We say goodbye to Syd

 Syd Starr was a member of our Fenland Rods club for several years. He was the sort of man you'd describe as 'Everyone's Favourite Grandad' - easy to get on with, and how he loved his fishing.

Then a brain tumour appeared, but he got over that and was still the same lovely bloke, and I often saw him behind the counter in the tackle shop at Rookery Waters, run by his grandson Alex Bates. Syd would happily chat about matches, and it wasn't so many weeks ago that I was talking to him there.

Now he's been taken from us at the age of 82. And what a send-off he had, making the journey from church to crematorium in a glass-sided coach dawn by two fantastic-looking black horses. Talk about making an exit - and no less than he deserved. It was great knowing you, Syd.

A 'respectable' catch from Magpie, Rookery Waters

Peg 13, Magpie, Wed, Feb 22
Thirty-one of us 'Pidley Pensioners' fished this match, on Raven and Magpie at Rookery Waters, with my peg 13 right next to where I had been the previous Wednesday on 14. I had Shaun Buddle to my right on 11 and Steve (Ivy) Tilsley farther round the bend on 9, a peg he didn't want because it's been unkind to him in the past. Diddums! I must confess, however, that I would have preferred 1 to 8 or anywhere on the island 28 to 36, or even in the big bay in the 20s, ,as there are underwater lily pads or reeds to fish to in many of those swims.

End of the match, and there was still the hint of a breeze.

A good start

At the start there was hardly any wind, and our swims were flat calm. Like most others I started on the bomb and bread, cast about halfway to the ropes which prevent these pegs from overcasting into 34 and 33 on the island opposite. Ten minutes later the rod rattled round and a 4 lb mirror came in. But then the Lucky fairies who had been watching over me turned their backs and glided away, and I had nothing more for the next 40 minutes.

A change to the pole at 13 metres, with 4mm expander pellets, saw some liners, and I immediately switched to a dobbing rig, which had allegedly done well on this bank the previous weekend. The light was so poor I could not actually see the yellow-tipped float unless it was against the dark reflections of trees opposite, but I was confident that if there were fish willing to feed up in the water I would get an indication of some sort. Nothing! Back to the main rigs.

A 5 lb carp came in on the expander, and then there was a long spell when all I could do was briefly hit two fish, obviously foulhooked, which came off after a second. I tried in the deep margin

I bring Shaun luck...
Three hours after the start I wandered up to Shaun who had, I think, five fish, and just as I got up to him his rod went round and a five-pounder came in, hooked on a bright yellow pop-up. I went back and tried it, but never had a take. However Shaun then started to take the occasional fish on his pop-up, casting towards the reeded island, which was not in my swim.

Shaun Buddle lays his last fish, hooked just before the whistle.

I switched to maggot on the pole and at last took a couple of F1s, and another carp or two, but I had to keep switching swims, and altering the length from 13 to 14.5 metres to get a bite. Then, with about an hour left, I had two fish in two casts, on sweetcorn, and felt that more were due. But at that exact moment the North-Westerly wind started, right into my face, which would have been fine except that it suddenly became very cold.

My best fish comes late
That wind, which also blew lots of dead reeds and stuff through my swim, put the kybosh on my swim and I couldn't get a touch. Then it suddenly died down and the air felt much warmer, and with 15 minutes left I hooked my best fish, about 6 lb. By now Steve had packed up, having had just a couple of fish, I think.

With ten minutes to go I hoped for another, but when the whistle went all I could do was get off my box and photograph Shaun playing yet another fish. This turned out to be his best of the day at around 9 lb.

Nearly there.

The weigh-in
I hadn't seen the weighers approaching Shaun, so couldn't get a picture of his fish. I guessed he had 50 lb-plus, and indeed he weighed 58 lb 6 oz, just 2 oz behind Mick Mister on 1. I totalled 26 lb 8 oz which was at least respectable, but nowhere on the lake, won again on peg 36 by Colin Walker with 112 lb 3 oz.

The weights on Raven were smaller, won on end peg 29. But overall the weather had been kind to us, I'm stewarding at the Winter League final sections on Decoy on Saturday, and not sure whether I will be fishing on Sunday.

