Last match of the year, on Beastie

Peg 3, Beastie
Twelve of us turned up for this JV club match on Beastie, Decoy, and the hand that dipped into the bag before me belonged to Shaun Coaten. He drew out peg 26, and I immediately thought: "Poor Sod". Because I know that in Winter, especially when there's South in the wind (as there was today), the fish on Beastie often move up to the main bowl of the lake.

Looking towards the main spit, and the main bowl of the lake.

 I drew out peg 3, where the wind was in my face, and from the left, and was pretty happy with that, especially since I could see that those swims at the Southern end, to my left, were comparatively calm, while my bank had a big ripple on..

The swims to my left had virtually no ripple on them.

Hoods up!
To my right on 5 was Ian Frith, and even before the match started I was glad I had put on all my Winter layers, and we both had our hoods up. My tactics were simple - a bomb/feeder rod, with one main pole rig at 11.5 or 13 metres, and a couple of  'throw-away' rigs in case I felt it was worth looking in the margins later. But the water was very clear and I doubted whether they would be used.

I started on a bomb and bread to the island, about 40 years away, as did Ian, I think. He had a fish fairly early on, but I had just a small liner or two. A fish or two had topped halfway out, so I put the bomb there, with maggot bait, and eventually hooked a good fish that really bent the rod and turned out to be a mirror about 8 lb. But no more came from that swim.

A change to feeder
Sometime about then I saw Ian pole fishing and I saw that when he caught a fish there he soon changed to a feeder. That went on all day - one fish from a swim and he would soon change - and I found the same thing. So out I went to my long pole line between casts on the rod, and after about an hour I hooked a fish that threatened to take me round the end of the spit which runs alongside peg 3, on the left. But the 13 Preston hollow elastic held, and in came a seven-pounder, hooked in the tail!

Ian Frith lands a fish near the end of the match.
As I took this, an F1 nearly pulled my rod in.

Back out, and I changed from bomb to a very small Method feeder, which brought a small F1 from about 10 feet short of the island, and then a 6 lb common from right against the reeds on a small hybrid feeder because I felt it would hold the maggots in it better than the Method.

Ian had now had a fish or two, and I started switching from rod to pole. A roach or two and some gudgeon came on the long pole, nothing from a couple of brief looks on a short pole, then an F1 on the feeder. I now switched to a very small hybrid feeder, which eventually brought another two or three  F1s, from different spots near the island - never getting two fish from the same spot.

A good one lost
An hour before the end I hooked a good fish on the long pole, on double red maggot, but it came off after about ten seconds. In that last hour I had just one more F1 on the feeder, which pulled the rod off the rest just as I was taking a picture of Ian landing a fish. I just managed the grab the handle before the rod disappeared into the depths.

Peter Harrison - winner with 67 lb 1 oz.

The weigh in

I was on scales, so Ian and I did the honours. My fish weighed   36 lb 9 oz, but I guessed that Ian had about 50 lb, thanks to a little run of fish early on when I was struggling. Indeed, he weighed in 52 lb 11 oz, which topped our four-peg section. The top weights came  from Pete Molesworth on the main spit, peg  17, who fished a maggot feeder for 57 lb 3 oz, and Peter Harrison on 22, who fished dead maggots on a feeder cast to the island. He won with 67 lb 1 oz.

Then the weights collapsed - just as if a brick wall had been built to Peter's right. Joe Bourn on the next peg didn't weigh, while Lee Kendall on 24 took just 4 lb 7 oz to the scales, mainly small stuff!!. And as I had feared, Shaun Coaten had caught just two roach, and the famous pegs 29 and 30  both produced less than 10 lb. As I had expected, there had been virtually no ripple on these swims.

So I ended fourth, and was pleased with that, in that sort of company. Next match might have been in the regular Friday Old Codgers event at Decoy, on Jan 3rd,  but it's our 54th Wedding Anniversary, and my wife may have other ideas. So it will be on Sunday, somewhere on Decoy. It's difficult, obviously, but there still has to be a winner...

THE RESULT