This was a 60-entry match at Tunnel Barn Farm, near Warwick, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Maggot Drowners internet angling forum, of which I am a member. And it was good to put faces to several of the members I had never met. I stopped over at a B&B the previous night, at a farmhouse I had stayed at before, with Martin Parker. I prefer B&Bs to hotels, as I can always tuck my van away behind something, so it can't be seen from the road. In this case you just have to avoid the chickens!
The place is like a Hobbbit house - built in the 1640s (the barn I parked near was built even earlier), with ceilings so low I doubt whether Peter Crouch could stand up straight in any of them, and doorways not much over five feet high. I bumped my head just once coming downstairs. In addition the floor boards are obviously all original - thick oak, with knotholes everywhere (no carpets in the bedroom), and they creak in places. Quite memorable...unlike the match.
I had a long conversation with one angler on Canal lake the previous day. He had 88 lb on maggots fishing shallow, which is what most of the competitors would have been expecting, as the place is full of F1s. So, armed with four pints of maggots I drove to my peg on Jenneys, which is the lake I would have chosen as I've done well twice there in the past.
A local who is a very good angler spoke to me before the start, at which point a little breeze started blowing towards me, across the corner where I was pegged, giving me a little ripple. We both agreed that it was a good sign. Then the match began, and for an hour I never saw a fish caught. The breeze was quite cold, but I fed maggots out to the middle for two hours, in which time I had one F1 from my left margin on luncheon meat. I don't think the angler on my right had a fish.
The lake here was 13 metres across, so obviously I tried the far margin without a bite. Then it was on to the shallow swim...and there was nothing there! Slowly I realised that when the wind died down and the surface was flat calm I was gettng small liners, so the fish were obviously in my left margin, where there were reeds. But when the ripple came all liners stopped. The right margin was bare bank and horribly bobbly, and I never had a bite there.
In the last two hours I had two or three F1s from the left margin on maggot, then went long to the next platform on the right where there was a small bunch of reeds, and had two or three there. I ended with seven F1s, a 3 lb carp, a small bream and a tiny perch for 20 lb, which was almost last on the lake, and the angler on my right had 14 lb for plumb last.
I'm sure the cold wind, light thought it was, blowing straight into my margins, put the fish off. A match to forget.
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I couldn't fish this match. Kev Lee won it with 165 lb 4 oz from peg 21, taking carp to 12 lb on cat meat, paste and mussels, from the margins. John Garner was second with 83 lb 7 oz, best fish 14 lb, also on cat meat and paste close in. Bob Walker, peg 25, was third, fishing cat meat, paste and corn, best fish 8 lb.
THE RESULT
3 Roy Whitwell 70 lb
5 Graham Ward 11 lb 10 oz
7 Mike Rawson 29 lb 12 oz
9 Peter Spriggs 68 lb 12 oz
11 Neil Paas 75 lb 12 oz 4th
13 Trevor Cousins 22 lb
15 Dave Hobbs 30 lb 5 oz
17 Mick Ramm 5 lb 4 oz
19 Bob Barrett 42 lb 3 oz
21 Kevin Lee 165 lb 4 oz 1st
23 John Garner 83 lb 7 oz 2nd
25 Bob Walker 81 lb 6 oz 3rd
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Peg 9, Horseshoe, Decoy
Peg 9, with the wind cutting across from the right.
A Fenland Rods match, and Stinky in the shop said that earlier that morning the first three pegs had been black with fish. But I couldn't draw there, could I? No - pegs roughly from 6 round to 10 were right in the strong, cold NE wind, so of course I drew 9. which can be brilliant. BUT I had accidentally left my rods behind, and the margins here are so short, which matters not in Summer when the big carp come close in, but today was not Summer!
Again, this won't take long. 😞 Before the match started I had to go back to the van for an extra jumper, as it was bitterly cold in the wind. I found that my margins rolled down quickly from the bank, effectively giving me well over four feet at the bottom, though I found a small flat area near peg 8's platform (which was unoccupied) about three feet deep. But this meant fishing into the strong wind, which is never easy.
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| Only a few minutes in, and Dave Garner is playing a fish on his waggler rod. |
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| How about that, then? |
I started on corn out at eight metres, in over five feet of water, and had a tench; then an F1; then a carassio, all very quickly. On my right Dave Garner had three nice carp on meat also quickly. Then bites stopped for both of us.