Results below.

Safely in the net.

Magpie  1-22

The rest of Magpie

Raven 1-21

The rest of Raven.

Happy with a few fish from Magpie, Rookery Waters.

Peg 14 on Magpie, Wednesday, Feb 15

Off for my first Pidley Pensioners match at Rookery Waters for nearly a year - and the breakfast in the fishery cafe is the stuff of legends. Hardly a week goes by without someone posting a picture of it on Facebook. But so far I have resisted the temptation to order one - the bacon and beans would be fine, but sausages contain gluten, as does bread, and unfortunately I am, like thousands of others, gluten-intolerant (gluten affects the stomach's ability to digest foods properly).

So I made do, on this occasion, with a steaming mug of tea, and sat myself down like Alice in Wonderland, uninvited, at the Mad Anglers' table - Chris Saunders and Roy Whincup. Chris said he had drawn 36, which even I know is the absolute flier, though a win is certainly not guaranteed. However, catching a few fish is almost guaranteed, and Chris can catch fish!

Among the general conversation which followed, both Roy and Chris agreed that the other pegs on Magpie they would rate on this day were 1 and 8, while Chris said that 33 seemed to be holding a lot of fish at the moment. Time would tell whether those were  good prophecies. 

Peg 14 - with trees behind, sheltering the swim from the sun.

A sheltered swim

My  peg 14 would give me shelter from the wind, but the trees behind the peg shield the angler from the sun. Anyway, I walked out happy enough, but not before telling Mike Rawson I didn't fancy his peg 13 on Raven, as the low sun in your eyes there can be a nightmare. I know how to cheer someone up...

My peg 14 was flat calm all day, which I feel is rarely ideal, and it's in open water, though with a man-made floating island about18 metres in front. I'd had to scrape ice from the windscreen, so the water was obviously very cold. Opposite I could see Brian Yorke on 34 and, to his left, Roger Gowler on 32. I didn't see a single fish move until about an hour from the end, when one crashed on the surface several pegs round the bend to my left.

One early fish on bread
I started on bread and bomb, cast to the floating island. Five minutes later Allan Golightly, on 11 to my right, had a 5 lb carp also on bread and bomb, cast to the reeds on the island opposite him. On my third cast a 2 lb F1 nearly pulled the rod off my rest. At least I could now weigh in.

Opposite me Brian, who had started by dobbing bread, and Roger, had just the odd fish on long poles - 16 metres I guess - and eventually I out out the pole, to 13 metres, in about six fet of water. I had the 14.5 metre section with me, but I like to leave using it until later, as fish drop back. The 16-metre section I had accidentally left at home, though I have a bad shoulder and wouldn't have been looking forward to using it. And it certainly wouldn't have extended to the island.

I had been throwing maggots out in front of me, in about four feet of water, but decided to leave that swim until later. In the next hour a 4 lb common and a 3 lb mirror took double red in the swim to my right. I fed half-a-dozen maggots at a time, some with a catapult, and others via a pot.

Brian and Roger had another fish or two, but sport was very slow. In the next two hours I had about two more carp, and went out to 14.5 metres in the lefthand swim where, to my surprise, I had two F1s in two drops. But, as I half expected, no more came, so I swapped back and forth between the two swims for another couple of fish..

Nothing close in
After another hour two fish had come adrift, and I had had only about one more. so I looked at the short maggot  swim, but never had a touch; I also had a look in the deep margin eight metres to my left, with cloud groundbait and a few maggots, in three feet, but if there had been fish there I am sure I would have had a liner of some sort. Nothing! I look enviously at the pegs on the main island, which had a little ripple for some of the time.

Allan Golightly, on my right, had a good first half  of the match,
but a bad second half - a bit like Arsenal!

With an hour to go, and with Roger having had the occasional fish all day on 32, I tried a piece of sweetcorn. Amazingly I had a 4 lb carp first cast, but then another came off. Three more followed which I landed. They gave the tiniest of bites, and every one took either within 20 seconds of the corn slowly falling to the bottom, or as I inched the bait along.

