Three matches in three days - Decoy

Oak, peg 8

This was one of the mini-series of invitation matches organised by Mel Kitson, who brings some of his local Telford anglers over to Decoy several times a year to join us locals. The two lakes used were Oak and Yew.

The weather was hot, with a Westerly breeze putting a ripple on the water, with most of it on the Eastern bank – 16 to 30 – to start with. Fish were topping all over, and most of the anglers seemed to be trying shallow early on, but most gave that up within half an hour. Then they came into the shallows, because that’s so often where the really big weights are taken.

You need two feet of water or less, and this is mainly where the bank has crumbled, giving you a bare bank and shallow water in the margin, though this may extend only a couple of feet out. My swim, however, was mainly reed-lined, though there was a section of bare bank about 8 metres to my left which was a bit awkward to fish as you needed to fish over the reeds.

To cut a long, painful, story short I took two fairly quick fish in those shallows, and one in the deep water in fron of me – probably about 10 lb total after two hours, at which point Danny Carlton, opposite to my left on 21, went for a third net (50 lb max). An hour or so later he went for a fourth net – and I then had just four fish and was targetting 30 lb!

Winner on my lake was Jack Gill.

Yew's result.

His fish must have then gone off, as he never went for any more nets. To my right Nigel Clarke had 30 lb after three hours (he told me this afterwards) but then found fish on corn and meat in the deep water a top two out from the bank, and weighed 199 lb. I soldiered on taking the very odd carp and F1 from the deep water – and the angler on my left was struggling as well. In the final hour I managed to add about five more from the shallows – literally fishing 18 inches deep – while he suddenly found nine or ten fish from his shallow swim, giving him a good last hour and 87 lb.

When the match finished I had just manged to foulhook a fish of nearly 10 lb in the fin, and landed it ten minutes after the whistle, which was annoying as I was on scale duty, and had to leave most of my stuff on the bank. This meant that after the weigh-in I was easily last off the bank – hot and bothered and last on the lake with 67 lb apart from one DNW opposite me who also had just two nets.

Conclusions

I know these anglers are all better than me, so to frame I need a very good swim. My peg today didn’t fall into that category, so I come away having had a decent day’s sport, with no real regrets. Nigel Clarke (peg 6) is a cracking angler – how he found fish in the deep water and managed to average 50 lb an hour for the last three hours is amazing to me But even then he didn’t win – as you will see, the corner peg 30 won with 280 lb! These blokes are good!!!

Six-Island, peg 14

This was a Fenland Rods club Handicap match. My pegs, in order of preference, would have been 9 (which fished badly), 18 (I cocked this one up last time I fished there), 17, 16, 24, 25, and 1. However I wasn’t unhappy with my peg 14, as this is where I once had my then-best weight of 174 lb. The margins on this bank (10 to 15) tend to be shallower than those opposite (4 to 9) which can, on occasion, be an advantage and obviously gives another option.

Les fishes with oxygen attached - and
weighed 53 lb 5 ozs. What a man!

I have been having a lot of confidence in dead maggot, so after putting out pellets to 8 metres (any longer is awkward on this bank as there’s a high bank behind) I put in a pot of dead under the bush to my right, where the water was no more than two feet deep. I then picked up my pellet rig, but saw out of the corner of my eye a boil under the bush. So I swapped rigs, dropped in a bunch of seven dead reds on the hook, and promptly hooked, and landed,  a 5 lb carp!

Wendy fishes next to husband Les, weighed
 60 lb 15 oz, and is always smiling.

This was followed immediately by a 1 lb barbel and a 2 lb tench. So I concentrated on this swim, though sport inevitably slowed. The odd carp came from the pellet swim, together with the occasional, lost, foulhooker. I couldn’t keep the fish going in the margin, though I know they were there every time I put in maggots. I then tried the lefthand margin, which was about 15 inches deep but gradually got better, though again fish were coming in and boiling when I put in feed, but not always biting.

Two fish after feeding was the maximum I managed – mainly carp from 3 lb to 5 lb. I lost one big fish after playing it for some time. Then, with two hours to go, I went for another net, estimating 40 lb-plus in each of the two I had. Sport was still intermittent, and a switch to corn to the left didn’t seem to make much difference, but the odd fish kept coming. Cat meat was similar – the fish didn’t take it any better than the corn.

Winner Kev Lee, 164 lb 6 oz. peg 7.

My fatal mistake was going for a fourth net with 17 minutes left. It takes about ten minutes from this peg to walk to the car, drive round, collect a net, and get back to the peg. The fish were feeding well at this point, and I managed three more in that final net, in the seven minutes left, yet again playing one when the match ended.

The fish were hollow!

Ken Wade, our local angling correspondent
for years, was a guest and took third place
 with 119 lb from unfancied peg 10.

At the weigh-in I walked round converting the weights to the handicap weights (from scratch to plus 180%), so didn’t have time for many pictures. First surprise was that Kevin Lee (who won) had less than 40 lb in some of his nets. Kevin – like me – is noted for going over the 50 lb limit quite often. So he’d overestimated the weights of his fish – as had nearly every other angler...

 I can remember having less than 40 lb in a net only once before – but this time I had 32 lb and 35 lb to go with a 40 lb dead and the last 10 lb net. I didn’t need that fourth net and have no doubt that, with the fish feeding as they were, I would have added enough fish to overtake Ken Wade who had 119 lb, and finish third.

