A tight match on Beastie

 Peg 5, Beastie, Tues, Aug 26
Thirteen of us turned up to the famous Beastie lake at Decoy to fish this Spratts club match, hoping that the cooler weather and a little rain we'd had would set some fish feeding. My favourite swims on Beastie are 2 and 18; peg 2 wasn't in, and Martin Parker was on 18; but I was happy enough with 5, as although it's some time since I drew it, I know the margin to the right can be good, and the feeder anglers regularly catch well off it.

Liners when plumbing up
My plan was to start on the feeder, but when I plumbed up in the right margin, next to the small overhanging bush, the float dived under - obviously a liner. So I started on the pole in that spot. To my left Roy Whitwell started, as he usually does, on the feeder and it wasn't long before he had a small bream; then another; then a better carp. Meanwhile I hadn't had a bite, nor even a liner, on expander or corn on the pole; so out went the feeder to the island.

To my left Roy Whitwell had a fair tussle with a carp before I had a fish.

It wasn't until about the fourth cast that the feeder landed very close to the far bank, just in front of a tree. An hour had gone past, and Roy had had another fish or two. Then my tip shuddered, went round and dropped back. Strike, and an obviously-big fish was attached. It kited to the right past the aerator and I gritted my teeth to stop it going round the corner. Slowly it came back, and the fight commenced.

A tough fight!
Two minutes later and I took my landing net. But I couldn't get the fish over it - the carp kept turning away, That happened time after time, and Roy said he had timed the fight at 14 minutes, and I was really feeling knackered. Some minutes after that, with both the fish and I played out, it turned over and drifted into my net. The most beautiful double-figure golden common carp. Probably about 13 lb, hooked on the outside on the lip, which explained why I'd had such difficulty landing it..

The secret to landing big carp - get it on its back and tickle its tummy with your landing net. I demonstrate as Roy takes a picture.

Next cast the feeder went out straight and true towards the tree; hit the clip; and hung suspended a foot above the water. The tree was overhanging. I tightened up and flicked the line, and mercifully the feeder came away. Burying the bait in a Method feeder has its advantages! Not long after that another big fish was on, but it came adrift 15 seconds later. Roy said he'd just had the same problem. A single small F1 was the only other fish on the pink wafter, and I came back on the pole.

My right margin looked really nice.

Bream, then carp
A swim at about eight metres brought a few missed bites, and then some small bream came in. A couple of two-pounders took a 6mm expander, and then an even bigger bream leaped out mof the water when hooked...and promptly came off! Next it was into the right margin, a metere out from the bush, as the sun made fishing the left margin quite difficult.

That right margin yielded a couple of bream and small F1s, and a big carp foulhooked in the tail, which ended in my net after a hairy battle. Liners for the next two hours showed me that there were carp in the swim, and when I got what looked like a proper bite and struck I would feel the fish, but the mussel would come back shredded - they were definitely hoplding it in their lips for a time. 

So many lost
Waiting until the float disappeared for several second brought another double-figure fish, and a couple around 6 lb, but it was so frustrating. I kept either feeling the fish, or hooking a fish and seeing the elastic stream out, only for it to come off. I played two of them for a fair time before they came off, and I estimate I lost 20 fish either by feeling them, pricking them, or losing them after being hooked.

I saw fish right against the bank, in about 14 inches of water, and wasted just about three minutes there with not a liner. Neither did I get a bite just a little farther out, in about two feet -  all my fish came from about four feet of water.

A feeding problem?
Afterwards I guessed that the micros were keeping the carp moving round the swim scooping them up, possibly pre-occupied with them, and I might have done better putting in just the few casters and hemp and perhaps the odd lump of cat meat. Cat meat took one, but mussel had taken most from that margin. I ended with an estimated 60 lb-plus. But I could easily have had 150  lb I am sure, if I'd fed it better and not lost the fish properly hooked. Roy also lost several.

The carp that took Dick 30 minutes to land.

To his left Dick Warrener had had an early carp, and had apparently had a very good ending - every time I looked up in the last half hour his elastic was out. After the match he told me that with 35 minutes to go he had foulhooked a big carp and had to play it for 30 minutes before he landed it (watched by club memer Dave Hobbs, who wasn't fishing, but kept telling Dick to "hurry up and get it in.")!! 

Kevin Lee shows a nice perch.

The weigh in

Dick was first to weigh - just 39 lb 2 oz, which must have disappointed him, and left him wondering whether that 'lost' half hour would have given him more carp. Roy had 67 lb 14 oz, and I was happy to beat him, with my 72 lb 3 oz. 

John Garner did the honours by taking my picture, but these big fish can be so difficult to hold just after being weighed, when they have been out of the water for perhaps 20 only seconds. Often I have to give up taking a picture of another angler with one fish because there's no way I want to see it on the ground. This fish kept wriggling its tail, but you can see it was a beauty.

