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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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| Rain, snow and sleet...plus a biting cold wind! Not a day I would like to see again. |
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!
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.
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| Roy included four carp probably into double figures in his winning 56 lb 11 oz. |
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?
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| Well done to all, I say. |
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