Still, fourth spot with 117 lb was better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!

Conclusion

I know I should have had more – I think a heavier rig might have worked, to lessen the movement of the bait caused by fish swirling in the swim. I should also have tried paste, as it’s heavier than cat meat.

Cedar, peg 21

Cedar is the one strip lake that often fishes a little better towards the car park end, while the others tend to fish better three-quarters of the way down – so pegs 1, 2, 3 or opposite on 24, 25, and 26 (in the corner) would be nice. Again I hoped for a shallow spot somewhere in my swim... but on peg 21 there were reeds all the way along. However I did ten minutes gardening with the hand shears I carry and this enabled me to peer over the reeds, grass and thistle, to a spot in the reeds to my right which offered a shallow area 18 inches cross. There was also a tiny spot about a foot square just to my left beyond a tuft of grass, which I had to trim by laying on the bank and reaching precariously over.

Most of my fish came from the gap between the tuft of grass and the reeds.

I fed to my left  (the easier swim as it was fishable on a top two) right against the reeds, but started at the bottom of this shelf, immediately hitting a carp, then an F1, then a barbel. To my right Trevor (who has the best record in Spratts) started shallow and within ten minutes was hitting fish regularly.

Fish came intermittently, mainly carp to 4 lb, and I tried  the shallow water to my left. This produced the odd fish, but got better as the day went on. Eventually I swapped to corn, as it’s more positive than a bunch of deads, which tends to attract roach as it falls. I tried the shallow swim to my right and immediately caught a 1 lb barbel. Next drop-in saw a fish which was quite unstoppable and took me into the reeds beyond the swim and snagged me – almost certainly a foulhooked barbel. They grow big in here - my best today was easily 4 lb, while Peter Barnes had one around 6 lb. Later I managed a 2 lb F1 here, but nothing else, probably because even the shallow water sloped away quickly, and it’s difficult to know exactly where to fish.

The obvious solution in these difficult sloping, bumpy swims is to suspend a bait off bottom, and let it drift slowly into the slope, but even this didn’t work in this swim. So it was back to the near margin on the left, and gradually I managed to catch more fish in 18 inches of water with the float touching the reeds. There was little more than eight inches of the swim flat, then it sloped away heavily. By now the heat was intense – 29 degrees was forecast for 3 pm and it felt like it.

Ninety-year-old Ted had over 100 lb.

I wear a long-sleeved shirt, long trousers,  a wide-brimmed hat, and apply liberal quantities of sun cream to my face and in particular the back of my hand. I have had two cancers and have two more (slight only) and don’t particularly wish to add skin cander as a fifth. But it does mean that I get hot, and I wasn’t sad when the match ended.

With 40 lb in the first net and 38 lb in the second I had gone for a third net, certain I was behind Trevor, who caught on feeder when his shallow swim died, and then hammered fish in the side in the last 90 minutes. I stayed in the margin or the near deep water, which I fed with a bait dropper so as to not attract roach with slowly-falling bait, and had an estimated 36 lb in the third net when the match ended.

Peter Barnes' best barbel must have
weighed around 6 lb.

John Smith weighed 147 lb opposite me, though he was about 10 lb over in his nets. Trevor weighed 145 lb 7 oz, and was also over. I assumed I was well behind, especially after having overestimated my weights the previous day. So imagine my surprise when the last 36 lb net was 52 lb (!), my first 40 lb net was 53 lb(!) and I needed 45 lb 8 oz to beat Trevor. The third net weighed 47 lb 3 oz – and I was 3 oz ahead of John, and leading!

Now a nasty surprise

Bob Nudd was taking a couple for tuition on the next lake, and packing up, so I went for a quick word, not having seen Bob for over a year. We had some good trips together when I was on the magazines – and in fact Bob and I did the first-ever feature on packeted groundbait at a time when the only alternative was white breadcrumb, or brown breadcrumb or crushed dog biscuits. It was Van den Eynde Supercup, and I raved about it.  How times change.

The result - nine weights of 100 lb.

There were three more to weigh after me, and when I got back I found two had beaten me! The end two pegs produced 166 lb (on Peter’s paste) and 169 lb (caught in the shallow water. I like peg 30 and have won more than one match from it –a good angler on a good peg and it was all over. Very well done Peter Chilton.

Conclusion

I should probably have concentrated more on the deeper swim, to rest the tiny shallow area. But I was reluctant to do this as so many fish there were barbel, which are a devil to land.

I also had a severe problem about an hour from the end. My finger nails tend to crack and split – probably the effects of a fairly-high dose of Thyroxin which I’ve been taking for ten years since having my thyroid removed. I was trying to hold a fish to unhook it; the fish wriggled; and I felt a searing pain in my left forefinger. A split in the nail, which I hadn’t seen, had caught in the landing net and the nail tore part of the way across, over the ‘quick.’ It bled a bit, but I carry plasters with me, so covered it with plaster and held it in place with insulation tape.

It meant that I had trouble tying a hook when I lost one, and unfortunately it will probably be a couple of monnths before the nail grows back to a sufficient length to allow me to trim it.

Good news(sort of)

The torn finger nail means I have had to experiment with two hook-tiers I managed to find in my box. I have no idea why they were there, as I’ve never used one because I find it quicker to tie by hand on the bank. But after trying a Dremman and a Matchman for half-an-hour this morning, I have settled on the Matchman.

I rarely use hooklengths in the Summer, preferring to fish straight-through, and was surprised how easy it now seems using the Matchman hook-tier. In fact I’ve renewed the hooks on several rigs already, and it was probably as quick as tying them by hand. I’m slowly being dragged into the Twentieth Century!!😊😊😊

Vets National, 2018, Woodland View

Barley Lake, peg 18

I hadn’t been looking forward to this match, as the previous time I had fished the Vets’ National here it had been very peggy (and I’d been pegged in the worst section of the worst lake). But after myself and Martin Parker from Peterborough had watched anglers the previous day, and followed the weigh-ins, we both decided that there could be a fair rnumber of fish caught everywhere in the Wednesday match. The fact that baits are limited to maggots, casters, worms, pellets, corn and luncheon meat (no luncheon meat to be fed and fishery pellets only) did not seem to have adversly affected the weights, bearing in mind that these were probably mainly club anglers.

Several anglers topped 100 lb on High and Front Deans, fishing in hot, sunny weather, mainly no more than three sections out. We also noticed that the better weights came from anglers drawn away from the aerators. Owner Mike Mason told us he had been running the aerators non-stop for eight weeks because of the hot weather.

The National itself the next day was actually fished in much cooler weather most of the time, compared with what we had had thrown at us in Cambridgeshire the previous couple of months. It was still hot when the sun came out, but there was a slight breeze, although it couldn’t make up its mind which way to blow – one minute it would be from the right, then the left, then behind, then it would die away. I found it made consistent presentation very difficult as Barley is only about 20 yards wide, and in such a small area the top tow was quite severe when the wind came from either side.

The match

With 18 pegs (two nine-peg sections) on Barley it meant that there were only two swims not pegged. My section ran from 12 to 20, and the pegs here are only about eight yards apart, so I decided I had to use strong elastics to prevent any carp running into the swims either side of me. My three main elastics were Purple Hydro, Red Hydro, and Blue Middy 20 solid.

There was an air aerator next to the far bank opposite the angler to my right, bubbling air up through the water, and a big brown cloud surrounded it.  My theory is that since the aerator had been on for eight weeks any food matter had already been disturbed and that it was no longer a magnet for the fish, and I decided that unless I was desperate I wouldn’t fish across.  I had a pellet feeder ready to use, but didn’t use it.

Liners!

I started three sections out with pellet, in about five feet of water, and pricked and lost a fish first put-in. I then foulhooked a 1 lb carp under the chin second drop. I netted this, dropped back, and kept on getting liners. So within five minutes I turned to my shallow rig, with banded pellet, fishing it for 15 minutes from a foot deep down to almost four feet, but never had a touch.

I’d put a few grains of sweetcorn in my lefthand margin. I didn’t really fancy fishing here because the bottom was bumpy and sloping down, whereas the righthand margin was a little deeper but flatter. However, I often try early on in the areas I don’t fancy, because if I don’t catch I’m not then disappointed – I know it’s probably flawed logic, but it works for me.

And to my amazement a fish took my corn first time, jumping out three times before sliding into my landing net – a 2 lb bream. In the next hour three or four more airborne bream came in, plus some smaller ones, two or three nice roach,  and a couple of 1 lb carp.

Right margin works!

As soon as bites died away I went to my righthand margin, fishing corn over pellets, and immediately found a 3 lb common carp. I carried on getting missed bites here – no more than two feet from the bank in two feet of water – but it wasn’t until I put a half-inch cube of luncheon meat on that I started hooking fish. Within an hour I had about six, to 5 lb-plus.

Then I foulhooked a six-pounder and it screamed off to the left through the next angler’s swim while I held on and gritted my teeth, pole tip well under the surface. It turned and promptly ran into the swim to my right. I had called out to my neighbours, who either moved theit tackle so we didn’t tangle, were just lucky! I know not which, as I couldn’t see them because of bushes.

A difficult spell

I landed that fish, but then the clouds moved away and it became quite hot, and sport died. I spent the next two hours alternating between the three-section swim, which produced one 3 lb fish, my lefthand margin, which didn’t produce a bite, and the right margin, which produced about one more.

My left-hand neighbour had had several early fish on a feeder cast to the far bank, and I considered doing this now; but he now seemed to have stopped catching, and was alternating between pole and feeder, so I knew he was struggling. I was getting indications that the carp were still around, so I struggled on. At this point, though, I could hear splashing in Dick Clegg’s swim, two pegs to my right, and suspected he would be thrashing me. The angler on my right started packing up with an hour to go.

At this point I decided I had to make something happen, so put in two full big pots of dead maggots into my right margin, and two bait-droppers full into the three-section swim. A drop in to my right brough an immediate bite which I missed and a carp surged away under the surface. At least I knew there were fish there.

Tricking the fish

I fished a big bunch of deads really hard for the next half-hour and was rewarded ith two more carp in two put-ins. I eventually had to try the three-section swim weith a big bunch of dead, and was lucky that twice fish took the bait as it sank, hooking themselves, and both ending up in my keepnet. Using the strong elastics paid dividends, as several of the fish came in quite quickly because as soon as I hooked them I dropped the pole tip under the surface, held the fish until the elastic started to retract, and gently pulled with the puller-bung as the fish came to the surface.

