Hope you all had a good Christmas and enjoyed some good times, I had a very nice time and received some very nice gifts. On Monday 27th the only gift I wanted was a good draw at Hillview lol.
It was a tad tricky waking up early on Monday as I had finished work on the 22nd so have had a few late wake up calls, I didn't drink a lot on Boxing Day as I didn't want to have any issues the next day driving. I was at the fishery just after 8am and my pools paid and breakfast consumed all in good time. The captain of my team Joe McMahon selected an envelope and got set of pegs "C", and this meant I could not be on the same peg I have drawn on this match the last 2 years (peg 56). Unfortunately my team was a man down, as Dave Haines had a problem with his van on the motorway and had to drive home in limp mode. The organiser of the match Neil Mercer said that as the match is decided on weight each of the other 2 teams would drop their worst weight, that was very fair. My team and pegs were:-
Joe McMahon canal 2 peg 60
Shaun Townsend canal 2 peg 66
Me - canal 3 peg 75
John Fuidge canal 1 peg 45
Ron Hardiman canal 3 peg 70
Lee Massey canal 3 peg 81
With three of the team on canal 3 we needed it to fish well, last year it was not good. The team I was in last year won of f set of pegs B and that was Tony Rixon's team who had 3 anglers on lake 2.
It was a bit muddy getting to the peg as there has been some work going on to landscape the venue it seemed and wooden platforms had been replaced with tough plastic bases. The bases are certainly sturdy, but mine was not built level, and I had to adjust my box legs a fair bit to get myself level and not looking at the sky. My peg is right in the middle of the canal, and the last match on here the right hand end was the best (where team mate Lee was). There were no mugs on my canal, Ron was on end peg 70, Martin Rayet peg 71, Tony Rixon 73, Leon Hubbard 77, Neil Mercer 79 and then Lee on 81. It was not going to be easy.
I didn't get the phone out today as it was raining most of the day and so I have no pictures to brighted this blog sorry, well just one of Tony Rixon on my left, a picture of him looking at his best.
Setting up is never a long affair here, and all I needed was 3 rigs, a dobbing rig with 16 GPM to 0.13 powerline, a 4x12 rig with 0.11 to 18 SFL for fishing maggots down the track and across to a aerator, and a similar rig bit shallower for fishing right across and in the margins.
We started at at 10am and I along with everyone else went searching the far bank with bread on our dobbing rigs. After 30 minutes only Ron had caught a fish, I had not had a liner and thought this was not going to be good! I changed rigs, fed a few maggots by the aerator, and a small amount of micros across. No bites or indications for me at all, but Tony managed to catch an F1 and a small carp. Finally 1 hour and 15 minutes in and my float went under fishing a soft pellet right across, but I never connected. Back out, this one and after a little wait another bite and this time I was in, but I soon realised it was fouled. Well I really took my time and finally I landed a small carp hooked in the anal fin. Back out and after a bit of time had another carp on, this one was bigger but also fouled, unfortunately it managed to swim into the reeds in close and that led to the hook pulling out.
Sadly there is not much more I can report on after this, as everyone on our canal just could not get any indications, even the slayers were sat there motionless and pretty hacked off. Leon waited 3 1/2 hours for his first fish then had another straight away and no more. I had my next indication on maggots down the track 15 minutes to go, hooked the fish which went off towards Tony and then the hook pulled out. A shite end to a shite day for me, and I have never known the canal fish so bad! It was very different behind me on canal 2 where the guys there had a fish a bung for 3 hours!
My 1 carp weighed 2lb 9oz, which beat Neil and Lee, Leon's 2 fish went 3lb 2oz, and Tony battered me with 5lb 6oz lol. In fact Ron won the canal with just 12lb, my only hope of coin was on the team front now, and it was looking very close on that front, and the top individuals would decide it probably:-
1st Joe McMahon 81lb 11oz
2nd Shaun Townsend 76lb 11oz
3rd Clint Wjotyla 60lb 3oz
4th Ricky Mills 58lb 2oz
All of those guys were on canal 2.
In the end my team weight came from 1st and 2nd and John Fuidge who did well to win canal 1 with 42lb. We just had enough to overcome Tony's team (despite them having 3 pegs on canal 2 lol) and so I had a pick up to cover the day out, a little consolation for the poor days fishing that we on canal 3 endured. After the match slices of bread were thrown over the 4 canals, and all bar canal 3 had fishing slurping on them, many felt there were simply no fish in our canal, but maybe there was another reason the fish refused to feed, or even move about?
Not sure if there is any matches on Sunday 2nd January, I'd like to have a fish if I can and try and get a better draw. Here's wishing everyone a Happy New Year!
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