Micemass has arrived, and I've been having better luck catching the mice than carp! I realised I had a problem when I went to put my boots on at Decoy, shook some leaves out of one, and about fifty 8mm pellets fell out! But I had my revenge - seven in the next five days threw themselves onto my peanut-baited traps... Hee hee.
Temperatures are going down, so our expectations are much lower. But there has to be a winner!
Peg 26, Yew
Not a lot to report from this Fenland Rods match - carp were hard to find, but they are big in this lake. I went 90 minutes on the feeder without a fish, though Martin Parker on 24 landed an early carp on a feeder and yellow wafter. I then went out on to the long pole before having a walk. Five of the ten of us had one carp, and I was in time to see Mel Lutkin on peg 19 land his second. It fell for half a mussel on a bomb. Then it was back to my office.
Not a lot to report from this Fenland Rods match - carp were hard to find, but they are big in this lake. I went 90 minutes on the feeder without a fish, though Martin Parker on 24 landed an early carp on a feeder and yellow wafter. I then went out on to the long pole before having a walk. Five of the ten of us had one carp, and I was in time to see Mel Lutkin on peg 19 land his second. It fell for half a mussel on a bomb. Then it was back to my office.
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| Within half an hour Martin Parker had a carp. |
Two hours later I tried a frozen grain of corn on the long pole. Freezing them makes them light, but you have to check that they don't float before casting out. Anyway, this brought two carp around 7 lb each in two drops. The rain started, exactly as forecast, at 1.15 pm, which didn't affect the fishing at all - still nothing until I changed my feeder, which was set up with the Preston interchangeable system, for another rod with a simple sliding link and a bomb, and a longer fall. I cast that out on to the pole line, baited with half a mussel, and about half an hour later the rod wrenched round and something tore right up to Allan Golightly on peg 27 to my left. Thankfully he was now fishing the margin, and the fish didnt snag him.
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| Callum's lands his first fish. |
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| It was a biggie! |
It took me a fair while to get that carp in, hooked in the mouth, and about 6 lb. Strange how those smaller fish often seem to have so much energy. And in the next 90 minutes the only exciting thing was seeing a kingfisher dart through my swim. Then in the last half hour two more carp came to half a mussel on the bomb rig, the last one which I was unhooking as the whistle went.
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| Winner Kevin with a 'double'. |
The weigh in
On peg 29 Kevin Lee had done his usual - he finds carp wherever he fishes. He had hooked 15, and landed ten; one of his lost fish had come off while he was playing it on a feeder. It must have been hooked very lightly in the mouth. His ten fish went 94 lb 6 oz, but it wasn't clear whether he had won, because both Mel Lutkin and Dave Garner towards the far end, each with a spare swim beside them, had also caught several carp.
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| Callum's fish weighed 14 lb 2 oz. |
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| Mel Lutkin was third. |
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| Dave Garner was second with 81 lb 14 oz on a waggler. |
Yet again at this time of year I heard of not a single fish caught from the margins. Next match on Beastie where I expect the commons and mirrors to be caught from the main bowl of the lake. They seem to move away from the Southern pegs at this time of year (pegs 25 round to peg 2). But hopefully some F1s will feed if I'm pegged there.
THE RESULT
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| Sections were 29-26; 25-22; and 21-16. |
Peg 29, Beastie, Wed, Oct 22
I hadn't fished peg 20 for years, and found it had changed. There used to be an overhanging bush to the left, on a small promontory just beyond the cut-out immediately next to the platform, but that bush has gone and there's another closer to the platform. On the right hand side there used to be a longish length of bank, with some posts in the water. Now there's a bush about four metres from the platform, so only a very short margin.
I didn't think that the pegs at this end of the lake would hold many carp for this Spratts match, so although I had my feeder rod ready I started on the pole with expander, hoping for perhaps bream or F1s. The wind was behind us and the water was flat calm at this end of the lake for most of the match, though a ripple did appear from time to time down the side of the island.
Into the side
Out at 12 metres I never had a bite, so after a long time I came in to the side, where the bush used to be on the left, fishing close to some reeds in three feet of water using my short tops. Eventually an F1 took the 4mm expander; it was about 3 lb (the F1, not the pellet!)
