March update.

Hello again.

3 matches to report on this month.

Firstly the 7th round of the Warrington Local league on the Bridgewater Canal from the M6 bridge to Statham. I was drawn on peg 2 of B section which put me along the boats between the motorway bridge and Statham. Once again the fishing was very poor, although I thought I might catch roach by fishing punch close to the boat, none materialised so it was back to trying to catch as many perch as possible. Again it was difficult with many anglers struggling to catch a fish. In the end I only caught 2 perch by feeding a large amount of chopped worm and caster at 6 metres down the middle of the canal. Most others caught a few perch and some roach did make an appearance very late on. Again I got a low score in my section. On the team front Lee Clark won the match and Kev Green won his section.

The second match to report on was the last round of the winter league fished at Grappenhall. At the start of the match we were in 4th place only 3 points behind 3rd, so a good performance would see us take 3rd place. I was drawn on peg 6 of c section which was peg 588 next to the bridge in Grappenhall village. Usually this would mean a few fish. But with the way the canal has been fishing expectations were not very high. Once again there were no fish showing on punch at the begginning or end of the match, so it was a perch match. What joy. By the end I had managed 5 small perch for about 10oz's which gave me 4th in the section. In the end it was just down to the number of perch you could catch. Back at the Star Inn and the results told us that we had done enough to take 3rd place by 2 points. A big well done to all the team Kev, Stu, Lee and Geoff, the organisers and everyone who took part.
On reflection in the main the canal has fished very poor since the new year and the very cold spell in January must have been a factor. I enjoyed the company and had a good laugh with everyone. However I don't know if that will be enough to make me want to fish the league again.

Since the league finished I have spent some time and money getting all my kit sorted for the warmer months and hopefully catching a few more fish. I have tied new rigs, hooklengths, replaced elastic and bought a MAP meat cutter, which looks a very good piece of kit. So hopefully I am geared up for the summer. By being better prepared I hope I will perform better in matches and win some money, fingers crossed anyway!

I fished my first match on Partridge Lakes yesterday in prepartion for the Fish O mania qualifier at the end of May. The previous weeks results were good, however some areas were patchy. The matches are fished on the Covey Lakes with No.4 having the current form. So low and behold I drew 47 on Covey 2. The peg was on a small island in the middle of the lake accessed via a footbridge, apparently not very good even in summer. The weather was ok just a bit of breeze to deal with. The lakes are stocked with F1's carp and Ide mainly, the biggest fish is probably 2lb. So I geared up to fish with pellet and maggot with corn as change bait to try and catch any bigger fish or single out the carp. I had rigs set up for the far bank, margins and at 4 metres. I fed 2 swims on the far bank, one with maggots and the other with pellets and a couple of pieces of corn. The 4 metre swims were fed with the same, and the margin swim just pellet and corn. At the all in after feeding each swim I started fishing across on pellet to catch an early carp or F1. It was a very slow start and I only caught 1 small F1 and an Ide, so I switched to maggot and by catapulting a few maggots across I started to get bites and the odd fish. That said it was very slow. Some of the bites were very fast and I did miss a few. It was slow for the anglers around me, no one was catching fish in numbers, so I kept plugging away. I kept feeding pellet and corn every 20mins or so hoping to catch on it later on. With about half an hour left I had around 9 fish in the net, not very good. So I slipped a piece of corn on shipped out and began to count to 100 in my head, about half way through it went under and I netted an F1, next cast I barely got to 10 when I hit a small mirror carp about 1-1/2lb, after another F1 I fed again but did not get anymore. At the end I weighed 9LB with 11lb odd winning the section. If I had caught a few more Ide on maggot during the middle of the match I may have won the section.

It was not a bad start to the matches at Partridge, but I will need some maggot rigs, so more prepartion is still needed. It was clear that the fish have not quite woken up and spread out since the weather has improved, but fish were topping, so as long as there are no more cold spells the fishing should improve. Also it was a struggle to catch on pellet, most anglers around me caught on maggot and the better weights were caught from corners and the pegs at the end of islands. The 4 metre swim only produced a small carp on corn and the margin swim was biteless.

For the next match I will probably start on pellet or corn and feed maggots just short of the far bank and look to catch either on the drop or at full depth to try and get the most from the peg. Hopefully I will manage to fish a match each weekend and get a good feel for the place by the time the Fish O mania match comes around.

Tight Lines