My lovely big golden common carp.

Round on the spit Neil Paas won yet another of these matches, with 123 lb 2 oz. He took fish on a short pole line on banded -pellet and the rest on mussel from the margins. Next to him on 17 Kevin Lee took second place with 81 lb 14 oz, also from the margins.

Then came a string of very close weights, leaving me in sixth place with my 72 lb 3 oz. 

Peter Spriggs weighs in - he was
fourth with 75 lb 12 oz

Kevin Lee - second with 81 lb 14 oz.

Marks out of ten

Disappointed that I lost so many fish, I was inclined to give myself 3. But after seeing how close the weights were, and seeing that I wasn't hammered everywhere else, as I had feared, I think 7 is appropriate - at least I got the fish in the swim and feeding. And just one of those lost fish would possibly have boosted me to second spot.

Next match Sunday on Cedar, where the car park end has been fishing a little better than the other end. So 1 or 26 would do me.

THE RESULT

3 Dick Warrener            39 lb 2 oz

4 Roy Whitwell             67 lb 14 oz

5 Mac Campbell            72 lb 3 oz

7 Mick Ramm                58 lb 13 oz

15 Neil Paas                  23 lb 2 oz        1st

17 Kevin Lee                 81 lb 14 oz     2nd

18 Martin Parker           35 lb

20 John Garner              14 lb 3 oz

22 Peter Harrison          80 lb 4 oz        3rd

23 Bob Barrett               22 lb 4 oz

24 Peter Spriggs            75 lb 12 oz      4th

29 Mick Rawson            DNW

30 Trevor Cousins         73 lb 14 oz

 

I find some fish on an unlucky Horsehoe

Peg 16, Horseshoe, Float Fish Farm
None of us had high expectations of big catches on Horseshoe, as Float Fish Farm had big problems during one of the recent heatwaves. But there are still fish in the lake, there's been a recent small stocking of carp from 2 lb to 4 lb...and there has to be a winner.

I knew that the early pegs from 1 to 5 or 6  were favourite, as you can cast to a nice straight bank of reeds on the far side, where carp are found. The corner pegs were left out (22 pegs and 12 of us fishing). My peg 16 was sort of opposite a corner of the island, but it looked to be closer to peg 17, so I didn't think I should cast across to it. In any case there was an overhanging tree on the corner so I couldn't have cast to within less than several metres of the island.

In fact I kept pretty well to my Plan A, which was to fish maggot for silver fish, if I couldn't feeder to the island, and hope that carp moved in. My chance of winning was, I thought, diminished when Kevin Lee drew peg 3 (and Golden Peg) and Martin Parker drew 6. The last pegs, from about 19 to 22 also had a nice straight bank of reeds to cast to, and I doubted whether I would beat them, either.

Not an inviting cast to the island, which probably wasn't in my swim anyway.

Back wind!

Matters were made worse when a raspberry ripple blew towards the far bank, and I could see Martin Parker sat nicely in it; the swims on our side remained resolutely flat calm, in the back wind. So I started as planned - a small ball of cloud groundbait a metre from the bank in a metre of water, followed by a tiny rig with two Number 10 shot and two maggots, and second drop the float slid under.

A good start
Blimey. The fish felt quite big and the 8/10 elastic on my short top hammered out alarmingly. But the hook held after that first run and when I'd recovered from the initial shock I waited until the fish seemed to tire a little before breaking down to the short top and using the puller. With a size 18 hook on I half-expected the fish to come off, but no - it finished in my landing net. A mirror carp of about 2 lb 8 oz. A great start. Now for some more...

But no more came. Two hours went by and I was getting an occasional perch or small roach or slightly better rudd but no carp. Hoping for a carp I went to a swim at 11.5 metres where I had initially put in hemp and micros, and where I had topped it up a couple of times. Corn and expander there produced nothing, so I went back to the margin swim, using just the short top as one of two of the better fish had come off as I broke down.

A quick visit to John Smith on 19 brought the info that he'd had one bite, but no fish. And I think Stephen on 18 was also fishless.

After another hour I went out to 11.5 metres again, ,put in a bait dropper of maggot and hemp to avoid maggots falling through the water, using maggot on the hook, and hooked two or three nice roach. But I gave that up when four tiny blips in a row came off as I broke down. I then put in a bait dropper of maggots and hemp at 2+2 and went back to my margin swim, still using just the short top. I needed to put in a few maggots every minute to keep the fish, but my catch rate slowly got better, and I netted everything  except the half-ounce perch.

No margin liners
Two hours to go and I started a margin swim to my right with hemp and corn, and kept having a quick look there every 20 minutes, but never saw even a liner. The 2+2 swim brough three nice roach before, yet again, the blips took over and I went back to my original margin swim. The best rudd was about 3 oz - nothing bigger - and the hoped-for carp never showed. 

