On the tenth day of Christmas - Ten anglers angling ( on Six-Island)

Half an hour before we start and - hello hello,
what's all this? Looks like the fish are 
already lining up in front of Peter Harrison!

Peg 13, Six-Island
Ten off us trundled down to Six-Island lake for this JV match, and it was a strange start. Beside me, on peg 14, Peter Harrison was testing a float before the match when an F1 took his bare hook. He must have thought it was heaving down there under the surface...but the match had been going for more than four hours before he had his next bite! Meanwhile Shaun Buddle was on peg 1, somewhere in front of the sixth island (which you can't see any more), also struggling for the first two-and-a-half hours on a pole before casting a feeder to where the island should be, and finding fish!

Down on my bank I was pleased with peg 13, where I won my section last time we were on this lake. But today was different. Peter Harrison on my left was sheltered from the strong Westerly wind, which was blowing down to pegs 9 and 10, and everyone would have favoured the swims at that windy end of the lake. Opposite me on 6 was Eddie McIlroy who had won from that peg last time, but today both he and I really struggled.

Steve Tilsley had a flying start with three carp on bomb
and bread, and another on a feeder, in the first hour.

Fish hard to come by
My first F1 came to a pink wafter on a banjo feeder after an hour, by which time Steve Tilsley on my right had had four fish, including a couple of lumps! On his right Chris Saunders had a slow start, with just one, I think. Then Steve went on to a pole and had a fish, before changing back to a feeder. That was the pattern of his day - catching perhaps one fish every20 minutes, but having to change from pole to feeder, or vice versa, after each one.

With threee hours to go I put a pot of dead maggots in the deep margin to my right, but never had a touch there on dead maggot. Then, with two hours to go I started flicking casters out in front of me, where I had had fish last time in this peg. I was absolutely certain that I would get a bite or two there, but no - despite looking there several times - nothing!

The sun made a brief appearance, lighting up the far bank. But it didn't stay long. 

I managed the next F1 on a bomb and wafter, then an hour later another on the feeder, and with 45 minutes left Peter Harrison had his first fish - a small F1. Immediately afterwards I had an 8 lb common on corn at about nine metres, but that was my last one, though Peter hooked two more, one of which fell off (!) 😒 Chris Saunders on 19, though, had a great finish on maggot, though he lost six foulhooked, and assumed they had come off bottom suddenly.

The weigh in
Shaun had done well on 1 - 43 lb 5 oz, almost all taken in the second half of the match over the island which doesn't exisit any more. Chris on 11 and Steve on 12 dfominated that end - Steve winning with 55 lb 4 oz to Chris' 42 lb 10 oz. My measly 15 lb 14 oz was sixth, with Peter Harrison weighing in just 4 lb 7 oz - that made me think that perhaps I hadn't fished that badly.However after talking to Styeve and Chris, and finding that they had caught on the pole mainly on maggot I wondered why I hadn't put maggot out in the longer swim!!

Shaun Buddle - second from peg
1 with 43 lb 5 oz mainly on feeder.

Chris Saunders - third (and
section winner) with 42 b 10 oz.

Next match, also on Six-Island, is our Fur and Feather, though I doubt there will be many rabbits and pheasants as prizes. Back in the late 1950s, when I started matchfishing a Fur and Feather was just that - rabbits and birds as prizes (though I'm not complaining, as it's many years since I last skinned a rabbit).

Steve included a nice hump-backed
perch in his winning catch.

THE RESULT

1 Shaun Buddle      43 lb 5 oz       2nd 

4 Carl White           10 lb 8 oz    

6 Eddie McIlroy      13 lb 13 oz

9 Ernie Lowbridge   22 lb 10 oz

11 Chris Saunders   42 lb 10 oz    SEC

12 Steve Tilsley      55 lb 4 oz      1st    

13 Mac Campbell   15 lb 14 oz   

14 Peter Harrison      4 lb 7 oz

20 Roy Whitwell    33 lb 10 oz    SEC

22 Barry Webb           DNW                 

End of the day and a fabulous sunset at Decoy.

