Peg 12, Six-Isand - JV mAatch, Sunday, Dec 14
Greeted by a magnificent sunrise. But I've gotta go - here are some pictures from the Fur and Feather, held on Beastie and Six-Island.
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| Roy Whitwell, on my left - his first fish, on feeder. |
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| Six-Island |
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| Beastie - well done Yammers (John Savage) |
I was first to draw, and unfortunately peg 3 stuck to my fingers - the wind would be coming in to me from the right, and also to the poor sods who drew 5 and 7. They turned out to be Peter Harrison and Roy Whitwell. In addition I was on scales (though it's not a problem with this club, because someone will also volunteer to help). And now there's not a lot to report...
The light was so dull I didn't take a picture of my swim, which was mainly water anyway...
By that time the wind had picked up, I'd had to put on my padded Imax jacket, and I came back to 11.5 metres, and had a look to my left, towards the aerator in about four feet of water. That brought a few roach, some up to 3 oz, and I scrapped around for the rest of the match, catching roach but hoping carp would turn up.
I'd seen Roy net a fish or two on a feeder cast across. I tried a maggot feeder and a small Method feeder, but had only a couple of roach. Peter was fishing a long pole and I saw him net a fish, but I didn't think he'd had a lot. I finished scrapping around all the swims but added only half a dozen fish in the last half hour, and I wasn't sure what weight I'd got. By the end the rain had pretty well stopped, but you could feel it in the air.
As I had expected, the better weights were where they had a backish wind, with first man I weighed, Eddie McIlroy (the self-appointed Kendall Killer) taking 30 lb 1 oz to the scales, which was top weight on my board. I think he used maggot all day. Shaun Coaten won our four-peg section from peg 9 on maggot, as I had guessed he might, with 21 lb 6 oz. And I was pleasantly suprised to beat Peter Harrison with my 9 lb 10 oz to his 6 lb 5 oz.
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| Back wind and bright sun for most of the match. |
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| Pat, on peg 9, lands his only fish. |
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| Ian Frith carefully plays a carp on his pole. |
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| ...in she comes! |
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| Ian had some good carp in his winning catch. |
My next match is with JV on Sunday, probably on Six-Island, but Roy Whincup is away so we are left in the capable hands on Ernie Lowbridge, who will make the decision as to where we fish. Very happy with that - I'll happily fish anywhere on Decoy.
THE RESULT
Twelve of us fished on Cedar, and I was on peg 5. The wind was a strong Northerly, and there was a big ripple on our end of the lake and Roy Whitwell, peg 2, said it would probably be dire in the lower numbers. However this lake often fishes better in the low numbers, near the car park, so I thought that with a nice cold raspberry ripple the fish might play ball.
The surface up there was flat, and that brought to mind a recent comment I've seen on You Tube, I think from Jamie Hughes, that in these conditions carp will move up to where the surface is flat because there the temperature is more constant, and not being affected by the cold wind.
Forty-five minutes from the end I had a determined look down in the deep margin with maggot and caught three tiny roach! In true Winter League mode I wanted to catch something for the team. And I was glad when I'd had enough and the match ended.
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| Martin (left) inspcts the prizes before choosing. |
I think Martin, as winner, chose the new Preston pole support, and I was eighth and chose a 9 ft Guru A-Class feeder rod. Eighth and I win a great rod. Yippee! Next day I set it up with the Preston ICM system (the small size) so now it is part of my three-rod Winter gear: bomb (with sliding stop to alter the drop length), the ICS, and now the ICM.
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| A happy Martin Parker, team money in his hand, about to choose his prize. |
THE MATCH RESULT
I've just been told that my appearance at the Antiques Roadshow will be included in the programme to be broadcast this Sunday, Nov 30th at 8pm.
Of course the weather holds the trump card at the moment, but I'm managing to avoid the really dodgy areas at Decoy. After drawing pegs 12 and 11 on Six-Island in the JV club matches, the latest one saw me on peg 15 on Beastie. It's in the main bowl of the lake, at a time when the ends - from 25 round to peg 3, and the back of the spit (8 to 13) - are currently the spots to avoid drawing. There are fish there, but rarely enough to win.
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| The day started dull and cold, and it was easy to see where we were casting. Pegs 15, 16 and 17 can cast to the island, but 16 was left out. |
I took another look at Pete's rig, which I had thought was a small Method feeder, but now saw that his bait was hanging free when he cast. I the realised it was probably a maggot feeder, so I changed. Within minutes I had a drop-back bite on two reds, and a 2 lb F1 came to my net, followed by two more in the next half-hour.
