This week it was time for me to return to the Bassingstoke canal for the first time in a couple of years, Browning Andover MG was having a quick practice to refresh ourselves before the Div 2 Practice opens started. Plus it was a good excuse for a bit of a get together. Most of us met for breakfast at Fleet services along the M3, before shooting into Aldershot to find the section that we had decided to fish. As we pulled up in convoy I could remember running past this stretch last year whilst I was down that way on a course and I had fished it with the Army a few years before so I already knew it would be hard. John and I set about placing the pegs and as we walked up the stretch we were pleasantly surprised with the number of features and fish that were topping. Thing were looking good for a few fish and it was agreed that pegs 1, 10 and 6 looked the best, everybody had arrived by now so it was time for the draw and I offered to pull John a peg out that he refused (he was holding the hat) I opened it up and peg 1 was staring back at me.
I nearly ran to my peg as I fancied it a bit for a few fish and after a bit of gardening was able to fit my platform and box into the margins, it was now obvious how clear the water was so I set myself a target weight of 3lb, anything extra would be mega points in the national.
By sitting in the water I had 12m tight across to the far bank that was just under 2 feet deep, a tree to my left at 16m and a tree to my right reachable with 13m, I had the rest of the team pegged to my right so made a conscious decision that most of my lines would be to the left of my swim.
I set up 5 rigs to cover my options, Firstly a 4X12 KC Carpa F1 float on 0.11 to a 0.07mm bottom and a 20 B511, this was my light track bread rig and could be cut down to fish across. Second, was a 0.6g DC14H on 0.11 to a 0.08mm bottom and again a 20 B511 for bagging on the inside bread line, Thirdly was a 4X8 On The Drop float for fishing across with bread, line and hooks the same as the light rig but this was set on a no.2 elastic. A Frenzee FP500 0.3g on 0.13-0.10 and a 20 B611 for fishing 3ft deep down the edge for perch and across for skimmers on worm and finally a Frenzee FP 850 0.2 g on 0.19mm line straight through to a 14 Drennan Wide gape, this was set on a short length of red vespe for mugging any bonus fish that might cruise along the far bank.
At the all in I fed two lines by my keepnet with 3 worms, my 4 ft bread line with a Satsuma sized ball of licky and my left hand 13m line with some chopped worm and caster. I then shipped across to the far bank with my dobbing rig and dropped a whole dendra in about 10 holes in the brambles with no indications. Giving up on that unless I saw a bonus fish I shipped out my light bread rig to 5m and it slipped under on the drop with a roach of about ½ an ounce on the end. For the next 40 mins it was a bite a chuck but the roach were on the small side and the bites were difficult to hit so at the hour mark I had a look around my worm lines, this saw me add a 2oz perch to my tally from by my keepnet but I was soon catching roach on bread again. The bites were steady and by topping up occasionally I could get the odd slightly better fish but at the 2 hour mark I felt as though I had taken all I could from my close bread line so started a new one at 11m in 3ft of water, before I had a look on it I decided to look on my long worm line.
Instantly I was getting indications and I had a 2oz roach quickly, then I bumped a better fish before I had 8 skimmers in 8 put ins! The sun hit the water next to my pole float and the bites stopped instantly but the damage had been done, the rest of the match saw me scratching for roach from along the far bank and I didn’t have another fish from any of my bonus lines. The whole stretch had fished hard but by being on an end peg I had managed to finish with 40 odd roach, 8 skimmers to a pound and 2 perch.
The team had been asked to guestimate their weight before they weighed in and peg 10 was winning with a weight of 2lb 3oz with a couple of other pegs on 1lb 7oz, My guess was for 10lb however, this proved to be well out and my skimmers were not as big as I first thought, I still weighed 7lb 13oz for a clear match win But I now have a forfeit to look forward to for the worst guess. Joy.
All in all it was an enjoyable day and I learnt a lot about how to scratch the roach out and this will be invaluable for the team as the Div 2 approaches.
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