I have a long-handled landing net and was able to push it well out, allow the fish to slowly slide over the net and quickly lift it. Of course not every fish was that obliging, and sometimes it didn’t work. But when it did I had the fish in within 30 seconds, and I doubt the anglers either side were any the wiser.

The weigh-in

There’s always plenty of time to pack up, and I was able to have a quick chat to Dick Clegg, who askled whether I had 60 lb -  somehow he knew I had some fish. I said I definitely didn’t, and I might have 50 lb – 11 carp over 2 lb, perhaps 3 lb each, plus about 14 lb of silvers and small carp.

Dick said he caught later on (as I had thought), taking about seven fish away from the margins, as well as one or two in the side, though he estimated his catch at around 40 lb. As he said that I realised I should probably have concentrated on another open-water swim during that dead two hours. I had plumbed up at five sections, near the middle of the strip, but hadn’t even tried there. A definite mistake. I also thought that the angler on my left had probably beaten me with those early fish, which looked quite big to me.

The scales came and my first six carp (three nets used here) were about 13 kilos. The second felt about the same, but with my silver-fish net they weighed about 22 kilos – more than I had dared hope for. Total 35 kilos 125 grams (about 77 lb in real money). Dick said that could win the lake – he’d looked at the weigh sheet, which I hadn’t had time to do. The angler on my left weighed 24 kilo and indeed I thought had won the lake, with second weight sappearing to be 28.950 from peg 10, to our right, which Dick thought had a spare peg beside him as it was on the end of his section.

I plead guilty to under-estimating my weight, but since I had only to split the carp of 2 lb-plus between two of my nets I really only concentrated on catching them, not estimating their weight, which I would have to do on my local Decoy.

Martin beats me!

I was quite pleased to be able to tell Martin (a previous winner on the Grand Union Canal) that I thought I had won my section, but was very happy when he said he had beaten me with 43.825 kilos from peg 44 on Back Deans. We would find out our fate at the presentation.

 

Ivan Capsey, second in the match, with me...plus our medals.

The best bit

As we waited for the presentation I found myself standing next to Ivan Capsey, from Telford, who comes over every year to fish at Decoy. I’d always known him as ‘Cappa’ and never knew his real name. Anyway, the presentation started, and I found myself not only named as section winner, but also as the recipient of an Angling Trust Medal for being top on my lake. Four medals are given, and mine covered Barley and the lake next to it, Hay, where weights were lower. It’s the second such medal I have won – the first came about ten years ago when I topped the weights on Bank Lake at Moorlands.

The top 35 (click to enlarge).

I gave my half-eaten burger and bottle of water to Cappa to hold while I was presented with the medal...and as soon as I walked back Cappa was named as the next medal winnner! So he handed me back my burger and water and had a medal put round his neck...even better, he was second in the match, from Front Deans 5 with 59.840 kilos, winning another medal. So we had a picture taken together!

Winner was Harry Billing on Back Deans 48 with 71.200 kilos, two anglers (four pegs) away from Martin. Harry had a nice-looking peg in the corner with a spare peg to his right and the end bank to his left – but he’s a cracking angler and won the same match last year on Partridge Lakes.

Martin told me on the way home that he hadn’t looked into his right margin until the last two hours, and then proceeded to empty it. He’d found out as he plumbed up that there were lots of tree roots there, and didn’t fancy it. But he reckoned if he’d been brave enough to fish there earlier he could have won the match! In the event he was tenth, and third in his section, while I was 18^th.

A much better match than I had forecasted, and I would not hesitate to fish there again.

Horseshoe not lucky for me at Decoy

Horseshoe Lake, Decoy, peg 18

A cooler day than we have had recently, with lots of cloud. There are several large lily beds in Horseshoe, and peg 18 has mainly open water, with lillies about eight or nine metres to the left.

Thirteen of us were in this Spratts club match, and when we got to our pegs Bob, on 19, didn’t fancy his swim, which has lillies all round, and jokingly offered to swap with me.  I actually said I would have been happy to, as I suspected that there would be more fish under the lily leaves. But I had a cunning plan (see the last entry) and started as I had planned – Method while pinging.

My swim - flat calm, but looking quite nice.

The plan works!

Everything went according to plan...for five minutes. I had a wrap-round on The Method with an 8mm pellet cast to the far-bank reeds, after five minutes but the 4 lb mirror came off at the net. Next cast gave another fish, which determinedly made a dash for the lillies and I had to grit my teeth and hold, but the hook length broke. The next two or three casts brought nothing so after half-an-hour I changed to a shallow rig at ten metres, where I had been pinging 4mm pellets.

After about 15 minutes I had a 2 lb F1, but although I could see carp under the surface bites came very infrequently, including a couple of roach. A change to a 6mm pellet brought two more F1s, and for the next two hours I persevered, eventually catching another four or five fish three feet deep, and having a couple pull off.  The bites all took my pole down – no messing about, and I don’t know why I didn’t keep catching.  I then tried fishing full depth with another rig, at about five feet, with expanders, but didn’t get even a liner. Very strange.

Big fish lost in the lillies

At one time I put in a single catapult of pellets over to the lillies, dropped in with the rig about a foot away., and immediately hit a very big fish which, after a few seconds, went into the lillies. I could feel it still swimming, and held as hard as I could, but the hook pulled out. So it hadn’t actually snagged me; but I didn’t fancy doing that again, so reluctantly gave up on that swim.

Martin fished shallow all day for third.

