Angling Trust Winter League Round 3

• Team was 2nd on the day (well done to GBMV)
• Won my section
• 6lb 3oz
• E section at Brismslade

Last weeks Open was on the Bristol Avon, which fished very hard in places.  I was lucky to drew Barton Farm, but not in the first 5 pegs or by the bridge where you wanted to be.  I drew permant peg 21, which was peg 14 on the day and the peg was full of weed.  I had a nightmare and lost sleep for days afterwards.  The problems were:

1. Rower went straight through rig as he was unaware of 16 meters of pole in the air and 10 meters of elastic across the river?!
2. Pike taking almost everything that I hooked, even 10oz perch.  Almost all my fish had teeth marks and gashes out of them.
3. Loosing another big fish on the chop, which finally broke me….. I honestly don’t believe it was a pike
4. Lost another big fish on the light maggot rig (0.064), played it for 5 minutes and no surprise that finally broke me.
5. Only weighed 4lb.
6. Almost sold all my gear on ebay.

Therefore after a disappointing river open last week in preparation for the following week Angling Trust winter, they decided to put on the Kennet and Avon canal at Brimslade and Farmers.  They had a last minute practice match on Wednesday, and the weights were:

Brimsalde

Peg 1     13lb 8oz ( Well done John for winning another match)

Peg 2     1lb 8oz

Peg 3     3lb 10oz

Peg 4     4lb 14oz

Peg 5     4lb 11oz

Peg 6     3lb 12oz

Peg 8     7lb 12oz

Farmers

Peg 9 3lb 11oz

Peg 10 5lb 8oz

Peg 11   Didn’t get drawn

Peg 12   DNW

Peg 13   7lb 2oz

Peg 14   4lb 14oz

Looking at the weights we should be in for a good match, hopefully plenty of bites to be had.  Some of the fish are very small and Jamie Cox from GBMV had 113 fish for 3lb 12oz, so about 30 to the pound, so plenty of bites.  John caught some skimmers, perch and roach for his match winning weight.   There were a few carp caught at Farmers, and they are on average 2lb, so fight well on light gear.  I would like to draw down there on an end peg closest to the lock, as you should be able to catch perch on lobs, skimmers and roach on squatts and pinkies also and catch these small  carp on micro pellet and maggot.

Introduction

Farmers would be nice for me to draw, with four end pegs there it would be a potential match winning area and K section at Wolfhall is normally a great area for skimmers and big perch.    Farmers is good for small carp up to 2lb with odd big carp and skimmers.  However, I drew Brimslade, E section which should be fair apart from the end peg.  So I would be happy to score six points out of seven.

On arrive to my peg the canal looked noticeably clear and a few small roach topping in the area.  After walking to Steve Long’s peg to borrow some front legs for my platform (thanks Steve), it was noticeable to fish a lot more activity in his peg, I felt that these small fish were backing off to the quiet areas.  This was a concern, and I felt that it could be tough and 5lb would be a good weight, especially looking at Wednesday’s open results.

Match

I chopped up 40 lob’s and fed it on three lines, two on the far bank swims and one down the track.  Then fed at 10 meters up the shelf with a dark groundbait and then had a “dump” line at 13 at a 30 degree angle with a yellower mix for skimmers.

I went straight across at 10 meters and caught two small roach in five minutes and then connected with a much larger fish, then took six to seven meters of two elastic over the canal, i thought it was a big perch, but a skimmer around 1lb.  Went in again no bites, so decided to put a small ball of groundbait with some dead pinkies and went on 13 meter line to get no bites.  So went down the track to catch four perch and went of 10 meter line on double pinkie and caught another 1lb skimmer.  Awesome, forty minutes had gone and already had 4lb, couldn’t ask for a better start.  The second hour saw me add another 1lb 8oz to the net, and then things became very difficult, could only catch tiny roach, maybe two at time and rotation of lines just didn’t add anything.