Calamity Mac

Then a bit of a calamity - I hooked what I am sure was a very big fish, not foulhooked, at 14.5 metres. But I couldn't break the pole down. I tried taking off the largest section, which would have enabled me to roll the pole back to section three, but it was firmly stuck. As was the next one, and the next, and the next.

None of them up, to section four, would come apart, and after a very long two minutes, with the fish hammering away, just as I prepared to lift the pole bodily over the bank behind me, the fish came off. Of course the sections then came apart with no problem!

Later I wondered why I hadn't extended the legs of the big back roller, which would have allowed me to push it back over the bank behind me. Twenty minutes to go, and that fish must have spooked the others, as I never had another bite. Ron Clark on 5 had two fish for  15 lb, so the bigger fish were on the move, and mine could have been in that category.

The weigh in
Vic German on 1 had weighed 44 lb 6 oz, beaten by Mark Waring on 8, who had most of his 45 lb 14 oz on a feeder or bomb cast to the island. Allan Golightly had a bad second half and weighed 16 lb, while I finished with about 11 fish for 31 lb 12 oz, which turned out to be fifth on the lake, won by Chris Saunders on 34 with 64 lb 14 oz. Put a good angler on a good peg and...

I was happy - a reasonable day weatherwise and as Chris and Roy had suggested, 1 and 8 had indeed held fish, while Roger on 32 was  third with 43 lb 4 oz. They must have crystal balls in their holdalls. If I had landed those four fish which pulled off I might have framed - so I felt I had at least given myself a chance.

Raven was won on 17 by Rob Heath, who must have had the sun in his eyes for a lot of the time, with Alan Owen second and Steve Tilsley third.

My next match is Sunday on Beastie, Decoy, where peg 3 has been dominating.

Magpie 1-22

Magpie 23-36

Raven 1-22

Raven - the rest.

A nice peg on Elm, Decoy, but the fish were on strike! And the Open result.

Peg 12, Sunday, Feb 12
Sunday dawned dull, but at least there hadn't been an overnight frost, so my hopes were high of a good day ahead...but then "Road Closed Ahead" signs appeared before Ramsey St Mary. Now I've seen them before, and driven past all of them on an open road, because I know that sometimes they are put out the day before work starts. AND they didn't say where the road was closed. Which road? How far ahead? Where, exactly? And is it REALLY closed?

So I sailed past the first sign; and the second. Road Closed; Ahead Road Closed; Diversion; Road Closed Ahead - I drove past about eight of them, four or five miles, right up to Pondersbridge where - guess what? The bloody road was closed! A glance at my watch showed me that I was unusually-early, and I had nearly half an hour to get to Decoy before the JV club draw.

Nothing for it but to take the diversion through Ramsey Mereside. Then it was left towards Benwick, rocking and rolling like a roller coaster, on partially-subsided roads; through the Okavango desert; past hamlets the missionaries haven't yet discovered; through Benwick and out on more suspension-wrecking highways that make the road from the main road up to Decoy look like a Motorway. Then to the first signs of civilisation in the form of Eastrea, and finally to Decoy, with just five minutes to spare...fuming.

A present!
And at the draw a smiling Steve Tilsley had a present for me. He'd read my last blog, about daffodils and snowdrops putting a smile on my face, and presented me with a pot of flowering snowdrops he had dug up from his garden. I was really pleased, but also amazed  - that someone had read the blog! Bless you, Steve. 

Calm water all day - and those yellow reeds on the left are about 30 metres away.

The draw

So to the draw, with the HQ heaving, as 60 had entered for the Open, and there were ten of us club anglers on Elm. With pegs on both banks. I wanted from 7 round to 18, and was happy with corner peg 12, where I have won more than one match in the past, in the Summer. However, Chris Saunders pointed out that Ron Cuthbert had had peg 12 recently and hadn't caught much. When I got to the peg I could see why - I had visions of dobbing bread to reeds along the end bank, to my left. But there were no reeds - only two bushes which threw their branches out well into the lake.

