Curse Match 1 17/3/12 - The 3lb of bits brigade...

#1

Well, that's the title sorted out...........

Just waiting for the results off KOD

#2

3lb

#3

The 3lb of bits brigade...

I take it thats 3lb of bits for everybody added together.

Josh1337 · #4

Almost 3lb

#5

TK exaggerating again Josh?

Josh1337 · #6

Just a lil'

#7

No results off KOD yet............

But I'll start anyway

Match 1 of the 2012 Cashmores Curse Series 2012 saw us, as is usual, head off to the towpath for the first of our 4 sorties (out of the 15 matches we fish) on the canal system

As is usual with the cut matches, I was looking forward to this one. The venue was the Shroppie at Wheaton Aston, controlled by Albrighton Anglers

Having said that I’d never ever actually fished the section so it was a bit of an ‘uncertainty’ for me

although a number turning out today had fished it previously.

There were quite a few casualties for this one too - in fact 11 members to be exact

- which is surprising as it was the first match of the ‘series’, but we were supplemented by 4 guests, making 21 of us

Thanks to one of those guests, Mancub, who kindly picked me up, ta mate

we arrived nice and early and were greeted by those ‘crack of dawners’, KOD and Josh. :D

KOD was eager to get pegged out so off we traipsed, having decided better against dropping a few pegs in the uncontrolled mooring section, just in case we hit any problems later in the day as it was presumed that there would be a fair bit of boat traffic

Arriving back, it was with a bit of a guilty conscience as I realized that MrV had made his better half surface earlier than usual to drop him off as I’d asked him earlier in the week to give us a chuck with the pegging ……….ooops sorry MrV

Draw time and before lots of sweaty palms dipped into the bag, Cotti pulled out no 14 as the golden peg for the day. I personally fancied 1 - 9 before the pegs ‘went out into the country’. With all those eager beavers milling around on the towpath, the draw was soon made as Cotti concluded by thrusting the bag under my nose with two pegs left - I dipped in and pulled out 14 whilst he ended up 19 left in the bag.

Loaded up, off we trotted. On route I passed Tricast62 on 13

‘Guess who you’ve got for company again today?’ I asked.

Now I aint too sure whether he was pleased to see after our last epic peg to peg battle

and I bet it must have crossed his mind that he wouldn’t have that Stalking Heron line all to himself.

Arriving at 14 I wasn’t too chuffed and I called Tricast62 up the towpath.

‘Look at that !!!

I’ve only gone and drawn a peg with someone fishing the opposite bank. And what makes it worse is that I’ve just asked him if it’s any good and he reckons he aint had a bite for two hours !!!’

As I unpacked and got ready I was in danger of confusing myself

- Cotti had sorted my bait out, casters, squatt, pinkie and big red mag and I’d also bought the chop and punch along, not to mention bags of Supercup, Secret and ordinary brown crumb. Having said that, later during the match I did wish I’d got some seed with me to give the silvers something to ‘settle over’.

I was also in danger of further confusing myself with an array of 6 rigs

- a couple of stalking heron rigs tied up specially for the day - with one of the other rigs ‘doubling up’ as I planned to feed 7 lines/areas. In fact, if I hadn’t been idle it would have been 8 spots and another rig out of the tray if I could have been bothered to fish ‘long’. Would that laziness prove to be my downfall on the day…………

With all that preparation and Heinzer our normal time keeper having thrown a shoe ( well he hadn’t really thrown a shoe, he’d gone to the races instead) I looked at my wrist ‘Bloody hell, it’s 2 minutes past 10am’ so I shouted the all in

Just picking up my cupping kit the mobile rang. It was HaHa. ‘When you starting?’ he asked.
‘I’ve just this minute called the all in’ I told him. ‘Oh we aint heard it up here’ ‘ ‘Can you shout up for me and finish a minute later?’

So away I went and fed 6 lines with an array of bait whilst trickling a bit of bait down the track……..

A look 3/4s cross on the punch produced an instantaneous bite and the dry net was off with a 1 ozer swung in. Next put in ditto, and ditto, but they were getting smaller………… slightly better 1oz fish came off backup punch line 2 and I lost my count of fish dead early on around on 11 fish. Might have been as a result of slipping a white caster on over the one line which produced a ‘bonus’ 2oz skimmer which I netted just to worry Tricast

who had got off to a bit slower start…………………..whereas Gudgeon Basher to my right appeared to be wheedling a far few out

on a variation of the Stalking Heron technique, namely the long legged pink flamingo sweeping buzzard method…………

‘Gotta keep my eye on him’ I thought to myself and if you dont believe me, here’s a picture of the man himself in action, flying………(click on the picture to see the beastie he’s hooked)

Well to be honest the 5 hours flew by as I wheedled a few out and tried to keep up with the guys either side of me.

In fact here’s Tricast waving Excalibur

- he was finding some stampers and was I was sure, now well ahead in front of me

True to form, F K went walkabouts

and reported that Big Baz up his end was walking it - ‘He’s had loads and some good fish as well’ as I continued wheedling gonks out - a decision I'd made to stop on them as they were proving to be a better stamp over the silvers I was attracting.

About 1.45pm whilst we’d earlier been bathed in sunshine, it clouded over and hissed it down.

Up went the brolly and I was Scooby Doo’d - with restricted light I just can’t see what I’m doing under them brollies and what was worse with the change in light conditions couldn’t see my yellow float tip.

More ‘bad’ news as FK traipsed back an hour later, drenched to the skin.

