Duncan’s Monthly Round-up –
February 2015
30/1/15 - Well the pike session
to Timsbury wasn’t one to write home about. Things looked good on
arrival as we were the only anglers around and headed for the deep
water at the bottom end of the fishery, however come lunchtime
neither Mark nor Chris had any enquiries to their dead bait rods.
Even their feeder rods (aimed at chub) were somewhat quiet with just
the odd grayling and trout falling. After Lunch we headed upstream
but it got even worse as the river died a death and even the normal
suicidal trout failed to hang itself. Chris did mange one decent
grayling of around 1lb 12oz but sometimes you just have that feeling
that things just weren’t going to happen. When I got home I noticed
that Bob Roberts had fared in much the same way on a completely
different river up in the Midlands catching well for the first three
hours then experiencing the switch being triggered. We tried our best
to figure it out coming up with an influx of salt going into the
river from the heavy downpour the day before but their was something
else happening, one we will never figure out.
With January behind me I was looking
forward to February but come the 2nd was wishing it would end. I have
always said that Feb is often the worst month of the year and well I
still stick by this. The only good thing to say about it is that the
days are drawing out; well we have seemed to have gained an hour in
the afternoon, even if the mornings are still somewhat stagnant.
Here is an example (probably one of the
worst) of how things can change in the blink of an eye for a
specialist guide. It’s probably best that my customer, Andy had
enquired about zander fishing last winter. It was Nov when he made
contact and knowing the fishing would be tough through the colder
months delayed him till the last day of the season, March 14
th.
Fortunately he took my guidance and on that very last evening managed
a number of zander including a personal best weighing 11lb 6oz.
Living in the real world Andy knows how things change and after
booking a day’s predator fishing in December on the Thames wasn’t
surprised to find the river in flood and having to reschedule. The
Thames was our first choice however just days before our second date
(Jan 2nd) a friend fishing the Thames called to say that it was
pushing hard and coloured. Having rigged two rods a day or two prior
to the trip to fish float paternoster rigs as well as organising all
the gear including livebait snatching kit we found ourselves looking
at Plan B which was a small commercial near me that had turned up a
5lb plus perch back in the summer! The day before our trip the
paternoster rods were stripped back and new low resistant running
rigs attached as well as buying some king prawns, fifty lobworms and
a pint of maggots. This change of venue and tactic was only made
24hrs prior to the session yet come the night before our day out the
temperature dropped to -4 freezing every lake in sight. With both
venues out of sorts it was decided to reschedule once again. Let’s
just hopes its third time lucky! Unfortunately it wasn’t and you
can get a feeling for just how unfortunate we were by reading the
date inputs of 15/2/15 and 16/2/15!
1/1/15 - Knowing that the Thames
wasn’t looking good my once a fortnight weekend day session with
fishing pal Chris had to be rethought also. A tip off from another
source had put me on some decent perch on the Basingstoke Canal. Now
I swore that I would never tread the banks of this canal again due to
the amount of dog shit along its bank but was pleasantly surprised to
see none (was I still asleep). Fishing just inches from the bank I
managed four bites on lobworm in which three were missed and the
other coming from a lively jack. Chris and Brother Kevin failed to
get a dip of the float, even after trying my spot after my first bite
fishing far lighter kit than mine. When they lifted their float and
moved I dropped in and away it went again, strange! It wasn’t long
before Wayne Kerr came through in his canoe under the bridge with
blinkers on that we decided to head elsewhere on the Canal but all
three of us failed to get a bite. Kevin called it a day whilst myself
and Chris headed to Stanford End on the Loddon, yet it didn’t greet
us in style! Now I hate dog shit yet what was in the middle of the
small car park certainly was dog shit! Who ever did that should be
ashamed on himself. As I have said for a long time, this stretch is
just too busy and one look behind the waterworks confirmed this, yes
their it was another! If the club loses this stretch then you dirty
gits are to blame! The river fished like the car park, a pile of shit
and we left once again biteless. I’ve said it before but I won’t
say it again, I won’t be going back unless I have to!
2/2/15 - With a guided day
having to be rescheduled at least the second day of February wasn’t
completely lost as I stayed inside tapping away on the keyboard,
mostly for Anglers Mails Question and Answer page, but I’m well
ahead of myself on this one and looking forward to venturing out
later in the week.
