part eight...

Mid summer and whilst the world and his dog were out fishing I was bank bound in one of my frequent weekend childminding duties. 2001 wasn’t kind to me as many of our Saturday matches clashed badly with her indoors shifts at the local Hospital. Still I suppose people can’t help getting sick over a night or on a weekend, just why does it happen to be those weekends on which I want to go fishing.


Hampton Springs. Too Good For Us?

The draw had been made long before I got there and the match was well in progress by the time I arrived. A quick chat with my arch rival Don confirmed that as usual the match was proving harder than expected and many of the crew were struggling at a venue which is often prolific, especially at times when we aren’t there. Either we are cursed as a club or we are all just plain crap. The truth could actually be somewhere between the two, I just don’t know the proportions of each that makes up the sum total.
The pervading sense of inactivity did seem to be overwhelming and the sight of so many motionless members did help to temper the disappointment that I felt in having to miss this match.

No You Dope!
Many of our matches are held each year on a series of regular venues and this was again one that we have regularly visited in previous years. I even fished a Winter league match on the venue last year, the unforgettable occasion when I had two swans copulating on the butt sections of my pole that were up the bank behind me. One regular problem that we have had here as at other venues is that when we enquire about bait bans they can change week by week and this was true of the winter league match where we had been misled into thinking that hemp was permitted. On the day we were informed by the match organiser, not the owner, that hemp was absolutely forbidden and the penalty for being found with any on your person, or even in the carryall was instant disqualification and a life ban or something draconian like that. Imagine my horror at finding that I’d accidentally left some in the bottom of the bag. Well I’d taken out the first gallon of the stuff and left it in the car three quarters of a mile away from the peg, so how was I to know a nearly insignificant half pint bag had escaped my attentions. I found it too late to jettison it before the all in so was concerned to ensure that I wouldn’t be found in possession of it. I looked around to find where I could put it so that I could reasonably claim that it was out of commission.
Behind me stood a scarecrow complete in bright yellow waterproof coat. I thought that if I put the bag of nice fresh hemp into the pocket of the scarecrow that no one would consider frisking him for banned baits so I slipped it into his pocket until I could reclaim it after the match had ended and take it home.
Well I don't know about you but after the end of a Winter League match I’m pretty keen to get home and of course I forgot the offending hemp. As far as I know it is still there, slowly festering and leaking rancid hemp juice down the leg of his pants.

Pole Position
Continuing my walk around the lake I came across Harry Beech breaking in his new pole. Harry had drawn a lovely corner peg with nice reeds and inside cover with no one on either side for what seemed yards and yards. a real top draw peg, and it had been drawn as the golden peg as well. Some people have all the luck. Not Harry. Harry again like many of the others wasn’t having a happy time of it either as he couldn’t muster even solitary decent fish on which to test his new pole. Ben my barmy two and a half year old son nearly broke it in for him by giving it a good kick as he passed but I suspect that wasn’t exactly the way that Harry was hoping to christen his new toy.
Harry claims that due to his Mid Lancastrian upbringing around the salubrious environs of Bolton, that Vinnie (Tricast Highfield) Smith is morally bound to give him and his fellow ferret wrestlers and clog dancers insider info, which apparently is completely infallible, especially if you buy a sparkling new pole from him. Vinnie you’d better get round to Harry’s place and take back your pole, it seems wasted on him.

Tiddler City
On the next peg I found Big Andy Walsh fishing cubes of meat down the margin and catching only small gudgeon, a swap to bigger cubes only resulted in a marginal increase in the size of gudgeon that he was catching. This was driving him to distraction as he could easily see a guest on the next peg bagging and by all accounts he was the only one doing so on the whole lake.

Distant Memories.
I said that we visit the venue most years and in last years match whilst fishing the next lake at the complex I had drawn what seemed to be a nondescript peg between Rick who was situated out on a promontory to my left and Dave (Gnasher) Roberts on my right who had a end peg, facing one of only two islands on the lake next to the stanchions of a bridge with plenty of reed mace cover on the inside. Talk about a dream peg. Dave caught steadily certainly from the half way point and again most of the rest of us struggled, however I knew there were plenty of other species as well as carp in the lake and fished chopped worm and caster in order to take advantage of those in addition to any carp that I could snare.

Lost in Section
Half way through the match after feeding up a line on the long pole for fish up in the water I started to fly, catching roach, rudd and the odd better fish just 10 inches deep. That was until I lost my fifth section of my pole in the water. I didn’t have a spare as this was in fact my spare pole as I had smashed the fourth section of my good one at White Acres just a couple of weeks before on a double figured Common which slipped the hook at the net and caused the top 3 to recoil like a twelve bore and sheer the fourth section of my 412 just above my hand. I understand that Daiwa have resolved this design problem by missing out the fourth section all together so now the fifth one breaks instead.

Swim Stim
On the day there was no option. As far as I could see I was in the top three with gums Roberts and Rick next to me the only others catching regularly. I decided to have a mid match swim and fetch it out in order to be able to continue, which as many of our regular club members can testify isn’t an altogether rare event. (just this time it was in the summer). I half swam, half waded out but as the water was probably 6 or 7 feet deep on the long pole line and I am only 5ft 6’’ I hoped that it wouldn’t be too far out. I was wrong and I eventually found it in nearly five feet of water just short of my silver fish up in the water line. I don’t know whether I’m glad or not that Rick didn't loose feed my line for me whilst I was in. It took a short while to get the fish back feeding after their fright of a Great White Whale invading their territory but by now I was resigned to coming third or if I did OK I might get second. To cut a long story shorter, in the end, despite Dave (Victor Meldrew) Roberts catching small stamp carp and tench regularly throughout the second half of the match I pipped him with my aqua nautically interrupted smash and grab tactics on the silver fish with about 19lb.

Fishing for Fish!

We don’t begrudge a guest coming and taking all of our money,
he won’t get beyond the car park with it though.

The reason for telling this tale is that whilst everyone had found catching on the bottom hard the year before that by fishing shallow and fishing for fish, a favourite expression of mine, i.e. not trying too hard to single out any particular species, that as time went by a decent target weight could be achieved. By now from what I could see, the guest was the only one fishing up in the water, no wonder he was walking it. On my travels I found Richie fishing tight to one of the islands for a mixture of carp and barbel and it seemed that only he was likely to seriously challenge the long term leader. Eventually most people got into some action and even Harry managed to catch the odd, despite his new pole.


Freak javelin accident hampers Richies vain pursuit of long
time match leader.

The guest ultimately won although not by a country mile as the others eventually cottoned on to what he was doing and his swim dried up later on, still I don’t think he will be invited again