Willows in the wind and rain

Peg 3, Willows, Sunday, Dec 8
I must be getting old - I was hoping I'd get a back wind in the JV match on Sunday at Decoy,  because rain was forecast for the afternoon. Sensibly Chris Saunders, substituting for Roy Whincup who was oop North, took a quick vote on whether to fish Six-Island or Willows, and when I got there I was told that Willows was favourite so far. I was happy with that, because from about peg 8 round to 29 the South-Easterly would be at the anglers' backs, and from 30 to 35 the island gave some shelter from any head wind.

I was first to draw, and unfortunately peg 3 stuck to my fingers - the wind would be coming in to me from the right, and also to the poor sods who drew 5 and 7. They turned out to be Peter Harrison and Roy Whitwell. In addition I was on scales (though it's not a problem with this club, because someone will also volunteer to help). And now there's not a lot to report...

The light was so dull I didn't take a picture of my swim, which was mainly water anyway...

A good start
We had a nice ripple, but at this time of year, even if the wind is not bitterly cold, it is churning the temperatures around, and the fish won't feed well - they make for where the water is undisturbed and the temperatures are at least fairly stable. Even so, I had a 3 lb mirror carp very quickly, at 13 metres on a single maggot on a 0.2 gm float, which is light for me!. That was followed by a small F1, and then I lost a decent fish. Leaves from the willow trees were a nuisance,as they often are here, but I can't say that they made a huge difference to my presentation.

By that time the wind had picked up, I'd had to put on my padded Imax jacket, and I came back to 11.5 metres, and had a look to my left, towards the aerator in about four feet of water. That brought a few roach, some up to 3 oz, and I scrapped around for the rest of the match, catching roach but hoping carp would turn up.

Who pulled the switch?
After three hours I had a really good spell on a top two in front of me, getting a roach or rudd most drops, and then there came a few spots of rain and the wind picked up a little. Those bites stopped as if someone had pulled a switch. Then the rain increased and I couldn't put up an umbrella because of the wind direction and strength. So like everyone else I got wet.

I'd seen Roy net a fish or two on a feeder cast across. I tried a maggot feeder and a small Method feeder, but had only a couple of roach. Peter was fishing a long pole and I saw him net a fish, but I didn't think he'd had a lot. I finished scrapping around all the swims but added only half a dozen fish in the last half hour, and I wasn't sure what weight I'd got. By the end the rain had pretty well stopped, but you could feel it in the air. 

The weigh in
I'd put out a feeder for the last 15 minutes, while I started putting away my excess bait and my pole tops. So for a change I had my stuff back in the van and was ready to weigh in before Peter Harrison, next to me, had put his trolley into his huge van; so I started at the far end of my weighing board. Apart from anything else, I prefer to carry the scales back towards my peg while weighing in, rather than make the long trek back carrying them after weighing. 

As I had expected, the better weights were where they had a backish wind, with first man I weighed, Eddie McIlroy (the self-appointed Kendall Killer) taking 30 lb 1 oz to the scales, which was top weight on my board. I think he used maggot all day. Shaun Coaten won our four-peg section from peg 9 on maggot, as I had guessed he might, with 21 lb 6 oz. And I was pleasantly suprised to beat Peter Harrison with my 9 lb 10 oz to his 6 lb 5 oz. 

The second board
Back at HQ the other board held all the top weights, with Lee Kendall winning with 39 lb 4 oz of carp from peg 25 - taken mainly on a bomb and bread cast to the island, with a couple on pole to the island on the right.  So the 'Kendall Killer' failed on this occasion, but I thought it best not to press the point because Eddie could eat me for breakfast! You can see from the sheet that the better weights were in the higher numbers.

Marks out of ten
I honestly don't think we had a chance of winning in our early-numbered pegs, so I give myself 8/10 because beating Peter Harrison on the next peg was, for me, a bit of a highlight. Next match is the JV Fur and Feather, with prizes for everybody, on the famous Beastie lake.

At this time of year I would not expect many carp from the Southern end of Beastie, including the famous pegs 29 and 30, nor from pegs 8 to 13 on the back of the spit, because the carp seem to stay in the main bowl. I like pegs 14 to 18 on the spit, but it's odds-on that they will have a head wind, and the match is likely to be won from 20 to 23. Why the fish should hang around those pegs no-one  knows. But they do.

THE RESULT