He reported that Yamo had had 4 clonking bonus perch

……………..just knew I should have bothered to put that chop/caster line in instead of playing with gonks all morning :(

Talking of gonks, remember that that Geezer on the far bank opposite?

Well to be honest I never saw him catch owt - never saw him swing anything in. In fact it’s a good job he wasn’t in our match as I’m sure he dry netted

The sun came back out shortly before I called the all out and we packed up. Their prize for drawing short walk pegs 2 & 3 saw HaHa & Mancub on the scales

as they headed up to the far end pegs.

‘You got 3lb Tricast?’ I quizzed

‘He turned to his left ‘ What you got Josh?’

‘3lb’ was the retort from Josh

‘What you got TK?’ he enquired.

‘3lb of bits’ I advised, although I was secretly hoping I might have 4lb, but to be honest having lost my early count of fish I hadn’t gotta a clue what was in the net (honest guys - I know you may find that hard to believe, but that is pucka)

‘Well if Josh has got 3 lb and you’ve got 3 lb, I’ve got 3lb’ he quipped

‘Get away with you, you’ve got at least 5lb if I’ve got 3’ I argued. ‘You’ve been swinging in 6ozers’

‘Yep, but you’ve had 5 netters’

He looked dubiously at me when I tried to convince him that those netters were all 2 - 3 oz fish that I daint dare swing in on 8oz bottoms

With 3 3lbs ‘declared’, I think Gudgeon Basher next owned up to having 3lb as well. Wasn’t long before more in the milling crowd awaiting the scales also declared they’d got ‘about 3lb’ - sure MrV, Blues4eva and Yamo claimed similar weights. Man, apart from Big Baz, this was gunna see a tight finish for those coveted 2nd and 3rd places………….

In fact in the distance we could see Big Baz empty his fish back. ‘He’s had some’ someone commented and as the scales approached we learnt he’d put 7lb 5oz on the beams to be ‘walking it’

When Gudgeon Basher tipped his in the basket my first reaction was ‘Bloody hell, he’s wiped me out’ -

even more so as HaHa called 4lb 12oz

Then it was my turn to weigh………….I couldn’t live with Big Baz (well I couldn’t thinking I’d got possibly 4lb could I?)

……… well I’d enjoyed having a few gonks anyway, and it hadn’t been a bad day after all

Having weighed, it was now down to Tricast…………I'd just gotta witness the 5lb plus that he wouldn’t own up to as I just knew he’d done me with those stamp roach. And guess what? Another of the ‘3lb brigade’ just happened to put a few more on the scales

………….well in Tricast’s case, that few more just happened to be exactly 5lb more as he blew Big Baz’s weight away with cock on 8lb………..

Just how many more surprise weights would there be with 12 still to weigh............

We'll all find out when KOD sends me the results

TBC............

paul_brown · #8

Daint see you get the camera out mate. If I'd known I'd ave smiled at ya

paul_brown · #9

Hurry up with pt2 please.........enjoyin this read

Come on KOD get him the results

DEAD_PEG · #10

TK are you sure that bloke on that bench aint fatty kendal

paul_brown · #11

…………………..whereas Gudgeon Basher to my right appeared to be wheedling a far few out on a variation of the Stalking Heron technique, namely the long legged pink flamingo method…………

cheers mate

#12

Well if you wanna call it summat else, let me know

paul_brown · #13

I'll av to think of summat then.......

#14

Ps - Gudgeon Basher - not sure whether you clocked it, but when you went over long after them rub a dubs, I'd seen you doing so well for 4 hours on the 'Long legged pink flamingo' sweeping buzzard method that I quickly switched to it for that last hour............

See this monkey watch, this monkey learn

paul_brown · #15

I did clock it but knew I needed a bonus or 2 to catch up with you and mr v

But when you catch a gudgeon on a 4" dendra then you know it aint gonna happen!!!!

In hind sight I should av switched to a heavier float on the short line as I was only on a .2g maver pencil

might av added a few more of them clonkin gonks

paul_brown · #16

Just looked at the photo you took

I aint actually catchin, I was feeding some

#17

thy,s done brill as usual TK really enjoyable match and me neighbours on day were brill. banter brill and good to see glyn back out again

#18

I aint actually catchin, I was feeding some

Told ya me eyes have gone

#19

I'll av to think of summat then.......

Sorted it

Well I've got the results off KOD so lets wrap this up...........

There aint a lot else to report other than as the scales made their way back down the towpath some of those other 3lb weights actually turned out to be a bit more than originally owned up to

Oh and I heard that The Hitman hooked a big un a couple of times

So here is the tale of those scales

PEG
1 ZORRO 3.7.4
2 HAHA 1.15.10
3 MANCUB D N W
4 HARRY THE HITMAN 1.7.10
5 BLUES4EVA 4.2.2
6 YAMO 7.8.8
7 KOD 1.13.12
8 MR V 4.6.0
9 HOTLIPS 4.12.2
10 JUAN CHUB 2.4.14
11 GLYN 2.7.7
12 JOSH 2.6.0
13 TRICAST62 8.0.0
14 TK 8.10.0
15 GUDGEON BASHER 4.12.12
16 F K D N W
17 BIG BAZ 7.5.5
18 ROBERTO D 2.3.0
19 COTTI 3.11.10
20 BRAMBLES 0.1.0
21 BIG COL 1.0.2

All in all not a bad opening cut match for the Cashmores Crew - a good venue, good parking and extremely reasonable peg fees..........I'll guage feedback as to whether we revisit it again next year - I'm certainly up for it

And a parting shot - hear hear Tricast62 I'll second that - yep it was certainly good to see Glyn out again with us

#20

Well done TK,

Great write up and piccies