Later on in the week I had a call from my Maver Team mate Lewis Walker asking if I wanted to pair up with him but he wanted to fish the river. I said ok so the canal it was for me.
After a late draw at the Crown Pub in Saltford Lewis was heading to a peg on the river at Newbridge at the top end of the straight and I was on my way to peg 1 just over the aqueduct at Dundas which is on the A36 the other side of Bath.
The turnout was not great with 10 on the river and 6 on the canal.
The canal anglers were Rich Lacey, Sean Townsend, Kev Dicks, Darren Gillman, Nicky Goodhind as well as myself (no mugs here then).
I had not fished this section of canal for about 25 years and thought the big beeches turning bay would throw up a bream weight, not so sure about the other pegs.
My peg did look quite ordinary and I was it between 2 boats with a concrete bank on the far side.
I had just set up when the guy from the boat to my left said he needed to move up a little towards me in order to make a bit of room between his and the next boat down to set up a stall as his wife was selling home made crafts and scarfs.
I told him there was a match on and we compromised meaning I only had to move up a few feet and had enough time to adjust.
my peg today
I had plenty of room on the bank but set up my rollers more or less in line with the canal as its a busy tow path.
Nice and simple today, one rig for straight across at 14 meters just up the far shelf, another for the bottom of the far shelf at 10:00 and 14:00 and a final one for down the middle, 10:00 and 14:00. Size 18 hooks for the far shelf rigs and a 20 for down the track, all to 0.10 fluro and 4 x 14 floats as the canal does tow a lot. The bait tray was the same as last week, squats, pinkie, maggot, worm and bread.
Rich Lacey was the only other angler I could see (peg 2). Rich called the ''all in'' at 10:30 and I fed my up on the shelf and bottom of the shelf lines with chopped worm, caster and squat, two pots of liquidised bread went in on my track line and this is were I started with 5 mm punch on the hook. not much happened straight away but I did catch a glance of Rich netting a fish, he shouted down it was a roach.
I started lifting and dropping the punched bread and it brought a sail away bite connecting with solid
resistance and that thump thump of a skimmer bream. It was a decent one at around 11/2 lbs but spat the hook out as I was trying to net it, not happy. I put in again and soon was playing another and did net it although a bit smaller than the one I lost.The bread line came alive but only small fish obliged. The end of the first hour was nearing now and Rich said he was struggling, he also said the guys in the turning bay were also struggling.
Boat traffic was quite heavy and one actually stopped and moored up opposite me ending the option to fish up on the shelf. A group of guys got off and headed up the pub.
I fed the two bottom of the far shelf lines again and stayed on the bread for another 15 mins or so.
First look on my 10:00 line with double pinkie I had a good bite and bumped a decent fish. Back out again and hit another positive bite and ended up nervously playing a big perch with an audience of kids behind me. Safely netted it was around 11/2 lbs. I rested the line and had a look on the other getting a couple of tidy 6oz roach. Word was others on the canal were finding it hard so given that the fish appeared to be responding to the chop, caster and squat I upped the feed rate and rotated the two lines at the bottom of the far shelf for the remainder of the match getting lots of small roach and more bonus perch on a full maggot.
15:30 came and I knew I had a tidy weight but after last weeks guessing game couldn't call it.
Rich said he had around 4lbs and he thought I had at least 8lbs.
The scales came down our way and top weight above us was Darren Gillman the other side of the turning bay with over 8lbs.
Darrens roach bag
Rich did weigh 4lbs plus so he was spot on. When I pulled my net out the guys were surprised at the size of my perch.
My total weight went 11lbs 7oz. Darren took these pic for me.
I had done enough to win the canal section but wasn't sure how Lewis has got on. Rich had told me earlier on that Dean Harvey was admitting to 40lbs of bream at Newbridge.
Back at the Crown Pub it turned out the river had fished really well with two 60lb plus weights. Lewis my partner had just over 10lbs.
Results as follows:
1st River - Warren Bates 66lbs 6oz including a 10lb 6oz barbel (peg 36)
2nd River - Dean Harvey 62lbs 8oz (peg 38)
3rd River - Derek Coles 27lbs (peg 18)
1st Canal - Ivan Currie 11lbs 8oz (peg 1)
2nd Canal - Darren Gillman 8lbs plus (peg 4)
Pairs winners...
Sean Townsend and Dean Harvey
Next week is the Clevedon Clubs Christmas Match at Acorn Fishery and I am giving it a go (not fished a Commercial for a year).
No comments:
Post a Comment