Monday, 23 April 2018

Sunday 22nd April - Gloucester Canal Spring League Round 2, Castle Up / Down and Saul Junction

Not much prep needed for the 2nd Round as most of the gear and duplicate rigs were in tact from the week before. I did have a short session on the Bristol Feeder Canal on the Tuesday but the wind beat me. I did have around 4lb of dace and roach in a couple of hours so the Canal is coming to life again. I also made the decision to upgrade my trusty Sensas 854 pole to the 974 and as a result of a few phone calls I picked it up on the Friday. A big thanks to Simon Hebditch of M5 Angling, Dan at Cadbury Angling and Stu Redman for the advice and delivery of a great package and deal.

Tuesday also saw a well attended Sensas Nomads Team Meeting in the evening and we are well into planning for this years events with a new squad so onwards and upwards I hope.

Back to todays match and we had one change from the previous week bringing in Leigh Wakefield who has only fished the Gloucester Canal a couple of times and is still getting to grips with it (much the same as everyone else).
Once off the M5 I noticed there was a road closure on the A38 from Hardwick going south which was the road you would normally take to get to todays Sections.

Mark Treasure who organises the matches had to take a little while to sort things out prior to the draw and to be fair to him he did giving alternative directions from the other side of the Canal.
Chris came back with the draw and I was on 387 upstream of Castle Bridge (I was on the downstream end the week before). Looking at the previous weeks result of the peg it showed 1lb 9oz.
Leigh was on 432 (Castle Down) and ozs had come off that the week before.
Chris was down at Saul on 464 and Sam 363 way above Castle.
Fishing was 11:00 - 16:00 again and most of us drove to the parking area's in a ''follow the leader'' style through the lanes. A couple of wrong turns but everyone got there in the end.

As I walked up to my peg I saw the first bay and remember Shane Williams weighing in 20lb odd of bream and a couple of big tench a few years ago but I was past that point about 4 pegs upstream. The next bay was another 8 pegs away from me also so didn't think much would happen especially as there was a lot of bankside disturbance across with people renovating a house.
Same set up as last week on all fronts except I had 2 lines going at 8 metres left and right. Down the track at 13 metres it was slightly deeper than the previous week.

Sam text me before the all in showing me his peg....... only 2 boats in his Section and he was bang smack in the middle.


Sams peg, personally I would have got everyone to move left and right, not on.


My peg


I cupped in 4 big balls down the track of soil, leam and lake with some offerings and a couple of balls left and right at 8 metres. Started on the bread across on about 6 to 7 foot of water. Not a touch after 45 minutes. Went down the middle early with half a worm, the float sailed away and a Daddy Ruff was the culprit, little bastard. No more bites down the middle so came in on the inside. Snared 2 blippy roach. No indications either on the fishmeal across on the tip all match and only managed a couple of wasp perch down the track. I just cannot say anymore because nothing happened and either side of me were also struggling. I phoned Leigh and he hadn't had a touch all match so blanked.

I had a total of 6 fish for 2oz and thats with the wind blowing the net! That was also better than 4 others in the Section. Peg 386 to my left weighed 1 oz and 388 to my right weighed 3 oz!

Chris managed a few fish weighing 4lb 7oz and picked up 3rd in Section Money, Sam weighed 2oz and has been speaking to the Samaritans for 24 hours.
The Canal fished ''rock hard'' for most but a few big weights were thrown up.

1st   Dave Clapton, Misfits, peg 439,  57lb (2 pegs from where I was last week and an end peg)
2nd  Lee Trivitt, Thatchers, peg 438,  51lb 14oz
3rd   Tony Davis, Mix and Match, peg 360,  32lb 11oz
4th   Shaun Bryan, DGL Blue, peg 370,  16lb 6oz (lots of liners and 3 lost fish due to foul hooked)

Top Team today was Thatchers who done exceptionally well.



Shaun had one on the pole and the rest on the tip within the last hour or so

Here are the Section Boards, not a pretty sight.....





Looking for a match next Sunday so hoping theres a practice on the Glossy.












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