Things are now difficult on Beastie, but we still sally forth.

Peg 22, Beastie Lake, Decoy, Friday, Oct 11
We had to laugh. Mike Rawson doesn't like peg 24 on Beastie, and all of us in this Spratts match knew that. It doesn't treat Mike kindly, yet he keeps drawing it. So before the draw some of the cruellest in the club told Mike he would get it again. Actually even  that was a bit optimistic, because we didn't know whether our organiser Trevor had even put it in the bag.

So the draw commenced. Eleven of  us, and Mike's name wasn't out first; nor second. My name came out and then "Twenty-two". It wasn't one I would have picked. I would have preferred a peg facing the wind, because that far bank, where 22 was, would be calm in the back Westerly wind. And the draw went on until ten names had been plucked from the bag and only Mike was left. Sure enough - Mike Rawson - Twenty-Four! Lots of head shaking and unrestrained laughter - but to his great credit Mike just smiled ruefully, walked to his van, and drove round to his bogey peg. Life's not always very fair.

Bright sunshine
And yes - the water was calm, with bright sunshine, which threw a dark shadow on the water if you put out a pole. Plumbing up showed nearly five feet of water about 12 feet from the bank, and only a little more than three feet well out. I know that these pegs in the early 20s can produce big catches, usually on a long pole, so that was how I started.

Flat calm on our side of the lake - you can just see the beautiful
Raspberry Ripple in the background, in front of the spit.

Three hours later, having fished up to 13 metres out, and having tried a feeder from halfway to the island right across the full 50 yards, I had two F1s in the net, a small bream, plus half-a-dozen tiny roach, or a total of about 7 lb. On the spit to my left, where there was a beautiful big ripple, I had seen Mick Ramm playing a carp within two minutes of the start, while to my right Bob Barrett must have had well over 20 lb on a feeder with his usual banded pellet.

Actually, for an hour  after I put in some dead maggots, just off my platform, to the left, big swirls of mud kept coming up. Obviously fish were rooting around, but could I get a single bite? No. So frustrating. I tried live maggots, dead maggots, expander, cat meat and corn, but all were ignored. Then the mud stopped coming up and I had to think out my next move.

Getting desperate
Out went my feeder again while I had a coffee; the tip went round; a fish was on; seconds later it came off! Not my day. Now, with two-and-a-half hours left I had seen Mick get another fish or two, and he was fishing the margin. So into my margin I went, more it hope than expectation. I couldn't easily fish to the right - the sun was now in my eyes there, but the water was in deep shadow, so seeing a float was very difficult. No - I turned to my left, where there was vegetation overhanging the water.

There are no reeds along this bank, so as that vegetation  was the only cover I dropped in there with a grain of corn - it was a little over three feet deep. I used my special method, because if I can't catch in that I can't catch on anything. Second drop and plump, hard-fighting F1 came in - about 2 lb.Success. And for once it really was.

A nice bonus
Feeding with corn and hemp before every drop, and constantly working the bait, more F1s came in - about one every five minutes, provided I was within a foot of the overhanging stuff. Any farther and I couldn't get a bite. And there was an early bonus in the shape of an 8 lb mirror carp. 

To my right Bob seemed to be struggling, but my fish came slowly but steadily, though I had to increase the lash and try to keep the pole shadow from falling on the clear water. After about 12 or 15 fish, bites slowed up and I went out to about six metres, where I had put in a few grains of corn and some micros. 

First drop there, and another F1 came in. Then nothing, but the rest had helped, and occasionally I found more F1s in the margin swim, with a couple on a 6mm expander. One more carp took the bait - about 4 lb - before the match ended. I thought I had about 50 lb, possibly more. I never had a fish from the 11.5 meter or 13 metres lines, despite fishing them for a long time early on.

Then four minutes from the end, the wind changed and gave us on this bank a lovely ripple - far too late, of course!

The weigh in
I was first to weigh - 54 lb 12 oz, with Bob Barrett confirming that he had had  a terrible second half, after battering me early on,. He ended with 34 lb12 oz. As I packed away, the scales went round the lake, and I caught up with them as they went to the three pegs on the spit, which had had ripple all day.

Mick Ramm had a couple of really nice
carp in his 43 lb 13 oz from peg 17.

There, Trevor had really struggled, with just one carp in his 20 lb 7 oz catch, the rest being F1s. Then to Mick Ramm, who had two really good carp in his 43 lb 13 oz, and at that point I looked at he board and saw I was leading! The clearing water and bright sun had obviously really spooked catches. On peg 30 Dave Hobbs later told me that he didn't get a fish for the first three-and-a-half hours, but ended with 46 lb 4 oz.

Neil Paas brings his first net to the scales from peg 16.

