A nice surprise was in store for me in this Spratts match when I arrived at peg 5. It wasn't the end of the lake I had fancied, but it turned out that there was a nice shallow margin to the left, while some pegs on Elm have very little in the way of margins, or none at all. To my right, Trevor Cousins said he had almost six feet of water straight down each of his edges, while my left margin plumbed up at 12 inches, then a drop to about 3 feet, then a drop down to the maximum five feet.
I'd taken a feeder rod down to the swim, but never used it, as I then simply fancied having a day fishing the pole, which I started out using at 2+3 in the fairly strong Southerly wind, coming from the right. And it wasn't long before I hit a good fish...which came off after a couple of seconds, probably foulhooked. Then followed a 2 lb bream to a 6 mm expander, and then two or three smaller bream, and a roach. Very happy with that because I was at least getting bites, and I'd not seen much else caught.
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| An overcast day, with mainly calm water to my right, but giving me a nice Raspberry Ripple. Lovely! |
But then the bites suddenly stopped, and I had a quick look in the left margin. In went casters and hemp, and up came a barbel. Now I know that hemp and casters always used to attract barbel on the Trent, so in went a few more...and it didn't work! No more barbel, but a 3 lb bream came in.
I had a look down in the deeper water towards the reeds on my left, and promptly became snagged in a reed root. This eventually came free, but I lost the hook (a size 14 since you ask). Then a 6 b carp to double caster, and a couple lost, probably foulhooked. And halfway through, after three hours, that was all I had. I'd seen Trevor land a fish or two, but to my left Dick Warrener hadn't got much.
Slowly the carp came on the feed, and even more slowly I started landing them. The afternoon passed in a blur of lost fish - I stopped counting at 15! I'm sure some were not foulhooked, but those I landed were almost all hooked very lightly in the lip. I wondered if my 16-18 elastic was too tight for them, and changed down to 14-16, which ws marginally better, but I still lost some on that.
A switch, eventually, to the right margin, in the deep water (I couldn't find a flat area in the shallow water) brought another carp immediately, to corn. which I was using there because I like to use different baits in each margin. And I had a short spell of catching fish from there, including a really light-coloured common, which fought like mad and would nowadays be called (quite wrongly) a ghostie. The original Ghostie was not only golden, but had a mark on its forehead like a skull and crossbones, and they are still pretty rare.
When a near-ten-pounder came in, it threatened to leap from the 18-inch shallow landing net as I was bringing it in, so I changed to my 20-inch version. I also had a disaster when one fish snagged me several yards to the right, against the bank. I walked along the bank, saw the rig was hooked to a reed root, and managed to partly retrieve it with my long telescopic hook.
Because I couldn't shake the hook free I had to lie on the bank, reach down, and physically unhook the hook from the root. In doing so I managed to either tread or kneel on my Number One section and break it. I thereby award myself the Twat In The Hat award for the second week running. That meant that I couldn't use that top two, which was a great pity as the purple hydro in that top felt the best of all out of the elastics I had been using.
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| On 1, Neil Paas found fish short in front of him. |
In the last 20 minutes I had had the best spell of the match, with four carp put into my third net.
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| Corner peg 12 can be very good, but it can also be difficult, and Dave Hobbs struggled his way there for 69 lb 1 oz. |
First two to weigh in, on pegs 1 and 3, were Neil Paas and Trevor, who each had 55 lb. I estimated my catch at around 100 lb, and in fact the three nets totalled 100 lb 15 oz . And to my surprise that was top weight on my bank. Round to the opposite bank and Peter Harrison also had three nets in, and that was sort of exciting. Because when Shaun Buddle had added Peter's weight up he announced that Peter had beaten me by two ounces!
On to the next peg and Roy Whitwell, in his first year with the club, also had three nets for a winning weight of 105 lb 6 od, leaving me in third spot. Roy took several fish on a feeder and maggot at the start, and ended fishing to his left, near the bush, with mainly corn.
I felt like giving myself about 4/10 after the match. But then thought that just one of those lost fish (probably about 20 of them) would have won me the match, and that I had taken reasonable advantage of a good margin. I had found that putting in just a few casters with double caster bait didn't bring carp in. I felt I had to put in a fair amount, plus hemp, to attract the carp up into the shallow water, and they soon dropped down deep, when I then changed to the right margin before re-baiting the left margin and going back there.
The one thing I probably should have done was to fish the deeper water to the left, but keeping away from the reed roots. But you can't do everything. So I think I was worth 7/10, and it was another frame - think it was my 15 th time in the main frame in the last 17 matches.
Next match Saturday on Crow, at Pidley, when I am looking forward to winkling fish out on the pole in the deep water (nearly four feet), then the shallower shelf and finally in the margins, provided I can find more than 18 inches of water there. My main decision is whether or not to start on the feeder.
It's our Handicap match, with last year's Champion (Kev Lee) fishing from scratch and everybody else having 10% added to their weight for each position below first. Pools and medals awarded on the Handicap weights, but points awarded on the actual weights. I have no preference as to what peg I draw, though the higher numbers down to 25 often appear to be maginally favourite.
Rain is forecast in the morning, from the West, which is mainly a side wind on Crow, from the right, and possibly slightly behind us.
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| Winner Roy Whitwell with his 105 lb 6 oz. |
THE RESULT
East bank West bank
24 Mike Rawson DNW 3 Trevor Cousins 55 lb 9 oz
22 Martin Parker 33 lb 4 oz 5 Mac Campbell 100 lb 15 oz 3rd
20 John Smith 49 lb 3 oz 7 Dick Warrener 42 lb 5 oz
18 John Garner 72 lb 11 oz 4th 8 Mick Ramm 16 lb 9 oz
16 Roy Whitwell 105 lb 6 oz 1st 10 Shaun Buddle 63 lb 13 oz
14 Peter Harrison 101 lb 1 oz 2nd 12 Dave Hobbs 69 lb 1 oz
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