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| When the clouds blew over the wind became stronger, and the sun was in our eyes, and we were casting blind, unable to see our feeders as they went out. Here Pete Molesworth on peg 17 nets an F1, taken on maggot feeder. |
At that point Chris Saunders, over on peg 20, started catching on a pole. I didn't see it, but I had a quick chat with Roy Whitwell on 13 and he told me; he also knew I had some fish. How the hell did he know? He was sitting with his back to both Chris and myself!
Round to my left I had seen Lee Kendall catch fish on a feeder cast to the island, and he later changed to pole and had some fish. But behind me, on the back of the spot, sport was terrible. The match finished with Pete and I both cold, and behind me Shaun Coaten said he had just three F1s - and Shaun has been framing a lot recently so it must have been been bad.
Lee Kendall was leading with 28 lb 2 oz from peg 5, but poor Dave Parsons on 8 told me he never had even a liner, and Russell Gray on 9 never had a fish either. My 21 lb 14 oz beat everyone else on the spit, and brought me just a section win, as the top three places came from the fancied pegs in the 20s - pegs 20, 22 and 23. Then, as happens often in the Winter, the famous pegs of 25, 26, 29 and 30 produced no big weights.
Then we were back to the warmth of the cafe and a hot coffee before the presentations. And we all agreed that the sudden drop in temperatures over the last two nights - down to freezing - had their inevitable effect. I expect things to be better by the time the Winter League final is fished here in late February - two full sections (approx 40 pegs) on Decoy, two on Rookery, and one on Float Fish Farm (plus five sections on the drains).
Basically we were often casting blind, and with an overhanging bush right in front of me I had to hit the clip nicely and bring the rod back to just the right spot to avoid hitting that bush, I managed that, never missed a bite, and never lost a fish - so I give myself 8/10. I perhaps should have realised sooner what Pete had his first two fish on and changed.
Next match was the Spratts Christmas match, the last of the year, moved to Cedar, which is where the next JV match is scheduled.
THE RESULT
There are 12 pegs on this side of the lake, with the higher numbers often having a slight edge. But in the first hour it was the low numbers, to my right, who started catching occasional fish. There was more ripple towards that end, and Martin Parker, on peg 5 to my right, had three fish early on. He told me later it was on bomb and bread punch. To his right I also saw Kevin Lee and Trevor Cousins land carp.
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| Cold and bright, and not much ripple at our end to start with. |
On my left was Roy Whitwell, who has magic feeders in his box, but today after a couple of hours he had not had even a liner. Around that time I had three fish on bomb and sweetcorn cast to the far bank - they were a 2 lb F1, a 2 lb barbel, and a nice 8 lb mirror carp. To be beating Roy on the next peg was a novel experience for me...but it didn't last.
Eventually his little method feeder and red wafter found good carp and he had about four in the next 90 minutes, the best of which looked to be around 10 lb. I also saw Mike Rawson, down on peg 10 land a couple of fish. But for the next 90 minutes I never had a touch on bomb, so changed to a tiny Method feeder and red wafter and that brought two 3 lb carp, one of which took when the rig had been out for almost 30 minutes, and I was confident of getting more if I was patient.
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| Roy Whitwell plays his first fish - more than two hours after we started... |
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| ...and it was a nice big common carp. |
But then I managed to snag my feeder over near the far bank. I walked round with my long hook and tried to hook my line and perhaps free the feeder, but I couldn't move the hook properly - it felt as though there was line down there. Roy had my rod and said he felt one quiver from my sweepings, but I never found my line and Roy had managed to pull and break the line close to the feeder by the time I got back to my peg. I re-tied the rig with a new feeder but no more fish were forthcoming. 😔
By now Roy had seven or eight fish, and said that Mike was also catching, but with the match ending at 3 o'clock, in the gathering gloom, we had to finish just when the fish were biting. John Garner on corner peg 12 had two or three late on the pole, and Dick Warrener on 11 did the same. I put a pole out but didn't stick at it long enough.
Yet another for Roy, in the last hour of the match, he ended with seven or eight.
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| Roy Whitwell - second with 41 lb 12 oz. |
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| John Garner had a late spurt on pole. |
Then Roy weighed in 41 lb 12 oz, and to our delight Mike Rawson on 11 managed to top that with his 43 lb 9 oz, all taken on feeder and ordinary pellets. This won the match, leaving Roy second, Martin Parker third, and John Garner fourth...and me nowhere. Well done, Mike.
Marks out of ten
I still can't work out why I should have those two good session, with those huge blank hours in between. But since Roy had hours at the start without a touch I must assume it's down to luck. However I will now concentrate on feedering in my Winter matches, unless conditions are warmer and good for the pole. I was probably worth 6/10 for this match, but should have tried worm (on which which Rod Melnyk, peg 9, had three fish late on, on the pole), or bread, both of which I had with me.