Meanwhile Kevin Lee on my left had a fish on feeder, then a carp or two in his left margin, then he started catching out at about eight metres, where he had four feet of water, while I had well over five feet on the same line, and couldn't get a bite.
In the next three or four hours I hooked a couple of fish in the left margin which were probably foulhooked, as they both came off; then with an hour to go a small carp took a bunch of maggots on the drop near platform 9. Facing the wind made it feel like Winter as the wind hurtled across the corner, and I eventually had to turn back and fish to my left.
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| A good un for Allan Golightly, third with 67 lb 1 oz from peg 1. |
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| Mel Lutkin's 15 lb carp takes the lead in our Big-Fish competition. |
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| Mike Rawson - 56 lb 9 oz. |
I weighed in 17 lb 1 oz, for almost last, though yet again I beat the angler on my right, Dave Garner, who was next to last. Another match for me to forget.
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| Roy Whitwell used three nets. It was like the Bahamas on his side of the lake! |
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| Roy took most of his fish on the pole. |
Peg 3, Yew, Decoy
Yet again a strong Northerly put a big Raspberry Ripple on our lake. I would have wanted a peg towards the far end, or either of the two corner pegs 1 or 30...and I got peg 3. Roy Whitwell on 5 didn't fancy our chances of having a good catch, particularly since the far end was calm, sheltered by the end bank, and that half of the lake caught the wind much less than our end. The fish don't like that cold wind on their backs at the moment. And it must be playing havoc with their spawning preparations.
I wad looked at the forecast and was in full Winter gear, wit thermal underwear and lots of layers, so I didn't feel really cold, but I put up my umbrella to my left, just in case the rain came as it had at home the previous day, when the temperature must have fallen ten degrees in ten seconds when the rain came. I can't ever remember seeing such a dramatic change in the weather. My fingers were numb in seconds.
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| There are still a few ide in the lake. |
A fish first cast for me! An F1 took a white wafter on my hybrid feeder, but it was almost three hours before I got my second... That was a carassio on a full Method feeder. The third fish was a 6 lb carp on a maggot feeder. To my left Roy Whitwell, "The Wizard with his Wod", had five fish halfway through, but added several very late on a pole in the margins. I also added some late on a pole in the margins - tiny perch and roach, followed by roach on maggots on a hybrid feeder.
Down towards the other end they had a lot of fish, including some close-in during that last hour. The threatened thunderstorms never arrived although it rained a few times, and the wind calmed down just as the match ended (as it does!).
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| Mick Ramm had one fish, 9 lb 4 oz, which was foulhooked in the last half-hour! |
The match was won by Kevin Lee on peg 15, fishing cat meat on 2+2 and then in his margins. Put Kevin on a peg where there are big carp and he always does the business. The top four spots went to the end four pegs on our bank, I finished with 10 lb 4 oz, and YET AGAIN beat the angler on my right, who this time came last.
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| Peter Harrison watches the scales as they weigh his 88 lb 13 oz, for third place. |
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| Trevor Cousins managed to mug five big carp in his 91 lb 7 oz second-placed catch. |
My next match is on Sunday on Kingsland small lake, with Fenland Rods. The new rules ban luncheon meat, and state that if there are fewer than 13 pegs booked they must be used consecutively, which will obviously apply on Sunday. I'm not bothered - I will fish any peg quite happily, even peg 1 which our club so often leaves out because there are reeds there. The forecast is for temperatures to rise. Yippee.
THE RESULT
East bank West bank
28 Bob Walker 22 lb 14 oz 3 Mac Campbell 10 lb 4 oz
26 Bob Barrett 22 lb 5 oz 5 Roy Whitwell 28 lb 13 oz
24 Neil Paas 50 lb 7 oz 7 Mick Ramm 9 lb 3 oz
9 Peter Harrison 88 lb 13 oz 3rd
20 Peter Spriggs 24 lb 13 oz 11 Trevor Cousins 91 lb 7 oz 2nd
13 Dave Hobbs 58 lb 11 oz 4th
16 Mike Rawson DNW 15 Kevin Lee 115 lb 3 oz 1st
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