Finally to Neil Paas - a good angler on a good peg, who did the business with 63 lb 6 oz, to win. Well done, Neil. Nowehere was easy today, so The Boy Done Good! And I ended second. Next match was the next day, on Horseshoe, where Bob Allen had found out that five anglers had been pleasure fishing there and had left without any of them having had a bite!

Neil had quite an assortment
of sizes in his net...

...but this beauty was the biggest,
on a difficult day.

Oh, and Mike Rawson had struggled, taking a carp about 3 lb but not weighing in.  So he wasn't laughing and, to be fair, neither were we,. It's rotten getting a peg you really don't fancy and coming back with nowt. I know - I've done it literally score of times on natural waters, which can be so unfair. On commercials at least you know there are fish there. Perhaps he would do better the next day.

Marks out of ten
Probably worth 8/10. At least I found some fish in the calm, clear water. But I'm still not sure why I couldn't catch one or two of those which were stirring up the mud earlier on. I still have a lot to learn! I must remember how close those fish stayed, all day, to the vegetation.

THE RESULT

3 Roy Whitwell        44 lb 13 oz        4th
4 Dick Warrener         5 lb 7 oz
5 Bob Walker            21 lb 3 oz
15 Trevor Cousins     20 lb 7 oz
17 Mick Ramm         43 lb 13 oz 
18 Neil Paas              63 lb 6 oz            1st 
22 Mac Campbell     54 lb 12 oz         2nd
23 Bob Barrett          34 lb 12 oz   
24 Mike Rawson        DNW  
29 Bob Allen            18 lb 11 oz (all bream)
30 Dave Hobbs         46 lb 4 oz        3rd

Warmer weather was just the tonic on Yew lake, Decoy

Peg 18, Yew, Sunday, Oct 6
Two weeks ago I sat shivering in a match on Willows, dressed in my normal Summer clothes. Blow me, this Sunday, complete with long Johns, thermal vest, thick lined shirt, sweat shirt, hoodie, smart new Decoy Lakes woolly hat, and Imax Winter jacket, when I'd got to my peg I had to take some of them off!

The weather at first looked like being coolish with not much wind (no Raspberry Ripple on my swim) but after about an hour it became almost perfect - overcast (and how!), but warm and windy (later very windy). The sort of day when, 50 years ago, I would have taken a day off my holidays to mog off down to the Relief Channel, behind the tractor factory at Downham Market, where there would be white horses on the surface, and with a bit of luck the bream or big roach would be feeding. The rougher it was the better it always was.

A nice-looking right margin - picture taken after we finished.

Inside information

As I took the long walk today down to peg 18, Dave Hobbs told me he had been there the previous Thursday, and had had barbel to the left, towards platform 19. Unfortunately that platform today held the imposing figure of Mel Lutkin, but knowing that barbel might be around I decided to rely on maggots in the margin to start with. However, the first half hour was wasted casting a bomb and maggots around, without so much as even a liner, and at that point it looked to me as if things were going to be decidedly difficult, as the wind hadn't yet picked up.

So into the right margin, near the reeds, went about ten dead maggots, followed by my 0.5 gm rig, with 16 hook and two red maggots. I couldn't believe how deep the lake was here - I reckon it was almost eight feet - about ten inches less than the length of my top two. I gazed at the float as it sat there, with a tiny drift against the wind, realising that the rig was probably too light, and the elastic, a No 13, was also probably not heavy enough. Second drop and I could hardly believe my eyes when the float dipped. A strike and a sack of potatoes pulled the elastic out several metres.

Beautiful!
Honestly, whatever it was on the end played with me for almost 15 minutes, after which the sack turned miraculously into he most beautiful golden mirror carp you have ever seen - about 10 lb. I found it difficult to net, as I'm not used to having an eight-foot rig to content with. Thank goodness for pullers. Then with it finally in the net, I thought I really ought to up the elastic.

Mel did this several times in the first three hours...

But I didn't - and the next fish, next drop, was a barbel at least 4 lb, which took also a fair few hairy minutes to land, after which I changed for a similar rig, but stronger, on 17 elastic. By now Mel, on my left, had found BIG carp out at about ten metres, on cat meat (I stopped fishing and watched him bait up to confirm that, but don't tell him!) The new rig had a strong size 12 on, but it didn't work and I wondered if the heavy hook was to blame. 

I then got up to shake hands with my best friend, and wandered up to Roy Whitwelll, who had had three carp on a feeder. Mel had another fish or two and was beating both of us.

Out into open water
I soldiered on and eventually that heavier rig paid off, and in the next hour another barbel came in, and a big old F1, before I decided I simply had to follow Mel out to the open water, as he'd had another three carp. It looked as it he wasn't feeding anything. I started on 4mm expander over a little hemp with 4mm feed pellets and micros, at about eight metres, and sure enough the float seemed to disappear, The wind had now picked up and the tow was really pronounced, so I wondered if the 0.75 gm rig had caught on the bottom. No - it was a 10 lb carp.

