After three practise matches semi final day had arrived and it was time for the real thing. These are the sort of matches you go team match fishing for and I had been counting down the days to the match after the final practise. Our team (Browning Wickford) had been picked at the beginning of the week and would be as follows:
Myself
Mark Campion
Danny Grimsey
Dave Guntrip
Peter Steward
Frank Thomas
Peter Thomas
Steve Joy
Simon Hodder
Dean Tennant
The unlucky three to miss out were Paul Connell, Simon Drew and Terry Styles. We must have been the youngest team on the bank with half the anglers being under the age of 28, a rare occurrence these days in match fishing. 13 teams of 10 were battling it out for a final spot, with only the top four qualifying for the final on the River Nene in July. The pre match favourites were Kamasan Starlets and Shakespeare, with most people predicting 2 from another 5 teams (including us) being likely candidates to join them.
Two weeks of low pressure and mild weather had preceded the match and we all knew that the fishing would be miles better than the frozen canal of the last practice. We felt that not much having been caught on the final practice, together with a two week rest, would mean the fish should be up for a chew. Negative tactics would not come into play for this one. At our team meeting we felt that 4-5lb would be needed for good points in most sections, with skimmers being the key to winning sections. The canal was being re-pegged for the day with everyone having 30 yards either side of them, this furthered our belief that the match was gonna be a good 'un. We agreed on a team plan, which was almost out and out small fish. We found that the skimmers would be caught over joker lines anyway, therefore chopped worms would hardly feature. Conditions on the day were mild but with a fairly strong westerly wind of 20-25 miles per hour.
Bait for the Day
1.1 pints of joker (the limit) equates to about 3/4 of a kilo.
hooker pack of small English bloodworm.
liquidised bread.
Grey Leam.
Soil.
50 lobs.
1/2 kilo dendras.
1/2 pint castor.
few pinkies and maggots.
Before the draw I was hoping for an end peg or an area of the canal I had fished before, however I got neither and drew in between the Milkhouse section and Pewsey Marina (permanent peg 56). This had been a fairly average section of canal in the practise matches, with a few small fish to be caught along with an odd harry rimmer. I felt the section could be quite fair so was ok with the draw, the only irritation being the long walk of 30 odd pegs. As for the team draw, there was nothing that leapt out at us as being notable. However in the "wides" section we did not manage an angler on one of the wide pegs, therefore Steve Joy (who was in this section) would struggle for a top half finish.
Tactics
As for tactics I had tapped up Calum Dicks before the first practice match and he had told me how he fishes it, it was simple and effective. It had worked in all the practice matches so there was no reason for changing anything drastically. My first line was to be 4 inches up the near shelf (about 5.5 metres) in about 4.5 foot of water to a slight angle to my right, here I would feed a full pot of lightly squeezed liquidised bread and then top the cup up with loose bread. I had found that re-feeding the bread wasn't effective therefore it was better to put a decent drop in at the start. Also, I think if you put a load in at the start you are more likely to attract a better stamp of fish. i.e a bonus skimmer. I had two rigs set up for this line, both featured 0.08 to 0.06 Browning Cenitan line and a size 22 B511. The first was a 4x12 "Image Cut", featuring a strung bulk of number 12's at 3/4 depth and 4 no 12 droppers. This rig would offer good presentation and a slow natural fall of the bait. Rig number 2 was a pencil shaped 0.4gram Rive float (I think a Rive 17?) this featured an olivette and three no 10 droppers. This would be used if presentation wasn't an issue and there were lots of fish to be caught. Elastics on both were number 3's.
My second line was to be 4 inches up the far shelf and in practice this was where I had caught a lot of fish on worm and joker. Again this was in about 4.5 foot and was at about 8.5 metres at a slight angle to my left. This line was to be fed with 250ml's of joker in grey leam and gravel. 4 rigs were to be assembled for this line. All rigs were again tied to the same line. My first rig featured a 0.4 gram "Sensas Jean Francois" with a bulk of no 9's and three number nine droppers to a size 24 B511. A B511 is not the quickest hook in the World for hooking bloodworm and joker, but it holds onto bonus fish better than green gamas or Image Im1's / Fox Mp1's. I wanted that pound skimmer in my net and not dropping off halfway in. The other notable thing was my 2.5 inch hook length, this meant that bites were seen quickly, especially with the big shot. This was going to hopefully be a bagging rig or a rig to bomb through "eye balls" Rig 2 was identical but featured a 0.3gram Jean Francois, just in case the fish wanted a bit more finesse. Rig 3 was again a 0.3gram Jean Francois and featured the same shotting pattern, but this time with a 6 inch hook length and a size 22 B511. This was going to be my skimmer catching rig (hopefully!). The final rig for this line was a 4x14 Milo float (wire stem, very sensitive fibre bristle) with number 11 shot in the bulk and 4 number 11 droppers. Hook was a 26 Im1 and this was to be used for joker fishing if the going got really tough. I really didn't want to pick this rig up all day. Elastics were number 2 original Preston on all.
