Avoiding the Blank 22, Part 1, The Hampshire Avon, Petersfinger Lakes (S...

22 Jan 2020- AAF Group 2 Match- All Cannings K&A canal

So today saw 22 of us off to the All Cannings stretch of the K&A canal run by Devizes angling club,  I had volunteered myself to help Bri out with the pegging so it was a half 5 start for me to get up, my car loaded and meet him at the car park before dawn.

The pegging went without any real glitches, we would have liked to have done a recce in the daylight but neither of us had the time so it was a headlamp and torch job.  The canal looked good, quite clear, a little cat ice and it was flowing towards Marlborough so thats always a good start.

Once we had finished walking up and down the canal it was time to set up the draw in the Kings Arms pub in the village, they had very kindly opened early for us all to get a breakfast and have somewhere warm to set up and do the draw.

Once the festivities had been taken care of I managed to pluck peg B4 out of the bucket of doom, this peg was literally the middle peg of the match, well between B4 and B5 due to the numbers, B section was the tightest pegged section and to be fair as I was walking down the towpath I was already planning my excuses for the day.

As you can see from the picture I had some straggly reeds on the far bank and that was about it, I had walked past boats, overhanging trees all sorts of nice looking features so more excuses were logged for later.  I got to my peg and started to set my box up as I wanted to try and get all the disturbance of nets, plumbing and thumping up and down the bank out of the way as soon as possible so that I could leave the swim quiet for a while before the all in, this I hoped would allow me to get a run on the guys around me and maybe claw back some points in what I was classing as a damage limitation exercise for the day.  As i placed my box down I found the Ice that was running halfway across the canal so clearing a wide channel in that to fish was my first job.

once that was done it was placing the keepnet and tying it across the front of my box so that it would not move in any boat wakes, then I set my rigs up.

The plan was simple, a short bread line that I would push left or right if I needed plumbed up in the deepest part due to the clarity, then a caster line across against the right hand side of the reeds and a worm line across this time against the reeds to the left.  To be fair I wasn't really fancying the reeds as it was only 2 feet deep against them, but they were my only feature so they were in the plan.

Starter rigs plumbed I decided to check that the bread rig was shotted correctly as i had only tied it the night before from memory, it needed a couple of number 13's but as I was sorting the trimming shot I was getting knocks on the rig on what was going to be my bread line, I thought that as long as I didn't do anything stupid I could be alright today.  I decided to have a cup of coffee and as I placed the flask down behind me it slipped from my hand making an almighty thud on the frozen ground, well so much for the element of surprise I thought.  I managed a quick walk back to the car to get a towel and then I was ready for the all in, my opening gambit was a thumbnail sized ball of liquidised bread that had been run through a 2mm riddle, then mixed with a little hemp and hemp water.  That was fed on the short line at top kit plus 3 in 4 ft of water, then I cupped 20 grains of hemp and 10 caster onto my caster line at 11.5m.  Now it was crunch time.

I slipped a 5mm punch onto the hook and shipped the rig out onto the short line only for the float to remain motionless, 1 minute, 2 minutes another piece of bread was put on the hook and finally an indication as I missed a very finicky bite.  I was starting to flap a little by now as the guy to my right had had 2 fish from the far bank, Craig to my left was catching straight away and all I could see up and down the section was people swinging and netting fish.... EEEK.

I had a quick word with myself and started to concentrate on how I was lowering the bait over the spot, I knew it was going to be hard but this was ridiculous, it took a few minutes but after reducing the hookbait to 4mm, shallowing up by an inch and holding the rig with the float out of the water for a count of 8 before lowering the whole lot down usually saw the float continue down the hole and a roach hang it self on the end.  It started to get good and I was catching a fish a put in when disaster, a boat was slowly chugging along straight down the track,  as soon as it passed I went straight back over the top more in hope than expectancy and unfortunately the damage had been done as the float caught some weed straight away.

I decided to try and regroup the fish, so it was time to start the across worm line, 4 dendrabenas were finely chopped and 10 casters added to them in the cup as an initial feed for the line, I then cupped a small hard ball of licky on the short line and then went straight over the top of it.  Not alot happened, I had a couple of micro roach so after 10 minutes I decided to have a look on the long line, I was only going to give it a count of about 100 so I got very exited when it started bobbing about after 40 seconds, the strike saw a small perch head about 20m down the canal, I may have been a little excited.  That was the end of the action on the long line but as I returned to the short line the roach had returned and by feeding small nuggets of bread when the stamp of the roach became see through I was able to keep the slightly larger fish coming.

This was largely the pattern for the day, I started a new track bread line at about halfway through the match and this gave me another 15-20 small roach when the first line had dried up completely, my worm line got switched to 13m down the canal in the track to my left, this got started with 90 minutes to go and by careful feeding I had 2 perch for 12oz in the last 20 minutes from it. I stopped feeding the caster line and started a bread line against the reeds and this provided a steady run of small roach for around an hour and finally with 30 minutes to go I fed a small hard ball of licky on my original short bread line and in the last 15 minutes I had 8 roach off it that were all bigger than the micro roach I was catching across.

