Hope you had a good Christmas and we’re able to enjoy the festivities, I certainly had a fun time with the family.
This match took place the day after Boxing Day, and the draw was at the Midland Spinner pub in Warmley where 20 hardy souls gathered. It was nice to have a breakfast, though it wasn’t the best in my opinion, and then a part of one of my teeth fell out as I was munching. I’d been waiting for that to happen for months as it had been painful when biting on it, now pain free but it will need sorting as it’s left a sharp edge. Jerry and Dean Harvey got the draw underway and I pulled out peg 13 (unlucky for some) which I was told was permanent peg 42, not a noted peg.
Off we all drove and parked up in the field, first peg in was 16, with 59 being the last. Looking at the river it was pacey and coloured but not really dirty, I thought 18, 24, 46 and the 50’s would throw up the best weights. When I arrived at my peg I found I was on peg 40, I’d been on this one last time on teams of four, but had roach on the pole, no pole today.
The colour was not inspiring me, but I did see 2 fish top whilst setting up. I only set a feeder rod up with an open ended and 14 N50 to 0.15 powerline. I needed 45g to hold bottom at 9m out which was my chosen line and where the fish had topped. Groundbait was Sonubaits Sweet Skimmer, a bit of Thatchers and brown crumb. We started at 10 and I spent the first 30 minutes having regular casts to get some bait in the swim instead of balling it. I had 3 maggots on the hook as this is usually a good way to get bites from initial small fish. Well not today, I never had a bite on maggots. At 11 I had my first bite, a decent tap but nothing proper, reeled in to find the worm was shredded, it had been down the throat of something then.
It was about 30 minutes before my next bite and this came on treble caster, missed this bite, a few chucks later missed another. It had to be small roach I guessed as the bites were tiny (but a bit bigger than the many leaf bites I was getting), but thought one would’ve hooked itself! Andy Britt on peg 46 came for walk and he had a roach as did Mat Challenger on 44, Shane Caswell below my on 42 was blanking but Mike Goodhind above me had 2 roach. The whole match was tough and halfway through 10oz was winning.
With the top 4 and 4 sections being paid I just needed a few fish or better still a slab, I continued to fish positively with big baits, but I only had bites on Lobby tails or casters. Despite changing the length of hook lengths from as short as 1 foot to as long as 4 foot, but still I managed to not hit a bite. The match ended at 3pm with me having had 8 bites and no fish at all, quite frustrating and not something I recall happening to me before. Shane also blanked and missed a few bites, and there were quite a few other people who blanked.
Back at the pub most were glad to be in the warm after we had got soaked in downpours for the last 2 hours. It only required 2lb 5oz to win the match, Derek Cole’s had a skimmer and 6 roach on peg 50. Second Craig Pinker had 1lb 11oz on peg 18, and Mat Challenger was 3rd with 1lb (2 eels and a roach). Why the river fished so bad I don’t know, maybe all the raw sewage the water companies are pumping straight in when it rains?
Not the best way to end 2022 with a blank, but I’ll get another chance to put that right on the teams of four match at Newbridge on Sunday 8th Jan… I hope lol!
Happy New Year, let’s hope 2023 brings better things for everyone.
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