Cedar in the cold. Brrr.

Peg 5, Cedar, Sunday, Apr 13
From the sublime to the ridiculous. Two days after I had been sweltering in the heat, the vote from the majority of the 12 anglers in this Fenland Rods match was to all fish on the West bank, with the cold. spiteful, wind at our backs. It was our club's first match of the yar, with the winner taking home the Club Cup.

I was happy enough with peg 5, as Cedar tends to fish slightly better in the pegs neaest the car park, though during the day the wind moved round to blow down towards the other end, and seemed to become colder. But for most of the match we had calm water in front of us. Again I had Dick Warrener on my left, but this time we both really struggled for a bite. I started on the pole, and at least got the rigs set nicely for the two margins and a swim at 11.5 metres.

The cold wind was behind us, but that meant calm water in the margin.

Fish to my right

After a couple of hours fishless I walked up to my old mucker and schoolfriend John Smith on peg 2, who had two carp and a bream for something approaching 20 lb. Next to him Allan Golightly had two carp, with the second one from the margins. So I went back to my office on peg 5.

Here I had a look on a very small shallow shelf to my left - about three feet deep - and caught my first fish - a 4 lb carp on two maggots. But it  was a solitary catch. A change to a feeder with a wafter brought a carp about 6 lb. Right at the start I had put some dead maggots down to my right - Lee Kendall had done this a year ago in a match in April, so I thought I'd now try that. I'd been topping up the swim, and now put out a rig there, baited with dead maggots. Nothing!

Bump!
Out to 11.5 metres with corn, and I started getting small movements of the float, mainly just as the corn hit bottom. I bumped three fish very briefly, so tried a shallower rig with a slow-sinking corn skin, convinced that I would get fish. But I never had a tremble of the float. So I persisted, and eventually hooked a good carp...which came off. That was the start of five fish hooked, and just one landed, about 6 lb. One of those I played for ages and had it almost in the net. It was about 8 lb but eventually pulled off. Another broke the hook - not had that happen very often.

Dave Garner, two swims down, plays a good 
carp on his waggler rod...

The margins seemed a better bet for me, and a big lump of cat meat over corn in the deep left margin brought a big carp which I played for ages before it came off. I just couldn't get it off the bottom. I stayed in the margins for the rest of the match, losing another fish or two but landing two or three others, all around 8 lb, and eventually it seemed that the dead maggots had, indeed, brought fish in. Meanwhile Dick had two fish in the last half-hour (his only ones), and I had my usual frantic end to the match, landing a couple more nearing 8 lb, on mussel.

...and eventually the fish succumbs. All his fish came in the second half of the match.

Lost fish cost me
By the end I had lost eight big fish, of which I had played five for a very long time. I think they must have been hooked somewhere near the mouth, but not properly. They certainly didn't appear to be foulhooked, and there was no juddering, which foulhooked fish often give you. 

It was some small consolation when, as we were weighing in, almost every angler said they had also lost several. Even Kevin Lee, who is used to landing these big carp, said he had lost four, including two at the net. The only conclusion is that those fish were just nudging the bait. Are they perhaps just waiting to spawn?

Dave Garner's best fish - around 10 lb.

The weigh in

John Smith was top down to me with 25 lb 3 oz. I thought I also had about 45 lb - but I was 15 oz short of John with 44 lb 4 oz.  After such a good start he must have been disappointed. Two pegs to my left Dave Garner, fishing his usual wagglers, got his first bite at 1 o'clock, and landed about seven fish in the afternoon for 47 lb 6 oz. This would prove enough for third place.

Roy Whitwell prepares to pull the net
 through the top ring. I would like to
see all fisheries making this compulsory.

Down towards the other end of the lake Roy Whitwell won with 82 lb 8 oz, of which all but two were taken on a feeder and wafter. Next to him Dave Hobbs, on peg 13, was second with 56 lb 7 oz. And on the end peg Stephen Thompson, who is currently painting my fence, and was a guest, had 25 lb 15 oz. He also lost five big fish.

Roy Whitwell - winner with
82 b 8 oz, nearly all
  on feeder  or bomb.

Considering the last time Stephen fished at Decoy the strip lakes hadn't even been dug, I reckon he did very well - if he'd landed those five fish he would probably have been second. Of course many others were also in that position, including me! And afterwards we nearly all agreed that to have fished the opposite bank,  facing the wind, would have been very uncomfortable indeed. Though  I would still have preferred it - you can't beat a bit of Raspberry Ripple.

Dave Hobbs, second with 56 lb 7 oz.

Stephen Thompson after his first
visit to Decoy in over 20 years.

Marks out of ten
I ended fifth, but just one of those lost fish would have put me third. And the one that was almost in my net would have done that. That one appeared to be hooked in the mouth, but they must all have been slightly foulhooked. However I felt that I'd fed well enough to bring them into the swim in the first place. I had to feed then drop the bait in 30 seconds later - so the fish saw it sinking. It's surprising how quickly fish will come in; unfortunately they tended to stay in midwater, with just the odd one going down to root in the bottonm. That's how I saw it, anyway. Probably worth 8/10 again. 

THE RESULT