"Recently I spent a few days in Peterborough competing at a well-known venue called Decoy Lakes in the Fens. The first day was practice as we, the London Central team, had never seen the fishery before. After gleaning some information from Kevin Wilmot from TCF magazine, I was confident that the Strip lakes would suit my style of fishing - and it did.

I was soon into carp and barbel of good size and it was clear that too much feed put the fish back, while under feeding attracted more bites. Day two we had a 12 man knock up with all of us in a line and the skipper placed us into what pegs he wanted. My 0.5g float and 6mm expander pellet was soon gobbled up as I started to amass a decent weight of carp from 2lbs up to around 7lbs+. As I tuned into the venue and went into the zone, I was unaware that behind me a gallery of anglers started to build up and while I was enjoying myself, I was also entertaining a small crowd that also contained competitors over the next two days.

Sneaky opposition

The other teams had started to arrive and news soon got round that I was emptying the place - hence the sneaky little so and so’s from the West Midlands team, sneaking a little too near, to clock what baits I was using and the make-up of my rigs. Of course, once the penny dropped what was going on around me, I started to ease off - I did not want to reveal any more tips on how to fish the lake.

At the weigh in I scaled 135lbs 14oz with 96lbs being the nearest weight. The next day, with a draw of Oaks 28, it put me at the wrong end of the lake and with the wind blowing hard into my face, making pole presentation almost impossible in the last two hours of the match. I weighed in 46lbs to win my side of the lake and a section win, but I was cheesed off as I knew if I was on the other side of the lake it would have been a different scenario as only 99lbs won the 74 pegger.

A team effort

On the team event draw, I drew Oaks again but this time on the other bank and I was rubbing my hands in expectation of a big weight, as I had been drawn down the end of the lake, spot on. After a hearty breakfast I drove off to the venue and when I climbed out of my car I was gobsmacked to feel that the wind had changed direction and was blowing even harder right down the lake. I caught early and it looked good, but then the flow started running against the wind direction and I started to foul hook fish. My match went downhill with a weight of 42lbs putting me fifth out of 12 in my section. We finished second in the team event, behind the Yorkshire lads who put in a great performance and deserved the win. Next year we are off to a place called Solhampton Fishery near Worcester to try to put things right." 

Tight Lines,

Russ Evans