Sunday 13^th April – Kingswood RBL Club Match On The B&T Canal – Fishers And Joggers Just Don’t Mix!

I was really looking forward to our RBL club match on the Bridgwater and Taunton canal but a mindless fooking jogger spoilt my day. More on that in just a moment. First, I fished a Costcutter 500 qualifier last Thursday at… well… you know where. There were only 9 contenders for this one and so Dave, the organiser, put 5 pegs on one bank and 4 on the other. Payouts were agreed for first place, top silvers and 2 sections. I wasn’t too bothered about where I would be drawn today, as I was planning to fish using the same methods and baits wherever I ended up. However, an end peg on either bank would surely offer a slight advantage in terms of space.

So, I rattled the drawbag, dived in and peg 14 emerged, much to my delight. I had drawn an end peg and on the short section too, so what’s not to like? I have fished this peg quite a few times with my best weight being 98lbs, finishing third behind Jason Pitman and Gerry Welsh, on a full lake match a couple of years ago. It is one of those pegs that has the potential to throw up a winning weight at any time… will it today? Well, we’ll see. I had already decided to fish paste out in front at 6 metres and meat to my right and corn to my left. I also had a waggler rod and a bomb rod set up just in case I needed to try something else.

My main line of attack today was the paste line. For this, I opted for a big 1-gram Chianti float to 0.19 mainline and 0.17 hooklength. My hook choice was a size 14 Guru Kaizan. For my edge lines, I would use just the one rig set at 24 inches deep. This rig consisted of a 0.3-gram crystal dibber. 0.22 main line and a 4-inch, 0.19 hooklength. Some of the carp in the Match Lake go to well over 12lbs and so you need some proper gear to get them out. So, that was it, all set up and as nice and simple as you like. Now, I had plenty of options on this peg, too many, really. There was the island out front at 16 metres and there was the edge of the island for a bomb or method feeder approach. Then there was the wide open water to my right for a bit of waggler fishing, but fish were moving in the reeds to my right, so that’s where I started.

On the all-in, I cupped out a large cup of Scopex groundbait, a few bits of paste and some 6mm pellets to the 6-metre line. Then I baited my edge rig with an 8mm pellet of meat and lowered it into my right-hand margin. There was evidence of carp present, but it took 15 minutes before I had a proper bite from a 6-pounder. Safely netted, I went back out for another and foul-hooked one right away. It shot out into open water and just kept going until my hooklength finally gave way. So, the score was now 1-1. After that, I cupped out about 6 or 7 pellets of meat close to the reeds and dropped a baited hook over it. There were no signs and so I left that line and went on to try the paste line. I gave it about 30 minutes, but there were no signs of life on that line, so it was back out into the reeds with meat.

As I lowered in my bait, a carp took it on the drop and bolted deep into the reeds. It took a fooking age to persuade it to come out, which it did eventually. That was another 6-7-pounder, with just under an hour gone. Hmmm… 2 carp in the first hour is a good sign compared to previous visits. So, I persevered in the reedy margins and then hooked and lost another 2 good fish in the reeds. Phew! It was time to try the left-hand margin where there were fewer reeds. I nipped on a grain of corn and lowered it in. Then I threw some grains of corn over the top and waited. There was nothing doing after 20 minutes, so it was back onto the paste line. Before going in, I dropped another ball of groundbait and pellets into the swim and then slowly lowered in my rig. It had just settled when the float buried and another carp was on.

After netting that one, I went back onto the paste line and missed a couple of bites as the fish seemed to be a little finicky. I don’t think they were quite ready for paste yet, but I carried on regardless. I had a long, long spell where I wasn’t getting bites from anywhere and having seen a couple of cruisers, I had a slap around the edge of the reeds at 13 metres with an 8mm banded pellet. That just seemed to spook the fish, with any that were on the top doing a prompt disappearing act. At that point, I was tempted to chuck out the method feeder, but I resisted and dropped down my left-hand edge again instead. There was definitely a carp there but after a couple of twitches on the float and an over-enthusiastic strike, it soon buggered off.

I decided to leave the left-hand edge now and focus entirely on the right-hand edge and the paste line only. So, we were into the last 2 hours and carp were beginning to show again in the margin. However, over that period, I somehow managed to lose another 5 fish in the reeds. A couple of those were defo foul-hooked. Then I landed 4 more carp on paste to sort of make up for it and I finished up with 7 carp in the net and 7 carp lost. I weighed 38-8-0 for third overall and collected a section win, but I knew I should have done so much better. I spent way too long on the paste line and I should have had a go on the method or waggler. And… I really must do something about losing so many fish in the margins. I need a new cunning plan… LOL! So, well done to Liam Reynolds, who won the day with 68-7-0 from peg 20, the same peg he won on last time.