It didn't take me long to pack up and there were tales of woe up and down the canal, the end pegs both seemed to have done well and Jase on B8 was actually fishing against me in the knockout so it was interesting to see ho he had done.  So, Jase had 2.250Kg, Rocky next to him had 2.050KG I knew it was going to be close as I wasnt sure how many roach I had managed but after a few lower weights it was my turn. 2.800Kg then Mike on the other end peg weighed 2.300Kg I think so I had managed to win the section, from the middle, to say I was happy was an understatement and to be fair I am still a little shocked, but my perch helped no end.

We all met up back at the pub and I managed to figure out that I had also come first in the match, happy days. And that's it really Blog done, it was a nice day although a little chilly and the 2 boats we saw knocked the fishing back for everyone but that's winter fishing on the canal.

What would I do differently?
Not alot really, maybe lighter elastic for the eyes fishing across and a smaller designated bread rig for that line rather than bodging my caster rig.

Bread short:

Elastic: 5 slip

Line: 0.11mm to 0.08mm

Hook: 20 PR311

Float: 0.6g DS14H

Worm across:

Elastic: White Hydro 

Line: 0.17mm to 0.11mm 

Hook: 16 B560

Float: 4X12 Dibber

Worm Track:

Elastic: Double 5 but swapped to white hydro later

Line: 0.17mm to 0.11mm 

Hook: 16 B560

Float: 0.3g Frenzee float

Caster and Bread Across:

Elastic: Double No. 2 slip

Line: 0.11mm to 0.08mm

Hook: 20 Colmic B957

Float: 0.2 AS3

Nov 19 AAF Group 2 Match 2 Kennet and Avon Canal

After the fun that I had been having on the river near Blandford of late I was a bit miffed when this match was moved onto the canal but due to the access issues I understood it completely. We were all back off to Bishops Cannings and the draw took place in the Wetherspoons in the center of Devizes, I know I lived there for a few months but I really dislike the place with its stupid car parking machines and rules and the traffic, don't get me started on the traffic.
I was lucky enough to draw one off the golden peg and just the wrong side of the swing bridge from where I wanted but it was a half decent peg anyway.  I had decided against taking bread for the first time in years on the canal, partially on advice from some people whom had been fishing the winter league up that way and partially because I hadn't had time since the venue change to prep any.

Despite my misgivings I knew I was in for a good day so I set up pole rigs for a short line, a couple fot the long 3ft line and  one for fishing worm down the canal to my left towards a couple of boats that should have provided some cover.  I also set up a 4m whip in case the short line was as good as it can be down there.  I had mixed my groundbait the night before to try and make it as inert as possible, I had also sieved it to remove all the bigger bits, i had pinkie, caster and worm as my main go to baits and I was ready well before the all in.

On the all in I fed a small ball of groundbait on the short line and then fed another 3 balls onto the long line, I chopped 20 worms added some crushed caster and shipped that down the canal alongside  the boat in the deeper water.  I shipped out the short rig expectant of a quick response and to be fair it wasn't too bad, i had 4 fish in 5 minutes and was soon switching to the whip to see if that could increase the catch rate. It was at this point that I started to think that it would not be my day as the boat closest to me where I had fed my worm line suddenly burst into life, the owners jumped about and set sail straight over the top of m short line.  Fortunately it only slowed the fishing for a few minutes and I was soon catching the odd roach again but their size had quartered, this was then compounded when the next boat left from my left had side this time with more throttle straight over my short line.  Time to go long I thought.

I shipped out onto the long line and there were tiny roach on pinkie there straight away, at this point I decided to try and catch a bigger stamp of fish so I decided to concentrate on fishing caster.  I would ship out and then toss pot 5-7 caster over the area and then allow the 0.3g rig to settle, after 20 seconds I would lift and drop and most put ins I was getting a bit by stamp roach doing that.

The only problem I had was that I was watching Nick and the guy to his right catching bonus skimmers and roach to 10OZ!!!!  I decided pretty quickly that I was just going to enjoy my day though and try to sort out the caster fishing as I can't remember ever doing very well with them on any canal.

I had the odd look on the worm line for a couple of slightly better roach and a perch of 4oz but I couldn't seem to keep them interested in the track so I started another caster line to my right and tried to work the two swims for maximum reward. It started to rain at one point and I even got my umbrella out of the rod bag for the first time in years, I think I'm starting to get old!  Come the all out even though Nic and I had been trying the Des Shipp school of moaning to be fair we had both had a nice days fishing.  I was weighed in first for the section and I had 2.325Kg of mostly roach, Nic had managed to moan  3.175Kg of roach, hybrids and some waspie perch onto his double pinkie hookbaits.  If we had taken away the bonus fish it would have been alot closer but such is life.  I was also beaten by the guy on the other end peg who had 2.4Kg, I saw at least 2 bream in his net so once again bonus fish had seen me off of the K&A.

So I ended up 3rd in section, Evo had a 3rd in section (By default) and Greg had 4th in section, this put the team 3rd or 4th on the day so just above bottom, still at least it was a nice day out of the office.

What would I do differently?
I will never leave bread at home again.
I should have put a worm line tight across.
I needed a lighter float on the caster line with a hairy fairy shotting pattern.

But all of this will change for the next match as we are on Todber, here is a heads up I am not re-elasticating my pole so will mostly be fishing the wag or feeder.

