Christmas Eve on the Beastie

Peg 9, Sunday, Dec 24
Well, would you Christmas Eve it? Another good peg (literally, since JV use clothes pegs) stuck to my fingers - 9 on Beastie, with half of the field going to Willows. I've always liked Beastie peg 9, and I've never fished it without framing. Famous Last Words!

To be fair, the back of the spit, where Shaun Coaten and I were drawn, is something of an unknown quantity in the Winter - it can be great or ungreat (if there is such a word). But at least we had back-gale, from the left, while those on the early pegs, facing into the wind, could hardly hold a top two! And it was mild as well. And I had some advice from Tony Evans beforehand. What could possibly go wrong?

The bomb bombed...
This won't take long. I started on bomb and bread cast across and to the right, opposite where Tony reminded me there used to be a tree. Shaun, to my right on 12, also started on a bomb. I had two big liners, but no fish and after 40 minutes tried to have a look across the channel under the bridge, to the reeds, with corn (being positive, you see.) It was possible to present a bait reasonably on a pole for about 40 seconds, sometimes, before the wind hurled me round to the right, as if I was on a waltzer. Shaun also changed to a pole at about the same time, also fishless I believe.

Peg 9. The fierce wind was blowing over the bridge, making it impossible to properly
present a bait to the reed bed on the other side of the bridge.

I did eventually manage to foulhook a gudgeon! But after another 40 minutes I had to admit defeat, and went out in front of me at about 10 metres on corn and expander. That brought absolutely nothing. So I had a look with maggot and first drop a roach took the bait. Then a gudgeon, then another gudgeon, then another sudgeon...

It was enjoyable, but with the match now almost halfway through I had to catch something bigger. A move on a top two in front of me saw more roach, but at least they were approaching 1 oz each! Then something bigger, which turned out to be a foulhooked F1 of 1 lb. That encouraged me to stay there for too long, with no more F1s. So out to 10 metres, and soon a 2 lb bream came in, which encouraged me to stay there too long...

Last half-hour was best
Back in the side and it was tiny perch, roach or gudgeon on the maggot, and I tried putting on white maggots (lesson learned from last week) for bream. With half an hour to go I suddenly had a couple of 2 lb bream, and then hit a REALLY big fish which took me round under the bridge. I never felt that the pole would break, but eventually that fish came off. Soon another decent fish stretched out the 13 hollow elastic, but that came off as well, and one more bream of 1 lb came in before the match ended.

Earlier I fancied I had a knock when I went out with corn on a top four to my right, close to the reeds. I was still trying to stay positive, and aiming for carp, rather than roach. I stayed there too long, but had the feeling that there were carp there. Afterwards I realised I should have switched to maggot, as it seemed that everyone on Beastie had used it almost all day.

Shaun Coaten's 29 lb 10 oz ogf F1s and 'bits' from peg 12.
Blame the blurring on me, wind, and bad light!!

The weigh-in.

I weighed in 13 lb 8 oz, which was last on the lake. Shaun Coaten said he had about 10 lb of 'bits' and 20 lb of F1s, and indeed he was almost spot on - 29 lb 10 oz, all taken on a top two on the corner of the reed bed to his right. Peg 9 doesn't have reeds like that, and in that wind fishing to the nearest easily-reached reed bed, about eight metres to my right, made no sense, since I wouldn't have been able to see the float properly in the poor light and wind.

Eddie McIlroy was top weight up to us - he was in the wind on 5 and fished the maggot feeder about 8 metres out, for 59 lb 10 oz. Ernie Lowbridge  on 24 won Beastie with 84 lb 12 oz - not sure how he fished. Tony Evans won Willows from peg 19, fishing not far out, with maggot, with the wind, ie to his right, with wind from his left.

Marks out of ten
Although I was last on the lake I am not yet properly clued up for fishing maggot , so I give myself a generous 6. I don't think that I could have won from peg 9, though doubtless most of the others would have had more than me. At least I fished positively for the first half of the match, and managed to weigh in, while just that one biggest lost fish (which might have been foulhooked) would have taken me over 20 lb - the fish in this area can be very big indeed.

Next match on Sunday, with the exact lake unknown. Looking forward to it, but I have to get maggots first, since I think the shop on site will be closed. I'm not expecting sport to be very good, no matter how mild it is, but I will be at least able to use the shiny new 10-foot N-Guage feeder rod my daughter and son-in-law bought me for Christmas. What's not to like?

THE RESULT

Beastie (tie for section win)

Willows

Great peg - but a blow-out on Magpie...

