Bassingstoke Canal Practice, 10/07/11

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.

Todber Evening Match

It was another Todber evening match and unfortunatly only 4 of us were on the bank this time, I drew peg 38 (a proper flyer) and set up a paste rig to fish under the tree in 4ft of water and a paste rig to fish next to the tree in 2 ft of water. The carp were ravenous and too willing to come up so I suffered from a night of foul hookers coming off until the last hour when I put on a shallow rig at 6" and sacked up. I ebnded up with 94lb and came last. Pez continued his run of form with a 3hr weight of over 150lb for the win and Will and Dave both had well in excess of the ton.
What a night. My mistake was my feediong and the fact that my peg was nearly twice as deep as Pez's saw him still get loads of liners but he founfd it easier to settle them on the bottom.

R.Sigs Championships, 2011

So we were all off to Heronbrook Fisheries for the 2011 R.Sigs Championships 2011, Canal and Match were the lakes involved and each would have 14 anglers around them over the next two days.
Day 1 saw me drawn on Canal peg 12, this is in the middle of the stick ups and as soon as I got to my peg I knew that it would be an interesting day, I also had a little cut out down my left hand margin on a 2+2 line that was earmarked for later. The across line would be simplicity itself, I took a power kit with Red Vespe hollow through it and proceeded to pull the elastic out and cut it off 5 ft shorter with the idea to stiffen it up. This was attached to an animal rig with 0.19mm powerline straight through to a size 3 Tubertini 175, my float was a new Frenzee fp 850 set at 2 ft deep and my hook bait would be meat as I didn’t have any bread.
I set up a standard paste rig on a 2+3 line at 45^o to my right and a margin rig that was the same as the across rig down my margin to the left. I thought it may be a hard match so did not want to spread the fish around too much. At the all in I fed ½ a pot of hemp and pellet on my paste line and shipped across towards the reeds with my Dobbing rig. After 3 hours it was 4 all between the fish and I but all of my fish were f1’s so frustrated I went for a walk around the lake to see how it was fishing. Before I went I put a full pot of bait on my Paste line and a pot of hemp and 6mm meat down the edge. It was obvious that it was fishing hard every where and even the end pegs were struggling so I decided to persevere and over the last 2 hours of the match I managed to take about 10 Carp from the margin and on the paste line for a total weight of 44lb 4oz. This was enough o give me 2^nd out of the serving members and so I went into day 2 with 2 points. I had been categorically beaten by my mate Pez who took over 70lb from end peg 35 mostly down the edge in the last hour.

Day 2 saw me drawn on the far side of Match Lake just as the old Match and speci lakes join together, this gave me a multitude of options but I decided to try and keep things simple. (I would regret it later) I clipped a method up to a hole in the reeds to the island margin in front of me, I plumbed up a paste line on a 2+2 just to my left and I plumbed up a left and right hand margin swim.
At the All in I fed my paste line again with hemp and pellet before casting out the tip, after an hour I had 4 decent F1’s in the bag but they had backed off so I was starting to sctratch already, the paste line wielded a few skimmers and the margin gave me 1 carp of 6lb and a couple of roach. All my fish came from the method line to the island and after 3 I would have to rest it by fishing somewhere else for upto an hour. Not good. I finished with 38lb+ which was enough for 4^th on the lake but fortunately it gave me 2 points again, unfortunately Pez had 1 again and it also transpired that M.Cullip had the same in the other section.
Overall I was 3^rd with Pez taking top spot forcing Martin into second by total weight, it had been a great fun couple of days and I am really looking forward to next years wherever I will decide to hold it. Next time I will definitely set up more options on Match Lake though as I think that another couple of lines for a few fish could have seen me squeak the section.