The fish play Hide-and-seek on Damson

Peg 8, Damson, Decoy
Thirteen of us lined up for this Fenland Rods match, and I began to wonder whether we had been unlucky. Because the wind had turned round to the North East, and fish at Decoy tend to dislike a cool North-Easterly on their backs. Actually the wind wasn't really cool. and it was only light, so perhaps we would get away with it.

With three of us on the end bank I made that one section, and split the others so that blank peg 9 was between two other sections. Kevin Lee was Golden Peg and definitely one of the favourites to win, as all three on the end bank, pegs 14, 15 and 16, are capable of winning.

I quite liked my peg, which had reeds growing in front of the platform. I intended to fish the shallows - within a metre of the bank - as long as I could, and hoped the fish would gravitate towards cover as the morning went on. 

 I loved the reeds in front of the platform; but we had sun all day, and only a little ripple on our bank - not the best conditions.

'Here he is, lads'
When I took water out with my pole cup to wet my micros not a fish had shown itself, which is unusual here. But a minute or two later, in the came, to have a look at where Mac Campbell was sitting. I spoke nicely to them, and promised them a feast.

Whistle time, and I dropped in with a shallow rig and banded 4mm pellet over micros, just to my left, and within a minute or two I had my first F1, a little under 2 lb. I kept on with that and after 25 minutes I had ten - averaging about 40 lb an hour. But I hoped that bigger fish would come eventually. Top my left Frank Snow hit fish immediately on his feeder, but soon I stopped seeing his rod bending.

Down to the bottom
Inevitably the fish moved away from that first swim and I went down onto the bottom with corn to find them, with the best spot right in the reeds on a top two. The fish weren't going mad, and I had to induce the bites, but after a total of three hours I estimated I had around  65 lb. Then they went completely.

Frank Snow on my left has a really good start on a feeder.

On the end bank Kevin estimated he had 100 lb after two hours, but then he really struggled. But on peg 16 Roy Whitwell kept steadily catching fish on a feeder and 6mm pellet  cast right across to the island. 

With the match half over I tried a new swim to my right, having to break off a lot of reeds so I could see my float. It was a lot of work, but I managed about three small carp there before they shut up shop completely. 

The last two hours I kept looking along the line on my bank and hardly saw any elastic out. I spent nearly half-an-hour our in the deep water, but never had a touch there. In fact I had just one fish in that last two hours - with tehn minutes to go I put in three grains of corn a little farther to my left than I had fished before, dropped in my rig, and sure enough a 3 lb carp obligingly took the bait. That was my lot! Yet again the Damson fish had successfully played Hide-And-Seek with us.

The weigh in

John Smith on peg 2 had thrashed the first two sections at that end with 59 lb 8 oz, taking all his fish within inches of the bank, and he led up to me. I managed 73 lb 15 oz, but I'd seen Mark Ramm (son of my old schoolboy companion Mick Ramm) catch fish and thought he might have whupped me. No - Mark had 62 lb 2 oz. Mel Lutkin had 50 lb 6 oz, almost all from the deep water. Then we went to the end bank.

Mark Ramm - 62 lb 2 oz.

Mel Lutkin - 50 lb 6 oz.

Kevin Lee weighs his 130 lb 6 oz. Some
prize-winning legs were on view at the end.

Sure enough Kev had three nets of fish for 130 lb 6 oz and it looked as if the Golden Peg money would vanish into his shorts. Next door Martin Parker said he 'cocked it up' (his own words) by fishing for the F1s with an overshotted float at the start. He said he would have been better concentrating on the margins at that time.

Then Roy Whitwell weighed in his four nets, which went 148 lb 11 oz for the well-deserved win, and he'd saved us the Golden Peg.

Roy takes a net to the scales. He
took all his feeder-caught fish
from the mud bank you can
 see in the background.

Part of Roy's winning catch.
Most came to feeder but he ended 
fishing a pole in the margins.

Marks out of ten

I ended in third place, thought when the match had finished that I'd done enough to earn myself 8/10, and when I saw I was top weight on that bank I was happy enough. I don't think I made any stupid mistakes, and I can't remember losing a single fish. My 'edge' on the day was to have four different margin rigs made up, because I found that it was often essential to just get the bait touching bottom, and then to lift it an inch. That put a few fish into my net that would probably not have taken the bait.

My next match was the next day on Oak lake, where Smug Smalley had had 248 lb a day or two previously. But he caught them mugging, and you need the right conditions to do that. The North Easterly was still forecast; I just hoped it was not cold and strong.

THE RESULT