Vets National, Partridge Lakes

 First, here's the result of the Spratts match on Elm, Decoy, which Martin Parker and I missed because we were traveling up to Partridge Lakes, Warrington, to fish the Vets National. I have no details, except that the weights consisted of fish.

Now to the National, on Partridge Lakes, Culceth, which was almost three-and-a-half hour drive for us from Peterborough (and four hours for me cos I live farther away). In the previous two matches on Partridge I won my section of ten, fishing Spey lake. But this time the Masters (55-65) were on Spey and other lakes while the Veterans (those over 65) were all on Covey 1 to 5, according to the Angling Trust. So you can imagine my surprise when I read that the winner came from Covey 6!!

Everybody knew that the winner was likely to come from 5, except that if 6 had been in it would likely come from there. Got it?

The day before the match Martin and I watched the weigh-in of another match, and had a most interesting conversation with a gentleman John Turner, on Covey 2, peg 27. He's a very good matchman, but did no good with, I think, 30 lb-plus. He said the cold water had put the fish off, and that in any case the early Covey lakes were not favourite. He had most of his fish shallow.

Next day, we drew, and I drew.....peg 27! It's a nice-looking swim (as they all are on this lovely fishery) with a mud line opposite, which has been cut out, and margins either side which have also been cut back to give a couple of feet of water right next to the bank.

Peg 27 on Covey 2- a lovely-looking swim, 13 metres across. The whole complex
was really neat, with the grassy banks having been mowed.

I started with quick look in the margins either side while throwing casters out, but soon went shallow with a banded caster. It was slow - about three small F1s in the first hour, while the angler to my right on 30 had about five. Next hour I had three, plus a 4 lb carp which I mugged,  and he had about ten F1s. Then the wind got up and the few fish I had seen vanished, and bites stopped. The angler on 30 had flat calm water, with a thin scum, and was sheltered by the island, and managed to keep on catching.

I had a gudgeon from the mudline on luncheon meat, and hooked another carp which I managed to mug, but it came off at the net. There was nothing in the margins, so I finished by fishing the deep near margins, near the reeds, in about four feet of water, and landed about six or seven more carp, while losing about five in a row right at the end.

In the meantime rain started about half an hour before the end, and continued while we walked back to the van. Made worse for me by two blokes having parked their cars in the entrance to the lakes before we got to the lake, which meant that again I couldn't walk my trolley straight through. Then we stuffed our tackle back in the van. That entailed , of course, dumping all our gear on the road and then taking our trollies apart to stack in the van, before loading up everything else - and the rain still fell.

Fifty vehicles parked on the road, but the rules obviously
didn't apply to the owners of these two.

Nowhere!
Nearly forgot - I weighed 16 kilo for nowhere, beating the angler on my left who had 11 kilos (a big weight had come from there the previous day), while Martin had 8 kilos, for nowhere. The angler on 30 won our lake with 37 kilos, and finished well up. Turns out he is Dickie Carr's regular travelling companion to matches, though Dickie didn't fish this match.

The rain fell while we drove back to our digs, half an hour away, because we had left Martin's overnight bag there. Then on to the M52, and the M6, with the rain still falling. Is there a worse road to drive on in heavy rain than the M6, hemmed in by those massive lorries?

Mercifully our sat navs then took us off the M6, which was just as well because the notices showed that lanes were closed ahead of us. So on to the A50 to Stoke, then A52 to Derby and Grantham, and then the A1 home; and still it was raining, and my van is restricted to 50 on unclassified roads (and 60 on the Motorway). Another three-and-a-half hours of my life wasted. Then home, and I got back at 10.30, and it was still raining, the only bright spot having been Martin's wife rustling up mince and mash, which went down a treat.

Then next day drying everything. But I took the opportunity to wash three years of mud off my footplate, while emptying hundreds of old casters and dead flies out of the box draws. You'll not recognise me on the bank.

Will I fish it again?
Three years ago the National was booked for Decoy, but the Angling Trust cancelled it, because of Covid, even though other big matches they organised went on before that date. Never had my money back! Don't know where it is next year - not sure whether I will be interested. A long way to go when you think you never had a real chance of framing. Still, I met up with Dick Clegg again, though several other regulars were not there, which was disappointing.

A moan
The Angling Trust did that bloody stupid thing of giving some of  us three pegs each, while they could have easily put most of us on the better lakes (4 to 6), as the swims are a fair way apart. There are 72 pegs on 5 and 6 alone (and only 80 were registered to fish).

Marks out of ten
Can't be arsed. 

Next match was Sunday on Yew, which I haven't written yet. Don't miss the next exciting instalment. 😟

Now, as I write, my van is in the garage with a problem (amongst other things) with the catalytic converter, which will cost over £600. I feel about as happy as Steve Tilsley does driving through Turdes.

Embarrassed on Willows

 Peg 25, Friday, July 21
Yes - you read that correctly. I drew dream peg 25. And I didn't win, in fact I prefer to forget what happened - which wasn't much. It was the Over 55s Friday match, with 18 pegged on Willows and ten on Lou's.