Then a big fish snagged me in open water a few feet from the bank, and I had to pull for a break. I whipped another hook straight on, so the rig was now a few inches shorter. I also put that rig on a stronger elastic - orange bungee, which was much better in the wind.

Yet another one for Mel, all on cat meat, and I don't think he fed at all.

Things go pear-shaped

In the next couple of hours I alternated between the margins and the long swim, at about eight metres, and took another couple of carp, one at 4 lb and another in double figures, plus another 3 lb F1, all on cat meat. Then things went pear-shaped and a foulhooked fish broke me, and so I whipped on another hook again. OOPS - the rig was now unusable - too short for the deep water. So I put on a similar rig, which was really much too light. I paid the price of that.

I kept feeding and looking in my left
margin, but the float never flickered.

What followed was a long poor spell catching about two carp, while Martin Parker on my right on 17, started hammering big carp in the margins. He must have had six while I sat fishless, because my rig was too light, and was being pulled around by the wind and the tow. Then I did what I should have done earlier - I changed it for a heavier float, which had to be on a longer-than-normal rig, and settled on a really heavy 3gm jobbie! That worked absolutely perfectly.

On goes a bolo float
It was a bolo float, with a thick 4mm or 5mm diameter tip, but it sat perfectly still, albeit with a piece of the body showing, so it looked like the sort of buoy you'd tie a boat up to. Hmmm. Probably needs a bit of trimming down, I decided. But before I could bring the rig back the float shot down; the pole tip came up; the elastic stretched out; and a double-figire carp came in. Just like that! I'd cracked it! And I actually sort of had.

On went a No 3 Stotz to trim the float down, and I dropped it back out. Minutes later I landed a big F1, on cat meat. A glance at my watch showed six minutes left, so I dropped it out long again. Nothing. Two minutes later I brought it in and dropped it in the marginal swim. Nothing. A minute to go and I fed hemp and pellets out long, dropped the rig over it, and seconds later the float went down and the pole bent round. Seconds after that the match ended and I shouted "Fish On."

Three carp for 37 lb for Martin.

Martin's hearing aids
Martin Parker next door then started shouting something to me - probably hadn't heard me shout. Now Martin has just aquired some top-line hearing aids - the sort you can adjust on you phone, and I guess he can, like me, answer his mobile without even touching it - the call goes straight throught to his hearing aids. You can adjust them for "In a restuarant", or "In noisy conversation". Wouldn't surprise me if he has a  "Listen To The Fish Talking" mode on them. But later he told me he wasn't wearing them anyway - he'd got his old ones in.

The 3gm Spitfire
Bolo float that got
me out of jail.

Whatever! I didn't care 'cos that last fish was the biggest - we weighed it later at over 13 lb. And the old bolo float had got me three fish in the last half-hour. I hadn't seen what Mel had caught in the last couple of hours, but assumed he had probably beaten me as he'd had such a good start. And I guessed Martin had probably overtaken me in the last couple of hours. I thought I had about 90 lb.

The weigh in

Roy Whitwell - second from
peg 21 with 96 lb 4 oz.

Well behind again, partly thanks to landing that last biggie, and having assorted discarded rigs and elastics to pack away, I got to the scales in time to see Roy Whitwell weigh in. Top weight was Dave Hobbs, the first to weigh in, with 99 lb 7 oz from corner peg 30. He'd had six on a feeder and six more in the corner on a pole, where he said he had only about four feet of water! I assumed that a lot of fish had been caught in those early pegs, but after Roy had weighed his 96 lb 4 oz I looked and saw that he was second with, surprisingly, no other weight recorded over 33 lb 8 oz.

Another surprise was when Mel weighed in just 41 lb 10 oz. He must have had an horrendous second half after such a good first half. Then my three barbel and about nine or ten carp weighed 94 lb 1 oz, and Martin overtook me with 98 lb 11 oz, so I finished fourth - worth just my three-peg section (by default). And overall it was a great day's fishing on Decoy.

My three lovely-to-see barbel.

Mel Lutkin - 41 lb 10 oz, and I
think they were all on cat meat.

Marks out of ten

I hadn't been positive enough from the beginning, expecting things to be pretty bad, and in fact I'd put in only one net at the start. Then I'd stuck with a rig I knew was much too light in that depth of water. When the weather became very mild I should have adjusted by expectations, and I know I should have won - I needed only one more fish. So I give myself 5/10 - the only two fish I lost were, I am sure, foulhooked. But I think I fed well - not too much at a time. Next match on Beastie on Friday.

THE RESULT