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| I found F1s near the reeds past the bush. |
Next drop a fish took my 14-16 elastic straight onto the reeds and I had a kerfuffle getting it free. I had to wedge the pole on my box, walk round the bush with my long hook, and I managed to hook the elastic. At least I got that back, but the rig was gone. So, assuming the fish had been a big carp I picked out a stronger elastic, put on a new rig and tried again.
Next fish was a 2 lb F1 foulhooked, which came off at the net. Then I hooked another F1, which I saw, but which darted about in all directions until it finally dived into the bank on my right which is obviously undercut - my rig disappeared under the grass. I realised that that fish, too, was foulhooked, and the first one I lost probably had been, also.
Frozen corn best
For most of the rest of the match I stayed in that swim, except for an occasional foray out to the 12-metre swim, where a couple of bream came in. Frozen corn was the best bait for the F1s, fished just off bottom, or just touching bottom. An unfrozen grain took my float under when it was off bottom - the frozen grains, being lighter, dropped the tip down to a mere pimple. And even then the float didn't always go under when a fish took.
Sport was never fast - just an occasional fish every ten or 15 minutes - but I quite enjoyed it. I'd had a walk up to Trevor Cousins on peg 30 earlier in the match and he said that Mike Rawson, on 23, had had a big carp and some smaller ones, apparently on a pole. But I never saw a common or mirror, and I finished with about 15 F1s) two or three foulhooked), and a couple of bream. But I hadn't bothered to click after 12 lb as it was obvious I wouldn't be near our 50 lb limit.
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| There's not much of a margin to the right. |
Near the end I put hemp into the right margin and the bottom started to boil with clouds of silt. I wasted a little too much time there - it was strange, as the fish came in just once, but never appeared there again. And I didn't catch any there. I never used the rod.
The weigh in
As usual I was way behind most of the others packing up, and caught up with the scales at Roy Whitwell's peg 18. He had 34 lb 14 oz which was top weight so far (which surprised me, as pegs 3 to 5 so often produce lots of fish), and I said I thought I had 20 lb-ish. Then the scales got to Mike Rawson and he had obviously won with 52 lb 4 oz taken mainly on mussel, including one big fish which could have been 14 lb, which took a hard pellet. But we never weighed it. He accepted many congratulations. Well done, Mike on a difficult day.
Joe Bedford on 24 had only 6 lb 1 oz, but Wendy on 25 never had a bite. I wasn't that surprised - it's a great Summer peg but with flat calm water and the temperature cooling down it just didn't feel right there.
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| Roy Whitwell had mainly F1s. |
So round to my peg came the scales and Roy Whitwell generously offered to take my "20 lb" to the scales, which turnedout to be 36 lb 14 oz, beating him by 2 lb. But I said I was sorry, and put on a sad face. Not sure whether he believed me.
On peg 30 Trevor had had a nice ending, and pipped me by 3 lb with 39 lb 11 oz. Annoyingly a couple of those early lost fish, or perhaps just one, would have shot me above him. So I ended third.
Marks out of ten
Probably worth 8, because I felt even before we weighed in that I had actually done OK. The fish were so timid, and I had expected to be beaten by peg 30, especially with Trevor on it. So to almost beat him was very pleasing. Next match Sunday on Damson when a cold Westerly will be in our faces, and light rain is forecast all afternoon. I will buy some maggots before we start.
THE RESULT
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| Mike Rawson won, 52 lb 4 oz. |
4 Kevin Lee 28 lb
5 Mick Ramm 6 lb 8 oz
15 John Garner 7 lb 11 oz
17 Peter Spriggs 17 lb 4 oz
18 Roy Whitwell 34 lb 14 oz 4th
22 Neil Paas 19 lb 4 oz
23 Mike Rawson 52 lb 4 oz 1st
24 Joe Bedford 6 lb 1 oz
29 Mac Campbell 36 lb 14 oz 3rd
30 Trevor Cousins 39 lb 11 oz 2nd
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