Simple Match Fishing Forum

I get really frustrated when results from natural water matches don’t go into the angling press – we’re the worst for it on the Northants/Milton Keynes/South East canal circuit.  It doesn’t help with attendances or the profile of this part of the sport.  There are lots of matches around Northampton/Milton Keynes and Market Harborough which just don’t get the publicity.

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

Nice write up (and well done on the MK spring league result).

definitely advertise the opens at Weedon and Flore - I used to love going there in the 90s, along with Grafton Regis and Stoke Bruerne.

Hi colly i posted this a couple of weeks ago hopefully we can get results up on site
The New Season
May 29th, 2014 at 10:41am Hi ALL
It's been a little quiet on here and i can only put that down to anglers trying to do all the jobs around the house before the new river season starts and i for one can't wait . The winter has been kind to us this year and by the looks the rivers are full of fish and just waiting for June the 16th and boy have we some natural venue matches coming up . I've tried yet again to fish commercials in the close season and yes ive caught a few fish but miles off the pace as my heart and mind just don't seem to be in it i'm afraid it would have to be all or nothing with the time i have to go fishing . So bring on the Soar Masters, Evesham ,River Fest plus the canal pairs great to see more midweek trent matches and he's me hoping to get on a few . Next close season i'm going to leave the commercials to the experts and move towards canals as i did enjoy the loughborough canal in April and have been since and caught well so i might even run a series of matches through the close season [thats if we have a close season next year ] what i would like is if anglers could photograph their catches even there swims if they are in the money or even not and put together in a few words the venue and how they caught so i can bring to light how good natural venues are we can all think it's doom and gloom but in all honesty it's not and once you see some of these photo's i'm sure it will encourage more anglers back to the banks of river and canals . feel free to comment whether you think this is a good idea or not i know how hard it is to ask someone to take a photo of your fish for you with your phone or camera even if you've had a bad day and working with Sensas believe me some of the bad days are more interesting i'm not looking for hero's just good honest angling so we help each other if needed or vise versa we all need help from time to time look forward to hearing from you

Hopefully - I've attached the full results this time!!

Attached as PDF's this time ...

Great result yesterday with 70lb of bream winning the 3rd round and 33lb 2nd made up of a 15lb carp and a 5lb carp and 13lb of roach and skimmers. Good venue with loads of fish throughout.

Hi Ian - I couldnt fish yesterday but hadnt realised it had fished so well. Did you fish?  Do you know who had the 70lb weight?

I'll put the results up for Round 2 shortly and for Round 3 when I get them.

Matt

I did fish.it was Martin Foster pegged at Slapton near the wires.i was 4th with 23lb missed out on 3rd by few ounces. I was a few pegs away from something called mudflats which they left out.

Well done yesterday mate, not often that you catch 23lb on a canal match and don't make the main money!! The mudflats is a good area for bream and the odd carp and doesn't get fished that often due to the walk and steps.

I'm away for the next round too, but will be fishing the last two - might see you then