In the bleak mid-Winter on Elm.

Peg 13, Elm, Sunday, Dec 8
The forecast obviously turned some people off - high winds and rain - and just eight turned out for this JV match on Elm and Cedar. Well, yes, there were high winds, though not gale-force, and there was rain - but I had my umbrella up, so I was dry (ish). Here Hee. Not that any of that helped, 'cos I ended up with not a fish after five hours. And it did feel like mid-Winter.

Peg 13 is in the corner of Elm - there were four of us on this bank, and four on the same bank facing the opposite way - into Cedar lake. And yes, it was cold. I fished a banjo feeder with a wafter for the first two hours with just three small liners, but to my left the Kendall Killer, Eddie McIlroy, was casting to a bed of reeds opppoite, where I had the majority of my fish two weeks ago when I won with 137 lb. And he was catching occasional fish...

The wind was Northerly, from my right, but while the ripple was going in that direction in the early pegs, it was going from left to right at our end. The end bank must have set it rolling over and set it churning back in a Southerly direction. Very strange.

My left margin, with a ripple from left to right. But you can see, in the
distance the ripple at the other end, which was right to left.

My right margin looked lovely,  but produced nowt.

I was getting into the deep water over the far side, and the one time I ventured to within a foot or two of the platform on peg 12 I hit a snag immediately and had to pull for a break . Luckily it was the hooklength that broke. But I persevered on the feeder, changing the bait to maggot, and then eventually having a look on the pole line in the deep water near the corner. I thought I had two or three knocks there, but later put it down to submerged leaves hitting the line - I hooked three and also several other strands of weed from the bottom. The corner looked very inviting and I put a rig with a grain of corn right against the dead reeds which had built up there, and was surprised not to get a bite.

Shaun in action - I peaked out from
my umbrella to catch this one.

Behind me, Shaun Coaten started on a feeder then changed to pole and I know he had three fish - probably F1s, with the first one foulhooked, I guess he was using corn. I spent the lst hour or so on a Method feeder, but never had another knock. And I was glad when I'd had enough!

The weigh in
I didn't see it. I was too concerned with getting everything together and trundling back to the van. We'd had rain on and off all day, everything was wet, and everybody was cold,. But there were fish caught - and Eddie won with  ten for 66 lb, taken I think mainly on wafter. On Cedar Roy Whitwell had three on maggot on a feeder, and three on wafter for 46 lb 8 oz to win that lake.

Next Sunday we will probably be on Six-Island, the shallowest of Decoy's 11 lakes, but if there's a warmish wind it could fish OK. At least things can't get any worse for me. I give myself 7/10 because I don't think I made any big mistakes.

THE RESULT

            Cedar                                                                 Elm

7 Roy Whitwell        46 lb 8 oz   2nd     20 Peter Harrison        34 lb

9 Dave Parsons        32 lb 8 oz              18 Pete Molesworth   24 lb 4 oz

11 Roy Whincup      10 lb 13 oz             15 Eddie McIlroy       66 lb        1st

13 Shaun Coaten      DNW                     13 Mac Campbell         DNW                     

A few on feeder on Cedar

Oh, what a grey day!

 Peg 5, Cedar, Sun, Dec 1
You really need to be down towards the far end of the strip lakes at Decoy to have the best chance of fish, but I was happy enough with peg 5 in this JV match, fished on Elm and Cedar. Ernie Lowbridge was on my right, and Lee Kendall on my left, but since both were behind a bush I couldn't see much of them.  The day was murky, and cool, and we had some rain early on, but nothing bad.

Lee Kendall was behind that bush.

I started, like Ernie, on a pole fairly close in, but "there were nowt thurr" as they would say in Yorkshire (and some other equally remote spots in the UK where they talk funny.) A switch to a small banjo feeder and dead maggot brought two nice carp around 7 lb, but the bites were a long time coming. Lee had an early fish or two on a feeder cast right across to the platform opposite his peg 7, but I couldn't see how big they were.

