London W/L 5 GUC Durrants Hill to Boxmoor

[Mullarkey]

London Winter league round five
GUC Durrants Hill to Boxmoor



Well, this was the one we were all dreading, especially after the results from the previous weeks open where it fished abysmal. This part of the canal fishes its head off in spring but come winter it turns into one of the most peggiest venues you could imagine. We (Image VDE) had blown out big style in the last round on the Cam and we needed to win to get back in contention, the only problem was that we felt that we needed pegs 1 or 2, at the very least peg 5, otherwise we were sunk.

As the draw commenced Wickford were first, out came peg 2, buggar, there goes one good peg, then Oakwood get peg 1, the flyer, double buggar, we end up with peg 4 and with our big rivals on the two boss pegs the look on the faces of my team mates weren`t exactly rosy. Any way everyone huddled around and I went through each anglers draw with them and each angler received a reasonable update on their peg from people who had drawn nearby in the previous weeks open.

My peg was A4, the first section at Durrants Hill and generally you would want pegs 1 & 2 in this section. As I walked to my peg I passed a team mate, Johnny Weeden in B section and I told him that that I had a good feeling about the day (it was my birthday) and he said “I hope you`re right, Steve, as we need a bit of luck”.

The weather conditions were awful with persistent rain and a cold gusting wind, at least it might deter the bank walkers a bit.

At my peg I made myself comfortable and set up my brolly and positioned my box, carefully placing my side platform and pole rollers so as not to disturb the abundant dog turds.
My swim was about 14 metres across to some pilings, there was no features in the way of rushes or bushes and as I surveyed the other pegs in my section, pegs 3 & 5 had a boat each to fish to and pegs 1 & 2 were in a wider area while peg 1 had a great big feck off tree plus being an end peg near to the lock. To cap it all it was inhabited by the great man himself Pete Vasey. Was my good feeling about the day real or was it just wind?

I plumbed around my peg and found the deepest water at 5-6 joints (4 ½ foot) here I was going feed liquidised straight in front on me, with choppie lines at angles left and right. I also had a squatt line at the bottom of the far shelf going up, at around 10 metres.







I set up the following rigs:

1) 4 x 14 Carpa Chimp on 012 straight through to size 12 B560 for lobbies.
2) 4 x 12 Mick Basset London Squatt pattern with 08 hooklength and size 20 PR26 for fishing big maggot/caster/small bits of worm down the track.
3) 4 x 12 Concorde to 07 hooklength with 22 pr 26 for fishing punch short and squatt at base of far shelf.
4) Same as rig 3 but in 4 x 10 size for fishing squatt across.

Bait wise I had one pint of casters, I pint flouro pinkie, I pint red maggots, 1 pint of white squats, ½ kilo of dendras, 50 lobs and some bread.
Groundbait was equal measures of VDE Superlake, VDE World plus some fresh pidgeon shyte that a pidgeon fancier had given me and a small amount of liquidised.

When the match started I fed some finely chopped lobs plus some casters on my big fish lines down the track, a ball of liquidised at 5 joints and two apple sized balls of gb with squats at the base of the far shelf.

I started on the lobbie rig, the plan was to spend a couple of minutes on each big fish line hoping to get one of those great big perch that inhabit the stretch.
Left side nothing, then a switch to the right side, nothing, oh well time to go on the punch as it always produces.

Well not this time it didn`t and a few minutes confirmed that it wasn`t going to be a punch day. By this time my neighbour on my left had already netted a sizeable perch and the other anglers in my section had all caught so it was time to start scratching around. I picked up my `light` big fish rig and hooked on a small piece of worm and shipped out. After a while the float dipped and a small perch of an ounce or so was swung in, at least I wouldn`t blank. During the first hour I caught several more small perch although it felt that both lines were dying and it was time to try the squatt line at the base of the far shelf.

I started to catch ounce roach, some big gudgeon, odd small perch and things were looking up so that by the end of the first hour I`d got about 15 fish for 10-12 ounce. My target weight was around the 3 pound mark so I felt that I was on track although I expected peg 1 to win the section with 5 pound plus. I was really aiming for second unless I could snaffle a big perch or a bream then I might nick it, that was my game plan anyway.
As the match went on the squatt line showed signs of fading and I had to keep juggling shot, depth and how I laid the rig in to keep fish coming. It was hard work, made especially hard because the wind and rain were making my eyes stream, the fading light made it difficult to see the float and my squats went cold and just laid there lifeless (bit like the old woman on a Saturday night!). I felt that I needed to re-feed the peg with more gb but instead decided to start another line 11 metres at an angle along the peg with two balls of gb laced with about 60 squatts. The idea was that I would try that line when I felt my original line had been exhausted and if there were fish on the new line I could then re-feed the original line fully expecting to catch on it again.

