Horrendous conditions on Cedar

Peg 6, Cedar, Sun, Feb 15
Good to see 22 anglers in the Open at Decoy, including Alan Scotthorne, fishing Beastie and Six-Island and practicing for the Winter League Final on Sat, Feb 28. I spoke with Ben Townsend beforehand and suggested that pegs 10 to 14 on Six-Island would be good, especially since they would have back wind, and to my surprise he said: "In all the times I've fished at Decoy I've never yet drawn on that bank on Six-Island." So these top anglers CAN be unlucky at the draw after all (!).

I was in the JV club match, where Roy Whincup pegged the nine of us on the West bank of Cedar , which was probably marginally the best bank to put us on. The wind was a really strong Southerly, from right to left, meaning that if we put up an umbrella (and everyone did) it would be on our right, making it difficult for right-handers to use a pole. Actually that became immaterial for most of us, as it became clear that using a pole was a bit of a nightmare because of the rain and bitingly-cold wind. So most of us stuck to the rod and line virtually all day.

Happy, sort of
I was happy(ish) with peg six as on Cedar the best sport is often in the first five or six pegs, at the car park end. That differs from the other three strips at Decoy, where the bottom one-third of swims tend to produce the better weights much of the time. I had Roy Whincup on my right, but with the umbrella up it meant peering round the side of it, like a Peeping Tom, to see what he was doing.

What I, and doubtless everyone else, will remember is the weather. By the time we started tackling up, the wind had brought us rain and I had to keep stopping to warm my fingers. I took out four sections of pole, just in case the conditons altered, but my main attack would be maggot feeder baited with a red maggot hooked through the blunt end and a flouro pinkie hooked one-third of the way down from the pointy end. I've seen the Guru underwater video of bream fishing and was horrified (as were the presenters) to see how un-natural two maggots looked when hooked through the blunt ends. 

My bait looked sort of a lump with the pinkie not laying directly beside the big maggot, but it's started working for me recently.And within a few minutes of the start I had a bite and a double-figure carp was on its way towards my net.

In the net (eventually)
That fish plodded around for ages before I managed to get it to the net. I was using an 18-inch model and the fish went in head down, with its tail flapping away out of the top as I VERY gently pulled in the net. It wasn't easy, with freezing cold hands, to turn the fish so I could extract the hook, and I made a decision to change the net to a deeper 20-inch model, which I did as soon as that fish went into the keepnet.

I have to use a disgorger on virtually all of my fish now, as my fingers are too fumbly to pick a size 18 hook out of a fish. But I eventually managed to turn the fish so I could see its mouth, and the hook came straight out with the disgorger. No question of getting back into the swim immediately, as the cold wind over wet hands numbed them within 20 seconds. Everybody had that problem (at, least those who caught a fish).

On a roll
The next four casts also brought fish - three F1s and then a carp about 7 lb. By this time about 75 minutes had gone and I was very happy. In fact, although I didn't know it, Roy Wincup had also had fish, including some big carp. By now I had to do everything really slowly, which was made even slower by the fact that I couldn't put up my side tray on the left  because I needed that side of the platform to walk round to the box as the umbrella was right against the other side of my box.

Slow and steady to bait up
Baiting up saw me: 1) Open the red maggot box, bait up with one, put the lid back on and put it down on my holdall. 2) Pick up the pinkie box, take out one, hook it on, put the lid back, place it on the holdall. 3) Slide the maggot feeder down the line, hold it, pick up the red maggot box, carefully fill the maggot feeder, put the lid back, place the box down on the holdall. Now I was ready to cast, dry my hands on the towels I had, and try to warm them, hoping I didn't get a bite for a while. Some simple  'Hotties' - small hand warmer I held in mt hand, really helped. Towards the end of the match I added another pinkie on the hook, which seemed to work just as well.

Even casting was a problem, as it had to be done righthanded over my left shoulder. Not difficult at the start as I used a 30 gm feeder, but when I changed it for a lighter one (which felt better) the wind tended to blow it to my left, and all my fish came when the feeder went towards Roy on the right. And casting that awkward way meant I did have some casts which fell short, and meant I had to rewind, refill the feeder, and try again. 

Big liners
Most of my fish came more than three-quarters of the way across, at intervals of about 15 minutes. I used to be ready to retrieve and recast when the rod would suddenly wrench round with a bite, though I also had several liners which also pulled it round so far that I felt I had to strike; in every case when I missed the 'bite' I'm convinced they were just liners, and the bait was untouched. To my left Dave Parsons muct have thought there was a brick wall under the surface, as he had just one F1 all day.

Rain, snow and sleet...plus a biting cold wind! Not a day I would like to see again.

