16 Teams have entered this League and although the Gloucester Canal is a difficult venue it just shows you the support that there is for this type of fishing as opposed to Commercials.
The Section used for todays match was Rea to Pilot, only two access points and with every other peg being used there was going to be a few long walks.
Team today was Chris, Sam, myself and we had Brian Pollard guesting for us today from Diana Gordon League due to a couple of other Team mates unavailable. I knew Brian from the old Post Office and Telecoms League about 30 years ago. It was good to catch up with him and he gave me a couple of tips for the day.
Draw was at the Gordon League Rugby Club and as we were last to attend and pay our money we were last to draw. Chris came back with the pegging for us and we had peg 1. Sam had A Section so first peg below Rea Bridge, I had B section peg 189 plus the scales, Chris and Brian were down by Pilot. I passed Sam as he was setting up and his peg looked as if it was in a garden just below the Bridge Keepers cottage with cut grass and yellow and purple iris growing. Wish I had taken a picture, his peg did look nice.
When I got to my peg it did not look all that special, there was a little bit of cover on the far bank but there was also a gap directly opposite me alongside a footpath and you could see that people had fished there.
Set up today was a small cage feeder for the far side, top 5 deep at 13 meters and top 4 deep at 11 meters. Usual chopped worm and caster for the pole lines with a little hemp and dead maggot.
Fishing was 11:00 to 16:00 and I was ready with 30 minutes to go.
Pole lines were fed on the all in with a good helping and I started off on the bread in the feeder with double 8 mm punch on an 18 about 3 meters from the far bank.
20 minutes in I had a rattle on the tip and did not hit the bite. Next cast the tip rattled again and I hit it this time connecting with a fish. it was a roach of around 4 oz so at least I had a point.
I did not leave the feeder out for too long retrieving it after about 10 minutes each time. it was almost on the hour at 12:00 when I had a good positive bite and had no trouble hitting it, i thought it was a skimmer but when I got it up in the water I could see it was a decent dog roach of around 10 ozs lovely job. I knew the angler above me had not caught yet as I heard him speaking to a colleague on the phone. i couldn't see below me because of brambles.
At this point I topped up both pole lines and fed a few loose casters on the 11 meter line.
Cannot say for sure but around 12:45 the tip went straight round and i connected with what i knew had to be a bream. These Gloucester Canal Bream fight hard in the deep water and I took it steady and happily slipped the net under a nice fish of around 4 lbs, mega points!
I continued to use the bread feeder for another 30 minutes but there were no more indications.
Both pole lines were investigated without any success what so ever, not a bite. you had to be careful shipping back as there were so many walkers and cyclists due to it being a nice day. Boat traffic was not too bad but look at the size of this mother that came past me.
I continued to swap lines during the rest of the match and picked up a few more roach on the bread, the pole lines were dead and word up and down the bank was a lot were struggling.
When the all out was shouted a loud cheer could be heard so I kinda knew i had done OK.
Packed up and walked 32 pegs to weigh in 16 anglers. There had been a match the previous week on the same stretch and 30 lb had come out from the pegs in the 220's.
As I weighed in there was a real mixed bag of results, see my section weigh board below.
I was happy with my 5lb 11oz and only just missed out on some coin as they pay top 3 in a Section.
My catch which was worth 4th in the Section of 16 anglers, not bad as i had not fished the venue for a year.
I saw Sam back at the car, he had weighed 1 lb 8 ozs for about halfway in his Section and was heading home. I met up with Chris back at the Rugby Club, he had won his Section with 7 lb odd from a peg just outside Tanker Bay, Brian was on the halfway mark in his Section.
I had to head home as family were coming for Sunday Dinner but Chris text me to say we were 4th on the day and are 7th overall in the League so not a bad result. I believe there were two 30 lb weights on the day.
Hope to fish the Feeder Canal in Bristol on Wednesday and then possibly pleasure fish with Sam on Sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment