Willows at its worst

Peg 3, Sun, July 5
Fourteen of us turned out for this Fenland Rods match, and with half of Willows occupied by the JV club we fished pegs 1 to 14. The warm wind was definitely North-Westerly, which was behind me, giving a little ripple occasionally to the pegs from about 7 along to 14, yet it was blowing into my face much of the time. It must have been hitting the island and coming back to me. 

The water level was well down on normal, and I could see that all round the island opposite the bank is undercut. I suspect that most stillwaters holding numbers of carp will eventually be like that.

Overcast
With the start being overcast Mike Rawson said to me that the conditions were pretty good, and I agreed. My peg 3 has an aerator to the left, but I started on a feeder across towards the far bank and within five minutes I was playing an F1.  A very good start for me, especially as I was the first Golden Peg (which tends to be the Kiss of Death for me). As I played it I saw that Frank Snow, to my right, was already netting a fish. A good start all-round, then.

Frank Snow plays one of his early fish to the net, taken on a feeder.

Frank had two more in the next 20 minutes, at which point I got my second F1; but in the next half hour I had no more, while Frank had a couple more. I was already behind and my chances of winning the Golden Peg were disappearing. 

A look to the aerator with corn eventually saw me hook a fish which dived straight underneath it and broke my hooklength. Half  an hour later I hooked another, but this one stuck, though not before diving under the aerator. I watched as my line lifted a rope up atrtached to the aerator; yet the fish stayed on. A carp of 2 lb. Next drop I hooked a big fish briefly, which came off.

Out to 11 metres
It must have ben an hour later, after another look on the Method, that I went out to 11 metres and hooked three fish in three drops on corn; the first was a small bream; the second a 2 lb F1; and the third came off. 

Next I put on one of my special rigs, which showed me that there were occasional fish in both margin swims, about a metre from the bank. One more F1 and about four small carp came in the last couple of hours, and I pricked another two, so I know fish were hanging about in those swims.

Sport was so slow
Things were deathly slow everywhere, but I expected that there would be fish round in the higher numbers, where 11 and 13 had produced catches of 70 lb and 90 lb two days earlier in our Spratts match. 

Two swims to my right our first-time guest Tony Brooks had three or four fish on a feeder early on, cast right to the reeds on the far side. Then I saw him swapping around - a couple slapping; one out at 2+2; then fishing the margins; then back to the feeder. And he did this all day, very occasionally catching a fish. I suspected he would be top at our end of the lake. 

I expect a walloping
I guessed I had 13 lb-plus, but as much chance of winning the Golden Peg as the BBC have of saying something nice about Nigel Farage. Because to my left I'd seen Kevin Lee land three nice fish and I know he played another one or two, so I expected he had walloped me (as he usually does). By the end the temperature had gone right up, which saps one's energy, and I took a long time packing everything away, so I didn't follow the scales round, though it never felt dangerously uncomfortable.

The weigh in
On peg 1 I felt really sorry for Mike Rawson. It tends to be good, but it was just his luck to draw it on a day when fishing had obviously been extremely difficult. (I remember the first time I drew it was on a Winter's day when frost covered the grass and not much was caught anywhere). Even so he weighed 7 lb 15 oz. To my amazement Kevin weighed only 13 lb 13 oz, having lost several, while mine went 15 lb 9 oz, so a small feather in my cap.

Frank Snow - second in the match.

On my right Frank, another guest who has fished with us several times,  pipped me with 15 lb 14 oz. But on his right Tony  Brooks  took  24 lb 3 oz to the scales. 

Then things got worse, not better. In the last nine pegs the best weight was from Roy Whitwell's 12 lb 7 oz. That left Tony as the winner; Frank second; and me a surprised third. It's the weather, you know - no two days exactly the same. However, our members must have fished really hard to get the weights they did on this extraordinarily-difficult day when every single fish was a highlight. I give myself 8/10 for winkling out a few towards the end using my special method, which takes massive concentration.

The JV club had much better weights on the higher numbered pegs, though I believe they had five DNWs and sport was patchy.

My next match was on Jay, in the Wednesday Over 60s at Pidley, with the weather forecast to be even higher. I've not fished it for ages and expected to struggle against those who fish Pidley every Wednesday. But it's a day fishing; what's not to like?

THE RESULT