Lots of fish on Damson, and we miss the floods.

First a quick result of a Spratts match on Six-Island, at Decoy, on Tuesday, Sept 15 th.

John Smith on peg 13 leapt into the lead with fish of 5 lb and 7 lb on his first two drops on a pole and 4mm expander pellet, followed by not much (and a lot of it) until fish came into the deep margins later. Opposite, Shaun Buddle slowly made up ground taking carp to 8 lb on paste, mainly very close-in, and eventually overtook John, to win with 89 lb 9 oz. Dick Warrener almost did the same overtaking procedure, but fell just short of John's final 74 lb 10 oz weight, which left Dick third.

2 Trevor Cousins           64 lb 9 oz
4 Roy Whitwell            34 lb 3 oz
6 Shaun Buddle            89 lb 9 oz      1st
8 Neil Paas                   62 lb 1 oz
11 Bob Allen                28 lb 2 oz
13 John Smith             74 lb 10 oz       2nd   
17 Peter Spriggs          42 lb 1 oz
18 John Garner            25 lb 11 oz
20 Martin Parker         34 lb 5 oz
22 Mike Rawwson      17 lb 13 oz
24 Dick Warrener        73 lb 3 oz        3rd

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Peg 3, Damson lake, Sunday, Sept 22

We were down to seven for this Fenland Rods match - the lowest ever, I think - not helped by Martin Parker being rushed to hospital, taken ill as he prepared his bait for the match. Thankfully he's back home, with his sudden illness still unexplained, but apparently pretty much fully recovered.

Peg 1 has not fished as well recently as it used to, but when Callum Judge drew it I thought that perhaps he would be able to crack it today. I was next door on 3, and before the match all the swims held small carp, as they usually do, swimming into the bank and teasing us. Often they stay just a few minutes and disappear.

Not as wet as forecast, in fact the weather was good for
fishing - overcast all day, but never cold.

I start shallow

I had a few casters and started with banded caster shallow, which worked pretty well, though hundreds of times I could see carp come up to the bait and turn their noses up at it, and there were liners galore. Occasionally, though, a fish would take it - they were mainly around 1 lb, maximum 1 lb 8 oz, and today they hung around for a couple of hours, before things started getting harder.

It was so interesting watching the fish come to the bait - the best way of getting a bite was to wiggle the bait around, either up and down, or jerking it sideways. It didn't always work, but it worked enough to make it worthwhile. When I lost one size 16 hook, and put on a size 18, I fancied that I had more takes - worth remembering.

Time to switch

After two hours I had around 55 lb, while on peg 1 Callum was really struggling, with 15 lb. But on peg 5 Kevin Lee had caught 59 fish - 30 were in his first net and he was almost ready to start on his third. He was catching on paste in the margin, and I decided it was time to switch to the margins.

I had earlier put in some corn with a bait dropper so it went straight to the bottom, and had fished for several minutes, expecting bites immediately, but none had come. So I wasn't very confident of catching on the bottom now. However, first drop with paste into the right margin next to the reeds, and a two-pounder came in.

That was followed my a few more on paste or cat meat, and lost more liners, before I switched to the left margin. That wasn't as good, but a few fish obliged before I moved back to the right. Here mussel also took a few fish, though the biggest, at around 7 lb, fell to double corn - almost the only fish I had on corn all day.

Rain pays us a visit

Somewhere after the first couple of hours the rain that did so much damage in some parts of the country reached us. It was quite heavy for an hour or two, but with not much wind it was possible to erect the umbrella vertical - which I did, and it kept me dry.

These small fish were so difficult to land - they just kept twisting and turning with immense strength - my biggest fish came in in half the time of most of the others.

It was difficult to estimate the weight of each fish, being so small, though I did also add a couple around 3 lb. The rest, though, were around 2 lb in the second half of the match, and I had clicked just 36 lb in the first net, though I was certain I had missed some.

The second net I stopped at 38 lb, but again I felt there was more. And the third net I was very careful to click properly - and had 40 lb-plus in with half an hour to go.

This was one of Kevin Lees nets
(we have a maximum of 60 lb)!

A poor finish

I realised that I wasn't catching as quickly as I should - just a feeling, you know. And a poor last 20 minutes, with only about four fish, left me certain that someone - probably Kevin - would beat me. I had lost half-a-dozen, which is inevitable when fish are coming to the bait but are not ravenous. So I lost probably three or four foulhooked and a couple - including one better fish - probably hooked properly. But whatever the result, I had thoroughtly enjoyed it, fishing in no more than two feet of water all day.

The weigh in

Yes, Callum  had had a really bad match - 33 lb 2 oz. He said that, as in my swim, fish rushed in when he put in any loose feed, but wouldn't take his bait. How frustrating.

I genuinely wasn't sure what weight I had, in three nets. Kevin brought up the first for me - 60 lb 1 oz, knocked back to 60 lb. The second was 41 lb 14 oz, but the third also went over 60 lb - total 161 lb 14 oz. My excuse is that it is so difficult to estimate fish of that size.

Kevin's nets were under our 60 lb limit, though one missed it by 1 oz! But his total was a magnificent 223 lb 14 oz, best fish around 5 lb, and all taken on paste in the same spot on a top two in the margin, over micros. Obviously Kevin had won.

Kevin's catch - only one
 decent carp was included...

...and here it is - probably somewhere
around 5 lb or 6 lb.

All the weights after that were around 80 lb, except for Mel Lutkin, who also had a net overweight, but was third with 116 lb 15 oz. So ended a wet but memorable day with small fish willing to feed for longer than they usually do on Damson. I ended second. Callum, last in the match, took his three-peg section by default - one of the joys of having small sections in our club match. I believe that the more people who go home with even a small award the better. Anyone out there interested in joining?

Mike Rawson needed  one more fish
 to leap from sixth spot to fourth.

Part of Mel Lutkin's 116 lb 5 oz.

Marks out of ten

I give myself 8 - should have come off the caster earlier, but I was enjoying it. And I was chuffed that my home-made paste - which I always carry but rarely use - worked quite well. Kev told me later he flattened his paste so it fluttered down slowly, which he thought was absolutely key to his catch.

THE RESULT