Kingswood RBL Match, B&T Canal (The Wides), Boat & Anchor Stretch

I arrived at the venue quite early and so decided to give Ian Brice, our match secretary, a hand with the pegging. With 11 anglers fishing today, some were in for a long walk, but very often a long walk is to one of the better pegs. Everyone else arrived in good time and so the draw got underway according to plan. All the pegs looked inviting, so I wasn’t too bothered where I ended up today. I drew peg 8, which was just before the widest part of the canal, although my peg was plenty wide enough for me. I decided to set up 3 lines. One at 5 metres for small silvers, one at 9 metres down the track and one at 11 metres just before it began to shallow up.

There are tench and bream in this section so my plan was to fish with worm on the 9-metre line over groundbait and then fish corn on the longer line. The short line would be a maggles for bits line. On both the 9 and 11-metre lines, I had a depth of around 3.5 feet and 2.5 feet on the short line. My rig for both the 9 and 11-metre lines was identical with a 0.3-gram pencil float, 0.12 mainline and 0.10 hooklengths and alternating between a size 16 and a size 14 hook. I chopped up some worm and added it to some “So Natural Black” groundbait and on the all-in, I cupped out a large ball to the 9-metre line. Then I cupped out about a dozen grains of corn to the long line.

I started on the short line with maggle to a size 20 hook, but the fish were really small and so I gave that up and decided to concentrate on the other 2 lines. On the first put in, with worm on the hook, over my 9-metre line, I hooked a skimbo of around 8 ounces. The wind was making presentation a little tricky, but with a couple of extra inches added to the rig, I was able to keep the bait nailed to the deck. So, about 10 minutes later, I had another skimbo of about 10 ounces and then a few minutes later, I had a third skimbo of maybe 12 ounces. The swim then went a bit quiet and so I tried the corn line, but I had no bites on that, so it was back onto the 9-metre line with worm. I had just put some more choppie in and went straight over it. That brought an immediate response from a roach of around 6 ounces.

It then went quiet again and so I cupped out more choppie and in I go again. This time, the float dipped a couple of times and then slowly slid away. On the strike, I could feel a good fish on the end, but I couldn’t make out what it was at first. I was having a right “heave ho” with this one. I would pull forward and it would quickly pull back. This “tug of war” went on for a few minutes before I managed to drag the creature to the surface. It was a huge eel of between 3 and 4lbs. FFS! It was at least 3 feet long and I somehow managed to get it into my small silvers landing net, only for it to quickly wriggle back out. So, I had to play it all over again. Finally subdued, or so I thought, I netted it again and because it was so heavy, I put down my top kit so I could use both hands to pull the landing net handle in, while keeping the net above the water line.

As I got it closer to the bank, it somehow managed to wriggle out of the net again and this time it shot under my keepnet. By the time I grabbed my top kit, it was well on its way back to the Sargasso Sea! FFS! The biggest eel I’ve ever hooked and I would have loved to have got a photo with it. Well, after that I cupped out more worm, tried the 11-metre line for no bites and went back onto the 9-metre line with a whole dendra. It was a good 20 minutes before I got another bite and this time it was a target fish… a tench! However, it was only about 1.5lbs and well short of the 5-6lbs fish that are often caught from this stretch. Nevermind… there was still half the match to go, so I was hopeful of a few more.

We have fished this stretch a couple of times now when it has been relatively quiet, but today there seemed to be more walkers, joggers and cyclists about. I kept an eye open for passing traffic so I could move my pole in good time but what happened next was nothing short of deliberate and malicious fooking vandalism. I could see a jogger heading toward me from my left-hand side as I was rebaiting my hook, so I put the top kit down and reached over to pull the rest of my pole out of the way. This jogger had no patience whatsoever and as I was pulling my pole out of the way, he raised his left arm swiftly, hitting my pole, which then broke in the middle of section 5. I swore at the bast*rd at the top of my voice, but he just went up a gear and literally legged it out of sight.

I would never have caught up with him at that pace. So, I spent the next 20-30 minutes carrying out a temporary repair. I carried on fishing after that, but the swim had died and by this time I had lost heart anyway. My day was ruined by a mindless fooking moron and Karma is heading his way soon. Oh Yes! Okay, so it’s an old pole and I’m getting a new one in mid-May, but what if it had been a brand new pole? So, what would YOU have done if it were YOUR pole? Well, that was that and with the match over, I weighed just 4-7-0 on a day that quite a few tench were caught and featured in all of the top weights.

Well done to Leigh “Longshanks” Wakefield for another impressive performance, winning the day with 20-15-0. Well done also to Jon Amato, who used both whip tactics and a bomb rod to put 11-14-0 in the net, taking second place. Tony Welsby was third with some nice early tench from under a tree on the far bank, weighing in with 11-10-0.

So, with my pole now repaired, I’ll be back out on the Windmill Match Lake next Thursday for an Easter Knock Up and then next Saturday, I’ll be fishing the Saturday Shield match at Whitehouse Farm… keep you posted!

NOTE: If reading this blog on a PC, you can enlarge the images by right-clicking on them and selecting “Open link in new window”

If you enjoyed reading this blog, then be sure to join the Fish Wag Facebook group HERE for blog updates. Also, please Like and Share… It’s very much appreciated! Check out the links to my older blog posts below…