Eventually I had to try the margins, and first drop-in with meat over pellets and corn to the right brought a 1 lb tench. Buit roach were a real nuisance, but  what was worse was that it was impossible to distinguish the roach bites from F1 and carp bites – they were both taking the float down very slowly and hesitatingly. Annoyingly I hit about six big fish which all came off after a few seconds, and I don’t think they were foulhooked. They just didn’t seem to take the bait properly.

An hour from the end, in desperation, I put dead maggots in, but couldn’t get a bite on a bunch. However suddenly the meat produced a couple of fish before the roach and small bream came in. That kept happening – two carp then the tiddlers. Back out to the longer swim brought nothing – I didn’t get a fish there. One of the last fish was a 4lb barbel on cat meat fished a few inches off bottom!

Some managed to catch well!

Beside me, Bob Barrett was really struggling, with a couple of carp on feeder early on, and I could see he couldn’t get much in the margins. However I knew that Trevor, on his right, was catching well shallow, fishing at about eight metres to a lilly bed in front of him. He told me later he  had to fish close to the lillies to get bites, and inevitably lost some.  To his right John Smith, on 13 on the corner, managed to take some carp on meat in the margins. He told me all his fish came within five seconds of the bait going in...if he left it for longer the roach nipped in and pulled it to pieces.

John's single net, knocked back to 50 lb.

Round to his right Martin Parker fished shallow all day and ended third with 99 lb 4 oz...just 3 oz ahead of Peter Harrison.

Tevor won with 143 lb 12 oz, and John was third with  104 lb 76 oz, while my measly, and hard-won 63 lb 8 oz was beaten into sixth place by 90-year-old Ted Lloyd by exactly  1 lb.

What I did wrong

Actually I think it should be what I didn’t do. I should have a) tried paste to see if the roach left it alone long enough for the carp to zoom in; b) tried the Method in the margin swim with 8mm pellet; c) tried double sweetcorn in the margins, though a single grain invariably brought a roach or tiny bream. Otherwise I have to put it down to being just ‘one of those days when I didn’t really get started.’

Ted (90) beat me by 1 lb.

Not sure of my matches before the Vets National on July 25^th. I don’t particularly like  Woodland View as the lakes are all so different, and peggy. But someone has to draw a good swim, so it might be me. Last time I was in the worst section of the worst lake (High) so perhaps I’m biased!

The result, and a good result for Mick on
Peg 1 after a day's coaching with Polly.

Beaten by the sun...and two anglers - Buttonhole.

Sunday, July 8, 2018

Buttonhole, Wisbech, peg  5

There were 10 of us in this Fenland Rods match, with a great welcome from the new(ish) owner Chris Smith who offered us all a complementary mug of tea. He explained that the barbel, which I know used to be numerous, and grow to 5 lb, had disappeared. That threw my plans (OK, a bit of an exaggeration)  into chaos, as I have always managed to haul myself up the field here in the last couple of hours by finding barbel in the close margins.

But it’s a cracking fishery anyway, so I still looked forwards to a good day’s fishing for the carp. Chris explained that he had stocked 150 small barbel, and asked us to immediately return any we caught. In fact I did catch one, about 6 oz, which went straight back. And the good news didn’t stop there – halfway through the match Chris and his wife came round in the sweltering heat offering us cool glasses of orange. On the house, of course. Service over and above the call of duty!

My peg was 14.5 metres across, and I know that when I used to fish here a few years ago, there used to be a reed bed just to the left. Chris explained that it has not been there since he took over a year ago. I took out a shallow rig to fish right across, though with no real expectation, as there were virtually no shallow areas there. In the event I didn’t fish there. I started alternating between the deep margins (my swim had no shallow areas even in the margins) and a swim five sections out which I fed with pellets and fished with expander or corn. Neither brought a touch of any kind for 45 minutes, at which point I decided to try shallow over the five-section swim.

Two early fish foulhooked

Fish were clearly moving under the surface, but in the next 45 minutes I managed just two carp here – both foulhooked on a banded 8mm pellet. One was hooked in the side, about 3 lb; the other was hooked under the chin and adfter a fight which lasted a good ten minutes on my grey Hydro I slid a fish about 12 lb into the landing net.

Some time after this, with only two or three nice roach from the margins on corn (several dropped off, and one about 1 lb never made the net) , I checked with Dave on my right who had four good carp from the margins, and Kevin on my left who had three fishing about four sections out on meat. I should have immediately done the same, but the heat must have got to me as I went back and tried my two swims again, which produced a 1 lb tench and a 2 lb carp from the margins, on corn, in the next hour.

The aerators were switched on, which produced a real tow through the swim, so I changed to a 2 gm float, and I had to overshot it, and then move all the shot down to within six inches of the hook, in order to hold the bait steady. I got several half-hearted bites, probably from roach, and briefly hooked a couple of better fish which came off.

I then made another mistake. The sun was so hot I went back to the car for a long-sleeved shirt and long pair of trousers in place of my shorts, and Les Bedford told me he had several fish, and Wendy had some, on the feeder. I said I’d probably try it...but didn’t. I should have done. I am sure it would have brought more fish than the pole in the next couple of hours. I kept trying the margins, as fish were swimming qround there, but they wouldn’t go down and take my bait.

Les deserved a medal for sticking it out
in the relentless heat. If he could have
 weighed in his oxygen cylinder he
would have beaten me into third spot!

