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