22/07/2015 - Amalgamation Summer League - Round Three - Canal

It was the third in the series however; I missed the second match due to enforced holiday at Bournemouth. After a steady ride down the A38 it was breakfast in Hilltops with Dave, Norm and Pete. I felt hungry so went for the Jumbo.

After a chat with Denise and Jamie over a cup of tea I had a walk around Brick Lake which had the fishery £10 Open Match and all 20 pegs were taken – very popular. Dave Wride was there on peg 3, Steve Kedge on 13 and Paul Locke on peg 16 who advised me to fish paste on the Canal – what else from “Big Pot” not talking pellet pots either!!

In to the draw tin and out comes pink pong ball 48. No emotion. Arriving at the peg there were a large amount of stones exposed on the far bank due to the water level being down at least a foot. Initially I just set up a 4x12 Jolly – 0.14 straight through to a 16 - 808 hook to be fished at 4 metres out in front with initially semi-hard pellet over micro and if that failed a conversion to caster would hopefully keep the Silvers coming. With half hour to go before the start Paul Locke’s advice had to be heeded, so I set up a 0.3 gram paste float to fish over at 10.5 metres (3/4 metre from the far bank) where I found it very shallow at 10 inches! Before the all-in I spied an orange Carp top over on the far bank – Umm.

I started on the semi-hard pellet and micro and caught small – no tiny Skimmers which could hardly pull the float under. It was bites nonetheless however I did have two decent Skimmers. All the while the Orange Carp was showing itself. As the Silvers slowed I changed to caster over caster and had three Barbels in quick succession one was just over the pound. The Orange Carp was still there, so I decided to fetch it our with the paste rig and chinned it first try. Back to the caster and I had another two decent Skimmers. I was then surprised to see another Carp show its nose so with the Silvers slowing I had another go at the Carp and had that one first try.

I all but now abandoned the Silvers and preserved with the Carp on paste fished over semi-hard feed. I caught Carp steady for the rest of the match but my presentation was terrible mainly due to the wind (fished over depth) and the snaggy stones on the bottom (lost two rigs). I did get frustrated with myself because I knew I should and could have done it all a bit better – one of those days.

My few Silvers weighed 9lb 13oz for surprisingly 2^nd in the Silvers and my 9 Carp weighed 38lb 6oz for a 2^nd overall weight of 48lb 3oz - not so bad after all.

The match was won by John Osborne (pictured right with a net of Barbel) with 63lb 14oz from in form peg 63. John caught ay 13.5 metres over to the far bank using hard pellet over pellet.

The Silvers was won by Paul Haines (pictured right reflecting the sun) with 11lb 2oz from peg 50. Paul caught in various places using expander pellet hook bait.

Full Result:

1. John Osborne 63-14-0 peg 63
2. Mike Nicholls 48-03-0 peg 48
3. John Barker 18-10-0 peg 45
4. Pete Greenslade 17-06-0 peg 5
5. Phil Coulam 16-10-0 peg 64
6. Steve Jefferies 16-09-0 peg 59

Top Silvers:

1. Paul Haines 11-02-0 peg 50
2. Mike Nicholls 9-13-0 peg 48

Weigh Sheet: