The view from Stan's peg

Almost every match has it's own stories. Some mean more to the individuals than you, the reader. Some seemed important on the day and some will stay in the memories of all attending for a long time.

Not that I'm saying that this match was particularly special or memorable; certainly the numbers attending was a big drop on last November. But even on slow days and disappointing days, there's always a little story or two to remember the day by.

So let's set the scene...little rain in the last week, very mild weather for the last couple of days (but considerably windier and chillier) and possibly some salt from the last cold snap a week ago tainting the water. Level was up a bit from last time but the colour was non-existent. As usual, the trick was to arrive early, have a wander and mentally note a few likely spots and then, depending on what you draw on the walk-off, grab your spot for the day.

Dan Patrick came second last time from a peg up on the Church section. But with so few fishing this time it didn't seem necessary to spread ourselves over two sections of river. Dan had his heart set on fishing 'his peg' so opted to pleasure fish up there instead. With a bitter gusting northerly wind ripping down the river many were thinking he was welcome to it. More of that later.

The draw-bag was kinder to me this time and I had no.3 in my hand. Heading off to my 'plan A' peg I had Andy Trigg in front of me. Yup, you guessed, he took the peg, on the far side of the island pool, that I fancied. Back in November Brian had 6lb of dace in a couple of hours from this spot so it seemed worth a go. Anyway, plan B it was, the spot I fished last time at the end of the islands.

With a foot more water on I couldn't really get to the exact same spot but 5yds upstream where there's a back eddy and slack, seemed ideal as I know the slack includes a deep hole with fast water further over. A search around a plummet was a little worrying though as it showed the slack to be full of old weed and sunken branches.

Meanwhile, many in attendance had also opted for the same swims as last time with Kev H on the caravan side of the island pool, Allan B 30yds downstream on the gravels, Mick was in his 'barbel pool' and Paul Bangs far downstream at the end boundry.

At the whistle I wasn't really ready so bombed in some big balls of molehill laced with breadcrumb and maggots at the top of the peg on the edge of the flow. Soon enough I was ready and expecting to catch straight away. But it wasn't to be and it took 10 mins of searching the peg for my first micro dace. By the end of the first half hour only four little sprats were in my net and it was clearly going to be a different day. With careful feeding and rig adjustment I started to pick up slightly better dace and the odd micro-roach. by now some were feeling the chill and a lack of fish had them walking the banks. From their reports it seemed I was doing better than most so I swapped to a 6m whip and tried to catch quicker, fishing in close to the nearside reeds and holding the bait (single caster or red maggot) back in the reverse flow.

After the 3rd hour I had about 30 fish but was getting slower. Meanwhile Paul Bangs was moving to a favoured peg on the islands having not had a bite downstream and Brian Lakin had joined Al T on the backwater as there seemed to be plenty of small roach. Allan B was struggling and also moved upstream a little and Kev H's run of fish in the first 30 minutes seemed to be the start - and end- of his action for the day. Opposite, in the peg I wanted, Andy T was not doing well either with just a few silvers and many lost hooks.

As we entered the last hour the wind increased and there seemed little prospect of much improving for anyone. I managed to find a few more better dace - even dropping a few better ones swinging them in. But with about 50 fish in total, many just a fraction of an ounce, I still was confident of winning.

It didn't take long after the whistle for Brian to turn up with the scales and my 'bag of sprats' banged the scales down to a massive 3.09. It was good enough for first...but only just as in the 90 mins or so that Paul had once he had set up again he had been hammering some quality roach and dace to earn a respectable 2nd place on the day and 2nd place overall on the Championship (behind moi).

Kev's early fish were good enough for third and, better still, a Champion of Champions place by default. Weights tailed off quickly and the sum total on the day was under 12lb. Which brings me back to Dan. As we drove home we stopped at the bridge to see Dan still fishing. He said he had caught plenty in the six hours or so he was there. So, out of interest he weighed his catch and it went 15.04, mostly good dace, small roach and a bonus 1lb chub. Why so many fish were happy to feed on that peg yet downstream, which had been fishing so well previously (when there was colour), we will never know.