AAF Gp 2 Match 3, K&A Sells Green and Foxhangers

It’s that time of year again and I was starting my quest to do well in group 2 again and I am not sure if I will even be able to fish 5 matches again this year, but this was my first.  It was off to the K&A again but this time on a stretch that I have only every carp fished a few years ago, so I popped down over the festive period for a couple of cheeky practices.  The first went well in a pound behind the Barge Inn I managed around 8lb of small skimmers and roach over groundbait, the next day I went along pound lane and struggled in atrocious weather conditions for 4 small roach and 3 waspie perch.  I knew where I didn’t want to draw.

Back to the day in question and we all met up in Devizes for the draw, pleasantries were passed and we were soon to business, there was a section around the marina at Foxhangers, a section down the straight and a final section behind the three magpies, as long as I wasn’t in B section along the straight I would be happy.  I waited until last out of the bag and peg A6 was waiting for me, which was the last peg before the bridge at Foxhangers, I was quite happy.

  

As I got to the peg I had a massive 10 meter walk from my van to my peg, and then it just got better as I had all the boats moored up to my left and I knew that this was a good holding area for fish.  My plan was simple, two groundbait lines one at 11 O’clock and one at 1 O’clock both at 13m as the bottom was nice and flat there, a method cast down towards the boats and finally a worm line that I would fish along the wall to my left.  I was almost ready for the all in, I am quite rusty at getting ready in time but as soon as it was called I fed 3 balls to the left and 1 ball to the right on my groundbait line.  My groundbait was a mix of black canal and lake with a few dead pinkies and caster in it, and then I cast the method down toward s the boats and set my stop watch for 15 minutes.  The plan was to try and mug a carp from down there but I decided to use dead maggots as hookbait so that it shouldn’t put off any skimmers from picking it up.

The first half an hour was uneventful so I was soon having a look on the groundbait lines, the right hand swim was the best at the start and I managed 5 small roach off it before it died and a short time later I bumped a skimmer off on the left hand swim so It was time to rest it and look elsewhere.  I had a look on the worm line for a small perch and another blank 15 minutes on the tip before having a look on the left hand groundbait line again.  This time the float dipped within seconds and skimmer number 1 was soon in the keep net and at nearly a pound it was very welcome.  But long story short at this point I refed my groundbait lines once too often and killed them both off so although I kept on looking I only managed another couple of small roach off them for the rest of the day.

I kept on having the odd look on the method and through the course of the day I was rewarded with 3 nice skimmers and I lost one but enough of that as it was a case of casting and if they were there I would get a bite pretty quick, if not it was a long 15 minutes.  The worm line produced 4 small perch throughout the whole day and at 1 point I plumbed a bread rig up to fish towards the boat at 14.5m, I was able to get a bit a chuck on that line but the fish were transparent so I discarded that and sat it out for bigger fish on my other lines.

I kept my tip rod in until last and had most of my kit packed up by the all out.  I only had my net and flask out still when Bri and Pete walked down with the scales and wow it had fished tricky for most.  I started to hear stories that along B section there had been a number of blanks, we walked up to the Crabtree part of the section and the guy on the end peg had managed a kilo and a half ish then there were two sub 1kg weights.  When the scales got to me I thought I had 3.5-4lb of fish, I actually had 2.1KG which is about 4lb 8oz by my dodgy maths so I was well happy.  Following the scales up Bri was the last to weigh and he had nearly a kilo and a half but had lost a big perch in the last 10 minutes, so I had managed to win the section so I was well happy.  When I got back for the results it turned out to be enough for 2^nd in the match as well so not a bad day in all.

Thankyou Bri and your team for the seamless running of the match.

What would I do differently?

I should have started on a bread line and also possibly fished just 1 groundbait line further over towards the boats so that the fish had some shelter overhead.  I could have cast the feeder closer to the boats perhaps but there were people ion them and the last thing I wanted to do was hit one of the boats by accident.

Tackle used:

Feeder:

Rod: Drennan 10ft Series 7 Carp feeder.

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 6lb Drennan feeder to 0.19mm powerline

Hook: 14 QM1

Feeder: 24g small Guru Hybrid

Pole Groundbait heavy:

Elastic: 5 slip

Line: 0.11mm powerline to 0.08mm Colmic Stream

Hook: 20 Polemaster wide gape

Float: 0.3g Drennan AS1

Pole Groundbait light:

Elastic: double 2 slip

Line: 0.11mm powerline to 0.08mm Colmic Stream

Hook: 20 Polemaster wide gape

Float: 0.2g Drennan AS3

Pole worm:

Elastic: Yellow vespe through 1 section

Line: 0.19mm powerline to 0.11 Powerline

Hook: 16 B560

Float: 0.3g Frenzee FP500

Pole bread:

Elastic: 5 slip

Line: 0.11mm powerline to 0.08mm Colmic Stream

Hook: 20 Polemaster wide gape

Float: 4X10 Carpa F1

End of year catch up 2017

Well that was 2017 then, out of all of my gaols for the year I managed to achieve 1 in that I won the R.Sigs Coarse Angling Champs again and came close with another by coming second for the second year running In the R.Sigs Carp Champs.  I did get to fish both in both Corps teams though, however, I don’t feel like I have had the rub of the green this year and it has been a series of near misses and calamities.

