I did not have any fixed plan of where to fish this weekend, but one thing was for sure the match weights on all fisheries were dropping like a stone compared to a week ago. No surprise given the plummeting temperatures due to the Northerly flow of cold air. Got wind mid week that there was going to be an open on Hillview just on the 4 canals, that was nice as it would mean a straight forward approach for rigs etc. In the end 6 of us from Bristol were booked to go, Kev Winstone, Gordon Cannings, Mark "Podge" Jefferies, Joe McMahon and Martin Rayet. I didn't have to do any prep as I had done all of that the week before and canal rigs were not used last time out of course.
Up and about on Sunday and loaded the van and thought it looked a bit airy, just me not used to all the extra space I thought. Got up to the fishery nice and easily with a trouble free journey, other than scraping some ice off the windscreen in the first place. Grabbed a sausage sarnie and a cuppa and sat outside on the benches with the lads. Kev asked me if I had remembered everything today, he said according to your blog you always forget something! Not today Kev I remembered everything! Just then Martin mentioned that he was one keepnet down already as Podge had accidently run over one of his, lol! This triggered an immediate thought in my head, I've forgot to bring my keepnets I told Kev. Not sure if he believed me at first but then he pissed himself. Luckily the guys rallied round, Podge and Joe gave me a net, and Martin gave me the broken net which was just about useable. Thanks guys.
My name was first on the draw sheet and Keith did the draw and called out peg 62 for me, 2nd canal right in the middle of it. Not sure it was the best place to be but should get plenty of bites as there are lots of little carp in here as well as the F1's and standard size carp. However, Keith Warned although weights were good yesterday on the venue they had a 2 hour snow, sleet, hail storm which would have chilled the water even further. I bought some maggots and casters just in case things were hard.
My peg has an aerator opposite it which in the winter can be a good fish holding feature, so that might come into my plans but to be honest I was hoping to be able to catch close today.
First rig set up was a Preston 4x12 F1 pellet for fishing soft pellet at top set plus one section, 16 SFL to 0.12. A same size float for fishing in the margins, but with 16 GPM to 0.13. Finally a rig for mugging / slapping in case the sun came out and brought the carp up. I was the only one of the Bristol contingent on the 2nd canal, Podge was on the first, Kev, Gordy and Joe on the third and Martin on the 4th, Joe was actually right behind me.
I began the match on the top set plus one line, feeding fishery micro pellet and had a 4mm Sonubait pro expander on the hook. It wasn't too long before I was watching the speck of a bristle dart under, first fish an F1. Back in again and a bit of a wait but then another bite and another F1, next drop in a carp of a pound. It wasn't bites as soon as the float settled, it was a bit of a wait, and I was playing around with how much micro I fed to try to speed things up, but it was tricky and I just tried to make sure I came back with a fish most drop ins. The angler on my left had started in his RH margin and he had caught right from the off at a similar pace to me I thought, above him on end peg 53 Matt Davis appeared to be fishing shallow and was also catching well. I had a nice steady first hour on the pellet, and was getting signs of fish with the odd blow showing over the feed. It then went iffy and I came off this line and went into the LH margin where I had been feeding caster and maggot, with double maggot on the hook the float was gone within 30 seconds, I landed my best F1 of the day near 3lb. Back in again and I missed about 5 bites before catching another F1. I think I had 5 fish here but then the indications stopped, so move line again.
Back onto the soft pellet and I had another little run of fish but then it stopped again. LH margin, 1 fish, RH margin no fish! In fact I fed corn in the RH margin and all I had was a gudgeon all day here. I had a few more fish on the soft pellet but then it was gone and it did not come back to life. The margins were poor and so I had to try something else. Seeing Matt catching shallow I had decided to fire pellets across to a bit or bare bank 20 minutes earlier and there were signs of fish over there. I went over with a 4mm pellet in a band and thought the flaot would bury, it didn't. I managed to catch two fish here a foul hooked carp and an F1, then the fish swam off it seemed. Hmmm OK, after a good start I'm now struggling, so next plan was try to the soft pellet approach to the side of the aerator. Not much of a plan unfortunately as I never had a bite here, I was a tad shocked by that. However, looking around everyone on my canal were now struggling and there was not much splashing at all.
Next plan, I took my margin rig and plumbed the same depth across, which was about 3 feet off the far bank. I was going to try feeding pots of maggots here. It was a slow start with a few pesky rudd, i pushed the shot down the line further and then caught a carp. In fact this line produced a few fish for me at time people were struggling. I did have to rest it, and when I went back I caught a few more including a 6lb carp. Another rest and then just lost a fouler, and with 2 1/2 hours to go the swim went really tits up. I just could not get any indications or bites from any of my lines, meanwhile Matt on the end peg was mugging or slapping and catching for fun again, it seemed a big ball of fish had come up to him, think most of my fish lol. I couldn't mug anything, though I didn't have many fish to go out and those I did see were motoring. It just became a complete dead peg, and all I managed was a couple of carp in the last but one hour, and one carp in the last hour, my neighbours were no better, it just seemed the end pegs were catching. It was painful watching as I saw my early lead taken away and was not sure I would get any money now.
The scales started weighing on canal 4, top weight was 82lb on 84, just beating Martin who had 76lb. Joe won canal 3 with 73lb just beating the guy on his left by 1lb! Matt won the match on peg 56 on my canal with 114lb, and I weighed 74lb, this just beat the other end peg who had 68lb so I got the section win by default. The first canal was won with 105lb from peg 42. Full weigh sheet in the picture.
I know a lot of anglers struggled today, not catching for the full time of the match, and it does seem that other than the third canal the end pegs were the place to be today. Had I been able to catch for those last two hours a ton was possible for sure, but there is not much you can do when the fish switch off / swim to the end of the canal.
It was a day of not bad weather mostly, but as we were packing up the sky darkened and down came some sort of icy / snow stuff and the temperature dropped as it fell. I took a little video of this stuff falling.
Next weekend I am fishing the Bob Warden Charity match on the K&A canal out at Claverton. I am not sure how this will fish, as who knows if the roach will be there and how many boats there will be. However, it is for a good cause, MS, and I for one would like to support this match and see Bob's boys too. Fingers crossed I can change all of my gear over ready for this and not forget anything lol.
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