Hopefully I will get the time this year to feedback some results and let you know how our matches are going. Also I’m hoping that it will raise awareness of our matches and boost attendances. There are an increasing amount of anglers coming down from the West Midlands, with maybe 15 of the 80+ who fished the first round of the Southern Canal League yesterday coming down from Coventry and Nuneaton. Even Simon Nickless made the trip down from Cannock.
We (Browning Northants) are also hoping to run a few matches this year – mostly around the more prolific sections of the Northampton Nene run sections of the GUC around the Weedon/Flore area. I’ll put the details up on the website.
Before I go onto the Southern Canal League, I have to mention the Milton Keynes Spring League which was run between April and May on the GUC at Milton Keynes. I really enjoy this league and we put in loads of effort as a team this year, really getting to grips with the place using a very simple, but positive approach to catch skimmers early followed by roach – mostly down the same hole in around 3 to 3.5 ft of water. Our 3 teams of 4, filled the top 3 places in the league and we also had 5 of the top 7 individuals – a great result against some good teams and shows you what a bit of team work and communication can achieve!!
Southern Canal League
Onto the Southern Canal League, for those who aren’t familiar with it - this is a very popular and competitive league made up of 14 teams of 6. The match is focused on team fishing, with good team payouts and the top 4 in each section paid out. I was lucky enough to be part of a very good Blackhorse team that won this league on a couple of occasions in 2011 and 2012 and the trophies take pride of place, such is the importance of this league in the southern canal circuit.
Some of the weights are huge, particularly on the Luton sections of the canal, but there is also a lot of squatt fishing and scratching to do. Team wise, the trick is to catch skimmers/bream/carp if you can, but then focus on squatt fishing in the harder areas – the aim is for a top 6 finish and being the best of the rest – not easy to focus on roach when people are sacking on pellet at the other end of the section!
I’m going to feedback after each round and hopefully include some photos and a peg by peg breakdown (Joff – I know that you like to look at these!)
Round 1 – GUC Berkhamstead
Sunday 1st June
The first round was held on Sunday at Berkhamsted, which can be fantastic, but also very unpredictable. 84 anglers drew at McDonalds near Hemel and as usual the atmosphere was excellent with all teams keen to make a good start. Berkhamsted is a nice place, just outside the M25 and proper London commuter belt country – it must also be the fittest town in England judging by the amount of joggers and cyclists.
Despite a few dodgy areas, the match fished well, with skimmer weights dominating, but 8lb+ still needed to win most sections.
Personally, I drew in A section which was rumoured to be the hardest section, having not been fishing for several years - the usual thing on a big match. My peg put me on A3 and I had Oakwood’s Tommy Boyce on A1 and Maver Images Martin Foster on A4 for company. However with 4 end pegs in the section, including Blackhorse’s Danny Webb and Dorkings Gary Pook, it could be a tough match.
I fished a simple, positive match - similar to what we have been doing at Milton Keynes, looking for skimmers and better fish on big maggot and pinkie, before loose feeding squatt and ‘bringing the roach in’. I focused on this single line for most of the day, catching a couple of skimmers and gudgeon and then 100 or so roach for 4-14. My best rig was a 4x12 Dufill Ablette II, modified with a plastic bristle and shotted positively with no.12’s spread over the last 9” to catch the skimmers and gudgeon, before swapping between 4x10 and 4x12 strung out rigs (Garbolino DC10’s) to keep the roach coming through the water. I was convinced I would catch on hemp right across next to a bush, but is just didn’t go and perhaps if I’d left it alone I might have had another ½ lb – the fish just wanted to be in that slightly deeper water.
This put me 3rd in the 14 peg section, won by my team mate Alan Robinson (Browning Northants Red) who had 13lb of skimmers and bits mostly on pinkie, after finally leaving his bread at home! Dan Webb (Blackhorse) was second with 5-7 off a tricky and narrow bridge peg.
Team wise we (Browning Northants Black) ended up 4th with 52 points. Our other team were 6th – so a good start on what can be a tricky venue. Preston Blackhorse won the day with a great score of 69 points. Gone Fishing (which includes Simon Willsmore, Michael Buchwalder, Paul Abott and Martin Greene, Dave Tebbut – an awesome canal team) were second on 63. Those two teams will take some beating. Sensas Oakwood were third on 57.
Individually the top 4 were:
A Flint Tubertini South 21-4 D1
J Davis Sensas Oakwood Black 16-4 B1
A Robinson Browning Northants Black 13-7 A14
M Buchwalder Gone Fishing 12-10 C6
I’ve attached the results.
Overall a good day in the sun, a well run match with plenty of bites for most. It was also great to see so many anglers make the trip down from the West Midlands to fish this. The next round is next weekend on the Manor Fields/Mill Lane section of the canal at Milton Keynes. I’ll hopefully put some photos up next time!
Matt