I asked Lee Kendall, when we were ready, how he would fish it, and he promptly did a fair imitation of Alan Titchmarsh, taking a long-handled pair of loppers from his holdall and  proceeding to spend almost 15 minutes, perched precariously on a branch over the water, to take out the offended branches. That really was over and above what you might expect a mate to do. Thanks, Lee.

The match
The water was flat calm all day in my swim, though the others to the right did occasionally get a little ripple. I started on bomb and bread, and landed a 4 lb common about ten minutes after the start. Lee, on my right, and John Savage, opposite, also had a fish on the bomb. No more for me on the bomb, so I tried dobbing bread in among the bushes, but without result. So it was out to 13 metres on maggot, towards the end bank, which brought a 3 lb F1. meanwhile Lee had about two carp on the long pole.

Our club organiser John Savage AKA as Yammers,
(although he can't remember why) was
opposite me on peg 14.

Then followed about two hours when I couldn't get a bite, and I didn't see much else caught, either. The light was not good - no sunshine (although Steve reckoned we had some, so one of us must have fallen asleep) and the float was fairly difficult to see at distance, even with a black top. Going out to 14.5 metres didn't get a take, either.

I tried a bit closer, at 11 metres, and lo and behold, a 2 lb bream came in, on three red maggots and a flouro pinkie. Soon afterwards I hit a big fish that threatened to get to the end bank. It might have actually have done so - my pole tip was in the water and there was a suddenly thump, and the rig came back minus the hooklength. Almost certainly foulhooked.

A fish hooks itself

Another long pause and I tried putting a piece of sweetcorn on the bottom next to the bushes and a double-figure carp nearly tore the pole from my hands. After a long, difficult fight, it ended in my net, when I saw it had been hooked in the snout - the worst possible place to hook them as they are absolutely uncontrollable. I suspected the fish had seen the corn, taken fright (as they do), and thrashed its tail to get away, bringing the hook up onto its nose. Otherwise how could it have hooked itself?

Lee Kendall on Peg 10 was top on our bank with 51 lb 6 oz.

A good spell for Lee and Roy
John, opposite, then had two or three on the pole, and I went back out in front of me at 13 metres, and took about four more bream to 2 lb. With about an hour left it started to get quite cold, and I put my padded Imax jacket on - a real life-saver in the Winter. 

 In the last half hour Lee took several more big carp, fishing 14 metres to his right, towards peg 9, where he told me found another 18 inches of depth. That could explain why that area tends to fish well in the Winter. Opposite him Roy Whincup also had a good last half-hour, taking barbel in the deep margin. 

Roy Whincup's best fish weighed 15 lb 13 oz!

I expected to start getting bites  towards the end of the match, but it never happened. Interestingly Lee and And Bull on 18, both had barbel on bread. I hadn't tried bread on the bottom in the margins, and probably should have done - anything a little out of the ordinary can sometimes work. Would they have taken mussel? Towards the end a strange oily scum appeared n the margins, and I had a job to get the rig through it. I have no idea what could have caused it.

The weigh in
Lee was way ahead on our bank with 51 b 6 oz, and the other four, including me, were all in the 20s. I had 25 lb 2 oz - about eight fish and so far as I know I never missed a bite. But the winner was Roy Whincup  on 16, who had two early fish on the bomb and the rest on pole, for 66 lb 10 oz.  At least it didn't rain.

OUR RESULT

Elm

The Open
The Open, held on several lakes, was won by Andy Rayment on Six-Island peg 8, with 239 lb 11 oz. He told me he fished 14 metres with maggot, and that the water in that end of the lake was a different colour to the rest - presumably feeding fish stirred it up. Second was opposite him, on peg 11, with 216 lb 10 oz. Best of the rest was Ben Townsend on Horseshoe 5 who had to use the waggler, cast as close to the far-bank reeds as he could, after his pole lines dried up. He ended with 149 lb 3 oz.

Karen at the fishery is doing a really great job there, and is putting the full results on the Decoy Facebook page. But I'll put them here anyway.

My next match

My next match looks like being my first visit to the Pidley Pensioners on Wednesday, on Jay and Raven (my bogey lake). Jay has been very patchy lately, though we all know it's full of fish, and it will probably all depend on whether the wind allows you to fish at 14 metres across to the far bank.