After about 10 minutes I tried the new line and there were a few fish there, mainly gudgeon and small perch so I fed the original line with more gb and spent the rest of the match alternating between the two squatt and big fish lines. Within the last hour and a half I got a phone call from Johnny Weeden in the next section to tell me to keep trying caster down the track as he had caught a pound plus roach and lost a carp on it and was now getting regular bites on the shell. I`d like to report that everything went to plan and I caught some bonus fish on casters ( or is it carstirs?) but I never had a bite on them and I finished the match with 64 fish which I thought would go about 2 ½ to 2 ¾ lb.


Pete Vasy was on the scales and starting at peg 5 the Raiders angler weighed 2lb 9oz, I had 3lb 4 oz, Paul Jenkins for Oakwood N14 next to me weighed 1lb 14oz with the good pegs to follow:

Pete (soapy) Steward for Wickford on peg 2, was adamant that he didin`t have three pound, but weighed in 3lb 6oz and the Emperor Vasey annihilated the section from peg 1, with 9lb 2 oz. Bit disappointed as I was close to second but on reflection I felt that I`d done reasonably well from my peg, next it was back to Berkhamstead Cricket club to assess the results.

As the anglers filtered back into the club I was busy working out not only our points but those of Wickford and Oakwood as we needed to win, anything else would have been the end of our campaign. The scores were looking good, we had a section winner in the ever reliable Martin Foster, section seconds from Gary Miller, Johnny Weeden, Chris (small hands) V, Todger and big Barry Oliver who got out of jail with a 4lb bream hooked up the council gritter. We only had one low score so things were looking good and with news of Oakwood wasting the golden peg 1 we were feeling confident.
When the results were read out we had indeed won with 36 points which goes to show you that it isn`t always a fore gone conclusion and luck and skill do prevail. Wickford came second with 34 points and the other three teams (including Oakwood) all came joint third! Oakwood were so close to coming last it was unbelievable and try as we could we could`nt find any mistakes on the weigh sheets to demote them!
So with one round to go on the ever reliable Slough Arm we are still third in the league but one point adrift of the two joint leaders Oakwood and Wickford. If we win the last round we are definitely through to the semi at Gold Valley. So all to play for in two weeks time.

Teams on the day

Image VDE 36
Browning Wickford 34
Oakwood Angling, Oakwood N14 Fox Match Raiders 27

League to date

Oakwood Angling & Browning Wickford 10
Image VDE 11
Oakwood N14 18
Fox Match Raiders 22

Individuals on the day

1st Danny Grimsey Browning Wickford 13lb
2nd Barry Riley Raiders 11lb 13 oz
3rd Graham Swann Oakwoood N14 11lb 6 oz
4th Gary Miller Image VDE 10lb 13oz
5th John Davis Oakwood Angling 9lb 10oz
6th Pete Vasey Oakwoood Angling 9lb 2oz

[joffmiester]

top marks matey

[chavey]

Nice write up Mullarkey, fingers crossed for the last round

[Dodge]

Great info Mullarkey well done the Image lads

Its good to see everyone on here are having decent Winter Leagues and catching plenty of fish






Except Moi ::)

[Woodhouse]

Steve...I reckon AT should let you change your semi venue to Milton Keynes

[Mullarkey]

cheers lads thanks for the replies.
Lee definitely we should be at MK if we qualify, we all live closer to Mk then Gold Valley but to be fair to Ken Wade although we`ve carried on the London Winter league name as it`s important that the capital of england has a winter league named after it, with the change in direction by AT perhaps we should change the name to the Hertfordshire W/L.
Anyway although we had a good result this week its far from over as we`ve still got to get a result in two weeks time.

[Woodhouse]

Steve/Beadle


How many go to the semi from your league?

[Mullarkey]

top two go through to gold valley to enjoy the hospitalities!

[TK]

Top read as usual Mullarkey

All the best for the next round