Angling Times Supercup.

Hello once again.

As I have lost track with my blog I need to do some catching up, so firstly I will update on the Supercup.

Warrington AA Blue had qualified from round 1 and now had the home draw against Richmonds A team. We decided to fish on the Macclesfield Canal at Scholar Green. After several matches in the Spring League there it seemed like a fair venue and hopefully our canal skills would win through.

I had a good pleasure fishing seesion on the stretch before the match, catching some good fish on caster down the track, I personally felt the fishing would be good. However on match day it did not produce.

I was drawn against the Richmonds Captain in the last but one section of the match. My plan would be to start on bread, have a caster swim across and down the track as well as feeding some hemp over the breadline and past it up towards the far side for later on in the match.

I started on bread and caught some nice size roach right away, after I while I started to get the odd gudgeon, so I tried a grain of hemp. I had a bite straght away and I started catching nice roach again, this continued for about the first hour and I thought I might get a good weight. However a couple of boats went over the swim and I could not get the fish settled again. The caster line down the track was rubbish, which I was banking on after the practice session. I did manage the odd roach or two by fishing hemp in the shallow water close to some reeds, but it was nowhere near as good as at the first hour.

The canal did not fish well and some struggled to catch a pound, which was a shame. I weighed 4lb 6oz which easily won my section and it turned out the match, so I was pleased to get some pennies back. If the hemp line had carried on I could have had a really good weight. I think my inexperience showed through a little. Anyway the team won the match, only loosing 1 section. So its on to Woodlands Lakes at Thirsk for the semi final.

Woodlands Lakes.

I managed to fish 3 open matches in the run up to the semi final. The first match was a complete disaster I only caught 2 carp and a few silvers and managed to break the 13 metre and 4th section of my pole. The number 4 was easily fixed, but the 13 metre section was a write off. Luckily after the match I found one being sold on E Bay, so I ordered it.

The secton had not arrived by the time of the second match the following weekend, so I would be a bit limited on what I could fish. At least I could put some time in fishing the method. Before the draw the organisers asked if we wanted to fish on Swallow lake as a practice. This lake is one of the older lakes on the complex and is not usually included in the open matches. So we decided to give that a go. The lake has 2 islands in but not all pegs can reach the island. I could only fish up to 11.5 metres anyway, so it would be method fishing for me. I drew peg 13, in this case the island was about 20 metres away, so I set up a method feeder, a rig for skimmers at 11.5 metres, a 5 metre rig for meat and a margin rig. I started on the method casting as tight to the island as I could with groundbait to start with and a banded pellet on the hook. I caught a carp and a few skimmers, before bites tailed off, so I started fishing at 11.5 metres for skimmers with an expander on the hook. I caught a couple of small skimmers, then a bonus carp and after that it was back to the skimmers. Small fish were a problem so I used a 6 mm expander and the fish got slightly bigger with th odd one over a pound. Bites were pretty instant as soon as the rig settled and I just fed a few damp micros and a couple of pieces of corn each cast. The 5 metre line on meat only produced more skimmers, so I fished the last half an hour on the method again. I caught a couple more carp and weighed around 26lb, which was second on the lake, but sadly no money. The lake was won from peg 11, who fished against the island at 16 metres with meat to catch over 40lb. After the match the angler said that the older lakes suffered deaths to the carp over the cold winter, so the numbers of carp had been reduced compared to the other lakes.

For the 3rd match I was drawn on a corner peg on Wagtail. I planned to fish up against the boards at 13 metres with meat and go further along if needed, another 5 metre line and a margin rig into the corner. In the previous matches I had fished the margin swim feeding pellets and corn by thr pot ful and not getting any bites or indications of feeding fish. For this match my tactics were slightly different. I had read an aricle in Match Fishing magazine about feeding groundbait in the margins and fishing a visible bait over the top. The thinking behind it is that the groundbait lies on the bottom and atracts the fish to the swim and the only food they find is your rig. As the margins had not produced for me previously what did I have to loose. So I started on the method casting towards the boards, I got an early carp and a couple of skimmers, but it was slow going. The pole swim at 13 metres was not much better, again a carp early on and then some skimmers and roach. The 5 metre line was a bit better, but again only skimmers. With 2 hours left I potted in 2 pots of neat groundbait and left it for 20 minutes. I quick look saw no bites so another pot went in. After another 10 minutes I tried again, after a couple of minutes the float slid away and I struck into a good fish. Thankfully it did not tear off all over the place, but it did take a while to get it in, it was easily a double figure fish. Once that was in the net anther pot of groundbait went in and I started again. Another 20 minutes passed and I got another bite, again it was a good fish, after a similar fight to the last another double slightly smaller than the last was in the net. Following this I did manage another smaller fish from the margins. All the margin fish were caught on double corn. I weighed in just under 40lb, I think the lake was won with over 50lb. The groundbait tactic had boosted my confidence and I felt it definately made a difference.

This was the last practice before the semi, so we had to decide who would fish where. The competion rules allowed captains to place anglers on each lake, but there would be a draw for section pegs. After a bit of thought I felt I was based placed on one of the older lakes, as I did not think that I could compete if it was a bagging match. I felt more comfortable trying to get the odd carp on the method as well as going for the skimmers. So that was that and I ended up fishing Dragonfly on peg 20 (I think) The peg was opposite an island, but was quite wide. There was a small bay on the island opposite me which I thought might be a good holding area for the carp. The plan was similar to how I fished Swallow lake in the earlier practice.
Following the festival held in the week leading up to the match the fishing was a bit poor. I caught a carp and some skimmers on the method against the island and some more skimmers on pellet fishing at 13 metres. After having some success feeding groundbait in the margins I also fished this line too and caught a reasonable carp close to the end. This definately helped as I weighed in about 21lb for 5th in the section.
Once the results were in we found out that we got the last qualifying place as we tied on points but got through thanks to a section by Jake. Top stuff. The team were made up, but faced another 200 mile round trip to Tunnel Barn Farm.