Many years ago Syd Meads told me, before he died (obviously) that he was taking cockles to the Woodbine Final he was going to fish on Coombe Abbey Lake. Seeing my eyebrows raise he explained, in words of one syllable (cos I'm only a Simple Fenlander) that it is important, when nothing is happening in your swim, that you do something - anything - to try to get fish. "Otherwise," he said, "you tend to lose interest." I know that is the case, of course, but was surprised that a matchman of Syd's ability also sometimes felt the same way.
So when someone like Syd - who was so good that the Taxman tried to tax his enormous Irish winnings - says something like that it sticks, though I often forget it. But on this Tuesday, in our 13-entry Spratts match, I followed his advice. And to some extent it paid off.
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| Peg 1 - almost flat calm all day, sheltered by bushes on the right. |
The forecast was for rain late in the match, and with a stiff South-Westerly blowing I suspect most of us wanted a backish wind in pegs 1 to 12, and preferably from 8 onwards. If the fish followed the wind, though, then the pegs on the opposite bank, 13 back to to 24 might also produce.
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| Alan Porter had a good start on 21, and finished fourth. |
I started on a feeder with a yellow Washter for about 20 minutes without any bites, and went out long on the pole. Trevor did the same thing about the same time. A 4mm expander and then corn failed to bring a bite in the best part of an hour, which surprised me, because Alan Porter on 21 had had a fish or two. So it was down on the inside with corn.
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| Peter Harrison was top on our bank with 74 lb 6 oz. |
That switch worked immediately, with a 4 lb common on corn in about four feet of water. The bank on Peg 1 has fallen in all along its length, and there's no real drop-off to target, so I had to fish just a little way up the gradually-sloping shelf. But no more fish came and halfway through the match I wandered up to Trevor, who said he had one carp, an F1 and a roach, but Alan Porter on 21 had had several fish on both feeder and pole. I saw that Alan was frequently fishing down the edge of his swim.
Back to my peg and after another look long on the pole, and more fruitless casts on the feeder (after Peter Barnes on 23, opposite, had a fish on feeder), I had a look on the pole to my left near a bunch of reeds, with a 6mm expander. For the next hour my float gave tiny indications of liners - it would slowly sink, then slowly wriggle along to one side, as if undercurrents were moving the line. And that went on and on, with the occasional quick dip which showed that there were definitely fish there. I struck at one or two of these, which looked like proper bites, but never felt a thing. Then even the liners dropped away.
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| Like me, Mick Ramm had almost all barbel. |
At that point Syd's words danced in front of my eyes, and I rooted about in my bait holdall of my tin of maggots. "Anything" Syd said!
I put five maggots on to the size 12 hook, more in hope than expectation. I've been using Guru XS Carp hooks to nylon, though that's only because they happen to be the first ones I pick up from my box. I've a sceptic where hooks are concerned - I can't see that there's that much difference between patterns, so long as they don't straighten and the nylon doesn't break. The line was 7 lb, which I thought was OK since there are big barbel and double-figure carp in the lake.
First drop in with maggot and I got another liner. I then took a chance and put in about one-third of a big pot of maggots and some hemp - muck or nettles, I thought. But hurrah, I immediately got a proper bite which resulted in me hooking the bottom, except that the bottom then started to slowly move. Obviously foulhooked, and thankfully it came off after about five seconds.
But next cast another fish was on, and it played me for several minutes before ending in the net - a foulhooked 5 lb barbel (which elicited a round of applause from Peter Barnes, who obviously hadn't got anything better to do than to watch a Master at work). I was sort of surprised to see barbel in this cold weather, but what do I know? In went more maggots and hemp.
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| Bob Barrett yet again framed by using feeder all day, with banded pellet, and just casting along both sides in the margins. He ended second with 79 lb 14 oz. |
The next three drops resulted in three fish hooked, and all lost. With barbel it can be difficult to decide whether they are foulhooked or not, but I changed the hook anyway. Success came, with the next three fish all landed - barbel from 2 lb to 4 lb, and the next fish was a carp of nearly 10 lb. All this had happened within the space of about 40 minutes and there were just 45 minutes left.
I'd been happy to get that big carp in very quickly, by tricking it into diving into my landing net, but there was a price to pay. It went absolutely beserk, thrashing about in the net, and pulling me from side to side...and my elbow knocked my Number 3 and Number 4 sections which were beside me. To my horror they both started sliding into the water beside my platform.
I managed to hold the Number 4, and if I had had my landing net handy I would have been able to grab it and catch the far end of the Number 3. But I had an angry fish in the landing net!
So the Number 3 was lost. And after about five minutes of swishing about with my landing net and my extra-long hook I said a silent prayer for the section now residing in Davy Jones Locker. But I carry a spare short Number 3, so I was able to carry on.
Two more barbel came quickly, and with 30 minutes left I landed my last one. The fish seemed to have gone, but with five minutes left I hooked another big fish which came off after about 20 seconds of plodding around. And so ended a most entertaining 90 minutes, thanks to maggots. And the rain mainly held off - just a few spots now and again, Life doesn't get much better.
The weigh in
I weighed first - 40 lb 4 oz, followed by Trevor, 11 lb 14 oz; Martin Parker with 14 lb 1 oz, and John Garner with 20 lb. This line of pegs were all backwind, at the opposite end to where I expected the better weights to be, so whatever my final result I felt I had scraped together a decent weight in the circumstances.
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| Peter Spriggs takes his second net from the water, on his way to a winning 124 lb 3 oz. |
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| Peter used his magic paste again to finish first for the third time in his last four matches. |
Mike so often doesn't bother to weigh, even if he has caught fish, which I find frustrating - for him. He says he doesn't mind - so I was really pleased to see him weigh in in the Saturday match on Willows, with just 13 lb. The reason I was chuffed was that it was such a difficult day that the average pleasure angler would have been hard-pressed to have caught a single fish.
So in those circumstances I think he did really well.
In this match he weighed 54 lb 8 oz - another good catch which gave him 5th place, just out of the frame. Our next match together is on Beastie, and it's a rover. Now that match will probably throw up very varied weights - perhaps a couple of big weights and some very low ones, according to where the wind is. It's not an easy lake to fish, so if Mike catches just a couple of fish I still expect to see him weigh in! Otherwise I will tell his wife!!!
Mike came to my rescue after the match, throwing in his rake around the swim, and eventually coming back with my Number 3 section! If he'd been better looking I would have given him a kiss...
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| ...instead I'll show him with his best fish, approaching 10 lb. |
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