A right royal thrashing on Cedar

Peg 5, Cedar, Sun, Mar 29

Ten of us were on Cedar in this JV club match, and nine on Elm. The wind was yet again quite strong and cold, but mercifully over our right shoulders, though we had rain halfway through. I started on a maggot feeder cast to the far side, and had one or two liners. But after about 25 minutes, with Dan Pettigrew on my right having one on feeder, I changed to a hybrid feeder with a hard pellet; then a yellow wafter; then a pink one.. 

Yet again cold, dull, and very windy.

After three hours Chris Saunders on my left had had one carp on the pole, and Dan had had half-a-dozen or so; and I had had a few roach on pole and maggot (as had Chris), but no sign of anything better.

Dan Pettigrew lands his first carp.

 I was casting my feeder right to the far bank, which is where Dan had been casting, and then a shorter cast brought a 5 lb carp on an orange wafter. Later a near-3 lb bream came from the deep margin to my left on pole, and that was my last fish, though I hooked a lost a good fish ten minutes from the end on my hybrid feeder.

Chris Saunders plays the first of his two carp.

Dan Pettigrew with part of his
second-placed 84 lb 19 oz catch..

In the last hour Chris had another carp, on cat meat on pole, and ended with just those two. Meanwhile Dan had been picking up the occasional carp and I reckoned he had about 12. He never had a good spell, and was having to wait for 20 minutes for most of his takes; sometimes giving up and trying the pole, though he never had a fish on it.

On corner peg 13 Roy Whitwell found three carp on a hard pellet, and a change to an orange wafter brought more, though he had a long blank spell when someone in the match on Oak started walking up and down the bank, and then decided to pack up two hours from the end. Roy never had a fish while that was going on, but he ended with a winning 90 lb 6 oz, with Dan second on 84 lb 10 oz, and my 8 lb 14 oz was next to last.

  Roy Whitwell took all of his  winning   
90 lb 6 oz catch on the feeder.

The verdict

This happens at this time of year - the carp are still gathered in some spots, and I don't think I fished badly. The lesson is that if you do start finding fish, don't do anything rash; Dan was patient and thoroughly deserved his second spot. Well done, Dan, and winner Roy.  The Elm result is also below.

My next match is on Thursday on Damson, where fish might be in the shallow margins in numbers if the weather has been warm enough. Otherwise it's out on a top two or beyond, into eight feet of water.