Peg 33, Wed, Dec 20
It was a Christmas miracle - Magpie 33, on the island, stuck to my fingers. The peg everyone would have picked. "It's black with fish" said Alex in the shop. "Just tap in maggots at 13 metres". Which is what I did. It was the annual "bring a prize" Over 60s Christmas event, on Magpie and Jay, and Magpie has been fishing better.

Peg 33 is a lovely-looking swim, with an island at about 20 metres, though I remembered that recently Rob Heath, on my left today, had taken 25 lb from it,  while Ben Townsend had had over 100 lb on peg 34. So catching fish wasn't certain.

Peg 33 - with a cracking new, large, metal platform.

A bad first hour

Chris Clark from Sudbury on his first visit to Rookery Farm Fishery, was on my right on 34. And after a hour or so none of the three of us had had a fish! The water was very clear and almost flat calm, but overcast and not cold. What had gone wrong? It appears that the fish which had been in these pegs for weeks had moved back to the previously-favoured areas for a time.

My little size 16 hook with two reds did attract a liner or two; then I hit a fish, as I lifted the rig out to lay it in again. That came off after a few seconds, probably foulhooked. In the next three hours I lost three more, one of which I saw, and it didn't appear to be foulhooked before it came off. I played another for several minutes without ever seeing it before that also waved me goodbye. I had learned a lesson from Sunday, and had some white maggots as well (though a fat lot of good they did me!)

A second swim
I had a second swim at 10 metres a little to my right, which I fed and fished with 4mm expanders. Everything there looked great, and I felt confident that if there were fish there I would get bites, but although I looked in that swim several times I had just one tiny knock, and the expander wasn't touched.

Chris went on to a bomb at one time and caught a fish, and I think he had a couple on a pole.  I added the 14.5 metre section to move out farther under the overhanging tree, but never had even a liner there. A couple of small roach dropped off my hook, and then Rob had a couple of carp on his pole.  With an hour to go, I lost another carp! I had 13 hollow elastic in and in desperation changed it to a short top with 10-12 elastic.

A carp!
Rob had a great spell with four in about 15 minutes and Chris on 34 also had three or four, which looked to be four or five poounds each. My float refused to go under. Then, with 45 minutes left I managed to land a half-ounce perch! Soon after, I hooked a carp and it must have been nearly 15 minutes before it came near to my net. I could see it a couple of feet down in the clear water, and that meant it could also see my net! But eventually that was where it landed up... Phew.

As I lifted the net out I realised it was a big one - around 10 lb! I couldn't see the hook in its mouth - the line was lying underneath the fish. With some difficulty I turned the fish in the net, and there was my hook - in the mesh of the net! I think it must have been hooked in the side of the mouth, but into my waiting keepnet that beautiful, immaculate common carp slid.

Rob Heath took most of his 31 lb 7 oz catch in the last hour.

Ten minutes later I hooked another carp, and this took almost as long to land on the 16 hook to 5 lb line and the piddly little 10-12 elastic. And this one, also, was a common around 10 lb, hooked definitely in the mouth. A minute later the match finished, and I was left wondering why I couldn't catch  just a little earlier.

The weigh-in
I knew I had been banjoed, but I wasn't despondent, as I thought I had fished it OK. I think that four of the five I lost were almost certainly foulhooked, and the other one might have been, because when I dipped the pole tip to the surface the fish didn't slowly rise to the top as most carp will. 

Rob had eight or nine fish for his 31 lb 7 oz, and my carp and perch went 19 lb 12 oz. Chris had about nine fish for 34 lb 14 oz, and although he had brought a prize, he went straight home and never came to the presentations.  Out of 15 I finished 11th.

Top weight on Magpie was Tony (Moana) McGreagor with 109 lb 4 oz from 36, a peg which has been poor recently. How cruel - I'm sure he only moans occasionally! Second was Will Hadley on 2 (another area whioch had not been rated), who fished 16 metres with a long swinging lash to drop his bait into the far margin. He has a brilliant record in these matches, and it's not the first time he has caught fish like that. he had 98 lb 4 oz.

Jay didn't fish as well, won on corner peg 38 by Tom Neal with 69 lb 4 oz. I've seen a report that two cars were driven across the bridge before the end - surely only  acceptable in an emergency?

Marks out of ten
Actually I felt I had been quite disciplined, tapping in just a few maggots all day and hoping the fish would start feeding, with the pellet swim as a back-up. I had a few quick dips into the margins, but with water as clear as that I didn't expect to get any bites. Rob spent some time there, I know. So I give myself eight out of ten, 'cos I didn't do anything stupid, and the 13 hollow should have been OK to land those earlier lost fish if they had been hooked properly. 