I had Chris Saunders, of cat meat fame, next to me on 24, with Yammers on 22, and our corner was plagued with that horrible pussy willow fluff which sometimes covered the whole area, sometimes quite lightly, but at other times formed huge clumps of scum you couldn't get a rig through. Poor Yammers probably had it worst - at times it must have been like fishing through a Persian carpet.

My home for the day - it's a cracking peg , and I've won there...but not today!

Early fish

The weather was cool, and the water looked sort of dead. But I made the sensible decision to start on a feeder cast to the island, holding the rod in the air to keep the line away from the scum nearest to our bank. Within a couple of minutes I had a 1 lb F1 on a yellow washter, and two or three more followed; then a 2 lb mirror; then a 3 lb mirror foulhooked. Then, because Chris had mugged a couple of good carp I made the stupid decision to go onto the pole.

Every now and then the fluff would hang together to form
horrible clumps of scum. But after the first couple
of hours I could usually find a fairly-open space.

I expected to catch immediately near the small island on my right, but all I could do when I put a rig next to the margin was hook twigs - big bundles of them. After seeing a few carp in the narrow channel to my right I had a look there with cat meat and had one or two small carp, and spent the next couple of hours trying to work out what was going wrong - I'd be getting liner after liner, then a proper bite shooting under, and when I struck the elastic would come out for a second and I would be attached to a bundle of twigs, or a reed, or a small branch.

Constantly  twigged!
Hanging a bait off bottom did no good, so I had to assume that the fish were in the snags, and when they tried to suck my bait in a twig would stop them getting the bait properly. Moving well away from the bank didn't stop it happening.  Meanwhile Chis was struggling, but managing somehow to pick up occasional carp by moving all over his swim - long, short, top two, left, right - that was the only way he could find fish, and some were around double-figures.

Chris Saunders fished brilliantly, all over his swim, with cat
 meat, and kept finding fish when I couldn't get a bite. He
also mugged on or two when they came in under the scum.

There's not much of a margin on 25, but I did try there, with not a touch. However, every now and then I would get a fish from somewhere else (there was no pattern), and suddenly three carp all over 7 lb came in the space of ten minutes from a spot three sections in front of me - but I never had another touch there. Towards the end I had a fish or two in the channel; tried the feeder again with no result; and then took a five-pounder dropping in on a top two next to reeds on my left. Mussel brought one small F1 and another foulhooked and lost.

During the last hour Chris had several fish to his left, to the aerator, and by the end I estimated he had three times as many fish as me. I thought I had 50 lb, and he had 150 lb. Nowhere near! I had 70 lb and Chris had 118 lb 15 oz for third, and told me I should have stayed on the feeder. Shamefacedly, I agreed. Our lake was won on 1 with 178 lb 11 oz on paste in the right margin, with Smug Smalley on peg 30 second with 143 lb 15 oz, all taken in the second half of the match in the margins.

There were several anglers I didn't know. This was Allen Wiggins,
who had 100 lb 14 oz of mainly small fish on peg 17.

Chris Saunders had several big carp in his 118 lb 5 oz, next to me.

A match I prefer to forget, though several anglers did say, afterwards, that 25 is not as dominant as it used to be, and from the results it's clear that anglers struggled all over the lake. For Willows the weights were very inconsistent. I just hope that that willow fluff has gone next time I fish there.

Lous was won on peg 7 on the feeder with 5 second - the flier peg 6 was left out. My next match is the Veterans National on Partridge Lakes, Culceth, Warrington, on Wednesday. Cat meat is not allowed there, so I expect to fish mainly with luncheon meat in the margins and across on the mud line, and shallow with casters.

THE RESULTS

WILLOWS

LOUS

A good Wind in the Willows for me...

 Peg 20, Willows, Monday, July 17
Sixteen of us were spread from peg 1 on Willows, Decoy, round to the well-known flier, 25, which went to Bob Allen...who then had his name drawn out as Golden Peg. Talk about luck. But...no - Bob actually said he'd happily swap with me if it were allowed. Gotta take that with a lorry-load of salt!

So down to Peg 20, but not until Peter Chilton had showed me the MAP trolley he has motorised. And I've got to say it is mightily impressive, with two batteries that have an 11-mile range, so it would need, he said, charging only once a year. It also has a reverse gear, and was so powerful that he needed only one hand to guide it up the bank on the Willows. He's going to accept orders, with the price probably £600 to £700. I have a motor on my Preston trolley, but felt this one was far sturdier.

