Sunday 26th July - SW Super League Match 3 Gloucester Canal

There are 7 Teams of 8 anglers in the League this year but due to the National being fished on the venue in August and the demand for participating anglers to practice the match was opened up for an additional 3 teams which were put together by the organisers namely .... Odds and Sods, Diawa Gordon League All Stars and All Sorts. The anglers in the made up Teams could pick up cash but not points. So 80 anglers in total.
I was looking forward to the match following my success last week (weight of fish, not cash) in a difficult area. Draw was at 08:15 at the Gordon League Rugby Club and I was last but one to arrive at around 07:45. We had two guests fishing for us today, Ian Didcote and Michael Buchwheilder both were familiar with the Canal.
Also at the draw I recognised Will Raison, Des Shipp and Tom Scholey from Pole Fishing magazine and a few other prominent anglers all wanting to practice.
The draw was a few minutes late and when Chris came back I was allocated Peg 64 which was 8 pegs downstream from where I was last week. Not a lot was caught in the section last week but a chat with Ian Didcote who was down that way said 64 had won the section, so no pressure then.
Fishing was 11:00 - 16:00 so given I knew where I was going and it was very close to the draw there was no rush.
Team mate Sam Johnson had drawn Hempstead Peg 50 so was just out of the bend but it was a good area.
When I parked up Des Shipp was in front of me and it was absolutely persisting it down. I stayed in the car a few minutes watching Des load up, we had about 90 minutes to the all in at this point. I did get out eventually and he said 'I thought you were going to bottle it'  lol, not me totally chilled and pacing myself. Des was in the section above me and near to where I was the previous week, think he was around 59. Also just above me but not in my section was Tom Scholey phew again but in my section on 71 was Will Raison. How did that happen! To my immediate right on 65 was Simon Hebditch (AKA Ditch) who helps run the league and below him was Thyers Mark Bromsgrove who had done OK on the Canal recently.
I did fancy the look of the peg when I got there, it was just to the right of the old channel with far bank cover so very inviting for the tip but a long cast.

 Peg 64, the old channel is at about 11 o'clock (now blocked off) with the new cut directly behind the brolly.

I decided to keep things simple again this week so two tip rods, one far bank and one for over the pole line if the wind got up and top six on the pole straight out where it was top five deep so rigs from last week OK.
Bait was traditional chop worm and caster with dead red, hookers were the same but pinkies and small red worms from the compost heap and dark fish meal ground bait. I was ready with thirty minutes to spare. While I was setting up Ditch was quite optimistic and maintains he saw a few bream roll across on the far side. Some small fish topped on the pole line which I did see in amongst all the seagull droppings.
The all in came and I cupped in a few balls one the pole line and instead of casting a few feeder fulls across decided to put the hook length on straight away but cast every 5 minutes for the first half hour.
I had an indication second cast but not that positive. Next cast it was a better bite and I connected, soon a 1lb skimmer was in the next so no DNW for me. I had another of a similar size ten minutes later. I did glance up the canal and saw Des net something but no one else at this point. I stuck to the plan and again did have a few indications meaning there were fish in the area but may have been too small for the bait. At the three hour mark I came in on the pole and after twenty minutes of getting bored the float buried and I hit something solid and the blue 5 to 8 hydro came out a fair distance. I thought it was an eel at first but it soon became obvious it was a bream.... come on. I played it carefully and brought it to the surface top 5, in the net so happy days. Tom Scholey to my left had a skimmer on the tip and then one pretty quick on the pole. The tow then changed moving right to left and no more bites were forthcoming so I went back on the tip. Within a few minutes I had a half hearted bite but hit it anyway and another skimmer of a 1lb was soon netted. At around 15:10 I had a decent slow but sure move of the tip and hit a good fish resulting in another bream of about 3lb being landed. I did add a small roach before the all out and that was it. I was confident I would do well in the section.
I was first to weigh and when I pulled the net out the guys on the scales immediately said ''that will win the section''. The scales registered 9lb 8oz so happy with that. I followed them down the section just to make sure and yes it was good enough. Mark Bromsgrove was the closest to me with 6lb odd.

 

My section

I noted that Tom Scholey above me in the other section weighed just over 11lb and did catch a couple more decent skimmers when I was not looking.

Back at the Rugby Club I came across Sam first who was on Peg 50, he had 24lb plus and ended up wining the Match, so well done to him.

Sam picked up £70 for the section and £180 for the match win, nice. I had £70 for the section.

Team wise we finished last but one on the day and are now bottom in the league. Some sections fish really hard as usual.

Here are some of the other weight sheets, I didn't get them all.

 

Back on the Gloucester Canal for Match 4 next week but this time down the Purton end.