3/2/15 – Another raw day with
a covering of snow. I was thinking about setting up the drop shot rod
and heading to the canal but the lake behind is frozen and I expect
the canal will be as well. Luckily I always have something to do,
fishing wise, so spent a few hours writing an article for Pike and
Predators based on the short pike pre-baiting campaign completed in
January. Come 4pm it was completed and uploading to Neville Fickling,
giving myself time to get the chub gear out for a few hours bread
fishing on the Loddon in the morning. No it won’t be at Stanford
End!
4/2/15 – Making a late start I
arrived at the river at noon and with the temperature gauge reading
just two degrees and venturing out on a completely new stretch felt
that a bite would be classified as a result. With four hours at my
disposal my plan was to go back to basics, be disciplined and rove
the river fishing a swim for no more than fifteen minutes. Bites
usually come on flake quickly so theirs no need to give a swim any
more. Forth swim in and the tip rattled then flew round (obviously
these chub don’t get much pressure) but knowing that this stretch
has done some monsters in the past was somewhat disappointed at its
size, 2lb yet it was a fish and a swim to return to on future visits.
Sixth swim and another bite this time from a strange shaped chub of
4lb 11oz, that’s better. Unfortunately the next six swims failed to
produce yet this is how to learn a stretch of river, bit by bit. The
refreshing thing was that their wasn’t another angler or signs of
angling anywhere, joy!
5/2/15 – Not really much to
say about today as it was one of those ‘get lots of niggling things
done’ day. I did keep up my fabulous record with the drop-shot rod
and recorded another blank, yet it really was just a glancing visit
to the canal on the way back from the bank during which time I had to
dodge the drifting ice. Determined to get on track with this method I
returned home and watched a few video’s which allowed the rod to be
rigged up, hopefully correctly, ready for another visit soon. A
couple of hours was also spent getting the grayling kit sorted for a
day on the Test tomorrow with a customer.
6/2/15 – Another frosty start
yet it was the growing north wind that was the worry. Luckily this
didn’t materialise till mid afternoon allowing Aaron to get to
grips with using the centrepin, trotting and fishing the Test all for
the first time. The area wanted had already gone but fortunately the
swim upstream which is almost opposite the small stream and hut on
the far bank was free so we settled in this. Fortunately the swim
fished really well and with a couple of swims downstream to
investigate we were relatively left alone from the other fifteen
anglers on the beat! Come the end of the day Aaron had caught
probably forty fish including brown, sea and rainbow trout plus a
dozen or more grayling, the only downside was the size with no
specimens involved. I even managed to try drop-shotting for a few
minutes in the side stream and at long last caught a fish on this, so
called deadly method, a half pound perch.
9/2/15 – At last that horrid
north wind has swung, just a shame that my time been spent sorting
things like, car MOT, dentist, cat tablets out and not fishing. In
fact it doesn’t look like I will be out till Wednesday, yet its
then fishing, fishing, fishing for a few days. With more cash going
out than coming in the afternoon was spent tapping away on the
computer keyboard once more, this time number eleven in my Day Ticket
tactical feature within Coarse Angling Today. Looks like it will be
much of the same tomorrow, joy.
11/2/15 – I was hoping to have
a days fishing on the Thames, yet with the central heating still
playing up and with the car in for an MOT took the chance and headed
down for an afternoon fish near the garage in the hope the call would
come in that it had passes. This happened so everything went to plan
and as for the fishing well I found a lovely stretch of the Itchen
and managed bite, after bite from grayling to 1lb 9oz. Cant wait to
give it a proper go, yet not quite sure when that will be as next
week I’m away for a few days.
12/2/15 – After having a great
January pre-baiting and catching plenty of double figured pike I was
full of confidence when Sky Sports, Tight Lines asked if I could
supply a video for the show. Although I caught it didn’t quite go
to plan, yet you will have to keep an eye out for the show coming
soon to Tight Lines.
13/2/15 – With strong winds
and constant rain forecasted the guided day with Barrie to the Test
was going to be a tester, however the forecasted rain never started
till midday in which time Barrie managed a mix of Grayling, Sea,
Brown and Rainbow trout on the stick and pin. Once the rain came it
was cast out the feeder in a roach swim that was full of trout that
greedily grabbed every piece of flake cast out. Once the rain eased
we were back on the float and again catching, finishing the day with
forty fish, not bad in such difficult conditions. Back at home it was
a struggle to sort the perch kit out for a couple of days on the
Thames, but with the rugby on Saturday it had to be done, I just hope
the rain hasn’t buggered the river up again.
15/2/15 – First glance at the
Thames and everything looks good, even the swim we wanted was free,
however as we sat next to the weir the noise became louder as the
river rose, coloured up and with not so much as a tap on the maggot
rod intended for livebait it soon became clear that trying to catch
perch was going to be a non-starter. Time for a rethink and as we
were close to the M3 decided to head south in the hope that the water
now reaching the lower Thames had cleared the Itchen. It was a gamble
but luckily the river was relatively clear and we managed a couple of
hours, using tackle not ideal for grayling fishing, to take around
twenty grayling each to around 1lb 6oz. It was an eye opener as both
Chris and myself had to use fix spool reels and slightly beefier rods
than normal and after just two hours our arms were aching and the
amount of fish lost on closing the bail arm reinforced just why every
angler wanting to fish the float and catch on a river should invest
in a centrepin. Believe me it will put 30% more fish in your landing
net!
16/2/15 – With the Thames
out-of-sorts it was time to give a local commercial, reputed to
contain some big perch a go with my customer Andrew. I’m not to
sure what Andy and myself have done to be delivered such bad luck,
but after numerous rescheduling due to weather conditions found
ourselves looking at a venue that like the Thames was in a very
strange mood. The day before a match was won with 90lb but today it
was almost dead. Andy did manage a small tench on the prawn and a
decent carp on worms yet this was good as everyone around the lake
blanked. I even tried a small pole float and maggot in the margins
and struggled for just three bites in five hours, two small perch and
an 8lb carp, a tactic that would normally see at least 30lb of fish
taken. In the end and with the rain now pouring down we decided to
throw the towel in, accepted defeat and head to another fishery for a
half days guiding in March.
18/2/15 – 50th
birthday. Just wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone that
wished me a happy birthday on Facebook. Sorry for not replying but I
have a few problems with this so to the likes of Lee, Tony, Andy and
everyone else a big thank you for making my day special.
20/2/15 – After taking a few
days off to celebrate my 50
th birthday it was good to be
out on the river once again. This time I was catching up with fellow
Nash man Jake Curry for a few hours on the river Itchen. Fortunately
the rains that had been forecasted stayed away, leaving us to explore
the river for four hours without disturbance from other anglers. The
river was up and coloured somewhat but not to the extent that fish
weren’t going to be caught and first trot down Jake latched into
his first fish of the day, a grayling of around 10oz. Having not
fished for a while, due to studying, I was amazed just how quick he
got into his stride, some youngsters are just natural anglers. Having
taken a few more grayling and the odd trout from the first couple of
swims we headed downstream to what I call the ‘banker swim’ where
he netted a further dozen grayling to over the pound. It was whilst
we were in this swim that we noticed a big white bird swoop down
close to the surface then dive into the river. We were somewhat
struggling to see this bird due to a few trees obscuring our view but
the length of its wingspan was immense and I assumed that it had to
be an Osprey. Luckily the bird flew towards us and into view above,
in which time the penny dropped that Ospreys swoop and take fish off
the surface, not dive, however we were both surprised to see a
seagull fly over. This is where I need your help as the wingspan on
this gull had to be 5ft! It was off white and I’m sure it had a red
bill or some red on it which wasn’t over extended. I have done a
bit of surfing the net and the closest I have found is the Glaucious
Gull which is extremely predatory eating anything smaller than itself
including fish and has a wingspan of 59-72inches. Its smaller
Glaucious-Winged Gull has a wing span of 47-56 inches and also eats
fish so to all you Twitchers out there, what do you reckon? Heading
back up stream Jake took more grayling trotting corn and by the end
of the short session had to have taken more than thirty fish, so a
great mornings fishing. Another youngster that seems to be coming on
leaps and bounds and like Jake seems to be a natural born angler is
my mate Tom who sent me this great image of a lovely perch he caught
after asking me for some information on a location. Great job Tom,
keep up the good work.
