I was guesting again for Sensas Nomads who are a great bunch of lads and who take their fishing seriously. When I was asked to fish for them I did not think I would be able to make all the dates but I did and just going into this last match I was equal 4th individually, Rich Whitmarsh was 6th and a number of others in the team were in the top 15 out of 40 anglers, pretty good performance I would say.
As a team we were lying in 3rd place and had no chance of wining the league overall. The experience of Mosella Bathampton and Preston Innovations Thatchers was evident throughout the matches although we did upset the apple cart on the 5th round when we won the day by a convincing margin.
The town sections through Bath were the favoured area's to draw and I managed to be allocated peg D3 in an area known as the ''tunnels'' down stream of Darlington Wharf. I think the area is called Sydney Gardens. I had not fished this section before but checked my understanding of where to go before leaving the Rugby Club. I parked easy enough and headed down to Darlington Wharf, through the tunnel under the main road and then into what I can only describe as the ''Victorian'' past. It was very quaint and a bit like stepping back in time with little bridges and a park area. My peg did not look that spectacular but Paul Purchase who was on D2 told me he won a match off it the previous year with 14lbs of skimmers (apparently all caught in the first hour on bread).
You can see why the section is called the ''tunnels''
Due to the variation in with of the canal in this area and with the bridges and tunnels we virtually all had end pegs. The towpath behind us was quite narrow so had to be careful due to the walkers and cyclist's.
set up was simple for me today with just 3 rigs. Two identical rigs for down the track at 10:00 and 14:00 just in case I trashed one (4x14 to an 18 to 0.08) and one for halfway up the far shelf at around 11 meters (a drennan choppy float to an 18 to 0.10).
On the ''all in'' at 10:00 I fed a small pot of bread on the 10:00 line and a half pot of chop and caster with a few squats across.
Starting on a piece of 5mm punch down the track I had a bite straight away and missed it, this happened for the next 3 or 4 put ins before catching a roach around 2ozs. I had quite a few of these fish on the bounce and as I glanced down towards Paul and Tom Moratti I could see that they were having a similar stamp of fish.
I suppose it was 30 mins in before I had a proper fish which pulled out the no. 3 elastic about a foot. a decent roach of around 8 ozs was the culprit and it was safely netted. Just as I put it in the net i could see Tom netting a decent fish as well.
I had a few more proper roach over the next hour before latching into a skimmer of around a pound....had they arrived?
Well some did and I had about 5 of them, still on the 10:00 line. They were not big but most welcome.
The 10:00 line then slowed up so went across on the far shelf and managed a couple more tidy roach. A boat went through and seemed to have killed the line so I re-fed and went in on my 14:00 line which I had not fed. A small ball of ground bait and squats with pinkie on the hook soon had me adding more small roach. I had kept looking towards Paul and Tom every so often but they did not appear to be catching as much as myself.
For the remainder of the match I just keep swapping around all 3 lines and picked up fish throughout.
I estimated I had around 7lbs.
When the scales came to me they registered 8lbs 2oz which I was happy with and don't think I could have had much more from the peg.
My 8lbs 2ozs (almost looks as if I am carrying out a bodily function).
Tom and Paul above me had 6lbs and 7lbs plus respectfully.
Rich Lacey and Nigel Evans were in our section but not in the ''tunnels''. They were at Darlington Wharf and had better weights of 9lbs and 10lbs.
My section board...well done to Nigel
Back at the Rugby Club the results started coming in and the section nearer the town had fished well and as expected. Tim Ford made no mistakes and took 15lbs from 'A' section winning the match overall.
Organiser Mark Harper showed me the section by section results and they would have put a lot of rivers to shame with double figures required to win most sections and good backing weights.
Individuals on the day.....
1st Tim Ford 15lbs 12oz
2nd Nigel Evans 14lbs 12oz same section as Tim.
3rd Mark Harper 12lbs 4oz
League overall....
1st P I Thatchers
2nd Mosella Bathampton
3rd Sensas Nomads
4th Jerrys
5th Amalgamation
Over the series of 6 matches .......
Senses had 3 individual winners
Won a round on the canal
Approx 8 sections winners
We had a good few anglers in the top 1/3 individually
Certainly something to build on for next year and thank you for making me welcome.
Huge thanks to Mark Harper and those who assisted with pegging etc. I enjoyed it tremendously.
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