So down, at last, to peg 20, where the lovely margins are, at the moment, out of bounds thanks to the lush bank of overhanging reeds. But I was happy with the swim, which had a light left-to-right, warm wind., and the island opposite at about 20 yards, so I had a feeder rod ready (though I never used it). Dave Hobbs was to my right for the second match in a row - he's a good angler so I could keep an eye on him. I could also see Bob Allen on 25, but jealousy meant that I didn't look at him all day, for fear of getting an inferiority complex when I saw him, inevitably, landing fish after fish after fish. 😟

Peg 20, opposite the main island, with a gentle wind from the left. The famous peg 25 is on the
protruding corner (in shadow) on the right. The lighter ground behind that is a small island.

F1s on banded pellet
Again I started with banded hard 6mm pellet, which I have a lot more confidence in after fishing last year with Ben Townsend. After about 45 minutes, with half-a-dozen small F1s in the net I tried banded caster, as I had been catapulting them out. That immediately brought some more F1s, up to almost 3lb. Then one of these somehow snagged me right in front of me, about two metres from the side. I assume it must have been a branch down there. I had to use the long hook to break the hooklength and when I had put on another hook I found the fish seemed to have vanished.

To my right Dave Hobbs was now fishing with, I think, pellet shallow, and also catching a few fish. But his fish suddenly seemed to vanish as well. I went back out on the banded pellet line, and although a few more F1s took the bait they weren't very fast, and I had to lay on several inches to get the best bites. Then another snagged me in the same place as before. I wiggled about on the bottom with the hook and the fish came free, but came off a few seconds later. When no more fish came on that line I had a look in the margins.

Dave Hobbs was two swims away to my right. You can see
how high and lush the reeds are at the moment.

Fish from the right margin

The right margin was about three feet deep under the overhanging reeds, and I immediately had bites on corn, but no fish. Then it was time to ring my Dearly Beloved to tell her there was no need to look out the life insurance policies as I was still alive and kicking (she does worry, you know). Of course I told her that I had a few fish, but no big ones, and she told me to put on a mussel, which I duly did.

Five minutes later I was netting a 5 lb mirror. How Does She Do That? I found another one or two by dragging the bait right into the reeds in the right margin, and then tried the left margin, where I had to fish beyond the reeds. That was much deeper and produced only one 2 lb F1, and that was foulhooked!

I build up a rhythm
Back to the right margin and slowly I built up a rhythm, though I had to put in bait after every fish, and sometimes they took a long time to come back into the swim. My best spell was when I used my special method, which resulted in some nice carp over 5 lb on mussel. One of these, a beautiful common, stripped the 16-18 Matrix elastic out do far that the fish surfaced and splashed almost in front of a very surprised Dave, who was two swims away! But I talked to it nicely and it ended in my keepnet. 

The left margin - platform 19 is hidden there somewhere,
but I could have fished there with a little difficulty.

Then I put on a very big piece of cat meat and had two seven-pounders in two casts from the slightly deeper water a metre or so farther out from where I had been putting in bait. Meanwhile Dave Hobbs seemed to also be finding fish in the margins, after a quiet spell.

Again I found that not putting in mainly hemp, 6mm pellets and some halves of mussel, and no more than a couple of grains of corn, kept the roach bites down to a minimum, though some F1s snaffled the mussel. The last fish came out about two minutes before the end and by this time I was getting bites quite quickly, so hoped to have another before the end. BUT the hook had gone through the lip somehow, and had caught in the landing net mesh. 

Mike Rawson included bream and a good barbel on peg 13.

I have to cut the line
I couldn't see exactly where the hook was, so tried to turn the fish over, only to feel the hook prick my hand. It was somewhere underneath the fish, which I just couldn't turn over without risking my hand being hooked. So I had no option but to cut the line (the hook was tied direct), put the fish in the net, and extract the hook from the mesh. Then I needed to tie on another hook.

Out came the size 12 Drennan Wide-gape Specialist hook, which I whipped on quickly, though it took me several seconds longer than usual because  my hands were wet, and when I finally dropped the mussel bait back there were only seconds before the match ended. An opportunity missed, I felt. Would it be important? 

Thinking about it, I had another similar rig behind me and should have just picked that up, of course. 

Sean Buddle on 11, like most of the anglers in the early pegs,
 could find only small F1s most of the time.  

The weigh in

Dave Hobbs said he had about 80 lb and I said I thought I had at least 80 lb, possibly 90 lb. Then after taking some stuff back to the van I wandered along to meet the scales. I was amazed that the early pegs had all fished hard, with Peter Harrison leading on 72 lb 13 oz, and Trevor Cousins saying he was really cold in the wind on peg 8, where he had 56 lb 12 oz.

 My mate Martin Parker, who is coming with me next week to the Veterans National on Partridge Lakes (he having won in the past on the Grand Union Canal) was on peg 1, which was really fancied, and ended with just 28 lb 4 oz. I watched Sean Buddle weigh in, and he had mainly small F1s for 61 lb 4 oz. Then Mike Rawson, who had an assortment, including bream and a barbel, but no biggish carp, in his 23 lb 7 oz.

The weights kept on being fairly low, until I weighed in 102 lb 11 oz, including my last three fish which went 21 lb - fish that seemed to be sparse in the early pegs. Then Dave Hobbs had 87 lb 6 oz, and it was round to the last two pegs, which are traditionally good - 24 and 25.

Dick Warrener - 59 lb 8 oz from peg 24. Very
frustrating when you have to watch the angler
next to you bagging all day!

Dick Warrener's catch on 24 was 59 lb 8 oz, enough for sixth spot, but Bob on 25 had really done the business. He totalled 120 lb 15 oz and took home the top pool and £101 Golden Peg money. And I finished second again.

Marks out of ten

This is difficult, as although I didn't do anything stupid I felt, afterwards, that I should have had another two or three rigs made up that I could have tried in the margins - set for the exact depths right in the side and also in the deeper water, which was to my left - the lake bed was sloping that way, it seemed. I realised I had actually ignored the water to my left, apart from one spot very close in, and I had intended to try next to the unoccupied platform 19, to my left, but never did. Neither did I use change baits I had with me. So I award myself 6/10, even though I had what I thought was really a good result.

Weighing in Bob Allen's winning catch on peg 25 - a lovely-looking swim.
 Bob is in the yellow, and has eyes in the back of his head.

Next match hopefully Friday in the Over-55s somewhere on Decoy, if they will have me!

THE RESULT

1    Martin Parker        28 lb 4 oz

2 John Garner             35 lb 11 oz

4 Peter Harrison          72 lb 13 oz      4th

5 Mick Ramm             13 lb 12 oz

7 Neil Paas                  23 lb 9 oz

8 Trevor Cousins        56 lb 12 oz

10 Wendy Bedford     23 lb 1 oz

11 Sean Buddle          61 lb 4 oz        5th

13 Mike Rawson        23 lb 7 oz

15 Joe Bedford          20 lb 7 oz

16 Peter Chilton        39 lb 14 oz

18 Bob Barrett           23 lb 15 oz

20 Mac Campbell    102 lb 11 oz      2nd

22 Dave Hobbs          87 lb 6 oz        3rd

24 Dick Warrener      59 lb 8 oz    

25 Bob Allen            120 lb 15 oz      1st

A video helps me catch on Lou's Lake.

 Peg 8, Lou's, Decoy
Ten of us, all waterproofed up against high winds and rain to come, sat sitting on Lou's Lake like gnomes, waiting for the match to start,  while I mulled over what Dave Garner had said earlier. Basically it was that he didn't fancy peg 6, because there wasn't much room between that platform and peg 7 to the right.

What I found so amusing (though, to be honest, also understandable) was that peg 6 on Lous Lake, Decoy, has probably won more big matches in the last few years than any other peg in the whole of the UK! It's the sort of swim match anglers dream about. It's the ultimate Flier! The left margin is fine - plenty of cover in the form of a big reed bed, and the only time I fished the peg I won it on the pole fishing there.

BUT the huge weights are more often taken by anglers fishing a feeder or bomb across to the far bank, or the corner, while means making an accurate cast of over 50 yards. That tactic has won the last two Winter League finals, as well as other big-money events. And Dave's problem was that he fishes only with rods and normal wagglers - I've never seen him with a feeder rod and doubt if he has one.

The draw team - Callum (left) holds the tin of names; John prepares to write down the
draw; Mel takes his number out of the bag and shows it to the assembled company (ie: us 
scruffy anglers); and finally he deposits his balls into Allan Golightly's hands.

Not that Dave doesn't know what he is doing, because he most certainly does - he's won our club championship in the past and is rarely out of the frame. And actually, I was glad that he had that swim, armed with only float rods and little wagglers, because it stopped anyone else casting into the shoals of carp that inhabit that corner 50 yards away, where there's also always the chance of landing your tackle in the reeds and losing the lot.

So what did I think of my home for the day? I'd seem Zak Worby take bream and carp from the aerator 25 years away on the opposite bank, in a Winter League, for second place when I was on peg 10 (the match was won by Mark Sawyer on peg 6). And today I was quite happy to cast a feeder over to that aerator, though in fact I started on the pole, because I reasoned that the wind, which was blowing fiercely into my face from the right, would increase later and I might as well have a quick look on the pole line early on.

Lots of wind, some sun, and the rain was to follow. Actually I welcomed the rain because
we've had so little lately and my beetroot and runner beans could do with plenty.

Peg 5 was vacant, as were 12 to 15, with Kevin Lee sitting on end peg 11, round the corner to my right, where the water was calm. I thought he might struggle, until the wind dropped and in the bright sunlight I could see dozens of carp, just under the surface, over the far side, all drifting towards that end on the lake peg 15, when I suspected that at some point in the day they would drift back towards Kevin, who was quite capable of  filling a few nets, as he has done many times.

A nightmare start
To my right on 9, also facing the wind, sat Dave Hobbs, and on my left Callum Judge on 7 who, like me, started on the pole. I had bites on 2+2 immediately, on a hard pellet, but soon realised that having potted in some pellets and hemp and corn, it had brought in roach, which were a nightmare, and pulled my pellet and corn baits about while hardly ever actually eating them. I actually foulhooked a good fish second cast, which came off, but wasted the next 45 minutes trying to find another, without success.

