October Matches.

Hello once again.

My fishing in October has involved canals and rivers. I have been fishing on the Shropshire Union Canal and the River Severn.

My first match was on the Shroppie at Norbury in the Shropshire Canal Winter League. I was drawn on peg 2 of D section. This gave me a peg about 12 metres wide with some overhanging cover on the far bank. It was a pretty miserable day with persistant rain throughout most of the match, so it was not the most comfortable fishing. (Second picture above shows the peg) I set up 3 main rigs. One for breadpunch, one for squatt and the other for caster. The plan was to start on bread until the boats killed it and then fish squatt and move onto caster later in the match. The bread line started ok with a few roach and gudgeon, but as expected the line died after a couple of boats. Next was the squatt line, which was ok but the fish were small again mainly little roach and gudgeon. Due to the bankside vegetation it was difficult to see what was going on around me, a few fish were being caught as well as some better samples. It was time to try the caster swim. This was a swim in a small gap in the overhanging branches. I got a couple of quick bites and dumped a nice roach. Oh dear. After a couple of minutes another bite resulted in a lot more elastic escaping from the pole. I managed to quickly bring the pole back and seemed to have moved the fish away from the far bank, when low and behold the hook pulled out. After the last match this was becoming very annoying. Anyway after calming down a bit I carried on, but the caster swim seemed totally dead. Back to trying bread and squatt which brought a few more small fish. By now I felt as though I was long way off doing well in the section. No more fish came to the caster and the match was soon over, and I was left feeling what could have been once more. Speaking to the angler on peg 1 suggested that my lost fish may have been a good chub or perch. I will never know I suppose, but I felt that it was probably a chub. I watched the weigh in of the section and it was a bit of a mixed bag, some had nets of small fish to 4lb and others had the odd bigger fish as well. Some had struggled, my 1lb 15oz meant that I had beat 3 in my section and got 4 points. That was a bit better than my previous canal match, but I still feel a long way off doing a good job for the team. So I was starting to feel a bit down with my performances again.

The next matches were fished on the River Severn at Shrewsbury. I have been looking forward to these matches, however the fishing turned out to be very poor. The roach and dace that were expected to be in town for winter have simply not arrived or are being eaten by cormarants and goosesander. So the matches have been dominated by either big fish or a few perch.

In the first match I drew peg 10 on the County Ground. The river level was up and going through at a good pace, most people expected it to be tough. This being a slightly shallower area than the average, I set up a waggler, stick float and feeder in case a chub showed. The chub did not show in my peg and I only managed 1 small dace. It was a bit of a let down, but the whole match length was poor. Nearly 4lb won the match, which was a good chub and a couple of bits, some sections were won with less than a pound. The fishing was not what was expected.

The second match I drew once again in the County Ground on peg 35 right next to the car park, so I was able to park right behind my peg, very handy. This time the river was lower and the colour and pace had gone. With the clear water I hoped to catch perch by fishing chopped worm on the pole, and I also set up a stick float for the inside line and a bolo for down the middle. There was hardley any flow until about the middle of the river, so I hoped to catch there. Needless to say just as in the previous match I only snared a small dace on the bolo, and no bites came to the stick float or pole. The winning weights were a little better as over 6lb won the match, but once again it was made up of perch and eels. Most anglers were again struggling to catch silver fish.

For the third match I drew peg 80 on the Quarry section. (First picture above is the view upstream from peg 80) On this day the river looked spot on, nice pace and a bit of colour. I had decided that my only chance to qualify would be to catch a big fish. So I set up a heavy feeder rig to fish with halibut pellets to try and catch a barbel or big chub. I also set up a stck float rig and a bolo rig for down the middle. I spent the first half an hour on the pellet, but kept getting snagged, so I did not bother after that. I tried the bolo and stick but to no avail and I blanked. The match was won with a single barbel nearly 6lb, so maybe I should have stayed on the feeder. Again it's all about making the right decisions on the day. Staring at a tip hoping it will pull round once in five hours is not my idea of fun and is something you need total confidence in.

So I now await the last qualifier match. At the time of writing the match has been cancelled twice due to high river levels following periods of rain. Hopefully the match will go ahead soon and who knows maybe the flood water has moved the roach and dace into the County Ground and Quarry sections.

Thats it for October. Tight lines.