Scraping the barrrel on Horseshoe, Decoy

 First, apologies for the lateness of this blog - a two-day attack of Vertigo has been the culprit. Anyone know how to stop them? It was my second in less than three months.

Now, a late-late result from the Spratts match that took place on Yew on Oct 3.

Peter Harrison won from peg 14 with 92 lb 11 oz of carp to 9 lb taken close in; Second was Peter Spriggs, peg 24, with carp to 8 lb and barbel to 5 lb from the margins. Third was Dave Hobbs, peg 5, with 53 lb 5 oz of carp to 11 lb on meat and mussels.

RESULT

East bank                                                West bank

                                                                            1 Bob Walker        21 lb 3 oz
28 Bob Barrett        DNW                                   3 Roy Whitwell      18 lb 14 oz
26 Mick Ramm       3 lb 1 oz                              5 Trevor Cousins    40 lb 14 oz
24 Peter Spriggs     66 lb 13 oz          2nd           6 Shaun Buddle      30 lb 8 oz 
22 John Garner     28 lb 11 oz                             8 Bob Allen            DNW

20 Neil Paas        52 lb 1 oz                 4th         10 Dick Warrener    5 lb 10 oz 

18 Dave Hobbs    53 lb 5 oz                3rd         12 Mike Rawson    DNW

                                                                            14 Peter Harrison   92 lb 11 oz    1st  

NOTE:       John Garner won £1 from Bob Allen!  

  

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Peg 19, Horseshoe, Saturday, Oct 12

Ten of us were on Horseshoe for this penultimate Fenland Rods match of the season, and I didn't really fancy peg 19, as I've seen, in the past, some JV Winter match results on Horseshoe where these high-numbered pegs have seen really good anglers blow out. Still, it's not Winter yet, although we've had some cold nights, so I was (as always) hopeful.

Now this won't take long. The Decoy team have been working on this swim, having taken out a load of the lillies which grew so profusely earlier on, and the swim looked quite nice. There were very tall reeds immediately to the right, which gave me some shelter from the wind, and the rain which fell later. 

A slow start

To the left there were still some small patches of lillies, and I reckoned that fish would be hanging around them, close to the margin somewhere, However, I started out at about eight metres, with corn, just over a sparse line of lillies, but to my surprise I never had even a liner.

Suddenly, after about half an hour I fancied I saw a flash in the left margin, and came in there, on a top two, with corn, using my special method, which usually tells me if there are fish about. Sure enough I had a small touch, then a proper bite, and a good fish was on. But almost immediately it had run into lillies, close to the bank, and I was stuck fast.

Reeds to the right, lillies just beyond, and a small patch of them in
the bottom of the dark reflection, just above the marginal grass to
the left. The wind got up, and it rained, but all-round it wasn't too bad.

I was able, easily, to reach the lillies with my long landing net handle with a hook on the end, I dug the hook down, found the lilly stem, twisted the hook round it, and brought everything back - except the fish. Determined not to have that happen again I changed from the 17 elastic to a stronger one, and pulled out about ten inches of elastic from the puller bung, and tied a temporary loop. Now the elastic was very tight.

Another one lost

Half an hour later I had another bite, and this fish, instead of moving straight out, went straight across the swim, pulling me with it. I hadn't time to fix the Number three section, and even if I had I'm not sure it would have done any good. Because there were lillies only a few feet to the right I held the fish hard, and the hook pulled out.

Seconds after I walked over to Roy Whitwell's
swim he was playing a carp on his feeder rod.

Behind me Roy Whitwell was on peg 1, which I like, and  I immediately had a walk over to him, in time to see his feeder rod pulled right round, and him land a carp of about 4 lb. He said he had about 12 lb to 14 lb, and that Kevin Lee, on peg 10, had landed several carp, but almost everyone else seemed to be struggling. Before going back to my swim I walked up to Dave Garner on 17, and he hadn't had a bite, and said that Mel Lutkin on 15 hadn't had anything, either.

Yes - that one was safely landed.

Back to my swim, fairly heavy rain started, and after another fruitless look in the original long swim, next to lillies, I went out into open water in front of me. In the next couple of hours I managed to hook three carp in that swim. The first was coming in nicely but I started to break down too early, and as I lowered the pole the fish shot into that bed of lillies to my right and pulled off.

A fish!!!

Next drop and another fish was on, but I knew it was foulhooked. However, it ended in my net - a little less than 3 lb. Half an hour later I had changed to maggot and a fish hooked itself, obviously a carp. The elastic stretched to the right as the fish charged down the centre of the lake, and I thought I now had a chance of landing another. No - the hook pulled out!!!

But as this fish had taken maggot I decided to put in a few more, and stick to maggot until the last few minutes. So in went some more and I wandered up to Dave Garner again. Again, he said he'd not had a bite, but Mel on 15 had a carp. Now we fish three-man and four-man sections in this club, so I decided to fish for my three-man section. On maggot. And around this time the rain stopped.

Small roach and bream

That worked after a fashion, and some small roach and three small bream, best 10 oz, came in, though several roach dropped off. I was still using  a 13 elastic - far too strong for the roach, but I thought I would have a chance of landing a carp provided it wan't foulhooked (which I now began to suspect all the others had been).

A few minutes from the end I went back into the margin, saw one swirl, but never had a touch. And that was my day done.

                                                     The weigh in

Kevin was the obvious winner with 
68 lb of carp, F1s and carassio...

Roy on peg 1 eventually moved from his near margin to a little cut-out in the bank a section farther away, where he found two feet of extra water! And that was where he took the bulk of his  49 lb 2 oz. Next door Martin Parker included a carp around 12 lb in his 14 lb 3 oz.

I caught up with the scales in time to see Kevin Lee weigh in his winning 68 lb, which included a pike about 6 lb. Horseshoe occasionally produces the odd pike - a 17-pounder came out a few years ago landed, I think, by Tony Evans.

...and a surprise 6 lb pike!

On peg 11, next door, Mike Rawson had 18 lb 4 oz for fourth place, only 3 oz from third-placed Dave Hobbs, who had weighed in 18 lb 7 oz from peg 5. Then the scales came to my section of three, the last to weigh.

My section

Mel Lutkin still had just the one carp, 2 lb 14 oz. Dave Garner had had just one bite, 20 minutes from the end, from a carp of 4 lb 7 oz on half a mussel. Finally, my decision to fish for the section paid off when I weighed in 6 lb 3 oz for the section win. Without those small maggot fish I wouldn't have won anything. And the winner was Kevin Lee, who was on the fourth Golden Peg. Four were drawn at the start - three at our £50 cap and the last at £27, which is what Kev won. Well done, Kev.

Mike Rawson was fourth with 18 lb 4 oz.

Marks out of ten

I have to assume, realistically, that the pegs we were in, on the South bank, weren't holding many feeding fish. And at least I'd hooked five carp, though they might have all been foulhooked. So since the decision to stick to maggot in the open water had produced at least a small brown envelope, I give myself 7/10. Not sure what else I could have done.

Pike

Mike Rawson said it was the first match he'd fished in which pike counted. But after I got home I sat and thought about it, and remember coming second in an East Midland Winter League match on the Forty Foot with the help of a 3 lb pike. So they must have counted  at some time, though under the very early NFA rules pike definitely did not count. Mind you, neither did eels, catapults were banned, and you weren't allowed to even break the surface of the water in front of you before the start of the match! How ridiculous.

Next match the Les Bedford Memorial on Damson, Decoy, on Sunday. I won it last year, and I've been sorting out the appropriate rigs, though rain is forecast for most of the day. 

THE RESULT