So to the last couple of weeks, my traditional end of the year usually sees me slogging it out on a carp lake somewhere hoping for a rod to rattle off, well this year I thought I would catch some fish.

I started on the Dorset Stour at nutford, it kind of summed up my year really, I spent loads on bait, carried too much kit to the river, then proceeded to break my cupping kit whilst balling in  only to find that the roach were not there and I ended up on a mighty blank….. So enough of that.  I even moved swims to one that looked bob on for a perch to sit there for 3 hours without a sniff on worm!!

The next day I popped down to the Nadder as I had heard that some good weights had come off a couple of pegs at the top of the stretch, I fished my little cotton socks off for a small chub and some bits in 3 hours before a dog walker came past and told me that a couple of guys had emptied it the day before…… I am spotting a theme here.  Anyway I moved to the last swim above Harnham mill and proceeded to get a few nice roach and a hybrid lined up until a massive essox decided to eat everything that I hooked.  I packed up early and went home with my tail between my legs.

It was Thursday now and I was allowed out for a couple of hours in the morning, off to the Lords walk I went and had a lovely few hours annoying the small dace along that stretch.  I bumped into another club member and he told me I wouldn’t catch anything big on maggot, so I stopped off at Tesco on my way home and blitzed some bread for the Friday….

Reinvigorated and with my kit stripped down even more I pulled up at the River Avon upstream of Salisbury, the day was brilliant as I had a few hours in the morning catching roach to 10oz and Dace to 8 oz on my 17ft float rod and a small crowquill trotting breadflake at them. 

Unfortunately a pike moved in again so I decided to move downstream a bit where I fancied it for a chub.  Same tackle and tactics and I was rewarded with a small chub and a lovely net of roach and dace.

My next trip out was after Christmas and I had to endure waking up to a mini blizzard, still I had things to do so I ignored my nice warm bed and drove up to Swindon to get a new cupping kit from Lee and then doubled back to Great Bedwyn to try and snag a big perch or two.  The drive was horrendous, it wasn’t the snow on the road but the trees that had given up under the weight of the snow that was causing the issues, I made it to the canal at about nine but because my man flu was making me feel the cold I was off by one in the afternoon.  I had managed 10 roach, a waspie perch and a small skimmer so at least the float had gone under a couple of times.

New friend!!

Next day out was the Friday again and I decided to try the other bank of Lords walk, it was a nice few hours but quite frustrating as the wind was horrendous, I had a few trout trtotting bread flake but had to set up a light bread feeder to catch a Grayling.  I enjoyed it none the less.

So that’s it 2017 done, I am still trying to beat my PB carp that has stood for 12 years now and I will be trying hard again to do better in the Army angling groups both match and carp.  I will also be trying to keep this a bit more up to date although “I went to the lake and blanked!! Again!” is all you may get.

I hope that your 2017 was a good year and lets all hope that 2018 is better.

AAF Gp2 Match 5, Kennet and Avon Canal, 2/3/16

I was ably assisting Craig again on this match so I picked him up at half five with a coffee in hand and we started what would turn out to be an epic day.  It didn’t start too well with the bait supplier sending the bait to the wrong address so we would be waiting around for a courier until 0900, but chatting to Craig it just meant the match would start later.

We walked through the half light pegging the canal with a focus on making the pegging as fair as possible so tighter in the good areas and more spread out where it has been traditionally worst and we felt as though we had done all we could, the rest would be down to the anglers and the weather. 
I had managed a cheeky practice last Saturday on  what turned out to be A2, here is the video: 

It seemed as though the weather was trying to be as bad as it could for the day, and it looked like Armageddon as we looked out of the pub windows waiting on the draw.  It was almost just as well that we delayed the draw to miss the worst of the weather and it also  turned out that three of the guys could not turn up after a bit of a mishap on the way to the draw.  Anyway, the bait arrived and the draw commenced, along with the usual fun and games of the draw I ended up on B13, so one off the end of the section but the middle ish of 7 pegs as we had pegged C section either side of the swing bridge.

  It took me quite a while to get to my peg as Craig and I sorted the pub and then I had to drop him off in A section, before doubling back to park at the caravan park, I may have also got a little geographically challenged for a couple of minutes but my mind was elsewhere.  As I was unloading the van the weather was doing its best to make me stay in the van with sleet and hurricane force winds, but undeterred I carried on and got to my peg with 40 minutes until the all-in.  This gave me enough time to set up a short rig and a far bank rig, as well as sorting bait, but at least I was ready for the all important golden hour.

I called the all-in and fed the short line with a small pot of licky bread before cupping 3 soft balls of groundbait across onto the 3 foot line, I shipped out with a 5mm punch and then waited, and waited, and waited.  In fact I was getting very worried until after 20 minutes the float dipped and roach number 1 was soon swung to hand, this was followed by about another 20 roach and 2 decent hybrids in the first hour before the bread line petered out completely on me.

I shipped across and thankfully small roach were there in numbers, the wind made loose feeding squatt impossible so I started to feed 4-8 pinkies every couple of fish, this seemed to have the desired effect as the stamp of the fish started to get better and some of them were around the ounce in weight.

I had been joined by this point by Luke from the peg to my right, he had managed a fish but decided to keep me company as it was a cold a boring day, at least I was getting a few.

After a couple of hours I decided to plumb and feed a worm line down the track to my right, that didn’t give me an indication all day even though I went on it a few times.  The groundbait line was consistent with tiny fish for the rest of the match and I managed to get a couple more fish from on the bread line throughout the day.  Before I knew it, I had to call the all-out and for most I think it was a relief I had really enjoyed my days fishing but then the day started to turn a bit worst.  I packed up all my kit and managed to run most of my kit to my van before the scales even came into sight, then we had to hot swap them as they started to play up, eventually I was weighed in and had managed 2.520Kg and this was enough for only 4^th in the section, to be fair I was happy with that as the area I was in seemed to be full of tiny fish and most of the weights to my left had a  few decent hybrids or skimmers in them.

I finally got back to the car park only to have to wait to get out of there to go and get Craig, result was that we were the last two back in the pub for the results, Craig did his bits, I fed him, counted the pegs and discovered that two of the pegs that had not been drawn were still next to the canal, I was not impressed.

The results showed that some good weights came from A section and once again Daz dished out a lesson. B section saw Ivan take the points from fancied peg 10 it was close for 2-4^th though and finally Lee took the honours from C section with a standout weight from his area. Overall it was Daz with 5.5kg, then Rocky also from A section with 3.890kg and Ivan in third with 3.780Kg.

The results were concluded and everyone went home leaving Craig and I to tidy up, and find the missing pegs!  Then once back to Craigs office we smashed out the results so that was one less job to worry about in the morning.  At least the next match sees us on a commercial with permanent pegs.

What would I do different?

Although I enjoyed my day I dropped a couple of school boys whilst chatting to Luke, the biggest was not trying the Raison line as it only needed a few roach or a hybrid for me to go up to 2^nd in section, I don’t think I could have won the section from there as the bigger fish did the off early leaving me to scratch for small roach.

Tackle used:

Bread short:

Elastic: Double 4 slip

Line: 0.12mm to 0.08mm

Hook: 20 PR311

Float: 0.6g DS14H

Worm Track:

Elastic: Yellow Vespe through 1 section

Line: 0.17mm to 0.12mm Cenex

Hook: 12 B560

Float: 4X12 Dibber

Groundbait Across:

Elastic: Double No. 2 slip

Line: 0.12mm to 0.08mm

Hook: 22 PR311

Float: 0.2 AS3

K&A practice, 27/2/16

So it was off to the K&A for a cheeky practice before the group match this week, I actually had a lay in and still managed to be on a peg and set up by half past 10, although I didn’t set everything up to start.  I was a bit restricted as I only had a bit of bread, some caster, lobs and dendys with me so I had a few feeding ideas that I wanted to try out.

Once set up I had decided to start on bread short whilst feeding two lines across, one with caster and the other with just chopped worm, once the lines had been fed I shipped out onto the short pole line with a 5mm  punch and fortunately I didn’t have to wait long and hybrid number 1 was soon getting panned.  I managed one more before the draw of my first experiment with punch on the whip got too strong and it was a fish a chuck for about the first hour, I had several good hybrids to around 2lb and numbers of roach that were barely swingers, not that I let that stop me. I noticed however that the bank was starting to fall away under my platform so I quickly made the decision to move it before I got very wet This involved a lot of huffing and swearing but about ten minutes later I was safely positioned a few feet to the right of where I had started, unfortunately this time I was on the top of the bank.

I had a quick re plumb and ended up having to fish the short line with another section added, but the fish were still there.  I had a quick look on my two across lines and didn’t get a sniff, so it was soon back to fishing short but the fish had faded massively, it was at this point that I decided on a quick rejig and I plumbed up a worm track rig and a bread rig for across close to the weed where it was 3 1/2ft deep.

I fed both lines and the across rig started almost straight away with small roach and the occasional better specimen getting in on the action, it was not solid but it was steady at around 20 fish per hour pace.  As the day wore on I continued to try and find another bonus fish on worm but I failed miserably, I did drop back in on the short line for a few better stamp fish on the whip but it was only 4-5 before they did the off again, so at half three I decided to call it a day.

I showed my final catch on the video camera and it must have been around 20lb, I had several big hybrids and skimmers to 2-3lb, numbers of smaller hybrids and a rake of 2-4oz roach that I had mostly picked up in the first hour or so on the short line.

I decided to pack up most of my kit but spend half an hour or so chasing a perch, well it worked and I finally got one at half four, at about a pound it was most welcome.  After this I packed up the rest of my kit and did a quick peg recce up the rest of the stretch, there were tons of small fish moving in certain areas so the whip may play a big part in my plan come Wednesday.

What would I do different?

I would have liked to have had some groundbait and squatt to try out on the far line.

