasn't too unhappy, as I had been looking back on the results on Elm, and 5 had been reasonable - 2, 3 and 4 were the ones I really wanted to avoid. Pegs 11 and 12 were not drawn.

Peg 3 - overcast, with the mild wind blowing down to the higher numbers.

Down to the platform on Peg 5, and there it was...gone! Two nasty-looking stakes were all that was left, and the rule is that you must fish from the platforms (insurance and all that). No problem, I would have to move. Kevin and Mel, agreed, and said I could take the next peg along. That would have been 11 - but that caused a problem, because I was certain, in my own mind, that I would probably win from that. And I've been fishing long enough to know that if an angler moves and then wins, someone is going to be unhappy, especially if it's an end peg.

By now we could see that there was one other swim not drawn - 3 - and I decided to take that, on the assumption that it was not a rated swim, and that no-one would moan afterwards, and I fancied a challenge. So I set up and half an hour later Kevin wandered along from Peg 7 and said something I had just realised: we should have put the three undrawn pegs back in - 3, 11 and 12, and drawn my peg from them! But the die was cast, and I stayed put.

Allan Golightly on Peg 1 found some barbel
and just one carp.

Very slow start

I started on the feeder for half an hour without so much as a liner, then went out to about nine metres where, after another half-hour I got a bite which I missed. Quick looks into both margins without result and I was back out, where a 2 lb bream obliged on corn. A little later another nearer to 3 lb came in, then another. To my left Mel sat fishing a waggler and so far had not had a bite.

A switch to worm, which bream love, bought me a much harder-fighting fish - a foulhooked 8 lb mirror. Then two or three more bream, all around 3 lb, all on corn. Then a lull and I dropped my rig in a few metres to the left, and was obliged with another barbel - a five-pounder foulhooked. I was glad I had an 18/22 elastic in as it threatened to run through Mike Rawson's swim to my right.

Rain came down a few times, but it was never hard enough to persuade me to erect my umbrella.

Middle of the match and things slowed up. The next two hours brought another couple of bream, and then I lost two in a row. A change to a lighter elastic saw a third come off, and obviously the shoal spooked, as I never had another touch in that swim. I can't imagine why they came off, but every bite from the bream was just a tiny indication - several times I wasn't even sure I had got a bite. Very shy biters so perhaps they just hadn't taken the bait properly.

Callum with his best carp which we estimated at
around 14 lb. He came second with 73 lb 14 oz.

Four good fish from the margins
Next it was into the margins, and as I had a barbel I put in a load of maggots to the left, and this produced a run of small perch and eventually a smaller barbel.  I kept hoping that the feeding perch would attract a carp or two, but it didn't. Then a switch to the right margin with cat meat with 45 minutes left saw another 8 lb mirror, a 4 lb barbel and finally a 4 lb F1 on mussel in the last few minutes. During that time I missed several real dive-down bites, and Kevin later told me he had the same problem.

Mel, meantime, had hooked six fish and landed just three, while to my right Mike had, I think, just two fish. I had two carp, three barbel, and about ten bream, plus those tiny perch. That was more than I had expected from Peg 3.

The weigh-in
Allan in Peg 1 had just one carp and some barbel for 37 lb 7 oz. That swim has produced barbel in the past. I weighed 59 lb 5 oz, and I was surprised when it led down to Peg 9, where Dick Warriner had top weight on 76 lb 7 oz of mainly carp fishing 2+2 with corn, after trying cat meat and not having a touch. Next door on 10 Callum fished the meat on 2+1 for 73 lb 14 oz and second spot. I ended third.

Final thoughts
Actually I was more pleased with third from that unrated peg than I would have been had I won it from one of the higher numbers. But next time I have a problem peg I will remember to have a re-draw. Well done Dick and Callum to take the first two places.

The winner - Dick Warriner with 76 lb 7 oz from Peg 9.

Alan Smith was on Peg 7 fishing his second-ever match, on a waggler, and was disappointed to come last with 8 lb 11 oz - just three fish. But Mel Lutkin had only three, and I think Mike Rawson had two (when I asked him how many he had he showed me two fingers) so I reckon Alan did OK. He borrowed an old cupping kit from me, so understands the importance of accurate baiting, especially now the weather is getting colder.

THE RESULT

Next match is on Beastie, and the forecast is for cold and rain from the North-West, so pegs 14 round to 26 may be the most comfortable.