More of the same for us in this Fenland Rods match - a cold wind, and no sun. It was the nearest I've been to Christmas in July for about 60 years, when it was all the rage with my girlfriends. The forecast was for 14 degrees, feeling like 13. But honestly it was more like five degrees in that wind...and it grew stronger.
All of that meant that it felt as if it was going to be hard, and my mood didn't brighten when I got drawn peg 4. When there were barbel in the lake, peg 4 was where you would probably find some of them - down in the right margin against the reeds. But they are not very common now - I don't even know if there are any left in Six-Island. Peg 4 was in the wind, but the island stopped most of the ripple. To my right on 16 and round the corner on 18 Kevin Lee (in shorts) and Dave Garner had mainly calm, but swelling water in front of thenm, but at least they were back wind.
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| Kev was soon in action with a big old elastic-stretcher. |
Like everybody else I fancied the pegs towards the end of the bay - 7 round to 12 on the opposite bank, where the wind was strongest. I wondered whether the cold, though, would put the kybosh on those pegs. Time would tell. I decided to use my short tops with short Number 3s, as this lake is not very deep.
I started off very simply and negatively - putting in half-a-dozen 6mm pellets and fishing a 6mm expander, out at about 6 metres, but to the left because of the wind from the right. And it wasn't long before I had a bite - I was very surprised. It turned out to be a 1 lb F1. Then - excitement when Kevin hooked a big fish which went all over his swim before snagging in a reed bed to his right. He had to walk over and pull for a break.
Soon after that, Kevin hooked another and that was a proper carp, which ended in his net. To my left Peter Spriggs was fishing probably paste, at about six metres, and I know he had fish in that first hour, while I had about four, and with seven F1s in my net and 90 minutes gone, bites tailed off.
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| To my left Peter Spriggs, under angry grey skies, plays an early F1. |
Next move was to look in the right margin, which was three feet deep (deepest part of my swim), and I had some bites which came to nothing. A change of rig to a float with a finer tip eventually brought me another F1. Clearly there were fish there, but it was taking me a long time to catch each one, using corn. Then I hooked a 4 lb mirror - I saw it quite clearly as I was about to net it, but it suddenly dived into the net and snagged me and it came off. I might have said a naughty word.
Peter had had a decent start, and I wasn't sure whether he had carried on catching, because fishing to the right meant I had my back to him. However I could see Kevin hooking fish steadily, some of which came off, foulhooked. I lost about four foulhooked, but landed a 3 lb miror among a few F1s.
John Smith came up about halfway through and said he hadn't had a fish on peg 6, so I then realised that catching fish of any size was paramount, and I was happy to keep finding those F1s. But boy, were they fighting. Afterwards, everybody agreed that the F1s were turbo-charged, and when you hooked one it felt like an eight-pounder.
Several times I had, embarrasingly, to add sections when a 2 lb F1 charged along the bank and threatened to snag me in the marginal weeds. I assume it's because the wind has heavily oxygenated the water.
With a little over an hour to go, and probably about 30 lb in my net I went out to the long swim again. First drop and a 3 lb F1 came in on corn, but then not a bite. So I had a look in the left margin, using corn and cat meat. There were fish there, as I had some liners, and then an eight-pounder came in on cat meat. I was hopeful that I'd get more, but presentation was so difficult in that wind. Peter had a fish or two on paste, and I tried it now in the right margin. Within seconds a fish was on, and within seconds it came off and a scale fluttered back to me...
Back to the left and another F1 or two came to corn, and with 20 minuts to go I made an Executive decision to try dead maggots. In went a big pot, and out went five deads on a size 12 on a top two. In that last 20 minutes I had the best spell of the match - four F1s all taken by fishing just overdepth and pulling the bait very slowly across the bottom. Probably should have tried it before!
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| Like me, Mel Lutkin had mainly F1s, but added four much better carp in the last half-hour, for his 51 lb 3 oz. |
After I had weighed in I was leading with 54 lb 4 oz. Hardly surprising, since I was the first to weigh! I was certain Kevin had me beat, and I assumed that Peter on my left had carried on catching fish while I was fishing the right-hand margin, so I asked him if he had got 80 lb. You could have knocked me down with a feather when he said he had only one net, and about 25 lb (or it might have been 35 lb - strong wind messes my hearing aids up). In fact his fish went 33 lb 10 oz. John on 6 had a nightmare - he had his first fish 15 minutes before the end, and had just one more, and didn't weigh. I think he was a little despondent (!) 😒
On 7, Mel Lutkin had four fish on a feeder early on, and a good last hour with four nice fish on mussel for 51 lb 3 oz. On fancied peg 9 Callum had, I think, just four fish which he didn't weigh, and on the opposite bank they had also struggled. Dick Warrener was the best there with 41 lb 6 oz - he's having a good spell.
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| Dave Garner, on peg 18, shows his best carp before returning it. |
I thought about trying worm, but after having had my corn mashed while still on the hook, and mussel ragged by something pulling it to bits, I decided against it. Of course I should have given it a try. And I perhaps should have tried a bunch of maggots, dead or alive, earlier. However, I felt all the time that I was doing the best I could, on what felt a difficult day to me, even though Kevin seemed to be doing far better than me. As so often happens, he hadn't got as much as I thought he had - those F1s gave the impression he was playing double-figure carp! So I give my self a fairly generous 8/10 for not panicking and for just grinding out the occasional fish when I could.
Next match Sunday on Oak, with 11 my choice, but anywhere from 11 round to 20 being acceptable. At the moment, after the banking, it seems to be a very fair lake, which could be won from anywhere. Unfortunately the forecast is for more cold winds, so weights could be low.
THE RESULT
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| New for this season, we now fish sections of three or four. |
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