Five minutes after the start I turned round to see Dave Garner on
 peg 6 already playing a big carp on his waggler rod.

Fish on the feeder

Next I saw Callum, now on the feeder, take a couple of fish and I changed over, casting to the aerator, about ten feet from the far bank, with a hybrid feeder, micros, and an 8mm Robin Red pellet. That quickly brought five small carp, best 3 lb, immediately, and after the inevitable lull I looked in the right margin, with a pole, just to get a feel of what it was like. Unfortunately I'd already put some corn in there and the roach were having a field day, making me wish I'd brought some maggots with me, as a couple of the roach came in at 6 oz, though I missed almost every other bite.

Back on the feeder and a couple more fish came in, but halfway through the match I had only about 20 lb, while Callum had started to hammer fish on the pole line and must have had around 50 lb. Dave Hobbs, though, appeared to be really struggling, though I think he had had a couple of small carp. But I followed Callum again and went out on the pole.

Callum really bagging
Now Callum was drawing ahead of me minute by minute, while I could find no more than a couple of small F1s on my long pole line, which was now out to top two plus three as the wind wasn't too bad. And at this point I remembered something that Ben Townsend had said in a recent video while fishing on Float Fish Farm admittedly in in colder weather: "See which way hooked fish swim, and that's where the majority of your fish will be."

Callum nets yet another fish on his feeder rig on peg 6. Note that the wind was
 so strong it has tilted the bank and water downwards at an angle!

My fish hooked on the feeder had all immediately swum left, and most had, in fact, probably gone into Callum's swim - when you hook fish 25 yards away and you're only four metres away from the next angler, it takes only a couple of seconds for a fish to shoot sideways and cause havoc. Luckily only one fish fouled his gear slightly, and that came off with no harm done. 

So, applying that logic to the pole swim I went out, using mussel, with no bait put in, just a couple of metres to the left  of where I had been fishing, towards Callum, and voila the fish were there!

In the next couple of hours I would take perhaps three fish to 4 lb from that swim, then switch to the right margin for one or two more, before going out again - all without putting in any loosefeed. The swim directly in front of me produced not a single carp - but two metres to the left and I would get a fish, eventually.

Here's comes the rain
The black skies emptied on us a couple of time, with no chance of having an umbrella up, and then the sun would come out, the temperature would rocket, and I'd have to undo my waterproof jacket, before zipping it up for the next shower. And the fish stayed around, come rain or shine.

Gradually I began to catch up Callum, and a good spell in the side saw fish to 7 lb come out, all on mussel, as corn still got lots of little pulls from roach. The carp were, in fact, messing about with the mussel as well, but eventually one would virtually hook itself. All very enjoyable. 

Dave Hobbs, on my right, struggled all day, but found a few carp towards the end of the match.

I hadn't lost a fish, except that very first one foulhooked, until ten minutes from time, when I lost three in a row before landing the last one which I was still playing when the match ended - the biggest of the day at 8 lb. Dave Hobbs had found a few fish towards the end, and though Callum's catch rate had slowed, I guessed he was still well ahead of me, and that he probably had 150 lb...an estimate which was about as good as the estimates I have been making recently - in other words carp  crap!

Dave Garner had a few bigger fish in his 69 lb 4 oz catch on cat meat.

The weigh in
As usual I took so long packing away the various baits I had taken and not used, and taking the back off my seat that I missed the first four weighing in, but was amazed when I saw that the best weight was only 35 lb from John Smith on 2. I had really fancied those pegs, which had a backish wind, but still had ripple.

Next, Dave Garner took the lead with 69 lb 4 oz, taken on his waggler and double cat meat, though he had lost a fish or two. And so to Callum, whose estimated 150 lb (by me) actually went...98 lb 4 oz.

Then the scales came to me. I had clicked 35 lb in my first two nets with just four fish in the third net. The first two went (hangs head in shame) 45 lb and 48 lb, with 17 lb in the last net - total 110 lb 10 oz. But Kevin Lee, last to weigh, had four nets in, for 153 lb 6 oz and was declared the winner. He is just so good if there are carp anywhere near him. Well done, again, Kevin. You make it look so easy... And the results sheet showed that I'd got at least one estimate correct - I was second. 😁

Callum's third-placed catch of 98 lb 4 oz, taken on mussel.

Me, with one of my 35 lb-clicked nets, one of which weighed 48 lb!

Dick Warrener continued a good recent run with 80 lb 13 oz for fourth.

Kevin Lee - yet another win, with 153 lb 6 oz. He's our club's version of Dynamo The Magician.

So all the best weights came from the end bank and the righthand bank, which is pretty unusual for this lake. As we get older we realise that we know even less than we thought we did!

