Dastardly Damson!

Peg 8, Damson, Wed, Apr 2
What rotten weather we can get in the UK.  The forecast was for mild 4mph winds strengthening to 7mph in the afternoon. But at the draw it was a really cold wind that greeted us, and Dick Warrener and myself agreed it was around 10 mph; by the end of the match it was sunny and quite hot. No wonder the fish are confused.

With 14 of us fishing this Spratts match the peg we all fancied was 14, on the end bank sheltered from the NW wind, and that fell to Dick. I was drawn peg 8, and didn't really know what it might be like. In fact it was s-l-o-w at the start, except that Neil Paas on 6 had four on a feeder cast to the far bank, in the first half hour. My bait was icy cold when I touched it.

It was too cold to take pictures at the start - but
this is what it looked like by the finish!

Slowly I realised that with the wind putting a nice ripple on pegs 6 down to 1, my swim had hardly any ripple, unless I cast towards the far bank about 60 yards away, while pegs 10, 11 and 12 had a cast to the island.

Usually on Damson there are fish to be caught in the shallow margins, but not today. It took me half an hour to get one, to my right, on maggot. Then things slowed up (!). I tried a hybrid and corn towards the far bank; then a bomb; then it was back on the pole, which produced several tiny roach and one carp from the deep water. which was, surprisingly, only six feet deep. 

By halfway I had four fish on the pole; then the sun came out and small carp started basking in the reeds to my right - sunning themselves, but not interested in any food. To rub it in, Dick now took off his jacket and sat there, happy in the sun while most of the rest of us still had our hoods up.

Four more small carp came on corn in the margins. By now the sun was really hot, and more fish came to the surface, lying there immovable. I had two bites in the last five minutes, both missed.  A terrible day by Decoy's standards, but what do you expect at this time of year?

Dick worked hard on small fish for
his winning 42 lb 15 oz.

The weigh in
I thought that with eight fish I'd not done bad, and later realised that seven carp and F1s was probably as much as anybody else had caught from the margins. The first three pegs all had over 20 lb, and I can't put that down to the ripple - they are three of the best in the club. 

Trevor Cousins in fact mugged all of his 24 lb 9 oz, except for one roach, on a long pole in the last two hours. With reeds opposite at about 16 metres he could see fish just under the surface in their reflection, which I couldn't - but he managed top catch them on pellet shallow (which I sure I wouldn't have been able to). I weighed in 13 lb 11 oz for ninth, but Dick whupped us all with 42 lb 15 oz, and he lost some time walking about when his back started to play up. Well done, Dick - a hard-fought win for you.

Next match on Beastie on Sunday, which is my last with JV club as Fenland Rods begin their season the next Sunday. The water must still be cold, though Friday saw some decent weights from Beastie with one over 100 lb. If we don't get a frost it might not be too bad. But wind is forecast from storm Dave; nothing new there, then!

THE RESULT

1 Peter Spriggs            27 lb 15 oz        2nd
2 Trevor Cousins        24 lb 9 oz           3rd
3 Roy Whitwell           24 lb                  4th
4 Peter Chilton            19 lb 13 oz
5 Graham Ward        DNW
6 Neil Paas                 21 lb 5 oz
7 Mick Ramm              4 lb 3 oz
8 Mac Campbell         13 lb 11 oz
9 Mike Rawson          DNW
10 Peter Harrison       19 lb 13 oz
11 Martin Parker     DNW
12 Bob Walker          21 lb 11 oz
13 Bob Barrett            7 lb 13 oz
14 Dick Warrener      42 lb 15 oz            1st