Winter gave us a visit on Damson for the Fenland Rods' last match of the year. The wind was in our faces, and rain was waiting in the wings. And for the first time ever on that lake I never had a fish in the first 15 minutes. Usually you get a few bites in the shallows and then the fish vanish. Today they did their vanishing act before we started!
 |
| Sun early on gave way to rain towards the end. |
Nine of us fished and I had Roy Whitwell on my left. He foulhooked and lost three fish early on, then had a couple, then went onto the feeder cast just a few metres out. That brought him a few carp, while I stayed in the margins and had just one fish before changing to a feeder. I had just one on the feeder dropped out a few metres before coming back on the pole, where it took me about three hours top find three or four more carp. Then back onto the feeder cast to the far bank for two more carp; and finally two better fish, best almost 10 lb, on corn in the margins before we finished.
 |
| My left margin before we started. My few fish on the pole came from the very point of those reeds, on a top two. |
 |
| This was my view many times during the match! |
But a few pegs to my right Kevin Lee, Mel Lutkin and Martin Parker all found fish close in - Kevin was fishing 15 inches deep with paste right against the reeds. I actually went and looked at him fishing half way through the match, came back, did the same, and had nowt. And to rub it in, Roy kept catching on a feeder steadily the whole time I sat there looking at a motionless tip.
The light rain started a couple of hours before the end and carried on while we were weighing in. I wasn't unhappy when the match finished and we adjourned to the outside bar for our end-of-season presentations, by which time the rain had, mercifully, stopped, and the clouds briefly parted to show us what the sun looks like..
 |
| Roy - 57 lb 7 oz for third place. |
 |
| Grey skies and rain as Kev weighs in. |
Oh yes, Kevin won this match with 118 lb, to take the Bedford cup, fished in memory of Les Bedford, who died at Decoy several years ago after one of our matches. Kev won the same match last year. I thought Roy, with 57 lb 7 oz, would be runner-up, but Martin Parker on end peg 10 took that place, with Roy third. My eight carp went 28 lb 1 oz for fifth on a very strange day. The fish are definitely clumping up.
THE RESULT
First were our Handicap medals - and Callum Judge was the only winner to be able to fish today - he was given his third-place medal. Callum also won the big fish trophy for a carp of 14 lb 2 oz, though we didn't weigh in any other fish during the year, and I suspect Mike Rawson may have had at least one heavier. I suggested we have a second weighing bag ready for next season which will make it easier to weigh single fish.
Then the Club Cup (first match of the season, on Six-Island lake) was presented to Roy Whitwell; then the Bedford Cup was presented to Kevin Lee. And finally the Big One - the Club Championship trophy. Only Mel Lutkin knew the final results and announced the top four - 4th Callum; 3rd myself; 2nd Kevin Lee; 1st Roy Whitwell. That ended a run of three wins by Kevin, and it was so well deserved, as Roy is so consistent.
That ended our year on a day when Winter reminded us he can strike now, whenever he feels like it. My Sunday matches will be with JV until Fenland Rods start again in April.
 |
| Our 2025 Fenland Rods winners: Kevin Lee (Bedford Cup); Roy Whitwell (Club Cup and the Club Championship); Callum Judge (third in Handicap match and the Big Fish Trophy). |
No comments:
Post a Comment