It must be about two years ago that I had one of my usual
Wednesday walks down to Boyd Valley Lake where I found Tom Bailey fishing with
a mate of his. So after exchanging the usual pleasantries Tom was delighted to
tell me he had caught a 7lb Barbel. I sat with Tom for about an hour and during
that time he had a few Silvers and Carp, one doing him in the reeds. Tom then
hooked another decent fish and we both immediately proclaimed “Carp”, it wasn’t
it was another 7lb Barbel. If Tom had won the lottery he wouldn’t have been more pleased to land this beautiful fish. A moment shared and a memory for ever,
rest in peace Tommy.
Bela had been rained off for most of the week and with work
quiet at the moment (good time to get a competitive quote for your roof me thinks)
he decided to come fishing with me, John Smith and Pete Greenslade at Ivy House
“The Old Canal” which has now been totally refurbished and re-stocked and
renamed Kingfisher Canal. Because the others weren’t sure how to get to the
fishery we met at The Pit Stop. First time for me and it is very clean and not
a bad breakfast but full of Truckers.
We were welcomed by Andy and Karen. Des Shipp was there luckily
for a training session on match Lake , lets
hope he hasn’t learnt any more!!
Full house of 15 pegs today for the £15 cost cutter. Into
the draw box and out comes peg 10, not quite in the middle. For company I had
Andy Gard on peg 9 who I’m sure went home with a sunburnt ass. And on peg 11
was Jamie so my work cut out.
First time for me on this Canal so after some inquisitions I
settled for one rig a 4x14 F1 Winter to fish – well everywhere because the
Canal slopes steeply down to a flat four footish. Two baits on the tray DR’s, wetted
Micro, 2mm expander and 4mm expander. The plan was to start on the top-set with
maggot with double DR’s on the hook. After putting a big pot of DR’s in and
feeding ditto over the top I immediately started to get indications which
proved to be tiny 3oz Carp. The maggot for me wasn’t working so I added another
section and switched to wetted micro feed with 4mm expander on the hook. I
caught small Carp from 2oz to 6oz averaging four to the pound. After two hours
although I was netting fish I wasn’t building a weight, especially as the two
pegs to my left were catching better Carp long tight to the far bank an I mean
tight. I then foul hooked a proper old dark Bream which came off; as they do
(might have been a five pounder). Following this I foul hooked a five pound
Carp which broke the 0.1, bugger. I decided the loose feeding of micro was the
culprit so stopped this. Things were getting harder so another section added
now at top-set plus three, and the feeding adjusted to minimal with the hope of
catching some Skimmers. This is where I stayed for the rest of the match catching
the odd tiny Carp and some better Skimmers. I think I might have mentioned to
Bela on the way home the fact that I hooked an 8lb Carp which through some
impatient bad angling I lost due to the 0.1 breaking. Not again on goes 0.14.
I finished the match with 70 small Carp for 20lb 4oz and my
Silvers went a surprising 24lb 60z for a total of 44lb 10 oz for first in the
Silvers and fifth overall. If only I had
landed that Carp it would have been double bubble.
The match was won by Ralph Hillier (pictured right with is
small Carp net) with a good weight of 70lb from far end peg 15. Ralph caught at
30 inches halfway along his end bank dragging 6mm expander up the shelf over
potted hard fours. Well done matey.
It was back to the Wishing Well with the usual suspects, too
late now to wish about landing lost fish.
Bela and I really enjoyed today especially as Bela came second overall, so it was a
double bubble van. Both booked in for this Sunday. Proper fishing.
Full Result:
- Ralph Hillier 70-0-0 peg 15
- Bela Bakos 49-12-0 peg 4
- Gary Don 46-02-0 peg 12
- Terry 45-08-0 peg 8
Top Silvers:
- Mike Nicholls 24-06-0 peg 10
- Terry 23-08-0 peg 8
Weigh Sheet:
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