Yet again ice covered my windscreen - I'm going to need a new ice-scraper soon. And the East wind was really cold as we drew - 14 of us in the second Spratts match of the year. I would always choose somewhere around peg 8 on Elm, at any time of year, and I was happy enough with peg 16, which is nearly opposite, especially as the wind was on our backs on this bank.
I had Neil Paas on 15, to my right, and Roy Whitwell two swims to the left on 20. There was bright sunshine, which doesn't help the fishing when the water is cold and clear. Roy started, as he so often does, on a feeder, so I went out to 13 metres on the pole, but keeping an eye on Roy. It me took some time to get a bite on maggot, and when I did it was a 3 lb-plus barbel. The barbel on Decoy must be at least 15 years old now, and since they haven't bred, it's amazing that they have lived so long.
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| It was cold and bright, and those on the opposite bank must have been frozen. |
Roy had a couple of carp fairly quickly, but I persevered on the pole, and in came a tiny roach. The wind became difficult so I had a look in the margins, where I had been trickling casters, and in came a 3 lb F1, on a size 20 hook with a single maggot. Hairy! Now Neil went out to 2+2 and I followed suit, and in came a nice 3 lb-plus bream, followed by a 6 lb carp from the margins. So five fish, all different species.
When the wind dropped I went out to the long line, but had just one carp there before I had to give it up. From then on I alternated between the margins and the 2+2 line. Actually the rig I was using inside was too light - about 4x12, in over six feet of water in a big wind. Instead of going to a 0.5 gm float (which I should have done) I put out a 1 gm with a size 14 hook crammed with maggots, and my reward was a bigger barbel. I will have a half-gram rig ready in future.
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| Neil Paas in action on peg 15, to my right. |
Two more good carp came off - the second one when my line tangled with a fish Neil was playing. His fish stayed on his hook!
As has happened so often this Winter I couldn't get two fish in a row from the same swim. But every half-hour I'd get another carp, on maggot, from one of the two swims. In the last 45 minutes Neil started to motor, and must have had at least three cracking carp on his pole, and I knew he had overtaken me.
Then, with ten minutes to go, I foulhooked another carp...but this one stuck. It stuck for at least ten minutes, and was difficult to get into the landing net because I had hooked it in a pelvic fin (they are the ones underneath the body) and it kept coming towards the net sideways. Luckily the hook held and on about the fourth attempt it forgot to wag it tail snd swim back over the rim, and I had it! No time to get another, and although some said I had won, I knew Neil had beaten me.
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| Me in action, and still hooded against that rotten wind. Roy took this from peg 18 - he obviously hadn't got anytghing better to do! |
However, I could understand why they thought I had won - I had several more fish than Neil - the two barbel, two bream and one F1 would have weighed, in total, just about the same as my last big carp. And they all stretched the elastic.
Top weight on the other bank was Trevor Cousins, with five carp for 31 lb 3 oz - a superb performance because those around him all failed to catch or struggled. He took his fish in the margins, on maggot, on a pole.
On corner peg 13, the first on my bank, John Garner had his first bite at 3.15 pm, with just 45 minutes left,. But he managed three fish for 25 lb 10 oz in that time. Neil totalled 53 lb 1 oz, and though I thought I might perhaps have 50 lb, I guessed I would be beaten.
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| It's difficult taking fish shots in bright sunshine. But there were several in Neil's weighing bag. Honest! |
I guessed right! That last foulhooked fish weighed 13 lb 7 oz, bringing me up to 49 lb exactly. To my left Roy Whitwell had just six fish for 31 lb 15 oz, and the three of us finished in the first three places. So I was second, and happy with that - second match with Spratts and I had my second second-place. I'm the Second Man.
Next match with JV on Six-Island and Four-Island. Looking forward to that as I can use my short tops, because Six-Island is shallower than the strips. Then Wednesday sees me on Six-Island again with Spratts. The weather looks like picking up, so time to take a mussel or two, methinks.
Time to start thinking about my performance. I was a bit unlucky, losing that fish when Neil's carp came into my swim, but it's inevitable at times. However I do believe that if I'd gone heavier earlier I would have had the chance of more fish, as they were coming into the nmargin swim. There was a bit of a tow against the wind, and on this occasion the fish seemed to want a stationary bait. The heavier rig did just that.
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