Catching up on Elm

Peg 11, Elm
I'm moving around the country more slowly now, but it's not my age (or at least it's not mainly my age). It used to take me 31 minutes to get from my house to Decoy; now it takes 50 minutes-plus. I feel guilty about the fact that my little van is spewing out pollution for 20 minutes more, but it's the fault of the local councils and various governments who wish to control our movements (literally).

Lt Gruber had a little tank. I have
a little van!

You see, my little village of Wyton is now a 20 mph area, so it takes me longer to get on to the main road, which is now a 40 mph area instead of the original 60 mph. Now, because of roadworks, I have to make a four-mile detour, and travel through the little villages of Bury and Ramsey in my little van, and there's a stretch of almost 2 miles which is now a 20 mph area, which I chug through in second gear. Then I whizz through Ramey Mereside at a startling 30 mph, avoiding the various assorted speed controllers, up to the railway crossing which is the start of another 20 mph section into Whittlesey. 

And when the schools are in residence it's another few minutes waiting for the children to cross the road, which I admit they do in a very orderly fashion; I'm sure we were never as well behaved at my school. But I never saw skirts that short at my school. Perhaps that's because it was an all-boys place. Though there were some funny lads there!

Back to the roadworks, which are because of, err, well, potholes and ordinary holes. I'm told that one reason (apart from the Fenland silt) is that the original tarmac applied when I were a boy, was hard, and water accumulated on its surface, and froze in the winter, causing accidents. Modern tarmac is porous (and cheaper), so the water seeps down, leaving the surface drier. BUT the experts who suggested its use didn't know (or care) that when that water inside the tarmac froze, it cracked the road. And it always will!! So my little van will continue to pollute for longer that it used to. That's progress.

My right margin looked very nice.

The match
And so to the  Fenland Rods match on Elm., where yet again I drew next to Roy Whitwell, who will be pleased to note that he has been given back his original name. I have the power, in this blog, to change names and ages at will, and have frequently been known to do so, with no lasting harm to the persons involved.

Anyway, before the match started I plumbed up, which always takes me at least 15 minutes. And when I dropped the rig down into the right margin, next to my platform, I felt it hit fish! A good sign, wouldn't you say? So that was where I started, on corn, and within minutes a 5 lb common carp lay in my little landing net. But no more followed, so I switched to feeder.

While I was doing that, Roy Wizard waved his magic feeder rod and within an hour or two had four carp, while I took just one, right across next to the far-bank reeds. Meanwhile Callum on my right had two or three, and I was behind.

It's disconcerting when Roy starts doing this early in the match!

A change was called for, so I baited two swims very lightly with hemp and casters - the right margin, and the deeper water a few metres away, also to thge right. I'd plumbed up the left margin and actually had a knock or two there, but the bank was bare, giving the fish no cover, and I never looked there again.

Switching carefully  between those two swims saw an occasional nice carp some to me, first on casters and then on corn, and the last couple of hours were best. And I didn't lose many fish, which was pleasing. In that time I had a patch where about three carp over 8 lb in 20 minutes, which was a nice end to the match. But Roy had kept catching carp on a feeder, and I guessed he had a lot more than me, while he said I had beaten him.

Dave Garner waved his little
 waggler and picked up
 63 lb 1 oz of these little beauties.

The weigh in
Mark Ramm, guesting with us this season,  had weighed in 83 lb 12 oz from peg 1, which was not fancied at all. I think he took several on feeder. That led the field down to me, with Callum lying in second place with     76 lb 4 oz. 

My nets went 100 lb 5 oz, and when Roy weighed I saw that his fish were, on average, a fair bit smaller than mine, which was why I thought he had cbeaten me. He totalled 77 lb 4 oz, leaving me as the winner and Mark second.

Marks out of ten

 I thought that this was one of my better matches, thought a glance st the result suggests I was near the best end. Nevertheless I give myself 8/10, and it gave me a lot of confidence in my hemp and caster feed. Next match on Lou's where, with the water level low, I wanted any peg except 1 and 2, where the margins are decidedly dodgy compared with the others, which have a lining of dense reeds.

THE RESULT