Marks out of ten

I was pleased I had the feeder rod ready, and actually used it. The only bad "mistake" I made was putting in feed before I fished the two pole swims, but I learned from that, and put in feed later, mainly hemp and a few 6mm pellets (which gave the roach less to mess about with) only when I knew the better fish were in the swim. I tried the margins sooner than I often do, which seems to be important now, despite all the "experts" in magazines and videos saying they should be left until the last two hours. In addition I had reasonably-correct elastics on (mainly Matrix 16-18) and lost only those three fish at the end. So I give myself a fairly generous 8/10 for "trying harder"

Next day would be a Spratts match on Willows, and if the wild wind stayed in the same quarter a lot of us in the first dozen pegs would have back wind, though I remember John Smith winning one match there last season somewhere around 20. But peg 25 on Willows is another huge flier, and if it was in, whoever was there would be a massive favourite.

THE RESULT

Beaten by the wind and reeds

Peg 35, Jay, Pidley, Wed, July 12
I entered the Over 60s at Rookery Farm Fishery, Pidley, held on Crow and Jay; I would have preferred Crow, but Jay 35 has done well lately. The day was dominated by the wind - before the match I could have fished 13 metres to the far bank, but by the time I had plumbed up the margin, the wind had increased so much that the far bank was out of the question. The margin was about 32 inches deep and the deepest part of the lake was at the front of the platform, no more than six inches deeper.

Three of us, on pegs 33, 35 and 36 were in the same boat, but to our right Steve Tilsley on 31 and Keith Rayment on 29 had some shelter, while on the corner to our left the legend that is Pete Holland on 38 had the option of turning to his left and fishing back wind to the far bank, which he did! Still, I was happy to be back among anglers I haven't seen for some time, like Ron Clarke, as my Wednesdays always seem to have been taken up by something else.

This was my swim after the match had finished, and the wind had just dropped!

An early fish

I'd decided to fish mainly with luncheon meat or corn, and started on the meat about three sections out. Second drop a 1 lb F1 came in, and I was away. Err, actually I waited for ages for a second fish. The wind increased and Cliff Bellvue on my left had to shorten his original line, though I think he had had a fish or two in the first couple of hours.

I had a look in the margin four sections to my left, against the reeds (which extended about a metre from the bank) and even tried caster shallow there, and in front of me, without a touch of any kind. A switch to the right marginal reeds, brought three more F1s, and by that time the match was half over. with five F1s in the net, I wandered up to Steve Tilsley, who said he had six or seven F1s and a couple of small carp, so I though that perhaps most were struggling.

Fish right in the margin
Back at my swim I dropped my rig, with corn, a little nearer to the bank, in the small cut-back next to the platform. Thirty seconds later I had a bite, struck, and within half a second the reeds three or four metres along the bank were thrashing about, and I my elastic was pointing towards them. I had to get up and fetch my long hook to get at least the elastic back, and in fact eventually I got the rig back, minus the hook.

My right margin - there was only five feet from the platform
to the reeds leaning out, at the far end of the cut-back. 
 The better fish were hanging out near to them.

But there were obviously fish there, and at that time I saw a solitary carp next to the bank in the left cut-back, so decided to concentrate on the water behind me, on both sides, but got out a top with 20 elastic. Into the right margin again, and I'd tightened the elastic a little with the puller bead. Next bite saw me pull hard, and although the fish fouled one of the straggling reeds away from the bank, it came in. About 4 lb.

The next hour saw me gradually tighten the elastic on that 20 until (no word of a lie) I had well over two feet pulled through the bead. In that time I'd hit about four fish around 6 lb-plus, and lost two. Next fish pulled about three inches of elastic out, but I got it in - around 7 lb, though it took some time once it was in open water. To rest that swim I went into the left cut-back, but with my 16-18 set normally, as the reeds there were in a straight line with no stragglers that the fish could get behind. 

Vitacat cat meat
Sure enough I managed another two or three there, with small portions of cat meat a bit better than the corn, I've 'discovered' these recently - they come in a sachet covered in foreign writing, and are about the size of a grain of corn, but quite hard. The last lot I got were Vitacat. They are much easier to use than the big lumps, and don't need a baiting needle to get them on the hook - hook them like corn.

At one point I decided that mussel would probably tempt these carp to take the bait more confidently, because I was waiting for ten or 15 minutes between fish. Cliff Bellvue had seen me hook (and lose) fish in the side and was now catching fish there himself. So I thought about where I had put the mussels, only to realise I hadn't! I'd left them in the freezer...

To be honest I don't know whether they would have been any better, though sometimes a big bait works better than a small one when the fish are finicky. Anyway, I'll never know, and carried on hooking the occasional fish, with a couple on double corn. The disturbance guiding the hooked fish through the reeds didn't help, either. I decided against going back out in front of me, and I saw Cliff didn't go out, either. By the end, because here you use all three nets, and split the fish, I thought I had around 40 lb but wasn't sure.