Towards the end I saw Stephen Thompson on my right netting a few roach or rudd, so he would have something to weigh in. I thought I had perhaps 7 lb, but hadn't clicked  anything after the carp.

The weigh in
As usual the scalesmen had weighed in everybody down to me before I had packed away. It turned out that Kevin was leading with 22 lb 10 oz - five carp on a feeder to the far-bank reeds, and then one on pole. Kevin told me was playing his sixth carp in just before the end, and right near the bank it came off. He knew the match was about to finish, as it's him who blows the whistle, so he dropped the rod, picked up a pole rig, dropped it in the side, and looked at his watch.

Jason Lee, an airline pilot, was 
fishing as a guest and included
this torpedo-shaped grass carp.

He was actually raising the whistle to his lips when the float went down; he struck; and a carp was on. He blew the whistle and landed the carp safely. That gave him a 2 oz advantage over Martin Parker's 22 lb 8 oz, taken on both feeder and pole. Talk about a last-second win...

Unlucky Martin
Martin was so unlucky. He has only one eye, and with a 6 oz roach in his hand he went to put it in his keepnet, hesitated to judge the distance, and the fish flipped out into the lake. That cost him the match.

I think it's amazing he fishes as well as he does - try closing one eye and threading nylon through the eye of a float or a hook, or joining loop-to-loop, and you'll see how difficult that close-up work is. On my left, on the end bank (which had cars coming backwards and forwards guring the match) Dave Garner never had a bite. A former club champion, I doubt whether he'd experienced that for many years.

Callum's two fish came on a feeder
cast across to the island.

My fish went a surprising 13 lb 8 oz, and that held on to third spot. Stephen must have been really fed up as he went home before weighing his fish; John Smith had two tiny perch with half-an-hour to go. He put them back, laid out his keepnet to dry; and promptly had two bites on expander in the margin, the second of which he hooked. It was a 4 lb 10 oz carp, his only fish.

Callum Judge had just two carp, on feeder cast to the island reeds; and Jason Lee, fishing as a guest, included a small grass carp in his 5 lb 13 oz. So, as I had expected, no big weights and I ended third.

Not a winner, but a chicken dinner
Things got better when I got home. Martin recently gave me a really big frozen chicken from his son's Castors Pastures company near Peterbrough, where he raises his chickens outside in pastures, and not shut up in a barn. Our daughter cooked it and five of us had some of it for tea. The flesh was really firm - not stringy like some supermarket chickens. Very impressed. It's advertised as: No chemicals; No preservatives; No antibiotics. Frankly it was like chickens used to be; like chickens should be. A good finish to the day.

Marks out of ten
I kept to my plan, and had correctly guessed at how the match would pan out. My one mistake was probably not fishing expander in the right margin for carp; but I'd not seen even a liner there, so had no idea whether they were in the swim. So I give myself 8/10 as I was not in any of the pegs I fancied and did at least frame (we pay top three plus sections). 

Next match is the Tuesday after Bank Holiday at Decoy on Beastie. I think we are rather spoiled fishing at Decoy as it's really open to the elements and in the 25 years I've been fishing there there's never been a serious problem that I am aware of. The fishing can be difficult, of course, at times, but it's never had lakes shut down, and  manager Karen Gracey is so easy to deal with. All-round we are lucky.

THE RESULT

'ot and 'orrible on Yew

 Firstly a reminder to all Spratts anglers that the next match on Beastie is not on Monday Aug 25, which is a Bank Holiday, but on the Tuesday, Aug 26th. Got that? Then the list is correct - the next week's match is also on Tuesday.

Peg 21, Yew, Friday, Aug 15.
The eleven of us arrived at Yew for this Spratts match to see a lovely ripple in the first pegs at the car park end, but flat calm water at the Northern end. The forecast was for it to get hot, but for the first hour or two the trees behind us on the Eastern bank gave perfect shade - then we started to feel the heat.

Poor Trevor Cousins was pegged at the far end, in the flat calm water; I was halfway, a couple of pegs before the ripple started, next to Roy Whitwell. And things started slowly.

Hot and flat calm. I found four feet of water each side of the platform.

I spent the first half-hour trying to mug the very occasional fish I could see, but every one I could see turned away when they saw my appetising wafter slowly sinking in front of their noses. So I went on to the feeder, which had been my plan in the first place.

My first fish
By now Roy had landed about three fish, which I guessed were fairly small - he told me later that they were all small F1s or carassio. Then he landed a much better fish and shortly after that my tip went round and a 7 lb carp skied away to my right. My cast was to the far bank and within seconds that fish had skied round through Bob Walker's swim to my right and it actually surfaced in front of Mike Rawson, on the next peg!