Massive bites

In fact Lee told me later he used a wafter nearly all day, on a feeder and then a bomb, and was catching good carp, while my next four fish were F1s, waiting up to 30 minutes for a bite. And with an hour left that was all I had. I'd looked in the deep margins a couple of times, and I now made one last cast on the feeder. The rod tip never moved for 30 minutes and just as I was about to bring it all back the rod  flew off the rest and I managed to catch the handle before it descended into the deeps. It was another F1 - all the F1s gave massive bites while the two bigger fish were slower.

Ernie Lowbridge was behind that bush.

With that seventh fish in the net I looked in the right margin where I had been putting just a little bait. Ernie had had a couple on a feeder, I think, early on, and then a few on a pole - mainly F1s, and at this point I saw him net a fish that looked to be in double-figures, taken about 10 metres out.

A proper look in the margins
I had a quick look at ten metres, then back in the right margin, where I had earlier had a liner. With a few minutes left I had a look, for the first time, in the left margin. Now I found a shelf which I had not found earlier, so I dropped a grain of corn down beside it on a new 0.5 gm rig on one of my new, sparkling Cralusso floats, and I fancied that as it dropped I might have had a bite. There were only a few seconds left when I pulled the rig out, lay it in again, and watched the float dive under as the bait hit bottom.

The 14-16 elastic streaked out and almost immediately the whistle went. I shouted "Fish On." Twice. But Lee obviously didn't hear me as he obligingly shouted that the match had finished. I really did should quite loudly! I shouted back that he must be deaf, which was a stupid thing to do, really, as he would make mincemeat of me if he tried. But he's obviously an old softie...

Ernie took most of his fish on pole.

That fish took several minutes to land, but it was worth it, as it was in double-figures. I was on scales with Ernie, and stopped packing up when he was ready to weigh, but Peter Harrison and Lee were already with Ernie, so I followed for some pictures - unfortunately missing Lee as  I tidied up my gear a little before following the scales.

The weigh in
Ernie weighed in 42 lb 14 oz and then I was pleased to have at least kept in touch with him, with my fish weighing 40 lb 6 oz. But Lee, as he so often does, had whupped us all with 14 fish for 109 lb 4 oz, all taken on a wafter cast right across. The weights were a little better towards the far end, topped by Barry Webb in corner peg 13, with 59 lb 15 oz, taken mainly on a feeder, but with one very big fish near the end on a pole fairly close in. That seemed to have been the story of the day.

Weights were a little better on Elm, mainly in the 60 lb bracket, with Shaun Coaten winning from peg 10 with 86 lb 8 oz. Virtually all the anglers in the match said that casting right across to within a foot or two of the far bank, or the far-bank platforms, was the only way they could get bites for most of the day. So if the fish were willing to feed in the far margins, why didn't they feed in our side margins?

Peter Harrison - 47 lb  ll oz.

Chris Saunders 56 lb 5 oz for
 third on Cedar.

Barry Webb - second on Cedar - had his
weight boosted by a late 'biggie', as did
several other anglers on the day.

The Exterminator
It was noted that Eddie (The Kendall Killer) McIlroy did not turn up to do battle with Lee, who has now renamed himself the Eddie Exterminator. I will watch their confrontations, on the bank and in the cafe, with interest!

Marks out of ten

I had no way of knowing what Lee was using as bait, apart from asking him directly, but the idea of trying a wafter had crossed my mind. So why didn't I do it?  Lee had all 'proper' carp, with no smaller F1s. Also I had a bomb rod ready with a longer tail, but never tried that either. Still, I caught a few fish on a day when things were extremely difficult, in good company, so I give myself 7/10. Next match Sunday, probably on the same two lakes.

THE RESULTS

CEDAR

ELM