Soon after the start sleet came down with the rain, and then it was rain and snow together. You couldn't see the rain, but you could hear it on the umbrella. And while the snow tended to melt when it hit ground, on my tackle the snowflakes turned to big, round, thin, patches of ice. I can't remember weather like that in recent years - in the 1960s a lot of Winter League matches saw similar weather, and I didn't like it then!

It didn't help that I suddenly started to get cramp in my right leg. Massaging it was difficult through four layers of clothing, so I had to stand for about 15 minutes, until it had gone. That meant exposing my head to the wind - just as well I had a cap, two hoodies and the Imax jacket on!

The rain stops!
Chris Saunders came along the bank, and I said I had about 20 lb; he said Roy had 30 lb. Then Chris vanished, went back to his swim, and no doubt spent the next 20 minutes shivering, before eventually giving it best - he posted later that this has been the worst Winter he's ever had on the bank. And indeed it was horrendous. Then the rain stopped and it was just snow, but still the wind blew and even though I managed another four F1s, a barbel, a 3 lb carp and a tiny roach, I felt I would be glad when I'd had enough. 😒

With one hour to go the snow stopped and I put out a pole. To be honest, I could fish OK at four sections, but I couldn't be certain when my maggots were ending up, as a half-submerged reed showed me there was a definite tow towards the right in the margins, but it didn't show on my pole rig. In addition that wind kept my hands so cold, even tucked in behind the umbrella, that I gave up after 15 minutes. The last 45 minutes on the feeder saw two more F1s come in, and I finished with two nice carp, a smaller one, nine F1s, the roach, and the barbel, for around 40 lb.

Roy included four carp probably into
double figures in his winning 56 lb 11 oz.

The weigh in

Pete Molesworth on the scales  thought I had won - probably because I had more fish than Roy Whincup. My fish went 39 lb 12 oz, but Roy had four double-figure fish in his net, and totalled 56 lb 11 oz for the win, leavng me second. Roy agreed that the cold had been just so piercing; and I was just glad I had survived. Then we trudged back along the bank, through was was now a paddy field, to the vehicles.

After I had loaded the van I turned round only to see that the wind had died right down and the lake surface was like a mill pool, with just a lovely light ripple in places. Someone Up There was teasing us! I found out later that almost every fish had been caught on a bomb or feeder. 

Remarkably, the Open had yielded some really good weights considering the conditions. The full results are on the Decoy Lakes Facebook page.

Marks out of ten
I'll bring this back because I felt I had fished a proper match. You had to keep everything so simple, as just going to your holdall, even behind the unbrella, meant exposing your hands, and then having to warm them up, as even with fingerless mitts the tips of your fingers felt numb so quickly after exposing them. Frankly everybody deserved 10/10 for not just sticking it out, but for fishing properly. So I get 10/10 as well! Clever, eh?

My next match is on Beastie. The conditions can't be any worse so, given reasonable weather, peg 17 will do me fine.

PS. I have now obtained the ultimate, cheap accessory to combat the cold hands - a muff, in which you can place, or hold, hand warmers. Ideal when you are fishing the bomb or feeder.

 

Well done to all, I say.

Nasty winds at Pidley and Decoy

 Why, oh why can't I pick a peg with back wind? Chris Saunders blames his bad pegs on getting someone else to draw for him; I normally draw my own. Perhaps I should change hands? Whatever the reason I'm resigned to having to pull my hood over my head, hunch over my box, and grit my teeth as I watch my quivertip or float. I thought that after winning my first match of the year my luck had, perhaps, changed. Well, it sort of did for the second match of the year. Here's what happened...

Feb 5, peg 21 on Crow, Pidley

My first visit to the Wednesday Old people's Open for yonks, on Magpie and Crow, and I draw peg 21. Happy with that as it's towards the deeper end.The wind was forecast to be SSE, which is roughly in our faces, and for the first hour or so it was only light. But the sky was grey and horrible almost all day. 

I started on a pole at 13 metres, because I knew almost everyone else would be starting on feeders or bombs, and if there were fish willing to feed within pole distance Iwanted to be the one catching them.

Plan B
Err, it didn't work out like that. No bites for an hour anywhere within 13 metres, although not much else seemed to be caught. The angler on my left had one F1 or small carp on a bomb, and I changed to a maggot feeder cast right to the far bank. Immediately I had some liners so I dropped short. Nothing. So back out to the far bank; followed by another look on the pole line with maggot, but by now the wind had increased and it became quite cold.

Then I saw Roy Whitwell, several pegs to my right, net a fish on his usual feeder. I watched him recast to a little over halfway and immediately did that myself with my maggot feeder.

Yes!
Suddenly the tip wrenched round and I was playing an F1...very carefully, as my hook was a light, Drennan red, size 18 to 3 lb line. I was taking a chance, but within an hour I had three more on that gear. Then the fifth fish broke me - my own fault as I had forgotten to adjust the clutch on the reel to 'very light', and although I had the fish on for several seconds a sudden jerk broke the hooklength. A jerk on one and and a jerk on the other!

