Simple Match Fishing Forum

Well as we approached grueller match 5 I pondered on the series to date......what a nightmare to date. 1 postponed and the others had in the main lived up to the reputation.

Sign I’d moved them from the warm, steaming waters of Rugeley PS............the had struck in the form of the harshest winter for 20 odd years........perhaps I’d better revert venues for the 2010/11 series........least you never have to carry any ice breaking gear with you.........that’s if you guys who’ve supported the series so far fancy it............but there again perhaps you prefer the cuts?

Anyway, onto the match 5 report. With PhilB being a late casualty with a bost tooth, 14 turned out for the latest ballacher. The had prevailed again........a respite in freezing temperatures last week had been followed by a couple of hard mid week frosts and the cut was froze over again.

Talk in Yates before the off centred on psyching, or heaping a bit of pressure on last match winner OBI. Tales were related of both Cheslynboys and Goughy’s debut victories which were then followed by the CURSE taking a vengeance with both suffering follow on dry nets.

Big Baz, Mick G and Mark O had pegged out before turning up for their breckies. Such is the ‘desire’ by some to fish the grueller series that Sibeck and Tweety, both without wheels, had had a minibus the the cut and were waiting on the towpath.

The draw was made and I was ‘pleasantly’ pleased to find the last peg in the bag was 2.................meaning at least a relatively short walk on this grueller.

With Joffies mid week posting ‘go TK go’ in my mind I realised that I was gunna be up it today cuss for immediate company I had cut maestro Mark O on end peg 1 and I was also sandwiched between joker crack Sibeck on 3 . I’d got it all to do...........

With the ice just ‘bost’ the gods looked down on us and ...................

Obviously decided they didn’t like what they saw...............


so decided to drop a snow storm on us.




What was that all about? No mention of snow on the forecast I saw on Friday night

Actually, taking about ice breaking I was dead chuffed with mine. Now I’ve read in the past about cutting out ‘massive’ sheets and pushing them under the ice..........usually my peg is usually a mass of a 100 pieces of splintered ice needing scooping out. But not this time...........I had a massive sheet, must have been 10ft by 6 ft and I shoved it to my right under the ice in the direction of Mark O, secretly hoping it might end up in his peg LOL.

BIG MISTAKE that was to be..........not shoving it under the ice, but shoving it to the right instead of left in Sibecks direction as things would turn out.

Anyway, the off. Punch line and 2 joker lines fed ‘across’. A look on the punch failed to deliver a bite, whilst Sibeck had a silver first put in I think and was owning up to a few bites. 10 or 15 mins on the punch and I was dry. Ditto Mark O on peg 1.

Time for a quick look on the joker as Sibeck was starting to pick up odd fish........well odd was really even as he’d got 8 in the net and me and mark O were still looking for a bite.
A look across on joker and nowt off either of the lines. Slipped a bw on the hook and it buried, one of those ‘vicious’ bites............but never felt owt.????????????
Ditto a couple of more times. Mark O, still dry admits to having 3 bites but he aint hit them either.

News filters down that someone has had a couple of skimmers at the far end.......’end peg’ OBI I thinks to myself.

So I decide to start a far line punch at 10 oclock. Fed and I’m just to go across and disaster........the wind picks up and 20 yards of ice between me and Mark O, plus all that I’ve shoved under the ice starts drifting across my peg, coming to rest and totally wiping me out.




So I’m confronted with trying to clear the peg again without too much disturbance, much to Sibecks amusement.

Anyway peg cleared again , I persevere but to no avail. Time marches on and there’s no sign of a bite. Surprisingly Mark O is still dry too whilst the bagging machine to my left is still picking up fish.



Rather than ‘going through the motions’ I try a little trick or two and don’t give up.............not even a walk to take a few pictures...........the desire to avoid the DNW is that strong.

With only 25 mins left, plans A to W exhausted, plan X is executed.........just why didn’t I try ‘X’ earlier...........and a slight movement, not really a dip, is noticed. A lift and a micro perch, less than an inch long is lovingly slipped into the keepnet. This is followed in the last minute by his big brother, being about 2 ½ inches long.

Cheslynboy blows for time and packed away its time for the tale of the scales.

On the way up to start weighing at the far end this dodgy looking geezer, passed by gesticulating



Heinzer doing the honours.........





Big Baz had got a bit of a strop on him, cussing the bank walkers, and telling the photographer ‘xxxxxxxxx xxx’




Anyway, the result

PEG ANGLER
1 MARK O DNW
2 TK 0.0.6
3 SIBECK 0.12.0
4 MR V DNW
5 HEINZER 0.1.6
6 BLUES4EVA 1.7.0
7 CHESLYNBOY DNW
8 COTTI 3.1.6
9 TWEETY DNW
10 BIG BAZ 1.9.0
11 THE SHARK DNW
12 YAMO DNW
13 MICK G 1.4.0
14 OBI 1.3.8

Finally Cotti with his match winning catch, taken on the

It was bread a warburtons imitation trust me i was next to him

Nice report TK. More than a 15m job i'd guessas well.

Good to be 'filled in' with the goings on 

at least the didnt get me fish wise but its cost me 3rd n 4th sections broken tryin to push the ice out of the way

match wise same as b4 caught most in 1st 45mins then 1/2 hour without a bite,micro gudgeon and that was ya lot. just dont seem to be able to hold on to them for very long,not really sure if feeding tomuch/not enough at start,

oh 1st pegged next to mick g..

