Some hard fighters on Horseshoe

Peg 6, Horseshoe, Sun, May 11
Fourteen of us had mainly left home in bright sunshine on a very warm day, only to arrive at Decoy to find it overcast, misty, and ten degrees colder! Very strange, though we guessed (correctly) that the mist would eventually burn away.

So Allan Golightly had a walk round and sussed out the pegs to fish (a couple have too many lillies in to put a peg there) and each week agrees that with Mel Lutkin, and they then organise the draw for those pegs. They make the decsions which pegs to fish, and it works out very well, with no audiable moans. 😉

FORGOT TO TAKE A PICTURE OF MY SWIM, BUT IT WAS MAINLY WATER ANWAY.

The golden peg for me
I would have liked a fairly high number, because although there are always fish in the first half-dozen pegs, the pegs specifically from 13 to 20 have lovely margins, and there are lillies  along  there which hold fish. In addition the corner pegs around 8 (which was left out because it is very close to 7) have form. But 6 was drawn out for me and then drawn out for the Golden Peg. I genuinely didn't think I would win, but I don't care any more - like Ronnie O'Sullivan my happiness mainly on depends on how I fish, not whether I win.

There wasn't much wind for most of the match, though we had some at times, and the surface was mainly calm. I plumbed up only to find that the immediate margins were only inches deep. Then I realised that this platform is set a little way back, because the bank is cut out - presumably it's fallen in. I watched Callum, to my left, plumb up near the side and he had a good three feet. Now I like shallow margins, so thought that perhaps I would have an edge. We would see.

Great start

First drop onto a small flat area to my right, about four feet from the bank, in two feet-plus of water saw a 3 lb carp come in on corn within seconds. Probably the first fish of the match. Yippee! A couple of minutes later John Smith, to my right, was playing a much larger fish which he unfortunately managed to land, after a lot of pulling and splashing. I was already behind!

John Smith plays his first good carp, hooked just minutes after the start.

Then Callum had a good fish, and over the next hour just two or three more F1s came from my corn hotspot, while John hit several good fish, and some he pulled out of. In fact I can hardly remember when fish fought harder than they did in this match - full of testosterone, I bet. 

My shallow swim was no good
I'd been flicking casters out for over an hour while I had those F1s on corn, but that eventually dried up. So I decided to try shallow with caster farther out. I had several bites, which must have been from roach, and was thinking about giving up when I saw carp coming to the casters. Full of hope, I dropped in and threw casters over the top. Nothing! I could actually see carp coming to the bait and turning away. Later in the match I tried an experiment of throwing casters, or corn, to fish I could see, and without exception they took fright when the bait plopped in, and turned away.

So after trying a bunch of casters on the bottom in that swim (which was immediately pulled apart by roach) it was  back to 'normal' fishing. My special method showed me that fish were in the first swim, but I had only liners. Dropping in to the left saw the occasional carp and F1s on cat ,meat, and it was strange that when I put bait in (dropping water over the top to let the fish know iit was din-dins time) carp would come right in to the bank, in inches of water, where I had put no bait. And that happened time after time.

Callum had a couple of good spells when he caught several fish quickly.

Banking on my special method
Round to my left Dave Hobbs on 9  had had a run of really big carp, and although I didn't know it at the time, to his left Shaun on 11 was also catching well. Callum had a short good spell and I suspected I was falling behind. But carefull use of the special method winkled out some more, on corn or cat meat, or mussel. The fish were there all day, swimming about off bottom, but weren't really ready to feed properly. I suppose I had perhaps one fish every ten minutes.

Halfway though the match I walked up to John, who said he had 23 lb on his clicker, and I said I had about double that. He had a couple of fish out in front of him in the match, but the rest came from the margins towards the tree, where he had about four feet of water.

Foulhooked?
At one point I hit a fish I was certain was foulhopoked because of the way it took off towards the far bank. Then I found it impossible to get its head up, and it kept turning away from the landing net time after time, which made me hink it was hooked just outside the mouth. But no. When I eventually got it in it was hookd in the coorner of its mouth. Not foulhooked in any way.

When proper bites tailed off (though I had liners on and off all day) I tried laying a bait on right near the bank, but never had even a liner, even though I could see fish there. Luckily I didn't waste too much time there. With bright sun and no ripple it was hardly surprising. Fish were pairing up under the surface, so perhaps those carp were checking the margins for possible spawning duties.

Half an hour to go, and I started a new swim right in front of me on 2+1, using cat meat on the bottom, hoping that some carp would start grubbing around.  It produced fish! I had about five in that period on cat meat, best about 9 lb (biggest of the day) and landed the last one seconds before the match finished. I thought I probably had 80 lb. 

The weigh-in
To my surprise peg 2 produced only about 20 lb, and then the weights got slightly better. Roy Whitwell on 3, who had won his section with 6 oz in our last match on Lou's (!), had 56 lb 11 oz, and for a moment it looked as if John Smith had bettered that after a good late spell, but no. His fish went 52 lb 15 oz.

I thought Dave Hobbs, with 146 lb 2 oz might win...

I had put in just two nets, though if the match had been longer I would have started a third with that last fish. We aim for 50 lb maximum, but the fish at Decoy can be so big that just one added to a 35 lb net can bring it over - so the club recently voted to allow up to 60 lb, provided that is not abused. I thought I pprobably had 40 lb in each net.

The first went 52 lb 2 oz, and the second 52 lb exactly - total 104 lb 2 oz, and I felt that I had acted in accordance with the spirit of our new rule. In fact two or three other nets on this day also went just over the 50 lb. So with the first section being the first four pegs I knew I had won the section and would receive that beautiful brown envelope containing £8 from myself (as I run the section pools). No chips on the way home, though - a gluten-free tea would be awaiting me.

My surprising result
Callum had less than I had thought - 77 lb, but Dave Hobbs had definitely had a good day, with corn doing the damage at the start, fished in the margins to the left towards empty peg 10. Dave's catch went 146 lb 2 oz. Then Shaun Buddle took out his four nets and showed us 156 lb 4 oz of carp and F1s for the win, mainly taken on a short top and short Number two, just to his right.  On 18, Peter Spiggs had 101 lb 2 oz, and on end peg 20, Kevin Lee had also found the fish to be turbo-charged, losing no fewer than ten, and still weighing in 98 lb 4 oz. He fished mainly in his right margin.

...but Shaun Buddle had a good late  flurry and overtook him.

So that left me with a very surprising third place, with Kevin's 98 lb not winning a penny. A good club match, I felt, thanks to Karen alowing us to book at the last-minute, after a booking hiccup. My next match is Tuesday on Six-Island, and I rather expect carp to be splashing about in some of the margins.

Marks out of ten
Happy with third place from the peg, but afterwards I realised I had not tried the extra baits I had with me - I tried a bunch of deads one and it seemed to attract roach, but I should have tried it again. Then were were the worms, live maggots, paste, red corn and hard pellet which I never even thought about trying. So often a bait change can produce one good fish (though I would have needed more than one to come second). But I honestly I was probably worth just 4/10. I deserve to be stood on the naughty step.

Pictures of two good-lookers below...

Peter Spriggs would have been third if I hadn't 
had that lucky, last-minute fish!

Kev Lee with one of those bruisers on peg 20.