23/2/15 – You would have
thought that the fishing gods would have given my customer Tim a
break after enduring a freezing morning at Frensham pike fishing when
the lake froze in front of us, yet they weren’t as on arrival at
the river Loddon for a spot of chub fishing we were confronted with a
raging torrent of chocolate coloured water. Due to Frensham freezing
Tim still had half a day in loo, yet with the Loddon un-fishable
another plan was needed so we headed to the upper reaches of the
river Blackwater. Although up and coloured I felt that it was clear
enough to get the odd bite and first cast into a reliable swim gave
us the answer, yet Tim missed the bite. Fortunately two more followed
in the same swim with a chub off around 3lb finally falling into the
net. Heading upstream and trying numerous swims proved just how
difficult the conditions were as not so much as a tremor came his
way, yet back in the first swim and on a change of bait to a lobworm
bought a bite, yet this one shed the hook. Dropping down a few yards
bought another bite, yet things weren’t on our side as after a few
seconds the hook pulled once more, this time from what felt like a
good perch. Having caught a double figured pike from a freezing
lake, plus a chub from a coloured river as well as loosing a couple
of fish proved one thing. If you know your venue then even in the
harshest of conditions, if you try hard enough you should get a bite!
24/2/15 – After a week off and
having to stay in waiting for not only a collection, but also a
delivery from Anglers Mail, allowed me plenty of time to catch up on
some paperwork. Today was typical of a day in the life of someone
trying to make a living out of fishing and shows that it’s not all
about spending time next to water. Fist job was to quickly go through
my emails, replying, scrapping; you know the general stuff that seems
to take forever. Next was to complete three jobs, the first was to
answer a load of ‘Question and Answers’ for Anglers Mail, then it
was time to answer a ‘Hot Seat’ question for Coarse Angling Today
before sending Colin Bunn at CatMaster Tours some words for his
website, all between the phone going and the door being knocked.
Luckily things seem to go swimmingly well and by early afternoon
things were completed allowing me to get on with other outstanding
jobs such as Facebook/website inputs, bait and tackle organisation
for a spot of trotting early Wednesday morning as well as
familiarising myself with a few more Anglers Mail projects.
25/2/15 – Unfortunately I was
on Taxi duty late Tuesday evening and at the last minute called in to
taking and collecting the girlfriend, mother and friends to a concert
in Guildford. By the time I pulled the duvet over me it was gone
midnight, I was totally knackered and knew that setting the alarm
would just be a non-starter, yet with everything sorted the trotting
session will happen. The day was also one of those bitty days when
nothing serious gets done, yet apart from lots of odds-and-sods that
will save time later in the week. I did sort out another set of kit
for a customer on Thursday and with the temperature rising and some
colour in the river, not only was the perch and chub kit sorted but
some bits also thrown in just in case I felt conditions looked good
for a barbel.
26/2/15 – I hate rain and once
again I was looking at a day’s guiding in the stuff, however with
the air temperature so high, 12 degrees, and with a customer
initially requesting barbel, just had to give it a go. Getting
conditions spot in is hard and although the atmospherics, air
temperature, overcast skies and wind direction was favourable the
river had somewhat dropped since raging through on Monday and was now
fining down. Ian today was son of Tim who had fished with me on
Monday and having seen his dad catch plenty of specimens under my
guidance over the last couple of years wanted a piece of the action,
yet I had already been told by Tim not to let him catch anything
bigger than his personal best. Meeting Ian at 8am on the river
Blackwater I made the decision to head for the Loddon and spend the
morning static fishing for barbel. This was when the rain was
forecasted so I had a two tear reason for this approach. With some of
Nash’s new ‘The Key’ 10m barrels as well as some Key Stick Mix
we simply cast out a simple running rig into a previously hot swim
and awaited action which came within 30seconds. Unfortunately it was
from the smallest chub I’ve seen in years on this stretch, all 8oz
of it, yet good to see. For the next few hours we were beaten up by
chub, basically letting us know they were around but not giving us
more than the odd pluck and drop. To be honest they were doing my
head in a bit, yet after a few tweaks we managed a couple of better
bites only for them to be missed however a little trick up my sleeve
finally saw one gracing Ian’ net, not a monster but a new personal
best of 3lb 11oz. The rain slowed as forecasted early afternoon so we
headed downstream to another swim with a track record and with a
change of tactics saw an instant result in a chub weighing 5lb 10oz.
