Forecasters promised us the hottest day of the year, and they had a point, though it seemed hotter a few weeks ago on Magpie. Nevertheless by the time us nine Spratts stalwarts started at 10 o'clock it was getting uncomfortably-hot, and when the match started the aerators were still spinning round, sounding like the Niagra Falls just a few yards away. Half an hour later they stopped, and the sudden silence was out of this world...
I would have picked pegs 1, 3 or end peg 17, but 5 had nice-looking margins, and Trevor reminded me that I had had this same swim several weeks ago (I checked later, and it was in May and I was third). Usually I can remember how I fished different swims, but nothing clicked on this occasion - I blame the heat.
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| Not many pictures this week, so here's my front garden... |
The aerators had coloured the water, and you could see streams of brown silt moving along, while the surface flotsam and jetson showed that a fair current had been set up. So after I had slarred suncream over my face, arms and (most importantly) the backs of my hands, I decided to start on a feeder across to the far side, as far as possible from the silt-laden margin current I could see. Unusually, I hadn't seen a single fish under the surface.
Out went a Method feeder with a 6mm black pellet, and I started catapulting out a few casters to six metres, hoping to catch shallow later. But within five minutes I realised that I had no idea where they were being taken by the moving water, so I stopped that and within a minute or two the rod tip went round and I was into the first fish of the day - an F1 of at least two ounces! Next cast a six-ouncer came in, and next cast one of 8 oz. Twenty-five minutes gone and I had about 1 lb in my net.
Nobody else I could see seemed to be catching much, and after the fourth F1, of about 1 lb, I discarded the manky old black pellet and put on a gleaming orange choc wafter. That worked even better, and I was getting a fish every five minutes or so. Roy Whitwell, two to my right, was also netting fish on a feeder, but I'm not sure what Trevor on 7 was doing, as the grass between us was so high. 'Holes in the ground' these lakes may be, as described by those anglers scornful of commercial stillwaters, but featureless they are not!
Now the heat seemed to abate a little, and a little breeze from the South gave a slight ripple which kept dying away. But heat-wise it was now just a lovely Summer's day. Two hours gone and bites slowed a little - and after a few minutes without a take I would pot in some hemp and corn to the platform 4, on my left, ready to switch to pole, but then I'd get another F1, or, occasionally, a 2 lb carp. Eventually I had two casts without fish, and made the switch to pole.
Roach and perch obliged from platform 4, then a 2 lb-plus bream, and then I hit something big. It turned out to be a scale, which gave a fair fight before succumbing to my artful playing technique. I now knew that carp would come in to the margin, and proceeded to waste about the next 40 minutes there, with next-to-nothing to show for it. Eventually I dropped a strong rig with cat meat into the deep margin to my right, where the bottom seemed frm, and had a liner - the signal for me to stay there for a time.
A couple of F1s came to cat meat, and I then dropped down to my near left margin, where I had been putting corn, and a double-figure common was the result. But I wasn't fooled into staying there, and now alternated - feeding one and dropping in the other. One or two F1s were the result, and I had a look in the shallower part of the right margin, closer to the bank, where a couple of 4 lb carp were present.
I had 35 lb on my clicker, but guessed that I had probably missed some, so I started on my second net. Stupidly the next nice F1 came in and I put it straight injto the first net again. So I moved that to the left, out of the way, and put the second net in front of me. Next fish was about 6 lb hooked in the tail! The next few minutes were a bit splashy, but it ended in my landing net.
Broken reeds were a nuisance - drifting around the swim, and a couple lay across the right margin about a foot from the bank. I wondered whether they gave the fish some sort of confidence, because normally you wouldn't fish behind them - you'd clear them away, and the fish might move. I am sure that just a few whisps of reed are good, and in fact on Head Fen fishery I used to stick a bank stick horizontally into the bank, on the surface, and let the rubbish drift into it to provide some sort of cover. Sometimes I pulled up grass and dropped it into the water. Many times it worked.
So I now dropped in behind the two surface reeds, right next to the bank in my right margin, in about two feet of water, and seconds later was playing another double-figure carp. That had a happy ending, and I after a short bitless spell in both margins I put mussel on the hook.
This, combined with mainly hemp and casters for each feed, kept bites coming, though no more double-figure fish. Now Trevor was fishing a waggler cast right across to the island - it was landing in exactly the same spot each time, and he was feeding pellet. However I saw him catch only a couple of fish, and guessed he was enjoying fishing that way. Trevor has won more of our matches than anyone else, and often stays on a less-productive method simply because of the challenge of catching like that. He told me afterwards that yes, he had just been enjoying himself.
Into the last 45 minutes and I had 20 lb on the second clicker, and didn't bother to click any more. Dave Hobbs came down - he has a bad back and can't fish at the moment - just in time to see me hook and land a nice fish around 8 lb-plus. A few more F1s went in the net, plus a five-pounder, and seconds before the end I hooked a big 'un. Match ended and I shouted "Fish On." Five minutes later I shouted "Fish Off" as the hook pulled, it was definitely foulhooked.
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| Roy had a good start with small fish on the feeder. But then things slowed up. He told me he had only five mussels with him, but caught four 'proper' carp on them. |
The result was that I packed up even more slowly than usual, having started late because of that last fish and having a rod and six different rigs to pack away. The weighers-in had got to Roy before I was ready to join them, and I was astonished to see that John Garner was leading with only 55 lb, which included a fish estimated to weigh 14 lb. Trevor set a record, I suspect, by ending last with 19 lb 14 oz, but he wasn't bothered about that. Next the weighers came to me.
I was asked what I had clicked for my second net and answered honestly: "Twenty Pounds, but I didn't click the last half-hour". Roy lifted out my net and stumbled off the platform before putting the fish into the bag. There looked to be a lot more than 20 lb - and there were. The scale showed 48 lb 4 oz, and there were a few scornful noises made. But I had said I had stopped clicking, hadn't I?
"So what have you clicked for the other net?" asked Trevor. I answered: "About 35 lb." Roy grunted his way to the weigh bag, carrying my net, and Trevor gave me an old-fashioned look as he read out, slowly: "Fifty. Two. Pounds. And something." Cue my embarassed face, not for the first time. Then I remembered I had put a 2 lb F1 into that net which should have gone into the other one. That stopped me weighing the 'ton', but 98 lb 4 oz was enough to win.
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| The scum in Dick's peg started to clear after the match! |
For a change I felt I hadn't made any bad mistakes. The F1s on the feeder were small, but I just carried on putting something in my net, which is usually good advice. I wasted too much time next to platform 4, but otherwise thought I had done pretty well from a peg that wouldn't have been among the favourites to win. So I give myself a near-record 9/10.
Next match on Horseshoe on Sunday. I understand the lillies have been cut, but the roots are still there. Not sure whether that would make them good bets. Friday saw 200 lb-plus from 13, and 199 lb from 1, while Roy Whincup struggled to 69 lb on 19. A fellow Maggot-Drowner, Neil, will be joining us as a guest, so there should be 13.
THE RESULT
3 Bob Allen 33 lb 3 oz
5 Mac Campbell 98 lb 4 oz 1st
7 Trevor Cousins 19 lb 14 oz
9 Roy Whitwell 52 lb 11 oz 3rd
11 Mike Rawson 30 lb 6 oz
13 John Garner 55 lb 9 oz 2nd
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