We were supposed to be on the Avon at Chippenham for this
one, but due to the amount of rain that has fallen lately we decided to move it
to the K&A at Bishops Cannings, The main reasons were the fact that I would
be very difficult fishing making it unfair for the less experience members of
the group and the fact that the banks would be treacherous. It proved to be a good decision as the river
broke the banks in the morning and we stayed reasonably dry.
I had volunteered to peg the stretch, well I do live 6
minutes away, so I was walking up and down the bank with a small headlamp and a
set of shears at 6 am, I did my best at cutting out some of the worst pegs and
even managed to check the depth on 1 swim, it was deeper than my
wellies!!!!! I finished pegging with wet
feet, unlocked the gate and went to the pub for my breakfast where everyone
seemed to be moaning about the rain. I hadn’t noticed it really as I had been
too busy pegging the venue, and my Team Army Gortex held up to the
onslaught. Breakfast eaten, pools paid,
banter had, team briefs given and the draw done I was soon zooming towards C11.
As I had not prepped a lot for the canal the attack would
have to be simple, bread short, groundbait long ish and a couple of worm lines,
it was only 11m wide so I was limited on the number of swims that I could put
in.
The bread line went at the base of the near shelf at 2+2
and for the groundbait line I found a nice plataue at 10m lest to the left of
centre in the swim. Here is a picture of the rigs:
I
I decided that I would fish Lobs tight over in the shallower water, and I
also plumbed a rig for down the track to fish Dendys:
I was ready well before the all-in so abused Si and Rikki
on the last 2 pegs on the stretch to my right, sorted Shaun some groundbait on
the next peg, as I thought it would do him better than the pellet on his side
tray.
As Kev called the start I cupped a small ball of bread
in, and then 3 balls of 50/50 groundbait and leam with a pinch of dead pinkie,
caster and hemp went in on the long line.
I shipped the bread rig out and had to wait 5 minutes for my first fish
which was then followed by another 15 or so of his mates in short order all at
10pp, then the stamp of the fish reduced to tiny fish and I took the decision
to feed a thumbnail of bread again. This
did the trick as I had a 4oz roach, a few bread fish and a rogue perch before I
had to re-feed and this was the pattern for the first hour and a half, I even
managed a run of 3 small hyrids that got my hopes up for a big weight but as
they disappeared so did the rest of the fish on the line. I dropped in another
small ball and tried the groundbait line.
I shipped out with a pinkie and had a similar stamp of
fish straight away, maggot and caster resulted in smaller fish so I stayed on
the pinkie. Managed a run of fish from
here but as the sun came out and the colour started to drop out of the canal
the fishing got harder and harder, I fed 2 lobs on the across line and 10
dendies with some caster and maggot down the track.
I tried the lobby line for a couple of small perch, the
track line didn’t result in anything all day and the fishing got harder and
harder, I ended up twitching flouro pinkies around the swim for micro perch
just to keep something going in the net. I was happy to hear the all-out.
The scales came down and every one from my left was regaling
tales of woe and pike as well, Rikki and Si had caught well from the end and I estimated
about 2KG as I had not been counting my fish. Rikki had 3.00kg from the end, Si
pipped him with 3.49kg then there was a kilo and a smaller weight before I
managed to tip 2.76kg on the scales which was enough to do everyone to my left
for third in section. Ben in A section
managed a 3rd in section with 2.69kg and Daz had a mare in b section
for 0.94kg and 9 points, it was still; enough for team 4th on the
day which is enough to get us into the team final if we stay there.
All in all it was a good day, I would have preferred to
be on the river but there is always January.
What would I do differently?
I will try to get some squatt next time as that may have
given me a few more fish when it got hard,
I spent too long on the worm line again so need to get
that out of my system somehow.
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