I did fish the Glossy Spring League on the 9th May and drew Castle Up which turned out to be another disaster. All around me fished shite and once again you needed to be towards the end of the Section (towards Gloucester in this case). Team mate Sam Johnson finished 2nd in his Section at Slimbridge Up with 5 or 6 pounds but he had most of that in his first few casts. It's Round 3 this coming Sunday and I see there are a few teams looking for anglers due to others starting to drop out, can't blame them. The organisation is superb but the fishing crap.
On to more positive fishing.......
I was keen to get back to Port Talbot on Sunday, it has been fishing harder than usual but at least you get a few bites. Dai the fishery owner gave organiser Steve O'Mara pegs 1 to 21 and 18 were booked in. When I looked at the list of anglers it was a quality field but in my opinion its a very fair venue.
They had a lot of rain during the week and more was forecast for Sunday. I sort of knew the fishing would be affected as the cold water comes off the mountains into a river and then into the dock. The dock sluices then let water out so it does not get a chance to warm up. The fish don't like this too much and the bream and skimmers switch off, the roach, particularly the bigger roach also back off a bit.
It was 08:00 at the dock gate with fishing 10 - 4.
On the way over the weather was ok but when I reached Cardiff the rain came on but cleared by the time I got to Port Talbot.
Steve O'Mara was well organised as usual and got the safe draw under way. Eventually it came to me and I was allocated peg 1. Never fished it before and it of course was an end peg. I gleaned some information of Team mates Rich Candy and Clive Roberts who have been framing a lot on the venue recently. Other Nomad anglers Andy Thomas and Paul Manley were also fishing. I also volunteered to help with the weigh in.
A strong line up (Steve put me down as the hot variety)
My peg turned up to very comfortable and I was able to set up on a big concrete slab.
The Dock is not the most attractive place but it's starting to green up a bit now.
Alan Godrich was next to me on peg 2 and with his strong Swansea accent plus a bit of wind noise it was a tad difficult to understand him. I know he was not over joyed with being up this end of the dock.
The Dock is one of them venues were I think you have to make an early decision concerning your approach and stick to it i.e feeder or whip. I did set up a feeder rod but also set up 2 whips, one at full depth 5 metres out and one at half dept 5 metres out. I done ok on the whip 2 weeks ago here but the 5 elastic was too weak when you are striking into fish 4 metres deep! I was sorted this week stepping up the elastic to a 6.
The sun was shining and there was a warm breeze.
I put 3 balls in at 5 metres, went out on the 2 gram deep rig expecting the float to disappear and it just sat there. I feared the worst.
20 minutes in it went under and a 4 oz roach was swung in. Back out expecting another and there was not a sign of any fish. Looking down the line up to peg 8 there was little action. At this point I thought that if the roach are not responding then the skimmers and bream won't either.
Little soft balls of ground bait brought a few fish in but I could get a run of 5 fish or so then nothing.
Alan next door was on the tip and wasn't having anything. 90 minutes in I had 25 roach. For the first time ever in a match I started counting the fish.
I decided that when the fish backed off I would have a chuck with the feeder for 10 minutes but soon got bored with that due to no indications.
Swapping to the shallow 1.5 gram rig brought a few fish but it wasn't right due to the tow on the water so binned that idea and just focused on the deep heavier rig.
I changed from feeding ground bait to just loose feeding and it did seem to make a difference.
Alan on peg 2 and Shaun on peg 3 packed up early.
I went down to Steve on peg 16 to collect the scales. Steve said he chucked back about 5lb of fish, the skimmers and bream that usually hang around on this peg did not respond and if he can't get them then no one can.
The weights overall were very mixed and a few DNW. Nige Evans managed to snare a couple of bream in the last hour which boosted his weight but it was fellow Nomad Clive Roberts that won the day with nearly 22lb of roach. I managed a level 15lb, I thought I had more and ended up 2 out of the money.
Back on the Feeder Canal Wednesday and the Glossy Sunday for Round 3 !!!!!!
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