K&A spring league rd 2

Round 2 of the league saw me heading off to A10, this put me at Crofton, on a peg that is just along from where Lee Edwards had taken 30lb of skimmers a month or so before, peg A11 was closer though. I got to my peg with plenty of time and mixed my groundbait and set up my rigs much the same as last week:

0.6g DS14H on 0.12mm mainline and a 0.08mm bottom, size 20 B511 rigged on no.5 elastic.

0.2g Classic 6 on 0.09mm mainline to a 0.06mm bottom and a 22 B590 on no.3 elastic

A 4X8 Handmade on the drop float with the same line, hook and elastic as the previous rig.

But this time I added a lighter Bread rig that consisted of a 0.4g DS14 with a thinner bristle and a lighter 0.07mm bottom in case it was harder that we thought.

I also put a lob rig down the track on the right hand side (towards A11); this was a 4X14 Choppy float on 0.18mm mainline to a 0.14mm bottom and a size 12 PR355 hook on Yellow Browning Hollow elastic.

Again I set up a waggler as the wind was strong at the start and forecast to get stronger through the day.

As you can see in the picture the far bank was featureless and I was able to get into the water and at the start of the match I decided that I would feed my squatt line at 13m, to find the right depth, I put 4 balls of groundbait with squatt, caster and hemp in to try and hold any skimmers that were in the area. I had fed my bread line with a small ball of licky right on the start and as soon as I could I shipped my positive rig over that line with a 6mm punch on. Nothing happened so after 10 minutes I was scratching around on my bread line with my light rig and not alot was happening. I had 3 fish at the end of the first hour and had a quick look on my worm rig down the track, again nothing so I was on my squatt line sooner than I had hoped. Due to the wind it had been difficult to loose feed accurately so I started with a kinder pot on the end of my pole to feed 10 squatts at a time, this had the desired effect in that I was able to catch a couple of fish but it was not very quick and after 2 I would end up waiting for 10 minutes or more before my next one or two.

The whole day turned into a struggle for everyone in the section and the guy to my right ended up going for a walk after a couple of hours to report that not alot had been caught at all. I managed to start loose feeding squatt by catapult and this allowed me to explore the swim a bit more again though I would catch one or 2 fish then struggle for a while. I had no interest on my worm line and struggled for a few small fish all day so when the all out was called it was welcome. I weighed in 2lb 1/2oz and this was enough to beat the guy to my right and then the next 4 pegs to my left so it was job done for the team again, this was enough for 4^th in section and I only missed out on 3^rd due to a last gasp perch for one of the guys. The next round is in about a month so it will be all change on the tactics and hopefully some better fishing as the whole canal had switched off for this one. Till then it’s mainly commercials and hopefully carp bagging.