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.
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.
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| To my left Roy Whitwell had a fair tussle with a carp before I had a fish. |
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..
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| 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.
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.
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.
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.
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| The carp that took Dick 30 minutes to land. |
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| Kevin Lee shows a nice perch. |
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.
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| 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.
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| Peter Spriggs weighs in - he was fourth with 75 lb 12 oz |
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| Kevin Lee - second with 81 lb 14 oz. |
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