OPEN RESULTS

Six-Island

Cedar

Damson

Horseshoe

Willows

Mr Frosty pays another visit to Oak, Decoy (and Open)

 Peg 18, Sunday, Jan 5
Yet again I started the morning by scraping frost off the windscreen of the van, any expectations of a bumper day in the Spring sunshine gradually dipping. But Spring is definitely here - I was boosted by seeing a row of yellow daffodils alongside a wall in the village of Little Raveley, on the way to Decoy. And for your delight I attach a (not very good) picture of snowdrops no more than 50 yards from my house...

Half of the lake was calm

The car park was well full, with a practice Open for the Winter League Final being fished on Lous, Damson, Elm and Cedar. The anglers who had come from Peterborough said they hadn't seen any frost, so perhaps the fishery had escaped it? Not at all - the platforms still in the shade were white, and the light Northerly breeze was definitely cool. Fourteen of us fished on the Eastern bank of Oak in this JV club match, 15 to 30 with the wind into us from the right. My end of the lake was flat calm all day, but there was a good ripple towards the high numbers. 

Flat calm all day. Andy Leathers is in the red jacket, fishing the next lake over - Cedar.

For the second match in succession I had Peter Harrison on my right, while Ernie Lowbridge was on my left on 19. Peter and I started on bomb and bread cast to the far side, about 40 metres, but Ernie was the first in action, on the long pole, after about 40 minutes. He played the fish for a minute or two before the line went slack - foulhooked. Minutes later Peter and I, both biteless, with not even a liner, changed to pole.

How sad am I?
I'd taken about half a pint of casters off my old maggots, and had been catapulting them out to 13 metres. In fact while I was on the bomb I amused myself by picking them out, one by one, and putting them into a maggot tin of water. How sad was that|?

Ernie lost another fish foulhooked, and then I had a bite on four maggots on a size 12 at 13 metres on the pole. I had a problem taking it apart, so I had to gingerly push it all back well over Yew lake, behind us, to get down to the top two. Thankfully the fish didn't fight hard - it was a 2 lb-plus ide. I never had another problem with the pole.

Peter Harrison plays one of his carp to the net on Peg 17 (16 was not in).

A carp!
Soon after that I had a 12 lb mirror on the four maggots, over the loose-fed casters and maggots, and almost next drop hooked another which came off after a few seconds, probably foulhooked. Peter, meanwhile had had a good carp and soon added a second fish. Time to look in the deep water in front of me, where the three-foot margin suddenly dropped down, vertically, to five feet, and I got a definite bite there, on a bunch of maggots.

If that bite had been from a roach I would have expected more, but no more came, so I suspected a cruising carp, and I wasted half an hour there; Peter also had a look in his deep margin, with no bites that I am aware of. Then time stood still, and for the next two and a half hours I had not a bite on pole or bomb, though some time in that interminable period Ernie took a fish on feeder. 

The day wasn't particularly cold, and I fished the whole match without having to put on my Imax jacket, thanks to the sun, which shone most of the day.

Out of the blue...
I'd seen only two other fish taken in the few swims to my left, so things looked black. The higher-numbered swims still had ripple, and I idly suspected that things might be a bit better up there. Peter had another fish, I think (or was I dreaming it?). Then out of the blue, the tip of my feeder rod shot back and I was attached to a fish, which had taken the double frozen sweetcorn cast well over to the far bank. It was another mirror, around 10 lb. 

While we struggled Ian Frith was finding fish in the high numbers.

No more came and I had time to look across at the legend that is Andy Leathers, on peg 14 on Cedar. He was now fishing in the left margin, then in the corner, then  out again - clearly struggling. He told me afterwards that his seven carp came early ion. At one point the wind changed and became mch colder, but soon afterwards it died and it became very pleasant.

Fifteen minutes left, and Peter had a fish on his long pole. I watched him re-bait, and when I saw him thumbing something into the top of his pole pot I was sure he was fishing, and feeding, with maggot. So I did the same, starting a new swim to the right of where I had been because the bright sun, low in the sky, made it difficult to see a float in front of me. Five minutes later the float slid under and another big carp was on. This was a common, and it fought twice as hard as the mirrors. But it ended in my net.