Next match is Christmas Eve at Decoy (which is actually closed until Jan 4th) as JVAC fish there every Sunday during the year and will be allowed to access the lakes. The staff have started to work on the strips, having put fish from the stock pond into Elm, and I understand they intend to put the fish from Oak into the stock pond  while they work on Oak (the rain isn't helping!) Our match will probably be on Six-Island and another lake, as at the time of writing 18 have signed up.

Have good Winterval   Yuletide   Holiday   vacation   festive season.   Sod it - have a good Christmas everybody! 🎅🎅🎅

THE RESULT

Magpie 1-23

Magpie 24-36

Jay 1-22

Jay 23-47

First match since my lay-off, on Beastie.

 Peg 4, Beastie, Suinday, Dec 17
My first match after the op on my bladder and prostate (thanks for asking - everything is settling down, but it will probably be some weeks before it's near-perfect) and I really didn't want pegs 3 to 6 on Beastie, as they have not been fishing well. The pegs opposite, in the early 20s have been THE draw recently. But it was good to be back.

There were 12 on Beastie in this JV Christmas match, and ten on Horseshoe. And although the official forecast on the tele was 'mild' the forecasters wouldn't have though that if they'd been sitting in the teeth of the South-Westerly, which cut across my peg and that of Jim Regan on my right. I had to put on my padded Imax jacket before the start and it never came off.

Peg 4, with the wind cutting across through that gap on the left.

A lonesome F1
I started on a maggot feeder with two reds, casting three-quarters of the way across, then right across to the island, then halfway, then finally a quarter of the way out, which saw a 2 lb F1 nearly pull the rod in. But he was a lonesome F1, and no more came from there. So after about 90 minutes I had a look on the pole at 2+2, which brought a roach and then, when I veered towards the right with the wind, under the overhanging tree, some leaves and twigs. Almost every drop in near the tree saw me hook rubbish.

Jim Regan stayed on the hybrid feeder and took bream casting to the island.

Closer in on 2+2 a few more small roach came in, with slightly less rubbish, and when the wind became stronger, a 2 lb bream on 2+one-and-a-half. Meanwhile Jim, on my right on 5, had been casting a hybrid feeder with wafter to the aerator and had taken three or four fish - slow, certainly, and it seemed he was waiting anything up to half-an-hout for a bite.

I went out on a hybrid and red wafter to the reeds, which was a bit hairy, as some of them were leaning over the swim. Nothing, so I put on two red maggots and in came a small bream and another of 2 lb. Jim, though had a few more towards the end, mainly bream. I hadn seen Shaun Buddle, on my left, catch just one, but as we weighed in he hinted that he'd got a few.

That good carp made up more than half of
Chris Saunders' total of 15 lb 8 oz. taken on the pole.

The weigh-in
We had just the section of four to weigh in, starting with Chris Saunders, who had 15 lb 8 oz, all on a pole, which included a carp that was probably 8 lb. He had had a similar problem to me - wind gusting as the feeder was in the air, taking it off course (though a cast before the match had seen him foulhook a carp (on a bare hook), which came off halfway in!) In my case I had a problem getting the feeder right up to the reeds, which is where my two bream came from. 

Jim had 19 lb 9 and I assumed he would win the section, as my fish were a measly 8 lb 7 oz. But Shaun then said he had 20 lb, and he was right - 27 lb 13 oz of bream, all taken on two white maggots on a maggot feeder, cast right to the edge of the aerator. If he dropped short he couldn't get a bite, and he never had a single bite on red maggots.

Shaun Buddle won my section with 27 lb 13 oz of bream.

Then my mind sort of clicked into gear. Bream are the most finicky of feeders and on the Great Ouse Relief  Channel you often had to use coloured maggots, sometimes in a certain order, to get a bite. I once had a conversation with Boston angler Roy Jarvis (who won the Nartional on the Witham) and he said he had found the same thing - colour was very important. But it's so long since I targetted bream that I hadn't thought of that, while Shaun has been much more on the boil, deliberately getting a handful of whites in his reds so he can ring the changes. Lesson remembered.

The weights opposite were a bit better, and Eddie McIlroy won off 22 with 45 lb 2 oz. On Horseshoe the favoured pegs led, with Rob Goodson on 10 taking mainly carp, on the bottom, and a few F1s, totalling 72 lb 7 oz for the win. I ended two from last, but the club provided a prize for everyone, so I didn't end empty-handed. 

Marks out of ten
I give myself six for trying! At least I had a respectable catch in difficult conditions. Next match Wednesday on Pidley, for their Christmas match. Peg 33 on Magpie would suit me!

THE RESULTS

My section on Beastie

The rest of Beastie

Horseshoe