The cold fingers of Winter numb my brain on Willows

Peg 11, Willows, Wed, Sept 25
I is a-feared that I will have now to don my long pantaloons and my furry tunics to face the oncoming storms. The first cold fingers of Winter did remind me  that cool weather is a-coming in, and I was left a-shivering before the end of our Spratts match, fished by 13 tried and trusted stalwarts.

Peg 11 was incredibly shallow - less that a foot deep against the bank, running down to perhaps three feet at about five metres, and shallowing up again as I plumbed farther out. Yet Peter Harrison, on my left, had almost four feet of water in his margins. However I decided to start on the Method feeder, cast to the island, which yielded not even a liner for half an hour, though Bob Barrett on my right had three or four fish on a bomb and pellet.

A nice new, large metal platform greeted me on peg 11. The wind
was never strong, but it had a real bite to it towards the end.

Nowt on the rod

Another half-hour on bomb and pellet saw me still fishless, so it was out to 11.5 metres on the pole with an expander. This brought a 1 lb F1 on the second cast, but then nothing except one carp foulhooked which came off. Peter Harrison was catching a few smallish fish, also well out on the pole, and eventually I tried maggot, which brought some tiny roach. The match was now almost half over.

In went some dead maggot to the left margin, near a load of old reeds, but in about two feet of water, and yes! Some perch and roach came in on double red maggot - at least I was now catching. Then a 1 lb F1, and I changed to corn, hoping for carp. 

I'd also been trickling corn into the right shallow margin, and suddenly I fancied I saw clouds of mud there. Then they were also in the left margin, but right up to the bank, where I hadn't put any bait in. I've had this before - unable to catch the fish in the very shallow water, so I went out into two feet with a bait.

Peter Harrison nets one of his better carp, taken from very close to the bank.

A 'double'
That move to about two feet of water brought the VERY occasional carp - the first was 10 lb, on a 6mm expander, and then a smaller one on cat meat, one on corn, and one on mussel. Peter Harrison came into his margins, and when he landed fish I could see he was deeper than any water I could find.  Bob had had two or three good carp on his bomb cast well over, and now he was putting it down the wide, with no result! He told me later that he also had mud clouds, but the fish wouldn't take his bait. 

Bob Barret was to my right and I think took most of his fish on bomb and pellet.
The angler in the background is Trevor Cousins, round the corner on peg 16.

I wonder whether the cold wind had put them off feeding, because for the last 90 minutes I couldn't stop shivering - I was still in my Summer gear, with an unlined Goretex jacket.  An occasional small F1 took corn, and my last fish came on mussel, fished a little farther out. Every fish had to be teased into taking the bait, by dragging or lifting, and with 45 minutes still to go I hoped for a good finish, but never had any more fish even though I could actually see double-figure fish swimming in both margins.

The weigh-in
Before the match I had fancied the pegs in what used to be called Deadman's Bay, from 16 round to peg 24 (25 is a known flier but was not in the bag today). In particular I fancied peg 24, which has an aerator, and I told Neil Paas, who drew it, that there should be fish under the aerator.

Bob Barrett carefully slips his
fish into the weigh bag.

The early pegs couldn't top 30 lb, then Peter Harrison weighed in 40 lb 5 oz to take the lead. Apparently most of his fish, including some nice carp, came to maggot. But I'd stopped putting maggot on the hook when the first carp came - why didn't I try it? There were plenty of deads on the bottom!

To my surprise I was only one small carp behind Peter with my 37 lb 6 oz, with Bob only just behind me on 36 lb 1 oz. But as I had expected, the final five pegs to weigh took the top five places. They all had over 40 lb, but when I got to Neil Paas' swim I looked for the aerator, and there it was. Gone!

Peter Harrison's 40 lb 5 oz
from the peg on my left.

Bob Barrett's 35 lb 1 oz from
the peg to my right.

Bob Walker - some good fish in his
52 lb 12 oz in his first Spratts match.

The post the aerator is usually tied to was there, to the left of the swim, but no aerator. Didn't matter, though - Neil Paas had still smashed it with 86 lb 3 oz, with Trevor Cousins on 16 second with 69 lb 8 oz, taken in the margins to his right near platform 17.

Bob Walker from Market Deeping, fishing his first match with us, was third on 52 lb 12 oz. I hope he doesn't make a habit of framing! 😂 I ended seventh.

Neil Paas - winner with 86 lb 3 oz. The
post is where the aerator usually is!

Marks out of ten
I thought afterwards that I had scraped a reasonable catch out, but then realised that I should definitely had started another swim in the deepest spot I could find, about five metres out. The carp were swimming all round, and would certainly have found the bait there, and would probably have fed much better there than in the shallower water, where I guess they were scared by my rig. I should also have tried  reverting to maggot. So I'm worth 3/10. Could do better. My excuse is that the cold numberd my brain. So next match will see my Winter underwear, a thick lined shirt, and my trusty, lined Imax jacket.

Next match probably not for another ten days, on Yew at Decoy. Cold weather can affect Yew badly - the fish are bigger there and not as many of them.

THE RESULT

1 John Garner            22 lb 9 oz

3 Dave Hobbs            29 lb 1 oz

5 Bob Allen                14 lb 4 oz

7 Mike Rawson            DNW

9 Peter Harrison          40 lb 5 oz

11 Mac Campbell        37 lb 6 oz

13 Bob Barrett            36 lb 1 oz

15 Martin Parker         19 lb 1 oz

16 Trevor Cousins       69 lb 8 oz        2nd

18 Bob Walker            52 lb 12 oz       3rd  

20 Roy Whitwell         43 lb 6 oz

22 Peter Spriggs          49 lb 7 oz        4th

24 Neil Paas                86lb 3 oz         1st