Bait Tech Southern Canal League Round 2

#1

Bait Tech Southern Canal League Round 2

Round 2 – GUC Milton Keynes
Sunday 8th June
84 Pegs

The second round of the Southern Canal League certainly didn’t go to plan for my Browning Northants team on what was a very tricky Grand Union Canal around Milton Keynes after very heavy rain. The match was much harder than anticipated, the skimmers didn’t really feed and the match was dominated by very hard to catch micro roach!

The match was pegged between Fenny Stratford High Street, through Manor Fields and Mill Road, ending at the boat yard/Tuborg Straight for those that know the canal.

I drew in C section to the right of Mill Road in Bletchley and was hoping that peg 8 would put me into the trees, which is an area that I really like for big nets of hemp roach and skimmers. When I got to my peg though, it was clear that the organisers had to make some adjustments to get enough pegs in due to the presence of some overnight moored boats – the result was that all of the good bits had lots of space, with the hard areas of the section crammed together. I was smack bang in the middle of the concrete wall at the back of the gardens and in big trouble!!

Still, I had a team job to do so focused on making the best of my peg and some serious damage limitation.

I went for a positive approach fishing a main squatt line at 11m metres in 3.5 ft of water, a hemp line tight against the concrete in 18” and a back up squatt line at 13 metres. I also put a bit of chop worm and caster against the wall, but really wanted to focus on maximising the small fish potential of my peg after an early look for skimmers.

I had a few fish early on big maggot over my squatt line, including a 1lb skimmer, before switching to squatt. This just got harder and harder through the day, with the roach getting smaller and also really difficult to keep at a consistent depth, requiring constant rig and depth changes to keep in contact with the fish. Despite 30-40 boats though, the roach were happier in the deeper water and I caught very little towards the wall.

I ended with 4-2-0 including that skimmer, about 30 roach for another 2lb and then 60 or so skerrits for another pound. A real turning point was switching from a 22 Series 2 hook to a 24 3530. I don’t like dropping below a 22 on this canal because there are so many bonus fish, but on this occasion I felt that the tiny roach couldn’t get the hook in their mouths due to the wide gape. A soon as I changed hooks and went for the smallest squatt – I rarely missed a bite – lesson learned!!

The other pegs on the concrete wall had 2-2, 6oz and 1lb so I felt I’d done my best for the team. Unfortunately I was only able to beat one more in the section putting me 8th out of 14 (Tommy Boyce on C2 had 3lb) and I tied with Richard Lattimer on C3. Michael Buchwalder had 4-7 off C1 and there were several 5-6lb weights including Pete Vasey on C13 who put together 6lb very quickly on the shallow and narrow boat pegs before a very slow few hours.

The section was won comprehensively by Oakwoods Gary Eales. Gary drew peg C5 in the trees (where I should have been!) and caught skimmers and a handy 11lb carp on worm and caster right across – the carp was landed on the whistle and Gary did really well to land it on skimmer gear with boats going by. This gave him 19lb which was enough to win the match too.

Team wise, we limped our way to a mediocre 8th on the day. Our other team fared better in 6th – led by Mark Davis who was third in the match off the reeds at Manor Fields with 13lb (6lb carp and skimmers), with John Shepley and Gary Young also picking up some section money. There was a three way tie for first place on the day with Preston Blackhorse (led by captain Graham Smith who had a 4lb catfish in B section), Gone Fishing and Tubertini South all on 60 points.

Individuals on day –

1st Gary Eales – Sensas Oakwood Black -    19-4-0
2nd R. Durrant - Matchpack Colemans -       14-14-0
3rd Mark Davis – Browning Northants Black – 12-12-0
4th S. Beeby – Tubertini South -                      10-11-0

Despite a tough day, this is still a cracking canal and a great league!

I didn’t get to fish the 3rd round which took place yesterday, but it sounds as though there were some huge weights. I’ll put the full results up when I receive them.

#2

Team Standings and individual team breakdowns attached