First (cold) match of the year on Six-Island. Grrrr

Peg 6, Six-Island, Sunday Jan 19
I must be getting old. I recently turned heating on in my bedroom - never done that before. And somehow it seems that I've also gone soft. Because when I was a little'un the Winters were much colder, and longer, and ice on the inside of a bedroom window wasn't even worth mentioning - almost everybody had it. Sunday was rather strange - obviously cold, about 2 degrees, but at the start of this JV match I didn't feel cold, thanks to my five layers of clothing. Then, soon after we started, a gentle breeze began to blow - nothing more than a breeze, but it was PENETRATING. And the gloom made it hard to see my float. Not a happy bunny.

No picture of my swim - so here is a pretty tree
from Wimpole Hall, lit up at Christmas.
 I know I must get out a bit more!

Didn't help that the wind was in the faces of Chris Saunders and myself, in from the left. I decided to stay on the bomb and bread, and feeder and pinkies, although Chris was wielding his 13-metre pole like a conductor's baton, and within an hour he'd had four F1s, while I had nowt. Then I simply had to change, despite the cold, and very eventually a 2 lb F1 took my two pinkies out at 13 metres. Half an hour later a 7 lb common came in, at which point I was so cold that I wandered back to the van to get my mobile.

Oh, we were shallow!
On peg 9, in the corner, Roy Whincup said he had ten small F1s on a maggot feeder, so I guessed he had about 20 lb. It was still cold, and I couldn't be arsed to take a picture of my swim, which was mainly cold-looking water, so I sat down and had another quick look on the pole. Minutes later a 3 lb F1 came in, but soon my pole was wobbling in my hands as I shivered violently, so I spent the last two hours 45 minutes switching from feeder to pole, without a bite. Chris had one tiny roach after the first hour, and we put it down to our swims being shallow - Chris had three feet, I had a few inches more.

I had actually plumbed at 13 metres to my left, and found almost another 18 inches...but no fish. But on the opposite bank (who had back wind) there were a few. But I was glad when I'd had enough...

Roy Whitwell - 72 lb from peg 22.

The weigh-in
We started with Roy Whitwell on peg 22, which can be very good in the Winter but not as good as it used to be. He'd had a good day fishing bomb and bread and then Method feeder and wafter for 72 lb, and never used his pole at all. He must also have been cold as the wind was in his face from the right. Kev Bell, opposite, said Roy had definitely beaten him, but Kev would be last to weigh.

Peter Harrison, opposite me on 13 had managed to get fairly close to the small island using 14 metres, and had picked up several F1s there. I'd left my 14.5-metre section at home, so the longest I could use was 13 metres plus a half butt, but I remembered previously using 16 metres on my peg, and still being well short of that island. Ernie Lowbridge on 11 took his 36 lb 2 oz mainly on bomb and bread, and Steve Tilsley in the corner used waggler, catching most of his F1s off bottom, on maggot, and totalling 54 lb.

Peter Harrison, opposite me, worked
really  hard on the pole for 23 lb 7 oz.

Ernie Lowbridge found some better fish.

On my bank Roy Whincup had obviously had a terrible second half (like me) and ended with 26 lb 10 oz, and my measly contribution was 12 lb 13 oz, just beaten by Chris. And so to Kevin Bell, who is about as good as estimator of weight as I am - far from being beaten by Roy, he took 82 lb 5 oz, also on bomb and feeder, from peg 1 for the win. Well done indeed.

Not worth rating my performance - I was just glad to get home without having frostbite. Though I would probably have done much better if I'd started on the pole. But nobody told me that!!!

THE WINNER - Kevin Bell, 82 lb 5 oz.

Steve Tilsley - third with 54 lb,
nearly all taken on his wagglers.

Winter League final practice
I didn't see all the result sheets from the Open - doubtless Karen will put them up on the Decoy Facebook page for all the anglers practising for the Winter League final on Feb 22nd. A new peg 9 has been placed on Beastie - in the corner before the bridge, looking down to peg 8. Billie Smalley, an angler I do not know, but who has been getting big weights, drew it on Sunday and, I was told, never had a bite. So the carp are obviously not feeding at the back of the spit at the moment.

Most Winters they stay in the main bowl of Beastie lake, tending not to drift down towards peg 26, and often not even to famous peg 30 (the angler here had 20 lb-plus of bream on Sunday), and often not to the back of the spit. However, good weights - plenty of 40 lb-plus, topped by 125 lb - came from Oak.

My next match probably Sunday somewhere on Decoy, with JV. No cold breezes, thank you!

THE RESULT