Clearly I spoke too soon about enjoying September and the following month the most, of all the months in the year!
another double header this weekend, the first being the sixth and final round of the Barford League on the same stretch of the Warks Avon. i’m getting a trifle jaded by being in the same section on every round! I drew a peg that I haven’t match fished since about 1994 (when I caught two trout on the pole from it!) ... as it has been re-platformed this year after not having one for many years. I was the last peg above the Sherborne confluence, which sounds grand ... but is a mere trickle and has zero effect on the main river, not even offering a bay or other haven to sheltering fish.
the peg is a little deeper Than the one above, approaching 7 ft, perhaps a bit more with the height of the river. The level had been up and down following the midweek rain ... and was ”just” below the level of the platform when we started. It dropped a further inch or two but because of the constant rain all match, was back to the starting level by the end of the day. To be honest, my feet wouldn’t have been much wetter if I’d been sat in the river... the old boots are definitely to be retired now! But the river was still really clear, you could see down 5 feet!
For once, the micro dace were not such a pest today ... I caught quite a few stampers (2-3 oz fish) on my customary caster hook bait ... I could even fish a semi strung out rig on the stick float in the second half of the match. I only suffered one pike strike ... but the catching pattern was very odd. I’d get two in two chucks, then nothing for 20 mins, then repeat ... it was like that for four hours. I ended up with 7 pounds ten ounces for 3rd in section, beaten by two big fish weights... and the team was third equal on the day with Cadence Superteam, so held on to our third place in the league (which is the best that we’ve done whilst I’ve been fishing with Matchbox).
on Sunday it was the first round of the Bedford winter league on the Gt. Ouse at Willington. Following the day of precipitation on Saturday, this was fished on a rising and colouring river, albeit a lot lower than the corresponding round last year (which I enjoyed a lot more).
In short, I just couldn’t snare anything half decent ... I even resorted to Bleaking, although that exhausted after about 20! the conditions really weren’t that bad, I could put a float through quite passably ... just couldn’t get any bites From worthwhile fish! I had a lot of micro fish for 4 pounds and eleven ounces, which was only worth 5th in an eight peg section. Hopefully that’s my bad result out of the way. 6:13 won the section ... and I think the team still managed second, although with little contribution fro me. I left early from the results , with a proper monk on!!! Steve Drakulic won the match with 11:13 from the concrete block Peg. He had a perch that was nearly 3 pounds in that bag.
another double header this weekend, the first being the sixth and final round of the Barford League on the same stretch of the Warks Avon. i’m getting a trifle jaded by being in the same section on every round! I drew a peg that I haven’t match fished since about 1994 (when I caught two trout on the pole from it!) ... as it has been re-platformed this year after not having one for many years. I was the last peg above the Sherborne confluence, which sounds grand ... but is a mere trickle and has zero effect on the main river, not even offering a bay or other haven to sheltering fish.
the peg is a little deeper Than the one above, approaching 7 ft, perhaps a bit more with the height of the river. The level had been up and down following the midweek rain ... and was ”just” below the level of the platform when we started. It dropped a further inch or two but because of the constant rain all match, was back to the starting level by the end of the day. To be honest, my feet wouldn’t have been much wetter if I’d been sat in the river... the old boots are definitely to be retired now! But the river was still really clear, you could see down 5 feet!
For once, the micro dace were not such a pest today ... I caught quite a few stampers (2-3 oz fish) on my customary caster hook bait ... I could even fish a semi strung out rig on the stick float in the second half of the match. I only suffered one pike strike ... but the catching pattern was very odd. I’d get two in two chucks, then nothing for 20 mins, then repeat ... it was like that for four hours. I ended up with 7 pounds ten ounces for 3rd in section, beaten by two big fish weights... and the team was third equal on the day with Cadence Superteam, so held on to our third place in the league (which is the best that we’ve done whilst I’ve been fishing with Matchbox).
on Sunday it was the first round of the Bedford winter league on the Gt. Ouse at Willington. Following the day of precipitation on Saturday, this was fished on a rising and colouring river, albeit a lot lower than the corresponding round last year (which I enjoyed a lot more).
In short, I just couldn’t snare anything half decent ... I even resorted to Bleaking, although that exhausted after about 20! the conditions really weren’t that bad, I could put a float through quite passably ... just couldn’t get any bites From worthwhile fish! I had a lot of micro fish for 4 pounds and eleven ounces, which was only worth 5th in an eight peg section. Hopefully that’s my bad result out of the way. 6:13 won the section ... and I think the team still managed second, although with little contribution fro me. I left early from the results , with a proper monk on!!! Steve Drakulic won the match with 11:13 from the concrete block Peg. He had a perch that was nearly 3 pounds in that bag.
. Set up the end tackle again and had a decent roach almost straight away. There’s been a thread on forum recently about dead maggots, but having tried them for the first time today (I couldn’t get to the tackle shop for live ones) they accounted for the carp of about 3lb below