Three cracking mirror carp for 32 lb 13 oz for Jim Regan, who won
that section by a triple default! 👍.

Peter had another fish before the end and ended with six fish - three carp, an ide, and two F1s. I had three carp and one ide. And while we packed up the conditions were perfect - really warm. Sod's Law!

The weigh-in
I missed Dave Parson weighing in on end peg 30. He had 77 lb 3 oz, taken on bomb and pellet cast about three-quarters of the way over. Next door on 29 Ian Frith ran him close, with 74 lb 12 oz on a pole, while on Peg 28 Chris Saunders' 42 lb 2 oz was sufficient to win a golden coin from Roy Whincup. They took the first three places, with Jim Regan on 27 ending fifth with 32 lb 13 oz and taking that end section by triple default!

Chris Saunders - third on the day.

After those four, things took a right dive - Steve Tilsley never had a bite in the next swim, and up to me the best weight was Lee Kendall's two fish for 16 lb. I thought I might have 30 lb, but my fish took the scales to 34 lb 6 oz, However I knew Peter had six fish though he said he didn't think he could beat me, and with 29 lb 8 oz he was right. So I ended fourth overall and won that end five-peg section, which was probably as good as I could have expected. Happy days.

My next match will be on Friday, or Sunday when we are on Elm lake, but with more frost forecast I expect to perhaps be only fishing for a bite. Still, someone has to win.

Chris proudly displays his hard-won golden coin...

The Open
The Open was won on Cedar peg 26, in the corner - Alan Oakes dobbed off the bottom alongside the reeds on the end bank for a magnificent 198 lb 15 oz. Peg 26 is one of the 'special' pegs on the complex that can produce really spectacular catches (even I have won from it). I'm not sure why it so often seems to be so much better than Peg 1, opposite. The light wind was blowing into it on Sunday, though, which would have helped.

THE RESULTS

Our club result

Elm (peg 8 weight is 49 lb).

Cedar

Damson (sorry about the pen).

Lou's

A brown envelope on Cedar, Decoy

 Peg 4, Cedar
Eighteen of us fished this Friday Over-50s match, organised by Roy Whincup,  n Elm and Cedar lakes at Decoy - nine on each lake -  and I must have been so excited by the prospect of fishing in decent conditions that I left my phone at home, so no pictures. 😞

What elastic?
The main decision I had to make on the bank was what elastic to use. I very much like a lightish orange, rated about 10, but there were anglers on both pegs 3 and 5, and they were too close to me for that - about 12 to 15 metres away I guess. I discarded the lovely Preston green 13 hollow because I thought that if I foulhooked a big fish it would easily scream through one of those swims. So I settled on a yellow 17 hollow. It turned out to be the right choice.

I was very happy with Cedar 4 - this lake tends to fish best in the first few pegs, say 1 to 7. All the pegs on this lake were on the West bank, with the strong wind at our backs, so we could fish right across; and almost everyone started like that - feeder or bomb cast 40 metres to the far bank. I started on a bomb and bread popped up.

I got lots of tiny liners, and when I brought the rig back not only had the bread gone (which I expected) but the pop-up on the end of the hair was also missing. It happened again and I wondered whether fish were actually just picking at the bait, and not taking it in. But then the liners stopped.  A change to double frozen sweetcorn brought my first carp, about 3 lb, after about 50 minutes. 

Peter's good start
To my right Peter Harrison had already landed a fish or two, and after about 90 minutes he had five or six to my one. A change back to bread not popped up brought me two more bigger fish around 8 lb. But by this time I think Peter had landed eight! I was being banjoed...

Then Peter's fish went off and we both had a look in the deep margins. I had been flicking maggots under a bush to my left and I remembered that Lee Kendall had had over 100 lb a few weeks ago from peg 5, fishing under that bush. So I started there, hoping for barbel. Peter had one fish in his margin - a 5 lb barbel - while I had only two small roach. Then we both had a look on the long pole - 13 metres in my case. I dribbled in 4mm expanders, bit had no bites on pellet or corn; Peter was also struggling. 