Groundbait seems to work

With about 90 minutes to go, and with Kevin now landing fish very steadily, I started a new swim four sections out, and put in a little meat and some groundbait balls containing corn. Decoy, where I fish most of my matches, does not allow groundbait except in a feeder, and I often forget to even consider it. In the event I think it may have helped me on this occasion.

The aerators had now been switched off and the water was pretty still; and the fish came on. Using a 1 gm float,  I had  about four or five  fish to 6 lb in the next hour, and three more lost, probably foulhooked, and with less than 30 minutes left bubbles started to appear in the swim. That last 30 minutes brought one fish lost, but three landed, with the best one around 15 lb, which I landed 30 seconds before the end of the match.

I get proper lift bites

The interesting  thing is that I kept the 1gm of bulk shot about 6 inches from the hook, as I had tried when the tow was on, and EVERY bite was a lift bite. They looked like liners, but I hit every one, and all these fish were hooked in the mouth. So the fish were coming down, picking up the bait, and swimming straight up. Yet a bait fished off bottom didn’t get a bite.

With only three carp in the net in the first four hours I felt I had been given a Get Out Of Jail Free card. But why hadn’t those fish been willing to feed earlier, while Kevin was hammering them only 15 yards away?

 

Kevin took all his fish from four
sections, and never had a fish in
the margins.

THE WEIGH-IN

I knew Kevin had a lot of fish as he borrowed one of my spare nets. But first to weigh in was Les, who put a magnificent 58 lb 2 oz  on the scales. OK, it was good enough for just fourth place, but when you consider he is constantly attached to an oxygen cylinder and was sitting in the relentless sun all day, I reckon that was brilliant. He took all his fish on a feeder.

Kevin won with 154 lb 3 oz – I don’t know how he does it. I managed 63 lb 8 oz, thanks partly to those two big fish. The second big one appeared to be around 15 lb when weighed with just one other fish. That weight gave me third place.

Surprisingly Dave, to my right on peg 7, took just 51 lb 6 oz and told me that in the last three hours he had had just one bite. Opposite, on the other side of the Island, Tony Nisbet on peg 16 (I think) took 137 lb 3 oz at four sections, mainly on corn but with some on meat, for second.

The result - the first six were on the right bank and
the rest on the opposite side of the island.

A difficult day in the sun, but it’s a lovely water and a very welcoming owner, and I look forward to returning when we get some proper English Summer weather – cloudy with a cold wind and rain. That heat sucks all the energy out of me.

My next match is on Horseshoe at Decoy on Wednesday. Lots of F1s here, and my default plan is to start on The Method while pinging pellets out to around 13 metres, which I can fish either shallow or deep. Then two margin rigs will be ready, one for meat and the other for corn.

Peter's last peg

A sad day. Just come back from Peter Parlett’s funeral.

A passionate matchman, Peter had been a member of several clubs, and in particular Spratts for many many years. He used to buy some of the prizes for our special Christmas match, and bring them all to the match and lay them out for the presentations.

One year I chose a bird bath which Peter had bought, and the base was too heavy for me to carry so he took it to my car for me. It’s in my garden as I write, so every day when I look at it I think of Peter.

His passion for fishing led to his family having a lake scene printed  round the coffin. But that passion was exceeded by the love for his family – he would miss fishing matches so he could watch his grandson, Joe, box. Joe is now a professional – Peter was so proud.

A lovely, lovely man, Peter was only 60 when cancer quickly overtook him. It’s not fair.

Two hours fishless...then, Bingo! (Oak, Decoy)

Tuesday, July 4

Oak Lake, Decoy, peg 3

I fancied a peg on the Eastern bank for this 11-entry Spratts club match, as it faces the prevailing Westerly winds and bank erosion has left most swims with a nice shallow margin somewhere. In the event we all fished on the West bank and all 15 pegs went into the bag.

I like this idea – we all had the same wind, could cast right across if necessary, and putting all the pegs in meant that some of us would be fishing right next to another angler...rather than the modern thinking of giving everyone a spare peg (which for me is not proper match fishing). That meant we could actually talk to each other!

Also, putting us all on this bank is probably fairer than pegging us all opposite, as the peg on the bird hide has such a good reputation, particularly if the fish will feed in the margins. So I settled down to enjoy, at the very least, a decent day’s fishing.

It has been so hot I welcomed the light, cool North-easterly breeze we had at the start, though I would have preferred a peg opposite the bird hide – around peg 8. But we all agreed that conditions were pretty good, even given the fact that there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Peg 3 was drawn out as the Golden Peg, but I had no expectation of winning from here against the standard of opposition in Spratts club.

Nice margins, but no fish

I found reasonable margins each side, and put in a few expanders on one side and hard pellets on the other, and kept feeding these swims while also potting out pellets and hemp at five sections – about 8.5 metres. I could actually fish easily at six sections – 10 metres – but as always gave myself leeway in case the wind got up or I wanted to fish farther out.

We started with a nice breeze, but it soon turned nasty.

Amazingly, though there were fish topping, and an F1 humped its back out of the water in my right margin, I couldn’t get a bite. I stayed in the margins for half an hour, fishing full depth, half depth and all depths in between, and tried down the slope. Nothing. Out at 8.5 metres I still couldn’t get even a liner, but with fish topping I decided I must be able to catch shallow. Half an hour of this, feeding pellets very accurately, still brought absolutely nothing.