Tackle used:

Bread short:

Elastic: Double 4 slip

Line: 0.12mm to 0.08mm

Hook: 20 PR311

Float: 0.6g DS14H

Whip:

Whip: Daiwa ZR at 4m

Line: 0.13mm N Gage to 0.1mm

Hook: 20 Colmic B957

Float: 0.8g Drennan Stillwater Blue Waggler

Worm across:

Elastic: Double 5 slip

Line: 0.17mm to 0.12mm Cenex

Hook: 16 B560

Float: 4X10 Dibber

Worm Track:

Elastic: Yellow Vespe through 1 section

Line: 0.17mm to 0.12mm Cenex

Hook: 12 B560

Float: 4X12 Dibber

Caster Across:

Elastic: Double No. 2 slip

Line: 0.13mm N Gage to 0.10mm

Hook: 20 Colmic B957

Float: 5-11 MW F1 rattie

Bread Across:

Elastic: Double No. 2 slip

Line: 0.12mm to 0.08mm

Hook: 20 PR311

Float: 4X12 KC Carpa F1

AAF Gp2 Match 1, Bishops Cannings K&A canal.

So the new season of Army matches has begun and the first was last week at Bishops Cannings, a stretch of the K&A Canal hat I am starting to get to know well, so much so that I pegged it again, even after having said I never would again.  I went down the Sunday before ably assisted by my wife, (I told her it would just be a walk along the canal) and managed to spend 3 hours cutting out swims along 2 of the sections with the intention of getting to the canal early on the morning and finishing the job after pegging the stretch.

Even a 0400 start in London didn’t faze me and although it took a little longer than anticipated I was soon getting a brew down my neck in the Crown Inn, thank you Carl.

I did the team draw for Blandford Nodders as I am fishing for them this year with my impending posting and on paper it meant nothing, Pete was close to the Swing Bridge and Dave was just up from the main road bridge so I had the longest walk to the infamous turning bay.

It is infamous as there are carp and large bream to be found there and I was hoping to hook at least 1 as I seldom catch bonus fish on the canal, time would tell.  I suddenly noticed that in my section there were some big names such as Dave, Ex Army Captain, John aka Yoda on the peg to my right, then at least another  three members of the Army Team, Nick, Rikki and Daz!! (to name but a few)  Although most of them took time to point out that I was sat on a flyer.

As I have been concentrating away from match fishing for the last month or so I had only prepped a few rigs for the day so they were set up, bait was sorted and I as ready for the all in well before time. More abuse was to follow as Daz pointed out that that was the peg he used to pleasure fish all the time there due to the bream, and as I was chatting to John a big fish rolled under the far bank.

Back to the fishing the plan was bread short, worm at 13m left and right and then groundbait and pinkie at 13 in front.  I also set up a light feeder rod in case I needed to chuck it.  The all in  was called, 5 lobs and a few dendys were chopped and cupped on the left hand swim in the turning bay, a small ball of bread was cupped in at 5m and then I fed 4 balls of groundbait and pinkie on the long line to prime it for later.

The first 30 minutes on the bread line was good for about a pound and an early look on the worm line set my day as I had 2 decent hybrids in 2 put ins. Back on the bread for a few and then a couple more on the worm line, then a look on the pinkie line for a perch which would always be followed by a few small roach and that was the pattern for the day.

I managed a few chucks on the tip but 1 missed bite on bread was all I managed, back on the pole if I didn’t catch a roach straight away on the pinkie line then a few twitches would give me a perch and then I could get upto 6 small roach off it before they would disappear. I had several perch or pike smash through then roach at times during the match and this seemed to make them reluctant to settle in the swim. The worm line would be hybrids then perch, if I caught 2 perch I re fed and moved to let the hybrids come back in.  I also missed loads of odd indications that were either tiny perch trying to eat half a lobworm or crayfish, the jury is still out on that one.

I kept trying the bread line but the decent roach did the off after an hour, and I started a new worm line down to the right in the boat track but I missed 1 bite from there.

It was an interesting day and I was always hoping for a big bonus but it never materialised, I managed a quick run of 10 roach off the pinkie line in the last 15 minutes as I needed some fish and they proved to be very worthwhile.

The all out was called and the scales arrived, daz was leading on 4.66kg with Gav, John and Dave all on 3kg+. 

The scales showed just how useful those last few roach were as I managed 2^nd in section by 20g…… 1 roach!!

(The rest of the results can be found at :  http://midsectionblues.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/army-match-1-bishops-cannings-dead.html)

Back at the pub and the rest of the team had done alright, Dave had managed over a kilo from A section for 6 points and Pete manged 5 points with over a kilo and a half from C section which was a good result considering the standard of angler on the bank nowadays.

This was enough for the team to take second on section count back and that is a good start to our year, lets hope that we can continue on this form.

What would I do different?

I should have been more regimented on the amount of time I spent on the worm line and another worm line further into the turning bay may have given me the bonus I was looking for.

I don’t think the feeder was right but it was good to sit on whilst untangling rigs!

