Simple Match Fishing Forum

It’s 5.06pm Saturday evening and I’m in a queue in the local Spa putting the Lottery on. The news is on radio and concludes with……..’A wet night expected with 3ins of rain as we see the tale end of a tropical storm’

Why do they always bother tell us what we’ve just had or when we are having it, rather than ‘forecast’ it the day before…………

Tropical storm? Daint feel at all tropical as it tried to blow that pole out of my hand earlier!!! Certainly daint seem a warm southerly accompanying it as I sought solace in a flask of hot soup earlier.

The day hadn’t started too bad…………..it wasn’t raining for a change, but that was before the kicked in

I arrived to peg out with KOD, with the original intention of putting the boatyard in.

Only trouble was there was a fair breeze blowing down that section so we opted for the sheltered ‘middle section’ ::)

25 pegs in, with peg 1 nearest the new bridge. As we pegged out I told KOD I fancied pegs 14 onwards, but I didn’t fancy the walk, fully expecting therefore to pull out end peg 25. But deffo didn’t want no 10 or 11.

Draw time……..keeping eyes peeled and ears open…………’Lots of high nos are going’ KOD comments…….hurrah at last, 10 and 11 have gone. A dip in the bag……….peg 4. ‘Well at least no walk…………’ not what I wanted but I know there’s at least 4lb on it as I fished it the week before. I know how to tweak last weeks methods……might squeeze a bit more out the peg I thinks to myself.

A bonus too………….or not.
HaHa has crept up in the league to join me in 2nd place on points, only separated by total weight. I can keep my eye on him as he’s on next peg 5……..Yamo’s done the league, I don’t want to finish out of the top 2 for the first time in a decade or more.

The off…………4 target areas are fed…………but disaster, I’m playing catch up before target area 4 is fed as HaHa has a stripey of a couple of ounces first put in.

Line 1 is fished for 10 mins with no response……….unusual? Just where have those small roach that usually show instantaneously gone to

A push over to line 2 and the float dips straight away……..a lift and soft no4 latex comes out a foot or so……..I’m back in touch as a 3oz skimmer graces the net.

A couple of more small roach………and I mean a couple and small, are picked of line 2 and 3………..but no amount of work on line 1 manages to kick start it………???? The difference a week makes!

The wind picks up through the morning and it gets harder to fish long…………the pole is almost snatched out the hands on more than one occasion. Presentation is undoubtedly affected too. :( :( :(

Past half way through and bites are at a premium…………just when was that last bite? It was yonks ago. Cant see owt being caught around me……….just gotta keep my nose in front of HaHa.

HaHa’s having a grueller too and wanders of for a walk. Time for a quick look on throw a way line 4……..dont really expect it to produce, but here goes. A minute or two later, float dips and a bonus 3oz stripey is in the net.

And no……….it wasn’t on the chop. Another 10 mins on the line and nowt so it’s a back to a rotation of lines 1, 2 and 3 without success.

A look up and big Geoff on 3 is snagged in this overhanging bush across. Looks like he’s pulling for a break when disaster………………….his top 3 or 4 comes off, floats and starts blowing across to the far bank. He desperately tries to snare it with the residue of his pole. Did he get it back……….I’m not sure.

Veste comes for a walk, he’s called it a day in fear of breaking his pole in the wind

Meanwhile lines 1-3 only produce one further roach, but line 4 throws up another 3 fish before the whistle.

Time for the weigh in and a walk up to the top………..weights in order of the scales

PEG
25 Worminator 0.3.0
24 KOD 2.0.10
23 Millie 0.7.0
22 Hotlips DNW
21 Daylewlia 0.14.10
20
19 Heinzer 0.8.0
18 Phil B 2.5.10
17 Brambles 1.6.15
16
15 Yamo 1.10.5
14
13 Gerry 0.13.12
12
11 Tigerbay 0.4.11
10 Jonah DNW
9
8 Zorro 1.2.7
7 Veste 0.5.14
6 The Shark DNW
5 HaHa 0.7.1
4 TK 1.5.14
3 Big Geoff 0.9.3
2 Ball it In Baker 0.2.0
1 Cotti Dry

Well it looks like my gut reaction before the off was right as Phil B wins the fur and feather and the ‘better’ weights show in those higher nos. Or did the number of ‘spare’ pegs up there contribute and influence things?

Poor old Cotti dried on ‘his’ cut…………the place where if he’s had less than double figures he describes as ‘it fished crap’………….but there again, did Ball it In wipe him out

Personal thoughts? Well on reflection this morning there were a couple of changes I could or should have done to alter presentation……certainly thinking about the trip I was picking up in the opposite direction to the gale. Might not have worked, but…………

Hi TK is this the same stretch of canal thatwe are fishing against your lot fr tee pot

Hi TK is this the same stretch of canal thatwe are fishing against your lot fr tee pot

Yes

opps found them .........beginning to wish i hadnt???/

oh dear !!!!

Hi Jeff

The section was earmarked for the match. But we’ve still got 1.6miles of cut to go at

I’d fished it the week before…………exactly the same peg and knocked out 4lb silvers ‘practising’ and trying a few things out. I never expected it to fish that poor on Sat…….as we dropped on it because of the inclement conditions, having originally intended to fish the boatyard section at the back of Yates but it was affected by high winds even more so

Although it fished poor…………a believe a few factors influenced the result

a) Although that section is very sheltered a prevailing ‘tropical’ southerly blew right down the canal…………making it extremely difficult to hold the pole still at length, undoubtedly affecting presentation
b) From weather reports, a large low pressure moved in accompanying the stormy conditions
c) After reasonable temperatures in the week leading up to Sat there was a plummet in temperature……….although I’m not too sure how much this would have penetrated the water

The TA match was potentially gunna be split across two sections, dependent on numbers fishing which will no doubt be less that expected come the day. If numbers permit, we’ll all drop on the boats, if not we’ll still put the boats in but miss out what were 1-10 on Sat .

Have faith............it'll be a gud un  ;)

dont reall care about the fishing will be a good laugh anyway , on a serious point what bait are we looking at traditional canal or bloodworm and joker , dont want to turn up with blood and joker if i will be the only person fishing it (a tad unfair) if you know what i mean , i suspect that not everybody will have access to b&j

I've only fished with it once on there in winter before and on that occasion to be honest didnt really do anymore than I normally do on conventional baits.........although a crack b&j would probably have blown me away.......

One positive for people, a couple of us have fished this cut throughout the winter over the last 25 years.........although we probably 'neglected it' in the last decade, and we've never dried on there........come close once or twice , but also had some cracking days in the winter

Dont expect any of the Harrisons team to turn up with w&j.....be surprised if they do..........but havent got any problem with anyone using it.

It wont have gone in there before the match, and I expect the punch and squatt/pinkie to produce silvers.........but predict someone will latch into a couple of beasties (tench) possibly on the caster or worm to claim individual honours if they manage to get them out (someone returning just a couple of oz lost 2 on Sat)

dont want to turn up with blood and joker if i will be the only person fishing it

turn up with 22mm halibut hard pellets and you will be the only person with that

ive heard dumphy is taking them

im taking hali pellets, caster and choppie im after the monsters as ordered by TK

Dont give the game away Yamo ::)


Oooops just realised I've made a similar posting elsewhere

I have just been and bought the PVA bags TK, I just hope I have enough for everyone in our team.
The Tiger nuts are on order too

The Tiger nuts are on order too

i wanted salted penuts. tiger nuts get stuck in my teeth