4hrs of, is that a fish u got ?...have u had a bite, wish i took me missus shoppin it would be better than this which i replied with ur only after a valentine legover

MR V.. have you checked the back of your motor you were puttin stuff on the back seat when we were chattin on yates carpark !!

TK you like things floating in to your swim dont you
Top report and pics as always

did mick G give you a run down on his oppinion of the days events obi? why you were catching and not him? ............... the bloke is a leggend....... first words he said to me was "i didn't wana be pegged where i am, i wanted to be where you and mark o are cus thats where the fish are" .......... now if mark o was up the other end thats where he would want to be and as for tk and the curse . its close between having the most laughs at mick garbage or TK........ TK loosing his pole cup to start then having all his ice flowing back down in to his peg (bare in mind he pushed it into the flow of the cut so any would have realised what would happen ) ......... hard day all round though...... hope ur luck changes soon tk, oh and that i dont peg next to you next match

TK loosing his pole cup to start

Forgot about that

having all his ice flowing back down in to his peg

mick g did the same i think his peg was about 2 inches wide at 1 point

why you were catching and not him?

it wernt that bad really kept me amused after the disaster with me pole ,another funny bit was watchin yamo tryin to throw a lump of metal that must of weighed bout 25lb pretty big fella yama but each time it went about 3 foot he did av a sweat on

blimey its been a bit quiet on here

Not half OBI :(

Probably cuss there aint enough keyboard warriors fishing the gruellers at the mo OBI since the likes of Simps, Budgie, Sprucey and co deserted us. :(

And can you just imagine the likes of Big Baz tinkling the keyboard

At least we had a bit of banter on the towpath, looks like it’s up to thee, me and Sibeck to keep any more going on here…………

Changing tack, and on a 'serious' note……..

I’d (originally) got no qualms with my peg - it was a relatively short walk, and I’ve seen it produce fish in the past……..I know there are skimmers across in that area.

But I couldn’t buy a bite on the punch or the joker. Varying punch sizes, single joker, nowt……….double joker nowt.

I had five bites on the bloodworm, but think these were wasps as I never felt a thing.

Mark O also had a grand total of 3 bites but didn’t snare a fish either. The two micro perch that I ultimately had in the last 25 mins fell to the bw short.

Any views on why the ‘far end’ of the cut seemingly fished better?

Was it because the ice was thicker down that end? When I broke it on peg 2, it was only the thickness of a pane of glass. Then half hour or so into the match all of that between me and peg 1 it moved down from Mark O wiping me out, but it was melting fast. Did the cold melting ice water falling through the layers impact on us?

Also there only appeared to be any wind on our pegs? I don’t mind a ripple, but did this add to water chill?

Thirdly, I noticed an inlet pipe in-between peg 1 and 2 with some flow of water coming into the cut. Crap off the roads? Salt? Did this influence things?

Or a combination of all factors……?

no tk just that you was on peg 2, so obviously at least 4 pegs either side was always going to suffer from the TK curse, wether that be peg 2 or peg 12 you was on ............. i been down our cut this morning for an hour and suffered to, 6 small wasps and a blade on a peg you hardly ever fail to catch on............ TK what have you done? you have sent me to pot

Sibeck - the  moves in mysterious circles 

The has got a hold on you .........

the peg i chose is a known skimmer peg, but not today......


the canal looked stunning this morning really fancied a bagging session

Nice pictures  ...........brings back memories as I've not been up there for a decade or more



Hate to say this Sibeck but you have been displaying classic symptoms of the  which has obviously been festering within you for a week or so .


They are easily recognisable to the trained eye………..


They usually start with angler beginning to display erratic behaviour…………



Like buying things on impulse 



Like caravans 

its a special place for me TK, went fishing for the very first time round their, caught my first ever fish off their and even had me first sip of cider just under the bridge............. i wont go into the other things iv done under the bridge though ............ lets not talk about the caravan ay................ every time i look out the window its still their causing nothing but greif........ im back in work thursday so no more pleasure sessions for me.....

im back in work thursday so no more pleasure sessions for me

Good to here that

nice piccies tk,only a little snow flurry,not like when we were waiting to fish grueller 2 ay mate ,looking forward to whooping obi sunday on our first match, see if i can jinx him

By the way, with one to go in the series it's Blues4eva's to lose..........can he throw it away........or will the strike yet again

Table after this match

BLUES4EVA 29 5 28 28 90
SIBECK 27 5 29 25 86
TK 25 5 26 23 79
COTTI 5 5 27 30 67
BIG BAZ 28 5 29 62
MICK G 26 5 27 58
OBI 30 26 56
K WOODWARD 5 30 35
MARK O 30 5 35
BIG COL 5 28 33
MARKV 23 5 5 33
GOLDEN BALLS 22 5 5 32
IAN DAVIS 29 29
HEINZER 5 24 29
MILLIE 25 25
KEEF 21 21
CHESLYN BOY 5 5 5 15
TWEETY 5 5 5 15
THE WEDGE 5 5 10
PHIL B 5 5 10
THE SHARK 5 5 10
YAMO 5 5 10
MRV 5 5 10
MICK P 5 5
SNOWIE 5 5
D SUTTON 5 5

TK me and SIBECK are up for a pleasure session tomorrow..... but im having second thoughts now, just in case he's got the dreaded my fishings bad enough