The next swim produced another bite that was missed before we headed
back to the Blackwater, yet the banker swim failed to produce the
slightest of twitches to neither worm nor bread and the thought was
that another angler must have fished and caught earlier in the day.
Theirs far more to chub fishing than meets the eye. Knowing your
venue intimately is paramount and can take years to understand as can
searching the swim in a methodical manner. Rigs may seem simple but
tweaking these in tiny ways can be the downfall of a specimen or two
and knowing what’s been going on in a swim or on the stretch of
river before you arrive by what’s on the bank and by what’s
happening to your rod tip is just something that can’t be leant
quickly. Fishing is a massive learning curve and although I may have
a few years experience I’m glad to say I still learning to this
day.
Here are a few words Ian sent me after
the trip….
Hi Duncan,
Just wanted to say a massive thank
you for a great day’s chub fishing and the pictures sent. As a keen
carp angler I wanted to experience a new challenge in the depth of
winter and targeting chub seemed the obvious answer. My dad had used
Duncan on a number of occasions and seemed to always return with a
new personal best, saying you must experience a trip out with him.
I have to say its been one of the
best days fishing I have experienced. Duncan as a guide was
thoughtful, knowledgeable and experience. Without Duncan I wouldn’t
have caught my personal best chub of 5lb 10oz (sorry dad!) or gained
the knowledge for the future. Not only have a gained the confidence
and know-how to return in the future, but I’ve also gained a
friend. It’s only a matter of time before I will be asking for
another trip with Duncan targeting a new species.
If you want to catch specimen fish
the Duncan is your man.
Thanks for an amazing day, one that
I’m not likely to forget.
Kind regards,
Tim McIntyre
27/2/15 – Up early and on the
river Wey by sunrise and with the river slightly up and coloured I
was hoping for a big bag of quality dace and when one of around 6oz
came first trot through I was rubbing my hands together.
Unfortunately though ninety minutes later I was scratching my head as
just one more dace and two trout had fallen in the normal hot-spot. I
even cast a small maggot feeder in the swim, a tactic that’s deadly
if they want it static, yet my thoughts were that the swim held very
few fish, a first in over thirty-years! I headed downstream but
things were tough with half a dozen trout falling along with the
occasional small dace. Faced with such a difficult session is some
what concerning, I just hope that the river was just not in a good
mood and that the fish haven’t ended up on a BBQ!
A quick look at the diary inputs and it
shows that I was on the bank thirteen times in the last month which
was split between Personal (5), Guiding (7) and Features (1) sessions
and totalled 82 hours, not as much as I would have liked but taking
that I was away for five days, its not that bad.
Well that’s it for Feb, nothing
amazing to report, catch wise, yet a busy month and with the days
getting longer and the air temperature on the up I can’t wait till
spring arrives and the big fish head is back on my shoulders.
Images –
1 – Timsbury on a cold winter’s
morning.
2 – Dab Chicks (Little Grebes) can
been seen everywhere at Timsbury.
3 – Chris with a decent grayling.
4 – Mark experienced a number of
personal bests at Timsbury.
5 – A bite would have been a result!
6 – Aaron steering a nice grayling to
the net.
7 – On the front of Anglers Mail with
a brace of Blackwater chub.
8 – Barrie with one of many fish from
Timsbury.
9 – Jake steers a grayling to net on
the Itchen.
10 – One to watch in the future.
11 – It looked a bit like this!
12 – You don’t get that many young
purists these days, but Tom’s one of them.
13 – Against all odds.
14 – Ian with his 5lb 10oz Loddon
chub.
15 – Back she goes.
This change want involve not being able
to cater for customers wanting to target different species, it will
just mean that my own personal angling will be spent with a certain
species and size target for a set period of time. This may include
species such as tench, bream and crucians through the spring then
barbel, roach and grayling through the winter, however these targets
and campaigns will be kept relatively quiet until its time to move
on, and only then will captures be revealed. Sadly this will mean
less information within my monthly reports but to make up for this
I’m going to try and show more tactical features upon my website.
March – Just prior to the end
of the season we finished a winter’s campaign once again on
Frensham Great Pond after my favourite species rudd. Although not as
productive as other winters it certainly wasn’t the worst and on
most occasions we caught, yet it was noticed that the size of rudd
was well down and a fish over 2lb 8oz seemed a rarity. It was also a
period that I decided to broaden my knowledge of different day ticket
venues in the area; however this season it will come to an end as
searching for monsters will take up most of my spare time.
