A match to forget in the sun on Lou's lake.

Peg 1, Lou's
Fenland Rods match on Lou's lake, fished by 12 with pegs 7 and 15 left out. I didn't fancy my peg 1, because there are no nice marginal reeds. The day was hot, and our end had hardly any ripple. I fished for five hours and 20 minutes, catching about 20 tiny roach and perch out at 11 metres, in two feet of water, on maggot.

Hot and airless. And no raspberry ripple. 😒

I kept going out to the end bank with meat, corn or pellet, but never saw a sign of carp, though the occasional one was splashing way over to my right towards corner peg 6. Beside me Mike Rawson had the other peg I didn't want, but he managed a carp on a feeder halfway through, and I think ke had another after that.

Mike Rawson lands a carp on feeder. I tried it and never had even a liner. 😒

Big carp kept rolling about in the mud in my right margin, in about eight inches of water, and it looked as if they were actually scooping it up. I couldn't make out what they were doing - Peter Spriggs told me the next day they were almost certainly eating bloodworm, which I hadn't thought of. Anyway, I had tried for ages to get a bite there, but didn't. To our right Dick Warrener had half-a-dozen carp, and I saw a fish or two being landed to his right.

Then, with 40 minutes left, a fish stirred up the mud in my left margin, which was only inches deep, and I put a grain of corn a little farther out into about a foot of water. First drop and a 5 lb carp took it. Success. In the next 30 minutes I took two more; my fish weighed 16 lb for almost last. A match to forget, won by Roy Whitwell on peg 14, taken mainly on the pole, and his 85 lb 14 oz was way ahead of everyone else. Well done, Roy.

I am sure the fish wanted some sort of thick cover above them to have enough confidence to feed in the margins, Even so I was surprised I couldn't get any carp towards the end bank, where there were sparse reeds, and I kept trying in about 18 inches of water; the margins there were only inches deep and I never saw any movement there.

THE RESULT