Leaqving it late on Cedar

Peg 2, Cedar, Sun, Oct 11
There was a cold wind blowing at the start of this Fenland Rods match, and some of the anglers preferred to fish back wind. Personally I would nearly always choose to fish the opposite bank of Yew lake, where the margins are better and the reed growth thicker. And especially if the ripple was over that side (which it was). But as chairman I made the decision to fish back wind; it's a club, and it's my job to satisfy as many people as I can.

That meant that we all set up with calm water in front of us, though most started on a feeder cast across into the ripple. With nothing coming on that, I ten went out into the shallowest water I could find at about 3 ft 6 in,  with a pole, as the wind was losing some of its bite, and I expected fish to be in shallower wateer. That, though, also yielded nothing. Pushing out the pole to 13 metres I found five feet of water...but still no bites.

I do an "Ivan Marks"
After a couple of hours, with nothing in my net, I did a walk along, and there were a very few fish caught towards the far end (the higher numbers). Dick Warrener was the nearest to me with a carp, on peg 5. I then managed to foulhook a four-pounder in my left margin, and that was all I had at the halfway point. 

As I walked back from the end peg Martin Parker hooked into his second fish.

Not huge, but very welcome on the day.

Fish in my swim!
It was not until well past two o'clock that I started getting touches on my Special method, so at least I knew that there were fish in the swim. In went some dead maggots and with four or five deads on the hook I managed to winkle out four more carp - two of them around 10 lb - before the end of the match, also losing two foulhooked.

And although that first fish had come from the left margin, which I kept looking in, all the rest came from the right, and all on dead maggots. Meat and mussel didn't get a touch, though I admit I didn't try them for long. And by the end the temperature had gone right up, so the opposite bank would have been very nice to fish, with a ripple.

To my right Callum had four late fish, and I thought that he had probably beaten me (I actually thought I saw him playing five - perhaps he lost one).

Nice to see a tench, caught by Callum.

The weigh in

The word from the anglers walking past me to their cars was that Mike Rawson had several big fish, with the first possibly near 20 lb. But Callum was first to weigh, and to my astonishment  had only 10 lb 3 oz, which included two small tench. I'd assumed his fish were all bigger than mine. My five fish went 31 lb 11 oz; Allan Golightly hadn't had a single fish; but Dick Warrener had 40 lb 6 oz, all taken on a feeder, mainloy in the second half. So I knew that unless he finished in the top three I hadn't won the four-peg section.

    Mel Lutkin on peg 7 caught a common    
we weighed at over 17 lb.

As I followed the scales it appeared that there were a few more fish willing to bite towards the far end, where the water seemed to be shallower. Mike hadn't got a fish near 20 lb, but weighed in 64 lb 7 oz, to lead at that point. However on end peg 14 Roy Whitwell beat him by the equivalent of one fish, taking 67 lb 1 oz to the scales for a very hard-earned win, taken on feeder early on and in the margins late.

  Mike Rawson had just eight carp on  
 pole for 64 lb 7 oz.

Several anglers took all, or almost all of their fish, in that last hour. And I suppose that's what will happen now, as temperatures fall. However, it was generally agreed that we would have caught more from the opposite bank.

Marks out of ten
Actually I felt I had winkled out as much as I could on a difiuclt day, so I give myself 9/10 because I didn't make any stupid mistakes. I didn't overfeed, and felt that I felt just enough to draw fish in without making them suspicious. Who knows?

THE RESULT