April – Probably the month I
love the most as everything’s springing into life and the fish
started to feed. Mill Farm Fishery was one venue that I visited a few
times, yet the hope of a massive silver bream just didn’t happen.
In fact I never even surpassed the two-pound barrier, yet my mate
Chris did with this personal best of 2lb 6oz. Badshot Lea on FAS
portfolio saw big bags of bream taken and Harris Lake on Godalmings
Marsh Farm complex was also a regular haunt with myself and many a
customer taking some amazing catches of tench and crucians.
May – This month has to be
remembered for an unexpected capture as whilst targeting carp a
crucian picked up my bait, all 3lb 14oz of it and no, it wasn’t
from Johnsons or Harris! It was also the month that l started to
target catfish at Badshot Lea and with the help of my mate Chris
these became regular appearances to the bank along with many a gate
crashing grass carp that seemed to like double 22mm pellets! May is
also a fantastic time for eels and I spent the night under the stars
at a favourite venue of mine, Sumner’s Pond and managed to take a
couple of three’s.
June - Although 20lb and the odd
30lb catfish graced mine and Chris’s net regularly it was the
capture of a 37lb cat by Jake Curry that stole the show. Just check
out that smile. You will be happy to know that during May and early
June guided catfish trips will be available, however due to our
campaign else where, dates will be limited so send me an email now if
you are interested. Frensham Pond fished well with big bags of tench
to over 7lb and Johnsons produced a few crucians to 3lb 8oz.
July – It was a month that saw
two personal bests taken, the first being a 6lb 10oz rainbow trout
that picked up 13mm pellet intended for barbel and the second was a
4lb 10oz golden orfe. However it was my dad who showed me the way in
terms of quality and put my orfe to shame after taking one weighing
5lb 9oz. The catfish continued to grace our nets with the most
memorable being a customer Tim who landed three including two
twenties to 27lb 12oz.
Aug – A tip of from good
friend Fred Healy saw me heading to Bucklands, the now mega of rudd
fishing and just before it went syndicate. In probably the worst
weather imaginable I took an amazing catch of rudd which included
sixteen over 2lb 6oz. The biggest two weighed 3lb 10oz and 3lb
12.8oz. I also fished the river Avon for the first time ever and
managed a good chub although I was trying to catch a carp for an
Anglers Mail feature! A few trips to the Wye proved successful with
plenty of barbel falling even in extremely low water conditions.
Sept – More trips to the Wye
saw numerous barbel landed however the politics surrounding the beat
I was fishing was becoming uncomfortable and unbeknown to me after
the final trip I decided to depart and never return. Yet as they say,
when one door closes another opens and a couple of exploration trips
with my dad and brother located new stretches and although the fish
weren’t quite as abundant, they were certainly bigger. Johnsons
continued to supply big crucians and come the end of the month it was
time to pack the suit case and head of to Spain for a spot of monster
cat fishing on the Ebro.
Oct – Although tough due to
some diverse weather conditions the Ebro didn’t disappoint with all
three taking cats over 100lb. My biggest was a 140lb with Steve
taking a pure albino of 178lb. On my return the crucians were still
feeding yet getting over 3lb 8oz proved impossible. A trip nine miles
out of Portsmouth saw me catching my first ever cod, and by god it
tasted good and the zander fishing at Old Bury Hill started in
unspectacular fashion.
Dec – With the weather cold
and frosty it was time to look at the river Test and Itchen and my
first visit to Timsbury proved a success with a roach of 2lb gracing
my net. Plenty more visits saw loads of grayling and trout taken but
the coarse fish just didn’t show. The pike fishing at Frensham was
warming up and the start of a pre-baiting campaign was an eye opener
with loads of doubles taken. I even cast out a helicopter rig one
morning and managed a tench in temperatures below freezing!
March – Another couple of
weeks exploring pastures new, this time for barbel yet it was chub
that liked my new style of fishing and bait. A last trip to Old Bury
in the hope of a double figured zander fell on an almost impossible
evening with a chilly easterly wind and temperatures dropping below
freezing. Seven of us fished and five blanked including myself, it
was that tough!
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