On went a stronger size 18 LWG Guru hook to 4 lb and a small carp and three more F!s came before the match ended. My bait for every fish was a red maggot hooked in the blunt and followed by a flouro pinkie hopoked in the pointy end, so they lay nicely together, not splayed out.  

A big ripple
I tried the pole again but gave up after ten minutes as the wind had increased considerably and moved North, and there was a big  ripple on straight down the lake, which made it diffult to preent a rig properly even at eight metres, though strangely the wind suddenly became less cold.

The angler on my right had some fish right in the side in the last hour, and one of them looked to be 3 lb-plus. I wasted 20 minutes there without a sign, and in fact the last hour was fishless. 

My eight fish weighed 16 lb 11 oz, giving me third place out of the 12 on Crow, and a section envelope. Magpie  saw better weights with top weight of 38 lb 12 oz from peg 7, where they had a nice back wind for most of the match!

Crow 1-13

Crow 14-25

Magpie 1-22

Magpie 23-26

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Horseshoe 13 - oh dear!

This won't take long. Horseshoe 13 at Decoy is a flier. It's on a corner with an aerator opposite and a nice deep left-hand margin, where lillies grow in Summer. 

Peg 13 - a lovely swim. This was before the wind got up.

Roy Whincup had about four fish in the first two hours on peg 7, behind me, casting a feeder to the far bank; then Peter Harrison on peg 4 had his first bite, on maggot on a pole at 14 metres. Next to him Andy Mitchell was also catching fish. Roy changed to casting his feeder down the track and started catching F1s and carp.

Next to me Kevin Bell had an occasional roach and then a carp on a pole at about six metres, and added an odd fish or two after that, with no pattern; though he did catch a carp on a feeder and lost another when it snagged him.

Kevin Bell's first carp. That smug smile didn't make me feel any better!

Me? I managed one roach about a quarter of an ounce from deep water to my right, and lost two more tiny fish when they dropped off. I had no liners on a feeder, and no other bites on a pole, even though I tried all the lines to the left margin from right against the reeds out to 13 metres over where the lilly bed would be. Nothing! Zilch! 

The wind didn't help - right across the corner into me from the left, and it was very cold after an hour or two. The top three came from those pegs 4, 5 and 7, who had back wind. Five-and-a-half hours of my life I will never get back (though I did have some nice bites on a piece of stem ginger cake I brought with me).

Roy Whincup included some carassios (the silver fish in the
 foreground) in his second-placed 55 lb 13 oz. 

The other half of the club fished on Lou's Lake, where they had better all-round weights (and more shelter from the wind!)

Next match is Decoy on Sunday, where Elm awaits. All I want is a back wind! (And a peg from 8 round to about 16).

Horseshoe

Lou's

I pick a flyer on Six-Island and...(wait for it)...

First I have to tell our Spratts members that Trevor and I attended dear old Ted Lloyd's funeral at Surfleet. Old he most certainly was, dying a few days before his 98th birthday. A lovely bloke, and we met his great-nephew, who introduced Ted to big-carp fishing by taking him to France. Apparently Ted loved it so much he went two months later, with his wife, and landed a fish around 50 lb.

Ted's spectacular wreath.

Ted fished with us for several years before the 'getting ready' bit at home proved too much for him, but Trevor used to ring him after every match and tell him the result, often resulting in Ted getting annoyed when told that the match was won from the early end peg we would have given him! Thanks for the memories, Ted.

The same day was the funeral for dear Terry Tribe, also a previous member of Spratts and |JV (and Division Four National Champion), until illness forced him to give up fishing. I didn't know about the funeral, but Trevor found out the previous evening, and went on after Ted's funeral. I had my wife with me, and we'd arranged to meet friends, so I didn't feel able to change the arrangements. I was sorry I didn't see Terry off, but I'm sure he would have understood. A real one-off was Terry, very knowledgeable and known for speaking his mind, no matter who was present. That gave us some laughs, I can tell you. Goodbye, old friend.

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SORRY ABOUT THE SEARCH WIDGET HIGHLIGHTING SOME WORDS. I'M TRYING TO GET RID OF IT!

Peg 11, Six Island, Sunday, Jan  18
Good to see a few more people in the Decoy cafe, fishing the Open to practice for the Angling Trust Winter League final on Sat, Feb 28. There will be 50 pegs there, 25 on Float Fish Farm, and 50 at Rookery. I will probably offer to help, again, at the weighing in at Decoy, and hopefully there will be  more locals turn up, as any further help will be very much appreciated. The ideal number is three per set of scales - two on the scales and one on the board. Karen would appreciate knowing if you may be available.

