London Winter League round four River Cam

[Mullarkey]

London Winter league round four
River Cam Baitsbite Lock to Clayhithe Bridge



The venue for round four was the River Cam from Baitsbite Lock to Clayhithe Bridge and based on the previous weeks practise open it was going to be feast or famine. I had pegged 7 of the sections the previous day and because our league doesn`t operate a staggered draw, I tried to get each 5 peg section as even possible. This proved to be quite a tough job because of natural features and poor banks and I quite fancied peg 1 to be the one to get.
At previous draws my team mates had often complained that I was often way down the draw queue so this week I collected all the teams pools money, completed the team sheet and was first to pay the organiser so that I could draw in front of the rest of the teams. Boy, did I wish that I hadn`t as in went the hand and out came peg 3, bang in the bloody middle. To cap it all off our nearest rivals, Oakwood Eurobait, captained by Pete (The Emperor) Vasey pulled peg 1 and Simon Colclough (Keyhole Kate) pulled the other end peg (5) out for Wickford. Were we up against it or what.

The team gathered round in the pub car park where everyone was allocated their pegs, we discussed quickly each peg and updated the angler with any relevant information as they were definitely going to need it.

My peg was 3 into the boats at Horningsea, normally quite a good consistent area for roach, odd chub and perch. The river had a bit more colour than the previous week and the flow was quite strong. The banks were a nightmare and it took me quite a time to set my Rive box and footplate up so that the extending legs were stable and level. I was perched about six feet above the rivers edge and I had visions of the lot collapsing and being deposited in the drink. I had a boat to fish against at 16m, this was going to be my bonus fish line and after plumbing around I settled on 11m to be my main line.

I set up the following rigs:

1) 1g Sensas Jean Francois with olivette and 9`s & 10`s droppers with size 22 PR26 to 07 hooklengt, for fishing pinkie and big maggot.
2) Same as above but 1.5g rig.
3) Same as above but 2g rig.
4) 4 x 16 Mid-River Pole Stix with strung out 9`s on 014 to 012 hooklength with size 20 Mustad wide gape power for fishing up against and running along the boat looking for chubs.

I had miles too much bait with me, two pint of casters, I pint flouro pinkie, I pint chrysodined flouro pinkie, I pint red maggots, 2 pints of white squats, 1 kilo of dendras and some bread. Groundbait was one bag of Secret, one bag of Supermatch and one bag of black SuperRoach plus a small amount of liquidised.

When the match started I fed four orange sized balls with pinkies and a few squats plus a big cup of hemp on my main line as I intended to start on this line straight away, but I also fed a cup each of casters and hemp against the moored boat 16 metres away.

First drop in was on a pinkie and after running the 1gram rig down the peg I was surprised it hadn`t buried. Finally after three or four trots the float dipped and roach number one was hooked, the pole was shipped back and the fish swung to hand. I`d like to say that it was the first of many but it was difficult to line any amount of fish up and sometimes they would be right over where the initial feed had been deposited and next they would be right down the peg.
Catapulting a pouch of hemp would often get you an immediate response right where the loose feed hit the surface however you couldn`t do it too often otherwise the fish would drop down the peg. Like wise, refeeding with a ball of crumb and pinkies would produce a few fish before they backed off, this carried on for a couple of hours when I had accumulated about 40 fish for approximately two and a half pound. Time to try the far bank line, which I had kept primed with loose fed casters, I shipped out to 16m with double maggot on the hook expecting to get a bite first put in. Unfortunately nothing happened and I got the same response every time I tried the line during the remainder of the match. I could see every angler in my section and it looked that I was leading the section, however Paul Chambers, the Wickford angler two below me hooked a big fish which took him a while to get out and when he netted it, it looked a good pound plus fish. “ what`s that” I shouted down to him “Perch” he replied, I now knew any lead I had was looking slim. During the last couple of hours of the match the flow increased and my peg started to boil, so I kept trying my heavier rigs and although they went through perfect, I could`nt get a bite on them. The one gram rig was the only one I could attract any number of bites on, although the time between bites increased and the fish got smaller. I also started to catch a few small perch which I didn`t take as a positive sign. More worryingly was that I couldn`t get the one gram rig to fish properly as it wouldn`t seem to settle right, I had been experimenting with the way I was laying the rig in and the best was to lower it `down the hole` rather than against the flow. It was at this time that I`d wished I`d set up a 0.8gram strung out rig but I was too lazy and kept perservering with the one grammer. In the last hour I was becoming increasingly aware that Paul Chambers was catching stamp roach pretty consistently and in my heart of hearts knew that by the final whistle he had beaten me. I ended up with 87 fish and the weigh in was as follows:

Peg 5 Paul Chambers 8lb 12 oz
Peg 4 Graham Swan 2lb 14oz
Peg 3 me 7lb 3 oz
Peg 2 Beastie Davis 5lb odd
Peg 1 Richard Swan 2lb odd

So I`d ended up second in section and won a few beer tokens and my thoughts returned to how the team had done.
As I walked back to the car it became apparent that we had bombed right out and in the pub there were some glum Image faces.

As the other teams members came back we were hoping that we might scrape in third place as it was clear that Wickford had won it from peg five and Oakwood had come second from the other end peg. We felt that with two matches to go we could claw back one of two points but, like a dagger through the heart, Sid Wilson the co organiser confirmed our worst fears, when he told me that Oakwood`s 2nd team, N14, had also beaten us.
So now we`ve got a mountain to climb and with only two rounds left (GUC at Boxmoor and Slough Arm on the GUC at Langley) the odds are stacked against us.

Amazingly in the four matches of our league so far, peg five has won every round! Let`s hope we get all the 5`s in the next two.

Teams on the day

Browning Wickford 37
Oakwood Angling 33
Oakwood N14 32
Image VDE 27
Fox Match Raiders 20

League to date

Oakwood Angling 7
Browning Wickford 8
Image VDE 10
Oakwood N14 15
Fox Match Raiders 20

Individuals on the day

1st Rob Wright Oakwood Angling 16lb 8oz
2nd Danny Grimsey Browning Wickford 10lb 8oz
3rdPaul Jenkins Oakwoood N14 9lb 2oz
4th Simon Colclough Browning Wickford 9lb 1oz
5th Paul Chambers Browning Wickford 8lb 12oz
6th Dave Whitman Oakwoood N14 7lb 8oz

[Woodhouse]

Steve...Why dont you have a staggered draw?

[Mullarkey]

Lee,
wish they would have a staggered draw, but back in the days when Essex Country were in the league and there were ten teams or so it was felt that this way gave the lesser teams a better chance. Unfortunately they won`t change it as the organisers are worried that the so called weaker teams will leave the league. Silly really because we`ve only got five teams, no new ones on the horizon and the league is probably going to fold anyway.