Has my luck suddenly changed again? I had never fished peg 13 on Damson, but every time I fish on Damson it seems to produce fish, and with 13 of us fishing this Spratts match, it would be in, and end (and corner) peg. So I said it would be my choice and when Bob Allen picked my name out of the bag, with Trevor about to pick my number out, Bob actually said: Peg 13.
Then a beam of sunshine broke through the clouds, orchestras started playing, and a heavenly chorus surrounded us. And we were sore afraid. And Trevor put his hand into his bag, withdrew it, looked at the milk bottlke top, and said unto us: "Thirteen!" Well that last bit is right, anyway, and it was now up to me to produce the goods.
So down to peg 13, and I was surprised how deep it was in the side against the reeds - straight down to three feet, while other pegs I have fished on that bank tend to start at 18 inches. The wind was blowing mainly into the corner, though somehow the ripple was farther out, and the margins on the end three pegs were calm.
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| Nicely in the wind, but strangely a lot of the time our margins were calm. |
The sun came out occasionally, and there were occasional fish just under the surface. When the match started I dropped a banded caster in front of one and after having a look, the fish turned smartly away. I immediately went to my basic Damson approach - corn over micros, and within a couple of minutes I was playing a 1 lb F1. That set the tone for much of the day.
Usually fish come into the peg immediately there is any disturbance, but today they didn't. However they were willing to feed near the bottom, and I would get two or three fish before changing from the right margin to the left. I only once had to go any longer than a short top and short Number three. Hemp definitely kept fish in the swim.
It was steady sport (perhaps one fish every three or four minutes) with fish to a little over 2 lb. I would have liked to catch more quickly, but decided to keep putting fish in the net. Then, after about two hours, bites tailed off, and the splashing from Bob Allen, on my left, stopped. The sun was out and I could see fish under the surface some way out, so had a go at fishing casters, shallow, hoping they would come towards me - and they did.
That was when I added a section, and tried to drop my banded caster into the falling casters I had just thrown out. If I got it right I might get a fish, though most times I drew a blank. However, in the next 40 minutes I had about five carp, best 5 lb. Then those fish seemed to become cagey and I went back to the margins, half expecting to have to go out top the deep swim.
But careful presentation, just touching bottom, and lifting it every few seconds, saw tiny bites, resulting in a few more fish, which now were mainly mirrors and commons, with only the odd F1. And I kept on taking fish, but had to feed before every one. That seems a bit over the top when the fish are no more than 2 lb, but I heard very litle splashing from my left and I guessed things were hard overall. I tried a worm over caster, which took a small rudd, so that experiment was abandoned.
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| Mike Rawson - 33 lb 4 oz from peg 9. He's having a good run at the moment. |
The last ten minutes were my worst of the match - I had just one 1 lb fish, on corn. And frankly I was surprised to have been able to fish close in all day, so I couldn't complain at that. I'd used three keepnets, and estimated they were 32 lb, 42 lb and 21 lb for about 100 lb.
Trevor Cousins was on peg 1, and had Managed to mug only 46 lb 10 oz. But I wasn't surprised - it's a sheltered swim, which can be great in Winter, but I didn't fancy it in this match as there was no ripple. However, next to him Peter Spriggs weighed in with 114 lb 4 oz. I know it can be a good close-in swim, though I suspect Peter fished long for much of the time. And I didn't think I could beat that - although it's difficult to estimate accurately when the fish are smallish.
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| Peter Harrison - third with 69 lb 4 oz. |
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| Steve Engledow was two swims from me, and like me he included some slightly better fish. |
Next match a rover on Magpie Lake at Rookery Farm Fishery, Pidley. The pegs in the island will be taken first, I suspect. But I'm confident of catching a decent weight anywhere (Famous Last Words?
THE RESULT
2 Peter Spriggs 114 lb 4 oz 2nd
3 John Garner 43 lb 2 oz
4 Dick Warrener 31 lb 15 oz
5 John Smith 67 lb 4th
Well done Mac
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