Now to the JV match - the first this year. Fished by just 9 stalwarts, as one or two were in the Open of the Kingsland EWintyer League.Yes - peg 11 stuck to my fingers. It has a bunch of irises to the right, and has a good record in Winter. There wasn't much wind, and it was fairly mild, though the light was a bit murky and I settled on a Cralusso 0.2 gm float as these have a thicker tip than my favourite Tuff Eye.

Flat calm and low light, but certainly not cold.

I started on a tiny Method feeder to the small island, which is about 18 metres out, but apart from one huge liner the tip remained still. And soon after the start Chris Saunders to my left on 13 started catching good-sized fish on a long pole, probably F1s. After he'd caught two I changed to a pole as well. 

A bit of a disaster
Chris had five in the first hour, and I think I had one, on double pinkie over a small amount of black groundbait (it's allowed here from November to the end of February). Then a second F1 came in and then a disaster when a big fish (possibly foulhooked) surged off, breaking the line at the hook. I'd whipped a strong Drennan size 18 carp hook to my 6 lb line, straight through, so I can't work out how the line broke.

After that there was a lull and I had a quick look near the irises, with not even a liner. Back out on the 11.5 metre line, and I tried double red maggot, which caught a fish. I'd been feeding pinkies and a tiny amount of groundbait, and now tried feeding loose red maggot. This was much better and I had a run of about seven fish in half an hour.

I admit to foulhookers
I heard Chris Saunders shout across to Eddie McIlroy on peg 6 that I was catching, but felt honour-bound to tell Chris that three of those fish, including a carp of around 8 lb, had been foulhooked! As soon as I felt that fish had spooked I rested that line, and had a look in the left margin, where I had one missed bite, and nothing more.

Out to the long line and two  nice carp- and two or three more F1s came in before I rested it again. One F1 was well over 3 lb. Then there was a bigger lull before another short good spell; and the last half hour saw one F1 and two carp around 5 lb.  I had no more foulhooked fish after the three early ones.

Nowt in the margins
Several more short looks in the margins were fruitless except for the tiniest roach I've ever had on a maggot coming from the iris swim. I swear it was no bigger than one-twentieth of an ounce...

By the end I had about 16 F1s and five  or six better carp, and I thought I had probably 50 lb. Chris said he had caught only five more fish after that good first hour, and that Eddie on peg 6 had just three fish late on, on a feeder cast to the left of his island. The water at my end of that bit of the lake is definitely deeper than the other end, which probably accounts for why I caught fish.

One of my smaller F1s (the biggest one
was camera-shy and leapt out of my hands).

The weigh in
Round to me, Peter Harrison was top from peg 1 with 60 lb 2 oz. That's the peg where you can reach ohe old sunken island with a 14-metre pole, though I suspect that it's not much of a feature any more, and I have no idea whether Peter went out that far.

To my surprise my fish went 70 lb 11 oz and Chris was sure that would win. I asked him to take a photograph of my biggest F1, but it slipped out of my hands and went straight back. However I managed to hold a smaller specimen for the cameras. They are in super condition and fight like fury.

Some of these F1s in Decoy are now really big!

Chris (right) weighed in 
33 lb 13 oz, and was happy enough as he was sure that would give him the section by default. Then I saw a big old F1 in his net and he obliliged me by holding on to it for a photograph. I certainly went well over 4 lb.

There were more weights of 30 lb-plus, but indeed I ended as winner, with Peter second. A good start for 2026, wouldn't you say? 

Marks out of ten
I'll bring this section back because I made a special effort to do everything really carefully and correctly. So though I started on a 12 elastic I took the trouble to change to a lighter one (8-10) after losing the first big fish. That felt so much softer, and though I lost two more fish, which pulled off, I was very happy indeed with it. I also put on a size 16, as the bigger maggot covered more of the hook.

One red maggot and one pinkie made a nice change bait; but a single red didn't get a bite. That shows how important it can be to swap around if you're not getting bites. 

Even more important was changing depth by a tiny amount - my best spell came when the bait was just off bottom - I got several fish then.  If I didn't get a bite I would let it drift onto a tiny rise in the lake bed (to the left where it was fractionally shallower). The float would stop and started to pull down; I would lift it an inch; and a tiny amount more of the float would show as the bait was now just on the bottom. That was when I expected to get a bite, and lifting it another inch often induced one. Really nice fishing. 

The one thing I perhaps should have done (but didn't) was to briefly try worm, bread, or a 4mm expander. So I think I was worth just 8/10, despite winning, as I obviously had the best peg.

Next match is Sunday - not sure of the lake as it depends how many turn up for the Open. But wherever it is we expect to catch fish now the first really cold spell is over. 

THE RESULT