Now, we must have been keen then, or perhaps just mad again

Christmas is one time of the year I never fish nowadays although I have in fact fished many times on Christmas Eve and many years ago a group of us used to go up the Fens to fish for zander over the New Year Eve period.These Christmas excursions though have always been about having a laugh with plenty to eat and drink rather than a serious attack on whatever species we were after. When I used to fish with my mate Gary all the time, we used to go out of our way to be different and would decorate the rod rests with tinsel and the leafless trees around the swim with balloons, we even decorated ourselves with bits and pieces. I think we were just mad, certainly anyone else who saw us thought we were. I remember one year Gary catching a 27lb 4oz pike on Christmas Eve so certainly some serious fishing was done. The trip to the Fens were a little different as we used to camp out for several nights in temperatures often well below freezing. Now, we must have been keen then, or perhaps just mad again. Most of the time was spent in the local pub so there was method in our madness. What I was getting to was that many small Angling Clubs have special Christmas matches, usually under the guise of a Fur and Feather match, when either the committee provides the prizes or it is the ‘committee versus the general members’. Whatever the format, it is usually off to a local pub after the match where food has been laid on by the club. If your club does not organise something similar then make it your mission to make sure one is organised for next Christmas. The occasions are great fun even if you have never fished in a match before, they are not taken seriously and everyone wins a prize anyway. They are also a good way of getting to know who makes the decisions in the club and goes someway to breaking down the silly ‘them and us’ situation that exists in most clubs between the committee/bailiffs and ordinary members. The club that I used to be Secretary of do things slightly differently as we have a club hut situated at one of our venues and a couple of the committee cook a vast vat of curry with rolls and popadoms laid on. The members fishing donate prizes and whoever wins has first pick and so on. Some of the bottles of wine that are brought along as prizes have been coming back for many years now! The fishing is usually very poor, as the lakes are very shallow estate lakes and just a little bit of cold weather puts the fish down. This year was no different. I did not fish the actual match this year but when I turned up around 20 members were present. The membership secretary was fishing at the far end of the New Lake with an extremely long pole stretching out to one of the islands. By the time I walked round he had 2 nice common carp in the keepnet, fish of around 3 and 5lbs, a sure winner. A crowd soon gathered behind him when the news got out and the usual banter and micky taking pursued. This obviously was putting him off his fishing and as bites were few and far between he took his eye off his float. Everyone else saw the float move and then disappear off to the left. A few glances were exchanged and finally someone asked him if he was going to strike at all. The poor guy did not know if he was being wound up or not so instead of being positive about lifting the pole he sort of waggled it around, followed by a dramatic bow wave as a carp shot off up the lake accompanied by a loud cheer from the gallery behind him. The carp was a sure winner and the guy was left ruing his audience. As I left the wind-ups were getting more cutting! There is a small river that runs along side the lakes that usually is a life saver if the lakes are out of sorts but given the weather we have had this autumn and winter, it was not in it’s best condition but one member did well to catch a few dace and perch for second place. The floods at their peak were so bad that both lakes and the river were as one. Water was even five inches deep in the hut and the carpet was floating. The distribution of fish that has so carefully been managed over the years is now in severe disarray. A lot of work is needed next year to dry out and get the waters back in shape; I dare say it is the same situation across the country with small clubs.After the curry and few beers people began to go their way but it was a lovely mild day so I decided to fish the Old Lake. This has a good head of double figure carp in it together with lots of stockie singles. I shut the gate behind the last guy and walked my gear up onto the island. From here it is a short cast to an area between two old sets of pads straight out and also to the end of another small island off to the right. I fished this area many times in winter several years ago and know it well. I knew I would not get anything until after dark but I did not have to wait long as around 5pm the rod between the pads roared off. The fight was reasonable but to be fair I was still tackled up with the gear I use on my far snaggier lakes that contain carp three times the size of those I was going to catch here so it was a little one sided. Still, it was lovely scale perfect common carp of around 12lb that rolled into the net. I admired it in the torchlight before slipping it back, well pleased. Soon another PVA bag of trout pellets was out in the same spot. An hour later a repeat performance produced a mirror, this time a little smaller of around 11lb. A lovely fish and in fact one I recognised, as it is a linear on one side and a half linear on the other, it was around 9lb when I last caught it I think. The next few hours produced three more carp but they were all the little stockie mirrors that were put in over the last two years, they had grown though as they were all around 5lb. By 11pm the clouds were building and rain was in the air so I decided to call it a day well happy with a fun evenings fishing. The Christmas match once again was all about relaxing and having fun, as all fishing should be.

Have fun!