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.