A kingfisher?
The only frisson of extra excitement was an hour from the end when Steve Tilsley came along, having packed up, and said he thought he'd seen a kingfisher in my swim as he walked along. Then he said he realised it was me waving about the new, turquoise-coloured Drennan cupping pot I've just brought, after breaking my cupping kit last week. I know, we should get out more!

Match ended
I had a horrible feeling that the anglers who weren't hampered by the wind, and who had the option of fishing the far bank, or at least against the far shelf, would do better, and that was certainly largely true. But I wrote in the last blog that I would be happy to beat the angler to one side of me, and that's how it worked out.

Cliff Bellvue was on my left. I remembered him being
on the next peg to me on Crow two Winters ago, and he 
remembered me, and even my name!

On peg 33 the angler Ivan had 81 lb 8 oz, while I totalled 78 lb 6 oz (which led James German, who was weighing, to sarcastically mutter 'Forty Pounds' as he returned one bag of fish), with Cliff on 49 lb 4 oz. So I had beaten one and only just lost out to the other. But in the corner on 38 Pete Holland had indeed caught fish to his left on the far bank, and added a load more in the last hour from the margins for a match-winning 182 lb 4 oz. Superb - he's been on this fantastic roll for years...

Second on 3 was Sean Buddle, who told me he had fished at 11 metres, so there must have been a small amount of shelter along that bank, and Sean took advantage of that. As I've written before, angling is like poker - you've got to take full advantage of your luck when you get any, and despite what they may think EVERYONE gets lucky occasionally.

No sooner had Cliff weighed in than the rain, which had held off all day, came down heavily, and I managed only a shot of Pete Holland weighing in - even I hadn't got enough cheek to ask him to pose with fish in the downpour while James, just in shirt and shorts, waited and got even wetter!

I ended 14th out of 23 on the lake, which for me is good, against an army of regulars.

Overall winner Peter Holland had time to slip his waterproofs
on before weighing - but James was stuck in his shirt and shorts!

Crow was won by regular Dave Lack with 123 lb 10 oz on 15. The wind there must have been even worse than on Jay, as Crow is so exposed.

Next match Sunday on Lous' Lake at Decoy, followed on Monday by Willows. On Lou's the 'hot' peg is 6, but I'm not sure whether it fishes the same in Summer as in Winter, when you cast a feeder or bomb about 40 yards to the far bank reeds, trying not to hook them. However I do know that it can fish well on the pole, as can 1 and 7, on their days. That's assuming I've not been called in for my operation - looks to me like the doctors' and consultants' strikes have paused some of the non-life-threatening admissions for the moment.

Marks out of 10

I give myself a boring 7/10 for leaving the mussels behind and not having a look in the margins much earlier. I'm having a side puller put into a new short top, and with a strong elastic on there I think I will be better off if I get another swim there there are carp near snags - they don't fight as much on the stiff top. But on the day, in that swim, I think I did sort of OK. The results on Jay often depend on how the wind affects the swims. At least I found out where the fish were, even if I couldn't land them all. I probably lost seven or eight, perhaps averaging 6 lb. 

THE RESULTS

JAY  1-21

JAY 23-47

CROW 1-13

CROW 14-25

I get my annual thrashing, on Oak

 Peg 7, Oak, Sunday, July 9
Actually I wasn't thrashed badly, but being beaten both sides is not a happy experience, as any match angler will understand; and it began minutes after the match started. I had, as I last wrote, left the feeder rod in the van because my back was still playing up, and I wanted to move about as little as possible tackling up and packing away. Within minutes I sort of regretted that, when I saw the rod of Mel Lutkin, on my right, bending into a big fish, taken on a Method feeder.

My swim, with a shallow right margin - if you look closely where the bank sticks out

a little you can see, at the end of the video, a white stone on the bottom.

A couple more followed, and then Kevin Lee, on my left, landed a big fish hooked in the margins. I, meanwhile, was still trying to catch shallow on banded caster, with no success. No swirls, no liners, no nothing. The lake is surprisingly shallow - I couldn't find three feet anywhere, and neither could Kevin. The only shallower margin I had was about nine inches deep, and I could see the bottom. Hoping that there were more fish close in, I changed to corn down the side reeds, which was 32 inches deep - a little deeper than farther out..

It wasn't long before Mel Lutkin was in action on a feeder.

I am soon a long way behind
For the next 45 minutes or more neither I nor Kevin had a fish, but Mel had a couple more. Then, at roughly the same time, Kevin and I went out to about ten metres, where I tried cat meat, mussel and corn. In the next couple of hours Kevin had five or six more, on cat meat, and I had one 3 lb fish on corn. A switch to the inside, just off the reeds, and about three metres from the side bank,  brought me a quick four-pounder on mussel (which led to me wasting a lot more time trying mussel in all the swims), then no more,  nd halfway through I had just those two fish.