Cold wind

By this time the wind had increased from a light breeze to a full force 6, making presentation difficult even at 8.5 metres. Almost two hours gone and, still biteless, the wind was very cool and I walked to the car to get a long-sleeved shirt, and then wandered along the match length. Just three had caught fish – Mick on Peg 1 had one carp, with Peter Harrison having four on a Method feeder casting across right to the margins beside the bird hide. He always seems to catch fish using the The Method. Peter Spriggs, meanwhile, had four on pole at four section on his special home-made paste. All the others I spoke to had not had a touch.

Ted (90) was in the corner peg,
but had less ripple than the rest.

John on his first trip
since a major operation.

As I watched, John Garner hit a fish on a feeder...and then got a call on his mobile. I went to take a shot of him with bent rod in one hand and a mobile to his ear in the other, but he managed to drop the phone on his box and attend to the serious business of getting in his first fish before I could take a picture.

The fish switch on!

Back to my peg and I rigged up a Method feeder, with an 8mm hair-rigged banded pellet and cast out, more in hope than expectation. First cast was three-quarters of the way across; next cast was within a few feet of the far bank, and after five minutes I got a drop-back and was in business. This first carp was around 7 lb. Unfortunately the band was ripped off as the fish moved around in the net, so I re-tied another on a size 12 Kamasan Animal on 0.23mm nylon – quite strong.

Next cast, another drop-back, another fish, around 6 lb, and another band had to be re-tied. Two more came, and I had to re-tie the band every time. But at least I was catching. The band stayed in place for the next two fish, then another re-tie job...I then realised it was the band that was ripping off, caught in the mesh, and not the nylon breaking. Nothing much I can do about that. Luckily it takes only a minute to re-tie from scratch.

After I had taken seven fish on The Method I noticed Bob, on my left, take a fish close in, and Peter, on the next peg, playing a fish on the pole. It was almost impossible now, in the increased wind, to fish my original pole swim, so I cupped in hemp, corn and pellets at about six metres and dropped in a 1gm float with meat, prepared to go back on the feeder if nothing happened immediately.

Peter catching on The Method
prompted me to do the same.

 

Bob was on my left. When he
eventually caught near the side
 I changed back to pole.

Success

I had my bump bar on from fishing shallow, and was able to rest the third section on it to steady the rig in what was, at times, almost a Force 7 wind. This worked very well.

First drop-in I had the signs of a bite, and next cast a carp around 4 lb. Now the fish were really feeding well. After a few more, on cat meat, I swapped to a 2gm rig, and had in mind going up to 3gm or more if this worked better. Moving the shot down to within about six inches of the hook steadied the bait, I suspect, and fish came regularly, half of them lifting the shot and giving what looked like a liner. But all were hooked in the mouth.

From then on it was straightforward, though, as so often recently, I could take no more than two fish quickly without having to re-bait. Again I had an idea that the hemp was helping, and I have lots of confidence in it. And I stuck with the 2gm rig rather than waste time putting a heavier one on a spare top two.

TRAGEDY

At one point I stood up to get a tin of corn from my bait bag, and as I was opening it when a particularly strong gust of wind blew me off balance.

I managed to take one step over my pole, and was about to do the same over my landing net handle when I lost the plot completely, diving over the pole (I hoped) and spawling full length on the ground, banging my knee on some hard gravel, and sending the tin flying.

My first thought was for my knee (at 75, knees in working condition are particularly valuable) which was just bruised.

Then I saw my Number 3 section in two pieces. My Number 4 also had a jagged end, which looked to have brought a halt to fishing the four-section swim.

But on closer inspection the jagged end was, in fact, a few inches of the Number 3, still attached, which had broken in two places. I gathered them up and took them to the car because the wind would certainly have blown them into the lake if I’d put them on the grass.

Luckily I had a spare Number 3 with me and after a short prayer over the demised Number 3 I was back in business.

My best fish lost

I stopped the first net at 40 lb and the second at 39 lb, and after getting a third net from HQ I put on my waterproof jacket, as I was now getting quite cold. In the one hour left I put 23 lb on the clicker.  I admitted to 100 lb-plus.

I was playing what I am sure was my biggest fish when the whistle went – probably a double-figure carp. It just felt heavy and lumbering, and in a frenzy of excitement I shipped back to my top two before I had seen the fish. I like to have an idea of its size before doing this, but didn’t stick to my rule of thumb.

The fish suddenly decided to sprint to my left, towards a bunch of reeds, and it came out, but immediately it shot back and snagged me solid. The match had ended, and I prodded around with my hook and eventually got the whole rig back, but no fish.

 

Peter Spriggs always seems to catch
on his homemade paste.

Terrible estimates

My estimates were way out...not for the first time this season. In my defence, several of the anglers had nets over 50 lb. The fish seem to have become really solid since spawning, when they were weighing light. One fish I estimated at 4 lb was on its back in my landing net and I was surprised by its width – I should have re-estimated it, but didn’t give it a second thought until pulled my nets from the water!

Our organiser Trevor is
always smiling!

My 40 lb net was actually  55 lb; my 39 lb net 57 lb; and my final 23 lb net went 42 lb 7 oz (probably had not bothered to click the last couple of fish). So 142 lb total, but I had caught 154 lb in the final four hours – same weight as two days previously.In the event that gave me top spot...and £80 from the Golden Peg, though Trevor ran me close with 134 lb 10 oz. Luckily that lost fish didn’t cost me. I must be more careful next time.

