January Update

Hello all.

Managed to do a bit more fishing in January than in December, but not by much!!!

The River Severn Classic final was postponed again due to high river levels, but eventually the final went ahead on the 29th Jan. On the day 33 of the 39 qualifiers turned up and where greeted to river in good nick. The level and pace was fine, although the water was clear and apparently the water temperature was low. Once again I drew on the Quarry section on peg 86, which was also the end peg for the match. This made me think that I should at least catch something.
Unfortunately the fishing has not improved since Christmas and another difficult match was on the cards. Following the last qualifier match I knew that I was most likely to catch on the chopped worm feeder. So this was set up along with a 3grm bolo rig for down the middle and an 8 No. 4 stick for close in. The peg was comfortable, but there was no cover on the inside, so the stick float looked like being grim. The match plan was similar to before, each of the float lines was fed at the start with maggots and hemp, and I started on the chopped worm feeder, with worm and crushed casters in the feeder capped with a little groundbait.
After half an hour without a bite I tried the bolo rig, once again nothing happened. At this point I knew I would be lucky to catch at all. Due to the clear water, most anglers were trying to snare a chub on the bread feeder, a method I had overlooked. Having said that you needed to be on a peg that had previous chub form. Usually you would expect to catch anything on the worm. Anyway after a relatively quick 5 hours I ended with a blank. I was very disappointed, especially having got to the final and knowing that with the fishing being so difficult it would be anybodies match to win. I did miss a bite on the worm whilst I was tackling down the stick float rig due to boredom. The actual match result would show how costly that was.
Out of the 33 anglers fishing only 3 actually caught anything. 1st place was 6lb odd made up of 2 chub. 2nd place was a single chub for 3lb. All caught on breadflake. 3rd place was 8oz of small roach and dace on the stick float close in, and that was that. In the pub a few people had lost fish and missed bites, so I was not alone, some were more gutted than others. Therefore the organisers had to draw out 4th place and the section prizes from a hat. I could not even win anything there either. Never mind.
I felt sorry for the organisers and the controlling club. The matches were well run and had great support from the sponsors, so a big thank you has to go to Andy and his team at Total Angling in Shrewsbury and also to all the anglers who entered the series. I don't think anyone expected the river to fish as badly as it did. The Severn in Shrewsbury town centre appears to be devoid of any numbers of silver fish. 12 months ago 10lb plus was winning matches, now it is next nothing. Apparently the weights overall have declined steadily over recent years. A lot of blame has been put at the door of cormorants and goosander, but surely they could not have eaten everything. There must be other factors that anglers are not aware of yet. Its a great shame to see a river decline so rapidly, although it has happened on the Trent which has recovered to some degree of late. So hopefully the blip will not last long. It is not just the river that has suffered, low catches discourages anglers from fishing. So the controlling clubs, tackle shops, local pubs, hotels and shops all suffer if the number of visitors declines. Shrewsbury is a lovely place to visit, but for now it might be best to leave your rods at home, unless you want to try for the barbel in the summertime.

The day after the final I fished on the River Mersey (I had plenty of bait left) I fished a peg on Kingsway, just downstream from Paddington Bank. I set up the same bolo rig as the day before and a small feeder rig with casters and a bit of groundbait. I have fished this area before and have had some good sessions, however in this case I might as well have gone back to the Severn. I had no bites on the feeder. After 2 hours of feeding a few maggots and hemp for the bolo swim I had a bite which resulted in a lovely roach between 8-10oz, but that was it. In common with the Severn I did see a few Cormorants flying about, at one point there was a group of 6 birds flying overhead. If the effect that has been seen on the Severn is anything to go by I really do worry about what state our Rivers will be in over the next few years without some sort of control measures being put in place. It really is annoying that this problem has been widely recognised for over 20 years, but with very little action being taken from angling bodies and the government. Anyway rant over with.

I will finish on a fishing note. Prior to the River Severn final, the weather finally warmed up enough for the lakes and canals to thaw which allowed the delayed POHAS Fur and Feather match to take place on Meadow View in Lymm. This match was fished on Linnet pool which holds 24 pegs. The weather was still very cold and the aerators had to be used to keep the pool ice free. I drew on permanent peg 7 which seemed OK enough. However it turned into a grueller, the cold had made the carp reluctant to move about, so they were only caught on certain pegs and mine was not one of them. I managed to catch a few roach on maggot, but I was a bit dis heartened by the whole thing so I did not bother to weigh in. Over 46lb won including near 16lb fish. After that a couple of people caught the odd carp, so backing weights were not that good. Blame it on the weather I suppose.

February will involve practising for the Supercup competition. In one of life's little ironies I had decided to fish with Warrington Anglers who have actually drawn away to POHAS, so if selected for the match I will be fishing against my clubmates. This match will be fished on Linnet at Meadow View. Hopefully the weather will warm up to encourage the carp to feed a bit more and I will also have to find a way of catching good numbers of roach. Otherwise I will try to fish as much as possible in the coming weeks.

Tight lines.