I said I didn't fancy pegs between 6 and 12, and blow me I get put right in the middle on 9 (though it was also the Golden Peg). Not that I don't think I can catch fish there (though I would normally prefer a higher number), it's because rubbish tends to collect along that bank. You are facing roughly East, and any wind with East in it blows surface rubbish along both sides of the lake, towards that bank. Roy Whitwell had drawn peg 10 in a match the previous Friday, and had trouble with surface rubbish all day.
But as Peter Harrison on 11 said, it was at least a day's fishing! So I put a smile on my face and hoped the wind would be kind, although there were plenty of leaves and those inch-long brown willow catkins floating around in the middle. Nope! By the time the match started they were drifting towards me. Peter started well out, among a few leaves, and has one or two good carp early on...though I actually had an even better start.
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| The rubbish wasn't too bad before the start, and at least it was a warm day. |
The margins are about four feet deep here, and I fished towards the platform 8 on my left. A small piece of cat meat, from one of the silver pouches, brought a 1 lb F1 first drop. Then another...and within 15 minutes I had five for about 8 lb.
After that great start I had visions of really bagging, but when I went to drop in again it was impossible. A gust of wind had carried rubbish - leaves, catkins and floating twigs - right along that bank and several metres wide. It had all happened in seconds, and it happened many more times during the day. I dropped in just in front of me, where I could gently lower the bait (a 4 mm expander) in between the rubbish.
That front swim yielded a foulhooked carp immediately, but it came off. However, it showed me that the better carp were willing to come in towards the margins, so I persevered.
I had a few more F1s there there before I had to move again. I also had to put the bulk shot well down, which I dislike doing when the fish are clearly off bottom, because otherwise the light wind made it impossible to drop the bait into clear water. Putting on a grain of corn helped, but with underwater rubbish drifting along and giving false bites, and the float being pushed along, it wasn't easy.
But the worst of the rubbish never got right in front of the swims either side of me. Just as it looked as if it would clear my swim a gust down one of the sides blew it all back again!
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| It wasn't long before Peter Harrison was into carp. |
When my left margin became fishable again I put in some micros and hemp, and spent five minutes in the front swim before going over that bait. Blow me! When I turned left to drop into that baited swim it was covered like a carpet. 😞😞😞😞 Nowhere could I lay a rig in sideways, so I had to carry on dropping the bait straight down, in front of me on a short top and one.
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| Eventually it got too much - trouble was it was racing through my swim at times, like the Trent! |
I go on a walkabout
Halfway through, I couldn't fish anywhere properly, so I had a walk up to Roy Whitwell on 3 and John Garner on 1. Roy said he had about 26 lb, but John had more. I thought I had almost 30 lb, and with the swim having had a bit of a rest I went back. In the next hour the rubbish started blowing more towards Neil Paas on 7, but it was never particularly bad there.
It took more than an hour before I had any reasonably-clear water I could fish in, and in that hour I had one foulhooked gudgeon and one roach. I got the impression that those to my left had stopped catching much, but Peter on my right had had several more nice carp, and he was way ahead of me.
With 90 minutes left, determined, now that there was a little less rubbish, to try for a 'proper' carp, I put in a big pot of dead maggots and went over the top with corn. That brought a 4 lb mirror, and I was in business. Not big business - I rebaited with hemp and micros and about ten minutes later had another 4 lb carp on mussel. Changing the rig for a special, 3gm rig with which I fish my special method, brought three more fish and another foulhooked monster which came off.
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| I ended taking carp on a 3gm float and mussel in the right margin. |
With 15 minutes left, and with mussel on the hook, I hooked the fish I had hoped for. I saw it on the surface, and it must have been at least 8 lb, and looked to be hooked in the mouth, though it fought wildly as if it was foulhooked. After I had played it for several minutes the hook pulled, and I think I sighed: "Oh, dear." I now think that it was perhaps hooked just on the outside of the mouth.
Straight back in and another big fish took the mussel, and I was still playing it when the match ended. Luckily the hook held; it was in the mouth; and it went into my net. That fish was also around 8 lb. If only I had had another five minutes left...
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| Always a pleasure to see Mick Ramm. We went to school together in 1948! |
John Garner on 1 said that after I left he had just five fish. and he weighed in 56 lb 14 oz. Roy hadn't added much, either - he had 33 lb 1 oz. Peter Spriggs dropped a real boo-boo, having 61 lb in his second net, which was, under the club rules, completely disqualified. If it had counted he would have been second.
Both Neil and Peter, either side of me, beat my 62 lb 11 oz, but not by much, and I felt pretty satisfied. Dave Hobbs on 12 also beat me, and only Kevin Lee on 16 could top them - he won with 99 lb 7 oz, taken from his right margin on paste, though the other weights were pretty tight. So I finished fifth.
Of course where there is rubbish there tend to be fish, so I have to say that there were enough fish in our end of the lake for good catches to be made. However, afterwards I was so certain that I had fed well, and got the best out of my swim, that I felt that I could have framed from almost any other swim in that match (possibly not peg 3, though).
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