Many years ago, when I was 19 and worked for the Wisbech and Marshland Rural District Councils in the rates department, auditors swooped in for a spot check on the tills which I was in charge of. At the end they announced that everything was OK - the tills were just 2 pence short. At which Dave Davis, Number One in the office, went bannanas.
"Tuppence short?" he shrieked. And, with a wink to me, he said: "That's terrible - we shouldn't be a single penny short. We must check it!" And he made the auditors double-check the money while we stood and watched. After which, red-faced, they agreed that it was correct 'to the penny.'
It was the same Dave Davis who gave me some of the best advice I ever had, when the Treasurer appeared to take a dislike to me (alright, I know, that's not difficult). "Show some sense of urgency," he said, quietly. In other words: 'Sell yourself.'
What a pity he's not manager of the England football team, who seem unable to understand (as does their manager) that the first thing to endear yourself to fans is to look as if you really, really, want to play well. Play well and they'll forgive you (sort of) if you lose. But winning by luck (which is what certainly happened in the semi-final against the Netherlands) is not what the fans want.
It's very like fishing - we almost all judge our matches by how well we fish, not just by the result. However, in this Spratts match on Six-Island it was difficult to decide whether I deserved to frame or not. You see, at the draw when asked what peg I'd like I said 'Nine,' but when 8 came out I said: "That's fine." It's produced a lot of fish over the years and I remember winning from it more than once.
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| Bob had carp a long time before me. |
I was using my short top kits, which may not have been the best decision because the water was deeper that I have found on the opposite bank - something well over four feet. Still, I stuck with the short kits and when I had a look in the margins, where it was just as deep next to the bush on my right, I hooked another big fish, which I played for a time before it came off. I remember Ben Townsend (who has qualified for the Fish O'Mania final by the way) saying that he uses longer tops for the really big carp because of the extra elastic. Perhaps I should have switched over; but I didn't.
Before I had laid the rod on the rest it was bending and bucking in my hand, and a carp was on. It came in quite easily...and then turned on the turbo-chargers. Out it went to the island, the it kited round almost into Bob's swim, before coming in and repeating the exercise. Nightmare. It was a 12 lb common hooked in the tail. I know that because very eventually it ended in my landing net.
Next cast in came a four-pounder and next cast a 2 lb F1 nearly pulled the rod in. Then nothing...
Fish were turning near the island. Now for the first time I realised that the island was nearer to my peg than to peg 11 opposite, And a 16-metre pole would have got me almost right across, except that I had left my 16-metre section at home! So I put out a little pellet waggler, fished 18 inches deep, and cast it to a metre from the island. Where it sat, unmoving. Until I picked up the rod and found it was snagged, presumably on a long, underwater root.
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| Another one on its way to Bob's net, probably taken on mussel. |
I pulled, and the line broke and the little float wafted slowly round the island. So I rigged up another waggler, cast out, and then realised the fish had stopped moving there, and the water by the island was dead, and all the ripple had gone as the wind had changed. Story of my life.
So it was back to the short swims, which were flat calm. I never did try well out, because Martin Parker kept trying and I didn't see him catch much. And in the margins I started getting knocks on cat meat. Some might have been roach; some were definitely liners (showing me that carp were there) and some were probably bites. And in the next three hours I kept hooking big fish, and losing more than half of them. OK, a couple might have been foulhooked, but most weren't.
That was when I wondered whether the shorter elastic was just a little too harsh. I changed from 14-16 Matrix Slik to 16-18 and even to a 20-22 and then back, but the result was mainly the same. I landed five good fish, from 6 lb to over 10 lb, but must have lost eight or ten, and Bob on my left now seemed to be having a good spell.
Mussel was ragged on the hook, and a small piece of prawn brought a good carp. The roach didn'r seem to touch that, as it's hard and had no protrusions, so I tried it again and again, but still had only those infuriating knocks and liners, probably all from carp, which kept coming off, in both margins.
Of course I should have got out a nice easy elastic on a long top - something like a 17 hollow. But I didn't. And by the end I was frustrated. Dick on peg 13 said I had done well, but I thought that although I had over 70 lb, Bob Allen on 9 had probably doubled my weight. And because lots of fish had been showing near the surface I said Trevor on peg 3 had probably mugged 150 lb. (Spoiler - I was talking crap!)
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| My second-best fish - the best one leaped out of my arms and straight into the water! |
Two rods and five or six tops to pack away, and the scales had got to Martin on 6 before I had a look at the sheet. To my amazement Trevor round the corner on 3, had only 46 lb. I could now see that the ripple which has moved from us was now down that other end, blowing from the car park. And it's in that last two hours when you need the ripple, so I wondered whether those pegs (not yet weighed) would have bagged. Trevor said that fish hadn't been showing in his swim at all.
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| Roy Whitwell struggled on peg 18, finding mainly only fairly small fish. |
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| Mark Ramm, with exactly the same weight as I had, 75 lb 11 oz. |
I honestly did show a sense of urgency, though there was nobody to witness it. And being the best weight at that end of the lake is worth a couple of points, I suppose. But I should have changed tops after losing the first couple of fish. It might not have nade a difference, but who knows? On the other hand I felt I was tempting the carp into the swim, with mainly hemp and micros, and getting them to at least have a go at the bait. I suspect they were very lightly hooked indeed, which is why they came off, but the extra elastic could have helped. And I needed only one of those lost fish to have come second. 5/10.
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| Neil Paas - runner-up with 79 lb 11 oz. |
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| Peter Harrison, winner with 96 lb 13 oz from peg 22. |
3 Trevor Cousins 46 lb 10 oz
4 John Garner 61 lb
6 Martin Parker 52 lb 11 oz
8 Mac Campbell 75 lb 11 oz 4th =
9 Bob Allen 55 lb 9 oz
11 Mike Rawson 43 lb 5 oz
13 Dick Warrener 58 lb 14 oz
15 Peter Spriggs 81 lb 1 oz 2nd
17 John Smith 39 lb 7 oz
18 Roy Whitwell 24 lb 10 oz
20 Neil Paas 79 lb 11 oz 3rd
22 Peter Harrison 96 lb 13 oz 1st
25 Mark Ramm 75 lb 11 oz 4th =
You've done it again, undersold yourself, I'm giving you an extra 2 for 7/10 at least you had got amongst the fish.
ReplyDeleteI hope you did well in the poker!!