On to the pole
Eventually it finished in my net and after a few more fruitless casts I had a look on the pole. The shallowest spots were next to the platform where I found four feet; beyond that it dropped straight down to six feet-plus.  I'd been flicking 6mm pellets out about three metres, into the slight head wind, and started there.

Roy Whitwell, on my left, lands his first good carp.

Expander pellet found a 9 lb common carp fairly quickly, but no fish came more for a couple of hours - not on feeder nor in the shallow swims nor in the open water swim. However I did lose one fish on feeder - it just came off, which is unusual.

Heat - and liners
By now the heat was quite intense, and I was glad I had brought plenty to drink, and had covered my arms and face with suncream. Fish were on the surface all the time now, and on the feeder the rod tip kept pulling slowly round in a classic liner; in one case it pulled round and kept going; I had to strike and a big fish in the middle wallowed furiously on the surface as it disentangled itself from the line.

Halfway through I walked up to Trevor, who had been mugging fish, which he often does, In fact the only pole kits he had taken out were for mugging - and he had a pellet waggler, which had also taken fish. He estimated he had perhaps 130 lb at that moment. He is so good at that method. But he did say that he needed calm water for it to work properly - he wouldn't have been able to see the fish in the ripple. I went back a little disheartened, because I know I should have been able to mug some at the start.

Into the margins
Two hours to go, there was now occasionally a little ripple, and I had put some corn into the righthand shallow margin swim, only a foot from the bank. Suddenly my float there twitched slightly. Obviously a liner, but that was my signal to concentrate on the margins, using corn to start with. Then I saw more fish under the surface, in open water, and they seemed to be heading for the sides, though they would dive down a couple of metres out. That happens a lot on Decoy, and it is almost always a sign that they are willing to come into shallow water.

Seconds after I took this, the foulhooked carp Bob Walker was playing came off!

In the last two hours I hooked six fish, but lost three, two of which were my own fault, when I allowed the fish to snag me in the side. One was because I didn't have enough sections on when I hooked it, and it weeded me; the second was because I broke down too quickly and it snagged me on the keepnet. The third just came off out in open water.

Mussel does the business
But three, which took mussel, I landed - two from the right margin and one from the left. The last one was hooked only seconds before the end. I shouted 'Fish On' as loudly as I could. That's happened a lot this season. I reckon if the match had gone on for another half-hour I could have had three or four more. The good thing about mussel is that you don't put much mussel in - perhaps one cut in half each time (though most anglers don't put any in at all) - so it's a cheap bait and doesn't do the damage that loads of luncheon meat can do to the water.

While the fish were obviously in the swim I tried paste, but didn't get even a liner. Very strange. To my left Roy had hooked eigtht fish on paste in the second half...and landed just one! And he said he didn't think they were all foulhooked.

When we finished the sweat was dripping onto my spectacles, I felt washed out, and Bob Walker next door commented: "That was horrible" And it was.

Bob Barrett - 81 lb 12 oz for fourth.

The weigh in
First man to weigh was 95-year-old Joe Bedford - 86 lb 9 oz on a feeder cast to the aerator. Next door his sister-in-law Wendy took 61 lb 13 oz to the scales, also on a feeder, cast "To wherever it landed" (her words).😀😀 A great start.

Then came Bob Barrett, 81 lb 12 oz also on a feeder with brown or white pellet; and then Neil Paas, 89 lb 9 oz on the pole on mussel out up to 2+2. But then the wheels fell off.

        Trevor used four keepnets.        

Mick Ramm didn't weigh; Roy had 44 lb 4 oz, and my five carp went 44 lb 11 oz - only 7 oz over Roy's weight, but very satisfying because he is good. Next to me Bob Walker had lost a foulhooked carp and landed one which he put back, and on the next peg Mike Rawson didn't weigh. 

John Garner must have had a dispiriting day sitting next to Trevor - John weighed 31 lb 7 oz to Trevor's final total of 162 lb 11 oz. Trevor said that after I left he never had another fish on the pole, but about five more on the waggler. A terrific performance.

Marks out of ten
I ended sixth, and probably should have been more positive early on, and fished farther out, as Neil Paas had, for longer. But Yew has been difficult of late, and I wasn't expecting catches to be as high as they were. And I know I should have had more fish from the margins in the last hour. But I was probably worth only 4/10, though the early pegs did have that ripple all day.

Neil Paas with a cracking common.

Trevor - another run-away win.

Next match is Sunday on Float Fish Farm, on Horseshoe, where I am expecting weights to be very low (possibly a 30 lb maximum winning weight) because the previous spells of hot weather did some damage on the fishery. However it will make a change targetting mainly smaller silver fish, and someone has to win!

THE RESULT

30  Joe Bedford            86 lb 9 oz        3rd

29 Wendy Bedford        61 lb 13 oz

26 Bob Barrett              81 lb 12 oz       4th

24 Neil Paas                  89 lb 9 oz        2nd

23 Mick Ramm                DNW

22 Roy Whitwell             44 lb 4 oz

21 Mac Campbell            44 lb 11 oz

20 Bob Walker                DNW

19 Mike Rawson            DNW

18 John Garner              31 lb 7 oz

17 Trevor Cousins         162 lb 11 oz      1st

I scrape around for fish on Elm

Peg 4, Elm, Sun, Aug 10
Ten of us fished this Fenland Rods match, which we pegged on the 12-peg West bank of the strip lake Elm, as JV Club were using the opposite bank to fish Cedar. Our peg 1 was left out, and corner peg 12 not drawn. My plan was to fish across with a feeder for a considerable time...a plan which was ditched after I'd managed one bream in the first 45 minutes. Actually I probably should have carried on, because Kevin and Roy both had good carp on their feeder later in the match.

My left margin, yet again, had bare
bank - not good in the sun.

But the lure of the pole overwhelmed me. And there is a point to make here - my lefthand margin was, yet again, bare bank, while John, to my left, had a nice big straggling bunch of reeds to his right, against his platform, that looked better than anything I had. 

To my right there was a nice-looking cut-out on a top-two, but it was full of snags, and Dick on peg 3 to my right was three times badly snagged up on his side of the little reed bed between us.

More bream
Anyway, I managed a bream on corn from the right side, out in the deep water in line with the edge of the  reeds. And when I half-heartedly had a look in the left margin, about 18 inches deep, I saw carp come in. Very exciting. With no extra cover they stayed about 90 seconds before dropping back into open water, but the second time they came in to my hemp and corn, followed by tipping water in from a height to let them know that something was happening, the float went down and an eight-pounder was attached!

My right margin - that little cut-out
was fishable on a top two, and
extremely snaggy. But I had the
majority of my fish there, out in line
with the edge of the reeds and grass.

So halfway through the match I had about 12 lb and that was actually doing rather better than either Dick or John. I'd also lost a big carp after playing it for several minutes, and it didn't seem foulhooked - it just wouldn't come in; then the hook pulled out.

Frustrating fish 
(cagey carp?)
The weather was getting warmer, with not much cloud, and only the occasional breeze - not ideal conditions. I probably should have gone back onto the feeder, but as so often happens to me I could see that fish were in the swim by the tiny movements of the float, so I stayed on the pole. Paste then brought two more 2 lb bream, and a switch to mussel brought one more carp from the bare-bank margin, and about three more from the right deep margin. I also briefly hooked several which came off after a few seconds - so annoying when I thought that most were not foulhooked.

John in action. All his fish came from the reeds to his right. Unfortunately my swim
 didn't extend that far. 😒😒😒😒😒😒😒

There was no pattern, and when I put a load of dead maggots into the lefthand margin, expecting that at least there would be some swirls or tails waving at me, there was nothing! Meanwhile John started to hook carp halfway through, and though he lost some he landed enough to make me think he had 100 lb. 

Dick Warrener on peg 3 had a good last hour or so.

Altogether I lost about ten good fish, but consoled myself with the fact that I had at least hooked them. I estimated I had about 50 lb to John's 100 lb; and Dick had a good finish, and I think he had about five or six fish, so he had probably beaten me. Earlier Allan on peg 2 had held up a good fish in the net to show me and Dick said that Allan had had eight, so that was probably beating me also. Oh, well. At least it was an interesting day's fishing.

The weigh in
Allan on peg 2 weighed 38 lb 14 oz - less than I had assumed; then Dick came in with just 33 b 15 oz. And that meant that my 46 lb 3 oz was now leading, with John the last to weigh in the section. Strange how the prospect of a brown envelope, no matter what it holds, becames just a little important as you weigh in.

John Smith with friend. He was third.

After John's two nets had been totalled he had 'only' 61 lb 10 oz, which astounded me. He had apparently lost one or two that I had assumed he had landed, and the others weren't quite as big as I had estimated. To his left Callum had beaten me with 54 lb, so weights were getting better, as they often do in these middle pegs, and unless John finished in the first three, I would go home penniless.

Then, as I think most of us had anticipated, both Roy and Kevin came in with bigger catches; Roy had several on a feeder in his 79 lb 12 oz; Kevin had fished several areas iof his pole swim, with hard pellet, cat meat, mussell - you name it - and had had a couple mid-match on the feeder. He won with 120 lb 7 oz, blitzing the rst of us.

Mike Rawson won the end section.

But that left John third, so I was fifth and won the section (probably underservedly) by default. Eight Quid Was Mine!

Marks out of ten
Afterwards I thought I had fished rubbish, but in reflection I honestly had difficult margins, and at the moment, in bright sunlight and little ripple, carp want cover of some kind if they are to come in to the margins. Also, I had lost several, and any two of those would have seen me frame. So I give myself 7/10, confident that at the moment I can put together a decent catch given better margins than I have had.

Next match Yew on Friday, where the carp often average nearly 10 lb each, so I can't afford to be on too-light elastics, as my mates don't take kindly to big fish ploughing through their swims on their first run. But I don't expect huge weights, as its been difficult on Yew lately. I blame the weather (not enough raspberry ripple).

THE RESULT

.

Wind problems on Six-Island

Peg 22, Six-Island, Thurs, Aug 6

Peg 22 has so often been my bogey peg on this lake. But Peter Harrison won last week on it, so I was hopeful in this Spratts match. But when I got to the swim there was a problem: the wind was really strong, whistling down from the South, giving me a side wind, meaning I wouldn't be able to pole fish very far out...and the margins were virtually just bare bank.

Peg 22 is a nice-looking swim between two islands. But the wind made it impossible to pole-fish to them. Needless to say, when the match ended the wind started to die down - this was taken after we finished.

When I plumbed them up there was about 10 inches in the right margin, and about 14 inches along to the left. I'd decided to leave my feeder rods in the van, because I had been looking forward to fishing the pole. Probably the one mistake I made! 

An early break

To my right Martin Parker on 19 and Mike Rawson on 18 both had some reeds or Irises to fish against. But I felt I had to start in the deepish water at about five metres, with a 2.5 foot lash, and in fact had a 1 lb F1 very quickly on a 4mm expander. Soon after that another fish that must have been an F1 caught me by surprise by dashing under the platform, hitting one of my keepnets, and breaking the hooklength. 

I stayed out there for a couple of hours and landed half-a-dozen more F1s and one 5 lb mirror carp. All came to a 4mm expander - they wouldn't look at a 6mm.  But soon after the start I had seen Martin playing a big fish hooked in the margins. He was laying his pole on grass and fishing right against the bank, about two feet deep. My margins looked very uininviting all day - big swells were constantly running alongside the bank, which made it almost impossible to keep a bait still in that shallow water.

Wendy got into the action on peg 25 using a feeder.

And they were good fish!

After a couple of hours I put some bait to my right, about a metre from the platform, where about six tiny sparse reeds were growing - the only ones there. Amazingly carp came in to the feed, and my float, with cat meat on the bottom, was surrounded by waving fins and tails and swirls...and I had not even a liner! The wind was now still no better, and it was almost impossible to present a bait well while facing it. So I started  another swim in three feet of water on a top two in front of me, which  brought an occasional F1, but eventually I had to go to the left. 

Some better carp at last

I plumbed up to the next platform. To get more than about 18 inches of water I had to go about four feet from the bank. Then I found a spot, at ten metres along towards the next platform, where the shelf was a little closer - three feet deep five feet from the bank. And there, in the last couple of hours, I had three F1s on corn and four nice carp on mussel, losing just two foulhooked. Sometimes I hd a proper bite but when I struck the mussel was gone, I'm sure they were big carp. 

Every time I fed hemp and micros I had lots of movements on the float which were, I am sure, nearly all from fish mouthing the bait. The real dive-aways might have been liners (I didn't connect with any of them)..

The last fish was hooked 15 minutes from the end. It was 9 lb and took me almost 15 minutes to land! When I went to unhook it my rig lay there in the net with the hook snapped off at the bend. I'm sure this had been hooked in the snout, which is hard, and that when the fish was in the net it rolled over and broke the hook. Fish hooked in the snout are such a nightmare to land. I estimated I had 50 lb.

    A lovely perch for Peter Spriggs.    

The weigh in

First to weigh was Trevor Cousins, on peg 3 opposite to me, who had also been in the nasty side wind. He weighed 47 lb 4 oz, which I thought was pretty good in those conditions. Next was John Smith on 4, who had lost several fish in the side and in snags. I've had that problem in that peg in the past, and Roy Whitwell, said he reckons the bank is undercut there by posssibly several feet. Anyway, John totalled 29 lb 12 oz.

That bank had been facing the wind, and I honestly would have preferred that - I'd rather have a wind blowing into a fishable margin than a vicious side wind with shallow, bare margins. And I thought that Peter Spriggs, on 8, might have a load. No: he weighed in 48 lb 10 oz; but next door on 9 Kevin Lee had 115 lb 10 oz - he said he had about 40 lb in the first hour and that double cat meat was best.

Kevin Lee, second, 115 lb 10 oz.

Neil Paas, winner,  131 lb 2 oz.

Top weight on the opposite bank, where the anglers had a backish wind,  was Neil Paas, who can't stop catching fish. He won with 131 lb 2 oz on mussel, feeding very little. Martin, who was Golden Peg,  was third with 58 lb 13 oz, all caught right against the reeds. I weighed in 49 lb 5 oz, then Wendy on 25, almost slipped into the frame with 54 lb 3 oz (beaten into fourth by Roy Whitwell by 10 oz). I ended sixth out of 13 in a match where a lot of weights were a bit tight.

Wendy was last to weigh, on peg 25, and
had several cracking fish like this one. 

Marks out of ten

Ignoring the fact that I might have caught more on a feeder in the rough conditions, I felt I had made the logical moves, and fished it alright. I couldn't honestly say I'd done anything stupid, I tought UI'd done well,  and I award myself an unusual 9/10. I'd used my short tops for this match, and have changed to the longer tops for the next match on Elm. In the last match the far bank fished best because the margins are better there., But I'm happy just to be fishing in reasonable conditions (the forecast is for light winds, and warm, with some cloud).

THE RESULT

3 Trevor Cousins           47 lb 4 oz

4 John Smith                  29 lb 12 oz

6 Mick Ramm                  6 lb 9 oz

8 Peter Spriggs               48 lb 10 oz

9 Kevin Lee                  115 lb 10 oz            2nd

11 Roy Whitwell            54 lb 13 oz            4th 

13 Neil Paas                 131 lb 2 oz              1st

15 Bob Barrett                48 lb 5 oz

18 Mike Rawson            28 lb 6 oz

19 Martin Parker            58 lb 13 oz           3rd

22 Mac Campbell          49 lb 5 oz

24 Joe Bedford              19 lb 5 oz

25 Wendy Bedford        54 lb 3 oz

         

Low weights, and a deluge, on Willows. But...

Sunday, Aug 3

I've been working on a new system for my tackle because sometimes I've sorted out rigs especially for a venue, and then forgotten about them, or I can't find the tops quickly enough in the tubes in my holdall. So I've bought a hard case for my tops. I was impressed that when I told Alex Bates that I wanted to get my Browning pole in the case as well, he immediately said I should consider the Milo case. That's because Browning sections are longer, by a few centimetres, than most other poles.

So the Milo case it was, and I gave it its first airing on Willows. I'd checked some blogs of mine and confirmed that the Willows is around four feet deep, so I put all my short tops in the case. Six were all rigged up, with the floats showing, and I just took those six out on the bank.

But while there's room in the case for my short tops plus landing net handle, I also took the old holdall down to my peg 14, because I needed the feeder arm and my long hook in case of getting snagged...and I really needed it! I'll have to think again about whether I need to take the old holdall down again,perhaps to hold my 14.5-metre section) or can I work something else out? Either way I was pleased with the set-up.

The match - on Willows, Decoy
Peg 14 for me, which was end peg. Twelve of us fished with all numbers 1 to 15 in the cocoa tin, and the flier 15 was not drawn. But (and I must be honest here) I didn't fancy 14 because I've fished it before and remember I had lots of problems in the margin - the main one being I couldn't catch fish there (!), while the late Les Bedford on 15 hammered the barbel in his right margin.

The right margin is short, but with no-one on 15 I had it all to myself. However, it
was very shallow indeed for most of its length, and I didn't fancy it would hold carp.

I plumbed up to find a horrible shallow-ish margin in the few metres to the right  between me and peg 15. It was less than three feet next to my platform, and rose quickly to 18 inches in two metres, very uneven and I plumbed up near 15 to find even shallower water down to a 12 inches - too shallow, I thought, for the cool wind that was blowing. The left margin was better - three feet or more and fairly flat. 

My feeling
I felt that the fish wouldn't be feeding well anywhere at all - just a feeling, possibly because the wind was cool. The water felt dead. But I set up a rig for eight metres and fed there. I would have preferred a longer swim but the wind seemd to be increasing a little. I started on a feeder towards the far bank and within five minutes the rod was nearly wrenched from the  rest as a 1 lb F1 gulped down the sweetcorn. But after half-an-hour, with no more fish, I went out to the long pole swim.

We've all seen carp in aquariums, garden ponds, and on videos sucking in food, or even gravel, and blowing it straight out. And that led me to start with a 6mm expander, hoping that something might take it in with other stuff. And it seemed to work immediately - I hit a fish that felt like another F1. In it came, and I broke down to the short top and short Number Four (really the Number Three, but my second section; it's confusing, ain't it?).

Problems
No sooner had I broken down and picked up the landing net than the "F1" put on a surge and shot straight into my right margin and under the bank. Just like that! The elastic was pulled right under the bank, and I couldn't see any of the rig at all. It must be undercut by several feet. And I immediately guessed that it was a barbel.

Up I got, took out the long hook from my holdall, and prodded around as far under the bank as I could. The result was that at least I managed to get the elastic back in one piece, but the rig was gone for ever.

Out again and next a big carp started to some in. I played this one farther out until it was ready to be netted; out went the landing net; and suddenly, with no warning, this carp shot into the left margin and buried itself in the reeds. Out came my long hook again, and in came a branch covered in twigs with the rig intact. Fish - 2; Me - 1.

The left margin looked great - a nice long reed-fringed
stretch of bank down to Stephen on 13. But
although fish came in, I had only two F1s there...

Quiet
After that things went quiet. I persevered in the long swim, fishing expander over a few micros, and occasionally I'd hit an F1, or a roach, or a small bream. Then in came a carp of about 2 lb, and things were looking up. Then things went quiet. Two F1s came from the left margin on corn, and eventually I started a new swim on a top three in front of me, which produced a couple more. When John Smith came up to me after a couple of hours, saying he hadn't had a fish, I think I had 12 lb to 15 lb, and was surprised when he told me almost everyone seemed to be struggling.

Halfway through and I had started seeing my float moving slightly whenever I dropped the rig in. I was sure that fish were coming in, so I decided to keep feeding micros. I put in half a big pot at a time, mainly loose, with just a few squeezed to get to the bottom. My thinking was to bring in carp, attracted by the falling micros and hemp, and hope that occasionally one would be tempted by my cat meat or mussel.

I try the right margin
I was getting those tiny movements of the float in the left margin and stayed there for a long time ( the increasing wind made perfect presentation difficult in the long swim). But with no more fish I had a quick look in that horrible right margin, about two metres away, just before it sloped upwards. I had no faith that I would catch carp there, so potted out maggots and went out with a tiny rig and two maggots. To my amazement that brought a bite immediately - a roach.

So I scaled up to a normal carp rig and went out with cat meat. To my eternal surprise that produced a 5 lb mirror. And now I was seeing those tiny movements of the float every time I put in loosefeed and hemp. In the next hour I landed two carp and lost two more which I thought had been hooked properly. One was my own fault - I'd not got extra sections handy and the carp shot past peg 15 (which is only a few metres away) and came back into the bank, rubbing the line across the platform leg, and the hook pulled out.

The air gets warmer

Around this time the heavens opened for ten minutes, and after the deluge the air seemed warmer and I felt that I might get a fish or two more. In desperation I dropped in very close to peg 15, almost next to the platform leg, with mussel, even though it was only about 12 inches deep, and to my surprise, again, got a bite from an 8 lb carp, which I landed. 

Soon after that, with about 50 minutes left, another one came in about 9 lb in a hole I had found which went down to 18 inches-plus, and I expected a bit of a bonanza. But no - I was till getting knocks, and the occasional pull-down that looked like a proper bite, but no more fish except for a 2 lb bream, and another big bream which shot out of the water when I struck, but which wasn't hooked by the time it landed. Really frustrating as I am sure that big carp were still mooching around every time I fed.

I had clicked 39 lb for the first net and 10 lb for the second, and tought that would not be very good, as I had lost three fish.

The weigh in

I'm always almost last to pack up - Martin Parker is almost always last, depending on how many kitchen sinks he's brought with him. But I am usually ready with my camera in time to follow rthe scales for the last half of weighing in. Not today, though - the scales were almost upon me very quickly.

A quick look at the board showed me the reason - everybody had just one net to weigh in, and Kevin said that 39 lb was leading. I asked him what his own weight was and he replied: "Thirty-nine pounds!" Stephen, next to me had just 5 lb, which showed me that it had definitely been hard. And for a change my clicks were  pretty  good  -  39 lb 13 oz for the first net; 10 lb for the second; total 49 lb 13 oz for the (unexpected) win.

The peg we had all fancied, peg 1, had produced 36 lb for Callum, who ended third. Kevin had had two nice carp early on, on a feeder, and another a bit later. I think he got the rest in open water, and not in the margins.

Marks out of ten

I had also started a new system with my tray - putting some of my lesser baits in it at home, so they lay before me when it was opened at my peg. I'd tried paste, and maggots, but why hadn't I tried a big worm? Having seen the recent underwater videos it's clear that for no obvious reason fish will all be more interested in one bait than another, on different days.

Still, I'd had a look at the margin I really hadn't thought would do any good. And I think my plan of pulling fish in with plenty of falling mcros was probably the best I could devise on a difficult day. I did lose three fish I should have landed, though - I must concentrate more! So I give myself 6/10. 

Next match Thursday on Six-Island, which I love. If it's difficult I don't mind where I get pegged; if it's a warm Westerly give me 8 or 9.

My health

I've had a conversation with one of the consultants on my team who has told me that the biggest of the cancerous lesions on my lungs (I think there are six) is now 32 mm long, and agreed with me that it's worth considering radiation on it while I am still comparatively fit. Chemo is not on for this secondary cancer, and I suspect surgery would now be a last resort.

So I'm having a meeting with my team at Addenbrookes next month, when all the aspects of radiation will be considered. If we go ahead it will be every day for two weeks (only half the time I had radiation on the prostate), which will inevitable curtail some of my fishing. But all-round, I think that's good news.

THE RESULT