It was a typically grey November day for this Spratts match fished on pegs 1 to 13, with a ripple flowing towards the higher numbers. And although Cedar often fishes better towards the car park end I fancied the far end, where fish started to top. Actually, topping doesn't describe what they were doing - they were coming out of the water and splashing; big splashes; like someone had dived in. At our end we saw perhaps six during the match, but in the first few hours there were dozens at the far end.
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| Looks peacefull but the wind got up and became colder. |
Yet again this isn't going to take long. I started, as did almost everyone, on a feeder but after three hours I had just one 3 lb carp; Bob on my left had just landed his third on a feeder, and to my right Kevin Lee had had two on mussel in quick time about an hour after the start out at about 14 metres on a pole. And down on peg 11 we had seen Roy Whitwell already land four or five. The wind became colder as we fished, and the sun never showed its face.
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| Bob with big friend caught on his feeder and red wafter. |
Out on the long pole I eventually managed to catch a better carp on corn, and a look in the margins produced not even a liner. But yet again the last 45 minutes were best - three more carp, incliding a five-pounder which took my feedered corn cast halfway within seconds of it hitting the bottom, and a double-figure fish also on corn cast right across to the far bank. Strange that after using a banded 6mm light-coloured pellet (which had caught for me the previous Snday) the first cast with corn on a hybrid feeder caught me a fish!
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| Kevin lands a fish towards the end of the match, when the wind died down a little. |
So I finished with five, obviously beaten by Kevin who had caught another two or three towards the end, and probably by Bob who also ended with five.
On peg 3 Mick Ramm had had a 3 lb 5 oz carp in the margin very early in the match, and it was his only fish. I never spoke to anyone else who had caught a fish in the margins. The best weights towards that end were Martin Parker on Golden Peg 4 with 34 lb 8 oz and Dick Warrner, who had five big carp on feeder for 49 lb 7 oz.
To my surprise Kevin's five carp went only 25 lb, which I thought was about what I had; but no - my five weighed 32 lb 14 oz, to put me third, beating Bob Barret by 11 oz (sorry, Bob) 😞. But down on peg 11 Roy Whitwell had yet again worked his magic with his little feeder and his 83 lb 14 oz was the result - an outstanding win. He'd used mainly 6mm pellet cast right across, though he told me had had had some a bit short of the far bank as well.
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| Dick Warrener - 2nd with 49 lb 7 oz. |
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| Roy Whitwell sprinkled his feeder with Tommy Cooper's uffle dust and won with 83 lb 14 oz. |
The results show that the far end where fish were splashing didn't dominate, but the catches were spread reasonably well. However signs are that the fish have bulked up in places, though with big catches not on the cards now, that last half-hour can bring anyone into contention.
Difficult to give myself marks out of ten as at the moment there's a lot of luck needed to frame...but I managed to get some in that last hour, ending fourth. Next match on Six-Island on Sunday. Give me peg 11, which dominated Winter matches last year.
THE RESULT
2 Wendy Bedford 2 lb 15 oz
3 Mick Ramm 3 lb 5 oz
4 Martin Parker 34 lb 8 oz 3rd
5 Dick Warrener 49 lb 7 oz 2nd
6 Kevin Lee 25 lb
7 Mac Campbell 32 lb 14 oz 4th
8 Bob Barrett 32 lb 3 oz
9 John Garner 7 lb 7 oz
10 Tevor Cousins 25 lb
11 Roy Whitwell 83 lb 14 oz 1st
12 Mike Rawson 30 lb 1 oz
13 Graham Ward 13 lb 13 oz
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