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| Mike Rawson had three bream in his winning 43 lb 9 oz. |
My next match is Sunday on Beastie, which will probably be very difficult because of this early stretch of cold weather. In a couple of months, when the fish are used to it, things might be a bit better.
I had the previous match's rigs with me and was surprised to find that this swim was a foot deeper than I had had last week on peg 12, perhaps due to the downpour we'd had on Friday, but also probably because the depth increases towards this end. Anyway, with the water being fairly calm I started out at 11.5 metres in open water, with 4mm expanders and a tiny amount of hemp.
Things were slow to start with, though on the opposite bank on peg 6 Chris Saunders foulhooked an 8 lb carp early on, which he managed to land, while Roy Whincup, opposite, fumed, because they have a regular £1 side-bet with each other. Roy was still complaining about that fish at the end of the match! I also noted that Shaun Coaten was on the same peg 7 that he had drawn the previous week, and I saw him have some fish from a long pole line.
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| Shaun Coaten, opposite, had some fish early on, on a long pole. |
I had an occasional liner in that swim, and it seemed that every proper bite came within 30 seconds of the bait hitting bottom. I tried off bottom, but never had even a liner there, so I had to assume that the fish were interested in the bait on the bottom, and sort of swimming round it wondering whether to take it. But then I hooked - and lost - five big fish in the next two hours, presumably foulhooked by the way they fought.
One fish on the first half hour in front of my reed bed, and several liners, saw me switch to 4mm expanders, and this gave me three carp very quickly, best about 7 lb. Then there came a blank spell, wqhen I tried mussel and corn, and with 20 minutes left I dropped in the shallower water closer to the bank - in less than two feet. I didn't really expect to get anything, because I'd seen no swirls, but I quickly had two beautiful 'bites' that I missed. So there were obviously fish there.
With only a minute or two left I tried again with a bunch of dead maggots on a size 16, and hooked a fish which came off immediately. With only seconds left I dropped back, and amazingly hooked a big fish straight away. That was a surprise because I had assumed that the disturbance caused by hooking the lost fish would have scared away every carp. But no, this fish stuck, and seconds later the whistle went to end the match.
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| Shaun had small fish on his long line. |
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| His last two fish went 20 lb-plus. |
Four-Island's weights were smaller, Ian Frith winning with 47 lb 6 oz from peg 5. Next match for me was the Spratts, next day on Elm.
THE RESULT
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| Six-Island |
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| Here's the final table. Well done, Roy. We give 15 points for a win, 14 for 2nd etc. |
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| We had sun at the start, but later it became so gloomy I had trouble seeing my cloured tips, and had to change them all to black. |
I had John Emerson to my left and Mick Timson on 11, to my right. I had a cut-out each side of me. and right at the start I went into about 18 inches of water to the right , with corn, and thought I had a knock. But 15 minutes later I gave that up. I'm happy to fish this lake in the very shallow margins, but with a cut-out the fish have to come in from deeper water and swim up to the shallow water. Much of the rest of the lake has reeds growing along a straight bank, and the fish can easily patrol along the edge in the shallows, and I think that makes it more likely that they can come to you.
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| Sean Coaten, fishing opposite me, hooked a carp in the first hour. This was his first attempt to land it, but seconds later the fish came off. |
Into the bush swim
Then I went long in open water, where I found 4 ft 2 in, which meant that the water level has risen considerably from the Summer. But like most I got nothing there. My next move was close to a bush to my left, where there was well over 3 ft, and I put in a few casters and hemp, hoping that either barbel or carp (and preferably both) would respond.
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| John Emerson found most of his fish in his right margin. |
It took me a long while to catch another fish there, though I kept getting liners. With an hour left I had landed three more to about 6 lb on maggot, but lost three more foulhooked. By now Mick on my right had found fish on dead maggots next to the irises. He said he'd put a few in and after a while saw dead maggots being swirled towartds the surface, so carp were obviously there, in about two feet of water.
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| Mick Timson plays a carp hooked on dead maggot... |
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| ...and it was a good one! |
Round the end of the lake, and Carl White, who organises everything for us, totalled 41 lb 12 oz, which cheered everybody up because Carl hasn't had a lot of luck fishing lately, so it was a very popular result as he was now leading.
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| Carl White with his third-placed 41 lb 12 oz from peg 10. |
The rest of the pegs at the car park end fished hard, and I think every fish caught was an F1. So Mick won, Eddie was second, and Carl third. I missed my section (by double default) by 4 lb, so just one of those lost fish would have boosted me.
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| Winner Mick Timson - his last two carp weighed over 20 lb. |