Tackle used:

Pole bread Short:

Elastic: Double 4 slip

Line: 0.11mm powerline to 0.08mm Cenex

Hook: 20 Drennan Polemaster wide gape

Float: Garbolino DS14h

Pole Pinkie long:

Elastic: No.3 Slip

Line: 0.11mm powerline to 0.08mm Cenex

Hook: Preston PR 311 in 22,

Float: 4X10 MW F1 Carbon

Pole Skimmer Long:

Elastic: Double 4 slip

Line: 0.11mm powerline to 0.10mm Colmic

Hook: 20 Colmic B957

Float: Drennan AS2 0.3

Pole Worm:

Elastic: Yellow Vespe hollow through 1 section

Line: 0.17mm powerline to 0.12mm Cenex

Hook: 14 B560

Float: 4X12 Drennan Dibber and 0.3g Frenzee FP500 when the wind casused to great a ripple to see the dibber

Feeder:

Rod: Drennan Ultralight Bomb at 10ft with 3/4oz tip

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 0.16mm Cenex feeder to 0.12mm Cenex

Hook: 14 B560

Feeder: Guru Mini Open end

An evening on the Canal 10/4/15

During the week I received a few new toys to play with and since I had a few hours in the afternoon I decided that a few hours trying to catch a few carp from the same pound as Monday would be a good idea.  My exploits from Monday can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7O_K0SK7Xg

Back to the evening in question, I had a good run from work and I was able to get set up on the canal by half three, I was on the same peg as the week before but the tactics were this time a little different as I had to use up some dead red maggot I had in the freezer.

I decided on a simple, a paternoster rig on 0.20mm mainline, and a 0.12mm hooklength with a size 18 B911 F1, I was using a small 15g drennan cage feeder as the distance was not too far but I found that my new rod dealt with it superbly.

I cast with no hooklength 4 times at the start to get some bait down and then went over the top with double dead red on the hook, my bait tray had Sonubaits F1 dark groundbait mixed with 2mm pellet , a pint of dead maggot and a tin of corn. It took 3 casts but I son had my first fish a small roach in the net and then started a golden hour with skimmers from 3oz to 3lb making an appearance, mostly on dead maggot although I did have a couple of fish on sweetcorn. Throughout the afternoon the canal surprisingly got busyier and I had a carp angler drop in to my left against the lock and then another turned up 15m to my right and started spraying floating pellet in across and in the trees that I was fishing next to.  The carp loved it as they troughed all the free food that was floating amongst the branches and although he hooked and lost one they mostly laughed at him.  The bream fishing petered out and stopped as he did this so I got off my box and set up my method rod that was in my bag, I then clipped this up tight to the far bank to practice my casting.  The only pull I got was off the branch I hit when I went a bit left… I walked around to unhook myself and saw a couple of carp happily eating floaters, no size to them though.

I tried putting my left over bait in down the edge as I packed up and laid the feeder on top for 15 minutes as it started to get dark but that didn’t work this time. I ended up with an easy 20lb bag in about 4 hours, so not a bad night.

A quick word on the hardware, I had mainly gone to try out a new rod that is a Drennan Ultralight Bomb rod, this is an awesome bit of kit that I tried in all combinations, it easily handled the short cast to the far side of the canal with both tips (0.75 and 1oz) even at the shorter 10ft length. When I put in the extension the casting was far easier but it still retained its beautiful fish playing action.  I cannot recommend this rod enough for short range feeder fishing with a bit of finesse.

What would I do different?

I would like to try a waggler over the top of the feeder line one day as I was catching a few decent Rudd on the drop at one point.

Might have to go carp fishing again before my ticket runs out.

AAF Gp2 Match 5, K&A canal, Bishops Cannings.

Firstly sorry for the delay in getting this out but here it is, once again I was pegging this match, something to do with the venue being 6 minutes from my house at the moment, so it was a late night drive from London to Devizes followed by an early start to get the stretch sorted for the day.  My only brief was make sure everyone had plenty of room so I will be honest I spent more time pacing than I did looking at the far bank for nice swims. Even so we were well spread out with a section either side of the swing bridge and a section towards Devizes from the Bridge inn.

I got the pegging done in record time and managed to have my breakfast relatively un disturbed I collected my bait and enjoyed a bit of banter before getting called forward to draw for the team. The draw put Ben on A6 (not the worst), Daz on B11 (reasonable) and myself on C5, this was an unknown stretch as I had never fished it and to make matters worse two pegs to my right I had Kev (ex Army team captain and current member), then Dave (Ex Army Team Captain) and on my left Mick (Army team member). We all went a quid with each other and within minutes I had the first complaint about the pegging, Ok I didn’t know that there was a water point in front of C3, but Kev did and he soon pointed it out as the first boat of the day parked up.  Then Dave pointed out that he was sat in the middle of a boat and couldn’t easily reach the end, then Mick walked past suffering from the night before to see his mate in the next section. My peg looked alright though:

Apart from all the scum and rubbish that was floating around and getting pushed about by the wind it looked alright, I plumbed up a short bread line and then two rigs to fish in the gap across, one with pellet the other with worm, finally I set up a rig to fish groundbait against the left hand boat.

I was ready well before the start but was not too confident as the canal was a funny colour so I was hoping for a couple of big bonus fish hence the pellets going in at the all in.  I fed a small ball of bread at 2+1, 3 balls of groundbait on my 11.5m groundbait line and then 10 worms against the left boat and a few 2 and 4mm pellet against the right boat.

I dropped my standard 0.6g bread rig in  close and started to wait, fortunately it didn’t take too long and within the first hour I had 20 fish for about a kilo and a half, including a couple of chunky hybrids, I had also lost a hybrid of about a pound but I wasn’t’ geared up for them to be fair.  The second hour slowed considerably but at the end I had around 40 fish for 2 kilo, it was at this point that I had to start looking on the groundbait line as the bread line died, I had even started another line to the left down the tow but as it was running in the wrong direction I was not confident.