My final line was to be in 2.5 feet of water up the far shelf. Here I would feed 100 ml of raw joker. In practise I had found that a full pot of bait was too much on this line and seemed to kill it, it had been my least productive line in practise, but was normally good for a few bites later in the match when it was hard. On this line I had assembled 2 rigs again, one for skimmers, one for odds and sods. Both featured 4x10 Milo floats, one with an 0.06 hook length to a 26 IM1 for scratching, whilst the other was an out and out skimmer rig with an 0.07 hook length and a 22 B511. Shotting was with number 12's on both and elastics were number 2 original Preston on all. So it was a three pronged attack only. My feeling was that feeding to many lines would be counter productive as I would possibly split my fish up to much, I wanted to concentrate them on a few lines only. If it was hard I could still had scope to create negative lines if things were not going to plan. Incidentally, other anglers in my section who I recognised were Danny Ashington from Starlets, Richard Taylor from Medway Tackle and Michael Buchwalder from Shakespeare.
At the all in I fed all my lines and started on the punch, I was anxious for a decent start as the canal had tended to gradually get worse, especially in the final 2 hours. Fortunately, my first drop in saw me connect with an ounce roach on a 4mm piece of punch, an encouraging start. As I looked up and down the canal it was obvious the canal was fishing as everyone seemed to be getting a few. The first hour was spent on the 4x12 punch rig and I had about 30 fish, mainly roach plus an odd "gusta" before things started to slow. The heavy olivette rig was not right on the day and throughout the hour I had to go onto smaller pieces of punch to keep bites coming. I estimated that my 30 fish weighed about a pound and a half and bank runners confirmed I was doing ok with this. I re-fed the punch with the intention of going on my deep joker line, however an unexpected sight at 13 metres made me change my mind.......
Jacuzzi!!
Well almost! On my 13 metre line there were odd pin prick bubbles emerging which had to be conclusive evidence of the appearance of skimmers! Quickly I picked up my 2.5 foot skimmer rig and put double bloodworm on the hook. Despite the continuation of the blows and my instinct that the float would bury at any second nothing happened for 5 minutes. Remembering that my team mate Dave Guntrip had caught his skimmers in practice on double joker I changed tactics accordingly. This time I shipped out a treble joker hook bait and after a couple of minutes had a positive bite, a swift strike resulted in about three feet of no 2 elastic streaming from the pole tip. After a brief fight a 12oz to 1lb harry rimmer was in the net. With odd bubbles still emerging I went straight out again with three more jokers on the hook. After about 5 minutes another positive bite resulted in another hooked fish. This time though the fish kited to my left and sped down the canal and my instinct was I had hooked a tench. However, the real culprit soon revealed itself by jumping out of the water twice before shedding the hook. It was a foul hooked skimmer of about a pound and not a "monkey wrench". If I was fishing a commercial I wouldn't have been too worried however on a shallow canal I feared this would spook the shoal. My fears were proved correct as a bite less 15 minutes ensued and the bubbles disappeared.
At this point I decided to just rest the swim rather than topping up, to see if they would come back in time. It was time to get back to catching bits for team points. Therefore, I had my first drop on my deep joker line and was immediately into small perch, gudgeon and roach on a small bloodworm on the 0.3 gram rig. I found that I could catch 10 or so fish fairly quickly before bites would dry up. I would then move back to the punch line where I could still nick odd fish, this would give the joker line sufficient rest and a few more fish to come back on the feed. I always had eye out for blows on the long line, however after a further three quarters of an hour none had appeared. My suspicions of no skimmers on this line were confirmed when I dropped onto this line and just caught small roach. I decided I had to now re feed the peg to try to get the skimmers back, in went another 100 mls of raw joker, together with about 25 castors as well. I also took this opportunity to quickly get another rig out of my box for this line, as the canal had started to tow. A 4x12 float was attached allowing me to hold the rig dead still.
