Sunday 20th May - Sensas Kennet & Avon Canal Spring League Teams of 4, Hungerford

Sensas Nomads had 2 teams in this league but were 2 anglers short for the final round which was at Hungerford. I put my name forward and was accepted for the ''nobblers'' team (unfortunate name).
I had never fished further east than Devizes before so went about trying to get a bit of info on it. Hungerford AA had limited information on their site as did youtube so a few phone calls led me to believe it was more or less the same approach as in the Bath area.
Fortunately I had quite a few canal rigs already made up and just had to tie a few hook lengths of various sizes and lines. I ordered some squats from Mark Williams who was originally fishing but had to stand down with Mike Withey taking his place and who would also bring the squat.
The draw was at the Sun Inn which when route planned was 72 mile from home but all motorway except for a few miles so only 1 hour 15 mins drive.

I got there by 07:30 and the car park and adjacent roads were already full but found a little industrial estate and parked 3 minutes walk away. Breakfast sourced and met up with the team (Nobblers) which was....

Mike Withey
Rich Whitmarsh
Paul Rigby, also called in to fill a gap
Me

Also had a chat with Geraint Powell who was fishing for Nomads Vets (he's only 20 at the most lol). Geraint had been doing quite well in the League but had never fished Hungerford before so no more info gained. None of the usual postcodes were available for where to park at the Sections so going in blind.

Mike came back with the draw, he was well down in the draw order (25 teams fishing, there were 27 apparently but 2 had dropped out for the final round)

I was on A24 which meant absolutely nothing to me but after taking to organiser Simon Hebditch he said it wouldn't be far and put me in touch with a guy who was in my section. His name was Phil Speakman, really nice guy and he was on A25, end peg. Even better he was parked beside me and heres his van....

He did say he drew a lot of ''end pegs'' ....underneath his number it says if he doesn't answer its because he is fishing....love it.

We got to the parking area OK and had a good 90 minutes to set up as the match was 10:30 - 15:30. A short walk through a grave yard soon had me on the towpath and was soon on my peg.

Phil did have the end peg in A Section but B section was immediately following.

I was told I was in a good area and it did look nice....end peg Phil was excited.

It does look nice straight in front but there was no depth as there was a cut back, bit like a cow drink, the best area was across to my left.

                                 

I set up 3 rigs today. Across was a a choppy float 0.3 to 0.08 hook length to a fine 20, it was no more than 18'' deep and a good 14 metres.

Down the track, which flowed quite hard at times I had a 4x14 round bodied float to the same hook length and hook. It was around 4.5 foot deep. Finally a bottom of the near shelf rig (never used).

Due to the colour I decided to leave the bread in the bag and had already done a mix of Sensas Roach, Noire and Epicene the night before just needing to add some more water. Bait tray consisted of maggot, squat, pinkie and worm.

Skimmers would be the main quarry today so on the all in I fed 2 balls of ground bait with chop and caster plus some squat across to my left and the same down the middle leaving the right hand far bank swim alone for later.

Starting off down the track I was expecting to get a bite quickly but after 20 minutes nothing other than a few slight dips of the float so went across to the far left hand swim. I soon had a hand size skimmer so blank avoided. During the next 30 minutes I had a few roach around the 2 oz mark before some more hand sized skimmers arrived. The canal towed really hard at times and I had to keep re-feeding. Shipping back 14 metres each time was hard as I had to keep the pole rollers parallel to the canal as the patch behind me was very narrow. It was well into the second hour when I tried the right had far bank swim and put a string of roach together some around 3 oz so good weight builders. 

At the halfway point I tried a single caster over to my right and had an instant bite resulting in a big skimmer just under 2lbs followed by a smaller one. Caster was the best hook bait come the end so stuck with this the rest of the match. Worm did produce a few fish as well and I put a small piece on for the last 15 minutes of the match and lost what I believe was a big perch which took me around the back of the reeds breaking the hook length.

The scales came down and reports were that some of the early pegs in the section had struggled.

End peg Phil was first to weigh and had 9lb 2oz.

Phil with his catch made up of hand sized skimmers and dumpy roach

I knew I didn't have that but was pleased to record 6lb 14oz.

Not bad for a 1st visit to the venue

Heres how my section ended up..

I had 23 points so well up there for the team.

Both Nomads Team Sheets as follows.....

Match results as follows courtesy of Simon Hebditch Facebook page.....

Here are results of the Sensas Kennet & Avon Spring league on the canal at Hungerford.
99 people fished the final round of the Spring league on the prolific canal at Hungerford and it fished quite well with double figures needed to frame.
Winner on the day, and going one better than last week, was Wyvern Angling Gold’s Nick King who drew by the wires on the Marsh section and caught
Bream and skimmers to 2lb on fluoro or yellow maggot over groundbait to weigh 17-13.
Runner Up was PI Thatchers Lee Trivett who drew end peg at Lower Dunmill and caught 6 Bream and some bits on maggots an worms over groundbait over to some rushes.
3rd: John Williams (Drennan Oxford)- 11-1
4th: Chris Telling (Devizes Black)- 10-12
5th: Daniel Webb (PI Blackhorse)- 10-9
6th: Stretch Saunders (Bordon Shop)- 10-1
On the team front Drennan Oxford put a stirling team performance in to win with 96 points fro PI Blackhorse in second with 92 and Drennan Bordon Red in third with 83 points.
4th: Sensas A 4 Black- 82
5th: Rive Homestores- 78
6th: Sensas West Sussex- 75

This meant that Garbolino Blackmore Vale won the league for the second year running with 329 points winning £1000 and some Sensas prizes from PI Blackhorse who had 317 points and won £800.
3rd: PI Thatchers B- 283 (£600)
4th: Drennan Oxford- 277 (£300)
5th: Wyvern Angling Gold- 277
6th: Drennan Bordon Red- 275
Rob Randall (Garbolino Blackmore Vale) won the individual with 98 points from Graham Smith (PI Blackhorse) with 97 points and Nick King in third with 96 points, all winning Sensas goodies.
Thanks go to all the clubs who let their water be used, the draw venues, Sensas and M5 Angling for providing prizes, Devizes Ac for providing scales and especially all the anglers who make it such a friendly league despite challenging fishing at times!

Back on the Gloucester Canal on Sunday for the final round of the Spring League....end peg please or flyer.