The angler to my left on 5 was Dave Thornton, and he had had fish on a feeder or bomb, and now started catching on a pole. I tries to see what he was using, and fancied the bait looked a bit red, so I put three maggots on my size 12 hook - I know it seems big, but I like to start on a hook that gives me confidence when I play fish, and in any case I threaded the first maggot round the bend. In fact Dave told me afterwards he hadn't caught single fish on maggot, and had put it on his hook for only one cast!

An F1 gives me a clue
But soon I had an F1 at 13 metres, and immediately decided to catapult in maggots, because I thought F1s were more likely to be roaming around the swim than the bigger carp, which I think tend to cruise slowly along on the same line in water as cold as it is at the moment. So spreading the maggots around made sense to me. This tactic seemed to work well, and three more fish came -  an F1 and two 2 lb bream.

When the sun went in it became very dark, and it was difficult to see the very thin red float top, so I changed it to a black top - you can do this with the Drennan Tuff-Eyes - and it worked well, though the bites were tiny. I had to fish about four inches overdepth and every bite came was the water tow tightened the line and just dragged the float a tiny amount along the bottom. But the bites were minute and I don't think I would have seen them on a thicker-topped float.

I carried on catapulting about 15 maggots in at 13 metres, then putting in about 15 more with the tosspot, and fishing that one spot, and it worked! A near-10 lb mirror took the maggot bait, and two or three more around 4 lb. A look out at 14 metres brought another first drop - strange how often that works. And then looking in the slightly deeper water a metre or so to the left of where I had been fishing brought two more quick ones.

Two fish lost
I pricked two fish in successive casts, and the next cast saw me land a six-pounder foulhooked in the side, and I was glad I had a strong elastic on, because it must have been almost in Peter Harrison's swim at one time. Peter seemed to have slowed up a lot after his first good spell, and I know he lost at least one good fish foulhooked. But I assumed he had around 70 lb or 80 lb.

The final half-hour saw another fish about 4 lb and the very next cast a fish took the bait within seconds, the only time I had two fish in two casts on the pole all day. Peter had a couple more towards the end, on a bomb I think.

The weigh in
On Peg 1 Perry Briggs started at 13 metres to a bunch of green reeds against the end bank, but couldn't catch there, so he went out on another section and found 100 lb on double corn, which won the lake. Peter Harrison's catch went only 43 lb - way less than I had guessed. And my fish went 68 lb 1 oz, which beat Dave Thornton by a couple of pounds, and was second on the lake, winning me that end section by default. I was very happy with that.

Elm lake fished very much as expected - with peg 8, a swim which so often produces in Winter, even though it appears no different to any other - winning with 84 lb, with the better weights around it. But everyone had a decent weight, except Smug on peg 1, which has been described to me as the worst peg on the complex in Winter. Last year I had that swim on a cold Winter's day and caught one tiny perch!

My next match is Sunday on Oak. The forecast is for a change to a Northerly wind which I expect will keep weights well down. But what do I know?

THE RESULT

Cedar

1 Perry Briggs 100 lb 13 oz        1st

3 Pete Harrison 45 lb 3 oz

4 Mac Campbell 68 lb 1 oz        Sec

5 Dave Thornton 66 lb

6 Shaun Buddle 41 lb 4 oz

7 Keith Rayment 38 lb

9 Chris Baldwin 59 lb 4 oz

10 Chris Saunders 34 lb 6 oz

12 Phil Stubley 52 lb 5 oz

13 Ernie Lowbridge 60 lb 8 oz      Sec

Elm

1 Smug Whiting DNW

3 Roy Whincup 67 lb 14 oz

4 Pete Spriggs 40 lb 6 oz

6 Gordon Parker 72 lb 4 oz

7 John Crouch 80 lb 15 oz

8 Allan 84 lb 4 oz 1st

9 Steve Richardson 61 lb 5 oz

10 Jim Regan 53 lb 8 oz

12 Ron Cuthbert 28 lb 12 oz

Not sure of the two section winners.