Commercial Matchman: Coming from behind to frame, despite the wrong trousers on Six-Island

Peg 15, Six-Island Lake
I have long wondered whether Mrs Mac has some sort of supernatural connections - she always knows where I have left my keys, knows when I have surreptitiously nicked a biscuit when she wasn't looking, and recently she seems to have influenced my fishing. There was the famous occasion, very recently, when she told me, during my mid-day phone call, to change my bait to mussel, which immediately worked. Now in this match, I was fishless after three hours, and when I rang to report this her immediate answer was: "You've got the wrong trousers."

Images of Wallace and Gromit sped into my poor little brain, but then I realised that I had, indeed, put my old, grubby, grey fishing trousers out to be washed, and was wearing some clean, blue ones, though held up with the same pair of smart, red braces. "That must be the answer," I thought, and immediately told the fishes (quietly in case the othe anglers thought I was bonkers) that it really was me - but wearing different trousers.

Within 15 minutes, the first of a dozen nice carp came sliding slowly into my waiting landing net. How Does She Do It?

My right margin looked great, but didn't produce much.

The match
Back to the start - 12 of us were on Six-Island lake, pegs 13 to 25 (24 was not drawn) and the wind was putting a fair raspberry ripple on all the pegs except the three in our corner - 14 to 16. Later it changed, and for a time we had a little bit of a blow on our pegs, but for much of the day it was calm, and overcast..

I had a small bush just to my right, and beyond that was Dave Hobbs. I started on a feeder to the small island about 20 metres away, and changed to corn pole-fished in front of the bush, where I had seen a fish roll. Two bites there resulted in two fish foulhooked and lost, while Dave had two early carp in the margin, right against the bank, in about 12 inches of water, and to his right I heard Mike Rawson landing a fish. Either that or he was taking an early dip!

Round the corner to my left, Kev Lee was still fishless at half time, but to his left Shaun McKenna had several fish on a pole and then feeder. Kev told me he had put our a feeder for an hour,without even a liner.

My left margin, where most of my fish came from.

An early look
I felt I had to have a look in the margins, earlier than I had planned, but I got the impression that fish were moving there and not feeding. I looked along the bank to my left, with just the odd liner, and in front at five metres,

Then the phone call, and I changed to a top two, using my special method. It was difficult to use it properly, because of the conditions, but I bumbled along as best as I could, and 20 minutes after Dearly Beloved had rung off, I had that first carp on corn, about 7 lb.

I fished that same method for most of the rest of the match, using mussel over micros and hemp to take several more, best which must have been 14 lb. But the fish kept knocking the bait, and pulling it to pieces without taking it into their mouths. Two or three were hooked on the outside of the mouth, and two more were foulhooked, even though I tried desperately to strike only at what looked like a definite 'proper' bite. I thought the answer might be a smaller bait, like the cockles I had with me. So I took out the jar of cockles...and couldn't get the bloody top off!

Dave Hobbs' first fish, taken with his float almost touching the grass.

Like Old Mother Hubbard
I grimaced and grunted, but it wouldn't move, so back in the bag it went. Two or three more carp came in - all from he left margin in about 18 inches of water, although I was baiting the right margin as well, and clouds of mud were coming up from both. But the right margin, like Mrs Hubbard's cupboard, was bare. And the fish from the left margin weren't quick - I was getting about one every 20 minutes.

Across the corner from me Shaun McKenna had several early fish.

One, last despairing try at releasing the cockle lid was successful when I had thoroughly dried my hands and tried the old trick of reversing my left hand on the lid (ie thumb downwards). On went a cockle, and up came another carp, from the right margin! Just Like That!

Last fish landed late

But the method wasn't working particularly well with cockloe on the hook, so I reverted to mussel for the last fish, which I landed after the whistle - around 8 lb from the left margin. Using the short top and extending my landing net handle to the full four metres, helped me land most of them quite quickly. I had ended with 12 carp, for an estimated 80 lb, while Dave Hobbs said he had about 40 lb.

At last - Kevin Lee lands his first fish, which he had waited for three hours to hook.

Kevin Lee on 16 had his first fish at 1 pm, but hadn't had a lot after that. However, Shaun on 17 certainly had more than me. I had spoken to Kevin Lee while we were waiting for the match to start, and said that everytime I had fished on Six-Island lake peg 17 seemed to have produced fish, and I rated it one of the most consistent swims on the lake - I have had it twice and managed to win both times.

John Smith watches while Kevin and Mel confirm the weight.

Today it had a bit of a ripple, as the wind was tending to blow from our corner past 17 and up to 24 and 25. But Shaun did himself proud, especially as I don't think he has fished much at Decoy, and had certainly never fished there before.

The weigh-in
I had several different rigs to pack away, and an assortment of baits, and as usual was way behind most of the others. By the time I arrived at the scales several had been weighed in, and John Smith was putting his 52 lb 14 oz on the scales. I glanced at the weigh board, saw the top so far was 75 lb 4 oz, and said I though I could beat that. I was surprised, though, to see that the windiest swims, in the highest numbers, had really struggled, including Peter Spriggs, who could catch fish in an old soup can!

Shaun McKenna - the winner with 98 lb 7 oz after a very good start.

Then the scales moved to Shaun McKenna, who had had at least seven fish before I had my first one. I doubted whether I had been able to make up that deficit in the second half, though I had been concentrating so much I had seen him land only a couple of fish in the afternoon. But I think for most, the last half of the match was the best. Indeed, as I had guessed, he totalled 98 lb 7 oz for the win. Well done, Shaun.

Kevin Lee had 37 lb 11 oz, which was another surprising result, as he rarely fails to bag up. Then to me, where my 12 carp went 83 lb 7 oz, which held me in second place to the end of the match. Thanks to my Different Trousers. Now I have to make a decision about which trousers to wear for the next one. Decisions, decisions.

Kevin Lee had a really terrible start, like me.

Marks out of 10

I think I was worth 8. I did try different baits on and off (none made a difference) and I managed to land all the fish that were properly hooked (including those hooked outside the mouth). I was pleased the cockle took a fish, and I did try small pieces of cat meat from a sachet, even though they didn't take any fish, and in fact didn't seem to be as attractive, because I got hardly any knocks at all. That made me think that when I had what looked like a liner the fish were really going for the bait.

Sport was really very slow, with no ripple at all in the afternoon, and I felt all afternoon that if I had a really good spell for a quarter of an hour I could really add on some weight. Unfortunately that purple patch didn't happen - the fish wouldn't take a bait which was stationary for more than about 30 seconds, and most took it within two or three seconds of it hitting bottom or when I was dragging it into the side, right against the grass. And there was only one occasion when I took a fish immediately after landing one. Switching margins should have speeded up my catch rate, but for some reason that right margin just didn't work.