Fish are becoming harder to find, on Willows, Decoy

 Peg 29, Willows, Sunday, Dec 4
Just nine idiots hardy souls fished this JV match, with several others having other unimportant commitments, like work...

Pre-match entertainment was provided by four roe deer wandering about in a nearby field. It's quite common to see deer around Decoy - more often they are smaller than these were, and Chinese water deer or muntjac. I also pondered that while kingfishers are common here, I haven't seen one for several matches, but red kite are plentiful, and I once saw an osprey.

I looked up my blog of a year ago, when we fished Willows at the end of Novemnber, in the cold, and it was won on peg 7, with the higher-numbered pegs fishing badly, and Smug Smalley, on the flier 29, not weighing in. So of course 29 stuck to my sticky fingers at the draw! There's an island at 13 metres out in front and to the left, and the margins in this swim are deep; but the water was clear and I didn't expect to catch any fish in the margins. 

Peg 29 - a lovely-looking swim. The island on the left was at around 13 metres.

There wasn't much wind, so although the temperature was forecast to be about 6 degrees, feeling like 3, it wasn't uncomfortable.

On the bomb
I opted to start on a bomb, with bread, cast past the island into the channel, but had no bites or liners. After 45 minutes I had a look on the pole, where I had been catapulting maggots over to the island, and Peter Harrison, next to me on 30, who had also started on the bomb, changed over at the same time.

Peter Harrison in action early in the match, landing his first carp.

Immediately I started hitting occasional roach, which almost all dropped off. I decided to carry on with maggots and hope that carp came in, but that didn't work. So I put a 4mm expander on the hook, and lo and behold, a 2 lb F1 obliged. A little later, now feeding expanders, a 3 lb carp came in. There were other missed bites, but they could have been liners, and several times I came back with a leaf on the hook. An hour later, having changed down my elastic, to land the roach, I hit something which really tore off.

That fish took several  minutes to land - it was only 5 lb, but hooked in the snout. No wonder I couldn't do anything with it. Meanwhile Peter, fishing out into open water at 13 metres, had landed four or five nice carp on maggots. His rig seemed to be at least a foot shallower than mine, and he told me afterwards he was fishing on the bottom, but I didn't find that depth out in front of me.

Eddie McIlroy on 25 won his section with 48 lb 7 oz.

Fish at eight metres
A little later the wind came up and both Peter and I came in to about 8 metres, where I found two carp around 6 lb and a 3 lb bream, on maggot, plus a few small perch. Forays into the margin with corn, and an attempt to catch on banded pellet to my left, where it was a little shallower, came to nothing. Then, 30 minutes before the end a big fish splashed over the far side and Peter put out a feeder. Five minutes later he landed  another carp - his last. I reckoned he had roughly twice as many carp as I had.

The weigh in
Nathan Boughen on 3 won with 108 lb 9 oz of carp, takern mainly on corn at 14 metres. I have a lot of faith in corn, but despite trying it several times I never had a touch on it. Runner-up was Rob Goodson on 24 with 74 lb 10 oz, taken on a bomb and bread cast to the island at the start, and then on pole.

                                                                     Gus Gausden and Eddie McIlroy won their sections.

Peter Harrison - 47 lb 15 oz from the peg next to me.

I come seventh

I weighed 28 lb 9 oz, for seventh place with Peter having 47 lb 15 oz. To be honest, at this time of year you can't beat yourself up about being beaten so badly, because the fish just won't move - you have to find them. It may be that I shouldn't have spent so much time on the island, but that's the go-to place to fish in this swim.

Later I thought that because the area over to my left, towards peg 28, was a little shallower, perhaps I should have given that a longer look.

Next match is on Lou's and Four-Island on Sunday. I've not fished either of them many times, but peg 6 on Lou's would suit me! In Winter it's regarded as the best peg on the complex, but you need a long, accurate cast to the far bank with a bomb or feeder. The margins are also nice.

THE RESULT