How does she do that?
As usual I spoke to my wife at 1 o'clock, and she asked what bait I was fishing - I said mussel at the moment, and she laughed and said that the fish were feeding on sweetcorn. Now I have learned, over 52 years, that my wife is never, ever, wrong. Actually there was one occasion when she was wrong, but I can't remember what it was, as I fainted. But do not imply that I think she is a witch...

Kevin Lee, to my left on peg 8, soon found big carp on cat meat...

Back to corn

Anyway, half an hour later I switched back to corn, at 10 metres, and in the next hour had lots of liners and two more fish. I went out to 13 metres, came into the side, and even dumped dead maggots in the right margin, in about two feet of water on a little ledge - nothing except one bite which must have been a liner. About 90 minutes to go, and both Mel and Kevin had had several more fish - I was being banjoed.

So I went out on the old 2+1, which was only a metre farther out than the reed swim, trickling in half-a-dozen grains of corn and letting the strong undertow just drag a grain slowly, along the bottom. Amazingly the float dipped first drop, and a six-pounder came in. After that I had a bite or indication most casts, lost one foulhooked, and landed six or seven up to about 7 lb.

...and here it is - a lovely light-coloured common.

Difficult to unhook

I lost one fish that looked about 8 lb trying to land it too quickly - some had come in very quickly on the short top, but others seemed to have sudden bursts of energy when they saw the landing net. There is always a problem, of course, when you can persuade a fish to come in quickly - they are terribly difficult to unhook, as they are still full of life. My fingernails have to be kept short as they split, thanks to the heavy dose of thyroxine I am on, and I have to use a disgorger or forceps almost every time. C'est la vie.

Then another big fish came in, almost in the net, but went off again into the middle of the lake. That happened several times and it suddenly dawned on me that it was probably foulhooked. Finally it took off like Usain Bolt and took my rig with it!.

A last-second fish

I quickly picked up a spare rig after I lost that one, and with only seconds left filled the cup with corn, dropped my rig over the top, and yes! The float dipped and I was playing the best fish of the day when the match ended, and I was able to shout "Fish On," which always gives me a certain mischevious sense of satisfaction - almost gamesmanship 😁. That fish was over 10 lb. But I knew I had been well beaten on both sides. I estimated I had about 80 lb.

Sean Buddle with the best of his 11 fish for 118 lb 13 oz.

 Even now I don't understand why I couldn't catch. I felt a bit better when I got home and had a look at a recent JV  match on that bank, to see that the lowest weight was from Peter Harrison, also on peg 7.

The weigh in

It became apparent that quite a lot of fish had been caught. First to weigh was Callum Judge, in the corner on peg 1, who told me before the match started, that he had caught fish from that swim before, and he remembered that he had fished well out, just away from the tree. He did it again, using mussel, and weighed in a magnificent 186 lb 11 oz. I had had a walk up to Callum before the match started, and he and John Smith next door, definitely had more water there than Kevin and I did - about four feet.

But the talk was of more fish at the other end, where Dave Hobbs was in the corner, next to Dick Warrener, who said he had 150 lb. On 5 Sean Buddle had 113 lb and Mel Lutkin weighed in 96 lb 9 oz. I totalled 87 lb 3 oz - not as bad a beating that side as I had feared.

Sean No 2 (I suppose he has got a name) just
missed out on weighing the 'ton.'

Kevin had 142 lb 9 oz, Allan Golightly 131 lb 5 oz (after apparently having the most incredible first hour), and Dick Warrener had 152 lb 4 oz, using mussel. 

Then there was a bit of drama in corner peg 15, as Dave Hobbs' four nets were totalled and checked. Beaten by 1 lb 8 oz by Callum Judge, Dave's catch, taken on mussel, came to 185 lb 3 oz for second place - the latest in a run of good catches by Dave. So several fine performances in this Fenland Rods club match - six over 100 lb out of the 11 who fished. And I finished ninth. It's not often I am beaten both sides in a club match, and usually I know what I did wrong, but not today, though if I had just gone out that extra metre from the reeds earlier it might have paid dividends.

Marks out of ten
I give myself 8/10, which looks generous because I finished well down, but at least I had a good finish, and if I had landed the two fish that got away I would have had well over 100 lb. And my fish seemed mainly to be smaller than those caught by everybody else. You can't win 'em all.

Allan Golightly looked as if he was going to empty the lake in the first hour,
but had to be content with 'only' 131 lb 5 oz.

Dick Warrener had 162 lb and still came only third.

Runner-up Dave Hobbs, 185 lb 3 oz, beaten by 1 lb 8 oz. 😞

The winner - Callum Judge from peg 1 - 186 lb 11 oz. Well done, mate! 😁

My next match will be my first at Rookery Farm Fishery for many months, in the Over 60s, which has some fine anglers who fish it regularly. I will be satisfied if I beat just one angler beside me, as I am not a regular there. It's on Crow and Jay, and I fancy Crow, which is likely to have wind on it, while Jay usually has some pegs that are calm. From recent results both may hold fish in the margins, which I must have a look at early.

THE RESULT