With half the match gone and with about 3.5lb in my net it was time to get my head down again on the bits and bobs. Word from the bank runners had me doing well in the section. Apparently, Richard Taylor had lost a big skimmer at the net early on but I was the only one to land a bonus at this point...... However, this was about to change as the guy to my left landed a skimmer of about a pound, obviously he had nicked my skimmers and I didn't like it one bit! All I could hope was that they would come back to me. In the meantime I could catch small roach of about 3 to the ounce in spells of about 10 minutes on the deep joker line before this line needed a rest and I reverted back to the dying punch line for a few more fish. During this period the guy next door hooked another skimmer which made me curse under my breath, however he was soon cursing out loud as it shed the hook and judging by the amount of slime up his line it was "fouled". He suffered the same fate as me in that his skimmers had now gone AWOL as well. In the next hour and a quarter I probably added a pound to my weight, however this wasn't to bad as a lot of people now seemed to be struggling for bites.
A Welcome Sight!
A glance upwards gave me a great boost as the blows had returned and this time it was almost a jacuzzi at times! I gave it a few minutes to let the fish settle and with an hour left I was skimmer hunting again with treble joker. First drop in I had a wait of about 2 minutes before I caught a pound skimmer on the 4x12 rig I had set up mid match (incidentally I was fishing this about three inches over depth and holding it against the mild tow). Next put in I hooked another fish straight away which came off at the net, this was really annoying as I knew this had the potential to spook the shoal. Luckily I had no need to worry as next put in I hooked a fish as soon as the rig settled. It was my biggest fish of the day and was a "big darkie" of about 2lb. I could really relax now as I knew good team points were guaranteed. At this point though things started to get harder and despite the fish still clearly feeding I couldn't get a proper bite, despite plenty of lifts and sideways movements on the float. A switch to a big maggot on the hook proved fruitless so it was back to the joker for the final 30 minutes. I managed to get two more bites in the next 15 minutes, which resulted in two fish of between 12 ounces and a pound in my net. With 15 minutes left the blows were now few and far between, however I decided it was to late to re feed and gambled on perhaps getting one more bite towards the end, however I had exhausted all of my luck for the day and the float sat motionless.
At the end of the match I was straight on the blower to try and find out how the rest of the lads had done. I spoke to Danny Grimsey straight away and he was admitting to 5lb, however he didn't think he was going to get good points with it, despite snaring a 2lb monkey wrench on chopped worm. The ever consistent Dave Guntrip was admitting to double figures of skimmers from the Milkhouse section so he was guaranteed a top three finish. Everyone else still had their phones switched off, I hoped this wasn't a bad sign. As I weighed in the dialled pulled round to 10lb dead, which gave me a comfortable section win (next weight in my section was 4lb 6), however I was fortunate to sit on the skimmers and no one else in my section successfully landed any more than one.
I quickly packed up eager to find out how the rest of the team had done, unfortunately my "Space Station Shuttle" snapped in half on the walk back meaning I had to drag my gear back in two trips! On the drive back from Dannys peg to HQ I had a call from Peter Thomas asking me where I was because the results were being announced! I heard us announced in 3rd place over the phone which was a great feeling as it was mission accomplished! Being part of a successful team is as good as it gets in match fishing for me and eclipses any individual wins. I always find I focus totally in a team event as I hate the feeling of having let the team down at the end of the day. The top four finished in the following order Shakespeare, Bathampton, us, Blackmoor Vale. The surprise on the day being Starlets finishing in 6th. Our team points consisted of section wins from myself and Mark Campion (10lb odd), with Dave Guntrip second (12lb odd) and a third from Simon Hodder. Steve Joy did well to come 6th from a peg out of the wides. Whilst everyone else finished halfway or just below, luckily we avoided a big blow out, these are the results that normally cost you.
This will be my second appearance personally in the final and the teams third. Hopefully, with some good practice sessions we can obtain a top half finish which would be a reasonable achievement for us. Personally I know I will need to brush up on my bleak fishing as this cost me points on my last final appearance. The day ended in style when we stopped off at "Pewsey Kebab" for a chicken donner and chips!
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