My angling pal Chris Hook and I qualified for this final on the Gloucester Canal at the start of the summer. After qualifying we started to do some research on the two canals around Stafford which were to be used for the final. There was some information but it was fairly limited so reached out to the Stafford Izaak Walton Club via Facebook and was put in contact with Alan Round their Match Secretary who gave us some basic info. I then made contact with Simon Neckless who is fairy local to the venue and gave me his number to have a chat about the stretches being used. All this information was really useful and we felt a lot more confident.
We did think about travelling up on the Friday night but in the end chose to have an early start on the Saturday. I met Chris at Gordano Services on the M5 at 05:15 for the planned 2hr and 15min drive. The fog was quite bad in places but luckily at that time of the morning the M5 and M6 was quiet. Just before Birmingham I had an engine management warning light come on and on the dashboard display it said ''risk of filter clogging''. It was an amber light and it only said risk so I carried on and caught up with Chris at the Stafford Boat Club by 07:30 which was where the draw was. I decided to phone the RAC after the match. The Boat Club was not open so we had to wait for someone to turn up, they did around 07:45 so no breakfast as planned, I did manage to get a couple of cuppa's and that was it.
I would be on A Section which was the Staffs Worcester and Chris on B Section the Trent and Mersey. 55 Pairs would be competing.
As we had not seen the venues before our peg numbers didn't mean a lot. I drew A33 which I could walk to from the draw and Chris had B 47 which he needed to drive to but all the parking was well organised with postcodes.
Our research had told us there were some big perch in the two canals so we went with plenty of worm including lobby along with squats, pinkies, caster and maggot. Our ground bait mix was to be Sensas Noire Fine Canal and Black Lake.
As I walked down the Staffs Worcester to my peg I passed a couple of anglers who had draw on the mouth of the only marina and it did look nice. To be fair as I walked down all the pegs looked good with overhanging trees and bushes and there was plenty of space between. I was keeping an eye on the peg numbers and looking ahead of me when I saw a very narrow part of the canal and I mean narrow. My peg was right in the middle of the narrowest bit.
The peg was no more than 8 metres wide but I did know from research that it could possibly produce in the right conditions.
I took time to study the far bank and picked out 3 areas to concentrate on after plumbing up. At 10:00 o'clock, 12:00 o'clock and 14:00 tight to the reeds I had about 3 foot of water. I set up a 0.3 gram float with 0.10 hook length to a forged 20, elastic was a number 6. A similar rig but heavier for the same lines, 0.14 hook length to a forged 18 and a 12 elastic. Down the track rig was a 4x14 to a 0.08 hook length and a 22 hook, elastic was a number 4. I set up another duplicate rig for the track but again much heavier, 0.14 hook length to a 16, elastic was a 12.
We had loads of time to set up as the match was 11 until 4. As I was setting up I heard a familiar accent behind me and I just happened to ask.... ''where are you from then'' the reply was what do you want to know that for....... i replied ''I am originally from Portadown''..... the reply was....... ''your Ivan Currie'' ..... lol, it was Geoff Quinn who loves his canal fishing and has a lot to do with the matches on the Newry Canal which is not far from where I was born.
Geoff was not fishing himself but was over with a couple of his colleagues who had and I believe was support a junior event the following day.
I carried on sorting myself out and was ready in plenty of time. As I was waiting for the all in a boat come through and I could have touched it as my peg was so narrow.
On the hooter I cupped in a little chopped worm and caster plus a few squats on my left and right far bank lines and ground bait and squat straight in front of me. Two balls went in down the track with squat and a few caster.
I started of across right in front of me with a fluro pinkie on the light rig just to have a look to see if anything was there. It didn't take long for the float to dip and I soon had a micro roach. A few more followed and believe me they were not big. I persevered with double squat as a change of bait firing squat over the top for about 20 minutes but the fish did not increase in size. Before I tried my other far bank lines I went across on the heaver rig with a small red worm. Bang...straight away the float disappeared and a perch of around 4 ozs was swung in. I had seen the angler to my left fishing quite a big piece of worm and he had netted a decent perch as well. I had a look on my 10:00 o'clock line with half a dendra tight to the reeds on the heavy rig and had to wait about 10 minutes for an indication, the float was heading into the reeds so I struck hard and the elastic came out quite a way. It was a decent perch of around a pound, just the job. I re-fed that line with a little more choppy and went on to my 14:00 line. Same thing happened almost immediately and another decent perch was played to the net. Looking up and down I could not see that much action so felt I was doing ok. I did try the track but did not have a bite on anything, think it was because the peg was too narrow. I nicked a few more micro perch and roach across directly opposite me as I wanted to rest the other lines.
About halfway through the sun came around quite strong and the canal started to switch off. at this point I decided to sit it out positively so fed a fair bit of worm along my 3 lines across and a pot down the middle. I was rewarded with a near 2lb perch on a quarter of a lobby and lost another good fish about an hour from the end. I did loose another big perch halfway across the canal due to having to stop shipping back as there were pedestrians in the way, pissed me off.
The scales came up and it was clear most had struggled for around a kilo. My mainly perch net went 2kg 100grms and was really up there in the section.
My net and picture taken by non other than Tom Scholey of ''catch more media''
Heres how my section board looked like....
I phone Chris after I weighed and he had also done well with over 4kg and was up there in his section. He also had lost a big fish.
We met up back at the boat club and calculated we might be in with a chance. The Top 4 pairs were being paid with the winners receiving over £2000 down to £750 for 4th place.
We finished 5th!!!!! those fish we lost each cost us big time.
Here are the full results........
With regards to my van..... phone the RAC who said it was safe to drive home and I did make it. Now in local garage. Didn't get home until 21:30....knackered but great experience and only just missed out.
Upper Thames Winter League Bristol Avon Chippenham and Melksham - summary
Up early again as I had to transfer my gear from the sick van to the car and it was an hours drive to Melksham. To be honest I didn't feel great due to lack of sleep.
I did get a short drive and walk to my peg though, G6 at Melksham down the Portman Rd.
The peg did look nice and I was surprised I needed a top 4 rig.
My Nomads Team mates said it could be ok for a few skimmers. I won't go into all the rigs etc but I ended up doing ok with 5lb 2oz worth 5 points from 8. Made up of nice stamp roach but couldn't keep them coming.
Team wise we had a disaster on a very dire river with no flow.
There were a few double figure weights with Nigel Baker having an outstanding 30lb weight of mainly bream from Monkton Pk in Chippenham.
Back on the same venue next week. Lets hope it fishes a bit better but no rain is forecast.
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