The groundbait line was slow with a roach and small perch to show, the pellet gave me nothing and the worm line was equally bad, I decided to start a new line against the right hand boat and fish bread.  It worked although it was slow, and in the last hour I also managed another chunky roach off the original bread line and two small perch on the worm line, I also bumped a skimmer on the groundbait line so that was the end of that line and the all out was a sound for sore ears.

Kev had managed a few fish in between the boats, Dave had had a struggle and Mick managed a pound skimmer and then went for a snooze in my van as he was well under the weather, As it turned out in our 4 way match I managed 2.78kg, Kev 1.83kg, Dave 0.91 and mick had 0.88 but a good snooze (so I won the quid off each of them). This was also enough for second in section for me and 4^th in the match, I was beaten by 3 bream weights, Dave Docs won my section and the match with 3.8kg including 10 skimmers so I was regretting the lost hybrid and also bumping the fish on my groundbait line.

The boys did good with Ben getting 6 points and Daz 3 so we ended up 2^nd on the day behind Nomads A but we have put 10 points between ourselves and Blandford and are nipping on the heels of Nomads above us in the league. It is all change onto commercials with the 4 Way Challenge coming up on Tunnel Barn Farm and the group matches moving to Todber and the like, I am also chasing big carp at the moment, my latest big carp exploits can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh-3QR8Y7uY.

What would I do different

1.       I would like to think that if I drew there again I would set up a second bread rig with a different type of float and a soft hollow elastic just for the skimmers and hybrids, rather than making do with my bagging roach rig.

2.       I would also bin off the pellet across and fish the groundbait lines between the boats and fish 2 worm lines down the track on each side.

3.       Forget Dendys it’s all about the lobs.

Carping on the canal again

Carp on the canal 3

Please follow the link above to a short video of my latest exploits on the canal.

It was a good day.

Holidays Catch up

Well as the title says this is a bit of a catch up from the last couple of weeks, after the Todber Christmas match a few things have happened that have not been for the better but I have managed to get out on the bank quite a lot (when the wife has been at work!!)

I started on a trip along the K&A canal chasing carp and trying to become a video blogger, I had now decided to concentrae on some pounds in the town itself as it is walking distance from my house, thus saving time and fuel.  The first trip saw me sat on a likely looking swim with an overhanging tree.

The carp had other ideas and it was a blank with nothing seen or heard but I learnt a bit about the day to day life on that stretch of canal so was ready for the next time.

Travelling light was the key as it was a 25 minute walk.

My next trip out was on Christmas day to take the wife for a walk and to do a cheeky pre-bait on a few spots, it was a nice walk with plenty to see.

I was back down the canal a couple of days later to fish over the pre-baited spots and I managed to get 3 bites and loose all three even after diving in to try and free one of the carp from the snag it was wrapped around. I will say at this point thanks to the lady who was trying not to laugh too much as I froze in the 4 degrees water, it is NOT reccomended that you just jump in to a canal to free a fish, I thought I may have a chance of getting it un looped from the snag it was in but I was wrong and it could have gone pear shaped very quickly.  Anyway it was the lowest I have felt in a long time to have finnally found the fish just to loose 3 and the weather decided to try and cheer me up by snowing at dusk, it failed.

I was out again a few days later this time with Jim on a trip to Todber manor, we had decided to fish Wadmill so I could chuck a couple of carp rods out and hopefully get a bite whilst he fished the pole, we didn’t however count on the weather.

We decided to fish even with the ice and Jim managed to put a few small fish together fishing maggot on the pole, I tried everything I could but didn’t feel as though I was anywhere near where the carp would be.

In hindsight I should have smashed a channel out into the middle of the lake as soon as we got there and then gone for a walk smashing more ice with the breaker to try and get the fish moving around.  Might have worked?? (might also have annoyed a few people!!)

It was a nice day out with good company all the same, Jim was soon bagging with the best of them and I managed to get a go on his box and show him how to catch quicker (and avoid another blank).

Next stop was back up to Shearwater with Daz and Ben, they were setting up on the dam wall as I arrived and even after I asked if we could go to where I thought would be better for the carp we ended up sitting on the wall. I was a bit perturbed as I had packed my longer range carp gear with me and a quick marker up in front gave me depths of 23-25 feet.  I decided that zigs would be the way to go and set up a couple of Zig floats, I spodded out some cloudy groundbait with a little bit of food at 60yds but only managed a couple of bream and hybrids on them.

Daz and Ben both managed to catch a few bream and I even bumped into Rob Hughes as he was drop shotting for perch, it was another good day with plenty of banter…well mostly me moaning about being sat on the dam wall but never mind.

This takes me up to my latest trip which saw me going up to a new complex of club lakes looking for some very special carp, I fished for about 24 hours on one of the lakes for one liner and a few bubbling fish and I took a tour of the others.

It looks good and I cannot wait to get back up there especially since I learnt far more walking around the lakes talking to people rather than sitting behind motionless bobbins.

Until the next time my last 3 solo carp trips can all be found at this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1EqN4Ee5ug

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZUyL9JTLvU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL-PvZBZLT8