Sunday, 28 February 2010

Feb update

Hello all.

Two matches to report on. Firstly it was round 6 of the Warrington Local league on the Bridgewater Canal at Dunham Massey. Once again the canal showed how bad it can be, coupled with poor weather conditions. The canal was covered with a thin sheet of ice that was easily dispursed. As in the last match at Cliffe Lane one of the problems was the ice moving about after it had been broken up. There had also been some snow in the days leading up to the match, so it was no great surprise that the match was tough. However there were many blanks in all sections and only a couple of teams managed four catchers. I managed to catch a single small perch, fishing pretty much the same way as at Cliffe lane this again got me 3 points and the team finished 3rd on the day with 1 blank and 1 section win. There are two rounds left and there is still a chance of getting third place in the league.

The second match was fished with POHAS on Meadow View near Lymm. This was a practice match for the forth coming supercup round against Richmonds and Partridge Lakes. As I am committed to fish the teams of 4 league. I am unable to fish in the supercup match itself, but was looking forward to fishing on a carp fishery for a change.

12 turned up for the practice and my luck held at the draw picking peg 42 on Lark pool. This is on the bank nearest the office and at the car park end. Generally speaking in cold weather this is the end you need to be at to catch carp, especially as the far end past half way in the lake can be very poor. My main methods would be pole and leger. Due to the weather I decided to concentrate on long pole at 13 metres with an option to fish a bit further at 14.5 metres if the fish backed off. I set up 1 rig of a Preston 4x12 Chianti with a size 18 808 to 0.12mm hooklength to fish two swims at 13m. On the left I feed about half a 150ml pot of 4mm fishery pellets and a bit of corn, and to the right I fed about 20-30 micro fishery pellets and 2-3 pieces of corn via a kinder pot. I also fished the leger straight in front in the middle of the lake with a single piece of corn on the hook feeding nothing. At the start I started on the leger after feeding both pole swims. After about 5 mins the tip went round and I struck into my first carp. After a short scrap a 4lb fish was landed, good start, no-one else was catching. After a couple of missed bites on the tip I tried the pole swim to the right with single corn. After 5 mins I got my first bite and struck into a good fish. Using size 10 latex I just had to take my time and the fish would soon be netted. This fish was possibly 5lb. I tried the left hand swim for a while and again after about 5 mins I got another carp, this one was a bit bigger. So after about 40 mins of the match I already had around 15lb in the net. A couple of people had managed at least 1 carp, so it was looking good. After swapping and changing through the different swims and trying pellets and corn on the hook, things were a little quiet. Then after 2 hours I caught 3 fish one after the other, one of which must have been close to 10lb. Again it went quiet until the last hour when another 3 carp were landed the last coming just before the all out. In total I caught 10 carp plus 1 roach and 1 Ide. The fishery staff carried out the weigh in and I was last to weigh with 64lb. This was enough to win the match as 39lb was second.
All in all I enjoyed a good days fishing for this time of year, but I was also lucky getting the peg in the right area and having a fair amount of room around me. I was surprised that most of the fish 6, came from the heavily fed left hand swim. At around 3/4-1 hour intervals I fed the same amount of bait as I did at the start, just to see what the reaction would be. In the last hour my 3 fish came from this swim. If the match had gone on any longer I am sure more would have been caught as the light began to fade.
Once the winter league is over I am now looking forward to going back to the fisheries and hopefully catching more fish and enjoying myself more.

As a footnote I applied for 3 Fishomania tickets at Tunnel Barn, Larford Lakes and Partridge Lakes. Luckily I ahve managed to get a ticket for Partridge Lakes, so once the league is out of the way I will be fishing the opens at Partridge each weekend. As it is a local venue there is no excuse for not practicing.

Tight Lines.

Friday, 12 February 2010

Teams of 4 Round 5


Just a quick report from my recent match fishing in the teams of 4 local league on the Bridgewater Canal at Cliffe Lane near Grappenhall.

This was generally a poor match, most anglers struggled and their were blanks in 2 of the sections. The team drew peg 1 and I was pegged in B section which put me on permanent peg 638 towards the end of the moored boats at Cliffe Lane. There was a covering of thin ice on the canal, but part of my peg was clear due to the ducks and swans. The only problem was that once the ice was broken up it was moving around a lot and the boats only made it worse. So for most of the first half of the match time was spent gently moving the ice in order to fish. I first thought that with boat cover and a reasonable depth across +3ft that I would catch roach, sadly the bread rig remained untouched and as it turned out the any roach that were caught were from peg 1 of the match to several pegs to my right. After that I don't think a roach was caught. Therefore I set my stall out to catch whatever perch I could on chopped worm. Usually I fish 2 swims at the bottom of the near shelf on the left and right. With no roach showing I also fed swims further along the near shelf and two swims in the deeper water just past half way.

I only managed to catch 2 small perch from the new swims I fed part way through the match. If I had not done this I think I would have blanked. In each swim I only fed 2 or 3 worms finely chopped fishing a small section of redworm on the hook. My 2 fish gave me just over 2oz and fifth place in the section of 7. Although it was difficult the team did well to finish second on the day and Stu Hardman won the match with a weight below 2lb pegged next to the road bridge. Well done to Stu.

After the match a lot of talk was about the poor form of the canal, but in fairness we did have the melted ice water to contend with and the colour of the canal prevented the perch feeding properly. Hopefully the next round will be better which is at Dunham Massey.