The result - far better than we imagined it would be
after two hours fishing.

Next match is on Buttonhole Fishery near Wisbech, when I believe we will all be pegged opposite the island, rather than having some in the open water. I have no problem with that, in fact I think it’s much fairer. From memory it will probably be right across to the island shallow (14 metres across approximately) or deep on cat meat down the edge. I’ve got a good record here.

A great club match – Decoy, Cedar

Cedar Lake, Decoy, peg 12

Fifteen of us fished on a hot day with just a light Easterly breeze, for a change. That wind seem to make all the difference to the fish, because they fed well, and no fewer than 10 of us topped 100 lb!

I fancied peg 26 in the corner (which I won from last year in the club Roving match), or failing that 6, 7 or 8, or opposite on 19, 20 and 21. Or failing them anywhere in the first half-dozen pegs near the car park, on either bank.

Peg 26 was first out – unfortunately it was not my fingers it was stuck to, but our secretary’s, John. The pegs I fancied went flying out to others, and I ended with 12 down the other end of the strip – next to the corner swim, which had not been pegged. I had this last year, and had had a quick read of this blog before leaving home to remind me what happened on all the Cedar matches. All I could remember was that I had had fish from a four feet deep margin swim to the right of peg 12.

 

A light breeze was most welcome, but the sun shone all day.

Hallellujah, everything was still the same, and I managed a quick barbel on corn after about ten minutes from this margin. The lefthand one was dodgy, with no real flat area, and I never tried it properly. I concentrated on the right margin, feeding half-a-dozen grains of corn every couple of minutes, but started a swim about ten feet out in the deepest water at the bottom of the slope which I fed mainly with pellets to start with.

Slow start (as always)

A slow start brought about four or five fish in the first hour, while Dick, almost opposite on 14, in the far corner, found fish steadily near the end bank. Nothing came from my deep swim to start with, but I found occasional carp and barbel to 3 lb from the right margin, while expander farther out lured nothing.

A good spell on corn inside gave me enough confidence to put in more feed in the deep swim,including hemp, which has seemed to kick-start swims this Summer, and eventually cat meat took some fish here, but nothing big, except for two carp around 8 lb each.

At 1 o’clock Dick went for a third net (50 lb maximum here) and I went half an hour later. But it took me nearly two hours to get around 40 lb in that net – I felt I should have been catching them more quickly, but time just slipped by as I waited for bites I could hit properly. The carp were lifting the meat but not taking the float down, a bit like roach. Often the float slid away gently as fish picked up the bait and swam out towards the middle...they looked like liners but if I hooked a fish it was always in the mouth.

Half-hearted bites all day

At one time I was feeding one swim, taking two fish, and then changing over. This worked quite well for a couple of hours, though the fish still would not give really good bites. At 3.15 I went for a fourth net and managed just 22 lb in it before the end – disappointing, as the wind had turned to blow directly into my bank, and conditions were really quite acceptable, despite the heat.

I lost only one fish after hooking it properly – I had it on for 15 seconds. I pricked just two others, which came off immediately, so was actually quite pleased at the end. though being right at the end of the lake I didn’t know how many others had fetched extra nets.

John Smith had THREE nets all over
50 lb from peg 26 - more than half his
fish were barbel.

I fact my 154 lb 11 oz was good enough for third place, the match won by Kevin Lee on 20 with four nets all over 50 lb – so a 200 lb total, taken mainly on cat meat towards the bottom of the slope. Often the fish will take a bait better if they don’t have to tilt themselves down to pick it up – in fact I had persevered just up the slope for some time in my swim, but found it not as good as presenting the bait in the deepest water. At the end I was laying on six inches, which was better than just touching bottom, but I never had a really good spell all day.

Spare a thought for Dick

Dick Warrener goes round with Kevin on the scales, and they started at peg 1. But disaster...when they got to Dick’s swim one of his nets had slid back into the water. Dick retrieved it, but every fish had gone, and he’d lost an estimated 25 lb. That would have been very close to me, possibly beaten me.

Great result for a club match with 10 out of 15 topping 100 lb.

ALSO Bob Allen had a 50 lb-plus net and could have overtaken me; Tony Nisbet had two 50 lb-plus nets; and John Smith had THREE nets all over 50 lb.

FETCHING NETS

Those anglers had possibly all caught more than me but the 50 lb rule docked their totals. I timed my walk to get another net – two minutes to the car; a minute to drive to the nets; half a minutes to get the nets; a minute to drive back; two minutes walking down to peg 12; then at least another half minute to screw the net on my attach and position it = a total of seven minutes.

So I can understand why anglers don’t want to risk losing time by fetching another net if they are near maximum late in the match. There’s also the problem (as happened to me) that when I returned the fish were not lining up as they had been when I left my peg.In fact my single lost fish was first drop-in after returning the first time.

Anyone at the car park end of the lake takes four minutes less than me each time they fetch a net – my two extra nets took me eight minutes longer than it would someone at the other end; that’s basically two fish when they are feeding well.

So I don’t feel too bad about sneaking in front of the anglers who declined to get another net!

ON Oak Tuesday - anywhere on the Eastern bank will suit me as the prevailing Westerlies have created bank erosion and most swims have some sort of shallow margin somewhere.