The London Winter League was finely poised going into the final round, with 3 teams all in with a shout of achieving 1st or 2nd and clinching one of the two semi final spots. After 5 rounds the league table had Browning Wickford (my team) and Oakwood Eurobait as joint leaders on 11 points. With our rivals Image Van Den Eyne a point further adrift on 12. It was now crunch time and unlike "Strictly Come Dancing" someone had to go. We knew that a first or a second in this final match should ensure us a semi final spot, although there were many permutations which could unravel which we didn't want to think about at this stage.
The London Winter League is based entirely on natural venues (5 rounds on canals and 1 on a river). It may only be a small league (5 teams, 50 pegs) but is very competitive as most of the anglers are "cut heads" and as this years points show there is now no stand out team after the demise of Essex County. This competitiveness is unfortunately the leagues downfall as it appears unable to attract new teams.
The Slough Arm is normally ultra reliable and is a perfect team match venue in which a team plan can be formulated for the whole venue. In short it is a method water with few bonus fish and one in which the draw plays little part, exactly how match fishing should be. This can be illustrated by Essex County always winning this round when they were in the league because they were the best team. The Slough Arm is an offshoot of the Grand Union Canal and the area we were fishing was on the boats at Langley Bridge to the Gypsy camp. The canal here varies in width depending on the number of boats moored up on the far bank, yes you can get a single boat, a double boat or even a treble boat, most of which are inhabited! Therefore, pegs vary between 8 and 13 metres in width depending on the number of boats moored up.
The practice match had shown the Slough Arm to be decidedly off colour. It had been frozen solid and everyone was caught out by how patchy it had fished. Also the winning weight had consisted of skimmers which was unheard of in recent times on the Slough Arm. Unfortunately not all the boat owners seemed pleased with our presence in the practice and there was a slanging match between an angler and a boat owner over the use of an ice breaker so close to his pride and joy, which came close to blows being exchanged! I made a mental note of the white boat this nutter resided on and hoped to avoid it the next week. My practice match had been devoid of lunatic boat owners but also of fish by only weighing in a pathetic 1lb 8ounces. Nothing I had tried had worked and I was more than a bit concerned about the real match.
Back to the match proper and the draw was actually quite a laid back affair as no one was overly fussed whether they pulled peg 1,2,3,4,5 out of the hat. I had been doing the team draw for the past few rounds as apparently I am a total drawbag? Anyway, I pulled out peg 3 and my draw put me in F section which was right in the middle of the match length. I was quite happy with this draw as their had been a few 4-6 pound weights in the area the week before and I hoped for a few fish. When I reached the canal I instantly noticed it was absolutely different from the previous week. Firstly, it wasn't frozen and secondly it seemed to be holding lots more colour as well. The team had discussed our approach to the match and we felt the fishing could be worse than the practice match due to ice water melting into the venue and torrential rain the day before pushing water temperatures really low. This was to be reflected in our feeding approaches as well.
Bait for the Day
1 Kilo of joker.
small English bloodworm.
loaf of finely sieved liquidised bread.
hooker bread.
Sensas Joker Fix.
Soil.
Aquarium Gravel.
As I progressed towards my peg I could see a white boat looming in the distance and remembered this was the peg I wanted to avoid .... and to my relief my peg was one peg past it! My peg looked a fairly typical Slough Arm Peg with a double boat opposite at about 10.5 metres . Obviously my aim was to win the section and the anglers in my section from the other competing teams were Oakwoods big John Davis and Images Steve Tyler. JD was next to me on peg 4 with Steve on peg 5.
Rigs and Tactics
Several lines are usually required on the Slough Arm in order to keep the fish coming as they tend to spook after a few have been caught down one hole, therefore I plumbed up 5 lines but only fed 4 at the start. Line 1 was to be 6 joints on bread punch straight out in front of me in the deepest water (about 4 foot). Here I would feed about 200 mls of liquidised bread. Line 2 was to be at about 10 o' clock at 7 joints again in the deepest water. This would be my soil and joker line. I would feed this with 4 orange size balls of soil with 25 mls of joker in at the start. I would be primarily targeting perch on this line and this could come into its own if the canal was rock hard. My theory of feeding lots of soil but hardly any joker revolved around trying to keep Perch foraging in the soil for every last joker, the 25mls would not overfeed them and the soil would hold them. There is definitely something about soil that attracts Perch.
Line 3 would be at 2 o'clock again at seven sections, here I fed 75 mls of joker in a bit of grey leam and gravel to get it down to the bottom quickly in the realitively deep water. Line 4 was tight to the boat opposite me in about 2.5 foot of water at 10.5 metres, here I fed 100mls of raw joker and this would be left as long as possible before fishing. I also plumbed up a reserve line at 2 oclock against the boat again in 2.5 foot. If things were going badly on the other lines I could feed here accordingly, however this was un fed at the start. One thing to mention is when plumbing up against the boat I made sure I avoided the holes in the side of it, as the last thing you want is the contents of the boats bog/sink gushing into your peg!
Rig 1 was a 0.2 Browning Versuvius for the punch with a spread bulk of 11's and 4 11's droppers. Line was 0.08 to 0.06 Browning Cenitan to a size 22 B511. Elastic number 3.
Rig 2 was the same float but in 0.4 with an olivette and 2 no 10 droppers, on the same line, hook and elastic. This was in case I was bagging on the punch.
Rig 3 was an old wire stem Milo float (don't know the name) in 4x12 with a fine fibre bristle. This float was shotted with 12s in the bulk and 4 number 12 droppers. Line was again 0.08 to 0.06 and the hook was an original Image IM1. Elastic number 2. This would be used on either of my down the middle joker lines.
Rig 4 was the same float but in 4X14, should I be bagging.
Rig 5 was a Browning Esmeralda in 0.1 for fishing to the boat and was shotted with a small bulk of 12s and three droppers. Line, elastics and hooks were the same as on the other joker rigs.
After feeding my lines, as always on canals the breads the one to start on and depending upon the response you get it can be an indicator of what might lay ahead. JD next to me also started on the bread and had an ounce roach first put in and I soon followed suit seconds later. An encouraging start and I felt optimistic. 7 roach in 7 put ins gave me some grounds for optimism, however 5 minutes without a bite had me moving lines onto the soil line. This soon bought me a couple of small perch, before dying. In the first hour I had 25 fish a mixture of roach and perch by switching between the bread and the soil lines. More importantly I was up with the other anglers in my section and I was not playing catch up.
On the hour I decided it was time to refeed the bread and in went 125 mls of loose liquidised. The response was instant and dramatic, as I put together a run of mixed sized roach including several netters. Nearly all of my bites were coming on the drop to a 4mm piece of punch and my catch rate really began to accelerate. Even better was the fact that no-one in my section seemed to be catching at the rate I was and I was sure I now had a lead. At the end of hour 2 I had 65 fish in the net for about 4.5 lbs. At this rate I felt I may be able to get close to 200 fish. However the punch line began to slow so I topped it up with a further 125mls and went on my 7metre grey leam and gravel joker line at 2 o'clock.
A small single bloodworm was the hookbait and the float buried just as the bait was falling through the final few inches and I caught a 4 ounce roach. This was the sign to bust off the size 26 IM1 and I replaced it with a 24 B5ll which would hold onto these better stamp fish better. Incidentally most people would have changed to a green gama at this point, however I don't use these as I have had some shit batches in the past with short points and have had terrible trouble with fish dropping off the hook. Anyway I had a short burst of decent fish on this line with double joker being the best bait before this died and I looked on the long line at 10.5 metres in 2.5 foot. Again I caught instantly and I soon appreciated how clear the canal was as the fish flashed as soon as I hooked it. A similar pattern emerged to the short joker line in that bites soon stopped after a short burst. It was obvious the canal was fishing way above my expectations and I knew I should have fed my joker lines more positively as this would have held fish for longer before topping up. I topped up both lines with a "walnut" of greyed joker and went back to the punch line.
With about 3 hours gone the bank runners were suggesting it was a two horse race between us and Image which was encouraging and the news I wanted to hear. I felt I was ahead in my section so it was a case of keeping concentration to make sure things remained that way. The good thing about the Slough Arm is you know that no one is likely to catch a large bonus fish, so unless you stop catching things should go your way.
I caught again instantly on the punch with decent fishing giving way to smaller samples after the more I caught. With the swim showing it would take a top up my match developed a pattern. I would catch as long as I could on the punch before it faded. At this point I topped up with 125mls of loose liquidised and rested for ten minutes whilst I caught a few on the joker lines before topping them up with a nugget. Although my punch swim was solid at times it was strange that I couldn't get my heavy bagging rig to work, the presentation was obviously wrong as I caught many of my fish on the drop.
Going into the last hour things were beginning to get harder on all lines with the fish also averaging about half an ounce. My 200 fish target was looking out of sight. However as is often the case in the last 20 minutes my catch rate accelerated as the light began to fade and I couldn't get in quick enough. My match was cut short though by a boat ploughing through my peg with 5 minutes left and that was that, I had ended up with 171 fish which were mainly roach. In all I had fed about 2/3's of a loaf of liquidised and a third of a kilo of joker.
In hindsight I had been a bit caught out by how well the canal had fished and my joker lines were all too negative on the day. With heaps of roach in the peg I would have ditched the soil line and fed just 2 positive joker lines. Feeding 250 mls of joker on each at the start. I think this would have allowed me to catch for longer on each lines and would have prolonged the top up which is always risky.
The scales arrived and I put 8lb 13 ounces 8 drams on them which was good enough for a section win. Steve Tyler was 2nd with 5lb odd and John Davis 3rd with 4lb odd. I was pleased I had done my job and I walked up to see my team mate Danny Grimsey who had finished 2nd in his section so things were looking encouraging.
Back at the draw though things didn't appear so rosy as a sea of glum faces greeted me. Apparently, Image had annihilated the match with 7 section wins and 44 points, whilst us and Oakwood both had 35 points. This would mean a 3 way tie at the top with Image winning the league on the number of match wins. Apparently though Oakwood had a better count back record than us over the previous 5 matches. Things were getting complicated and as we racked our brains to compare results with Oakwood it actually transpired we had 3 2nds in matches to their 2 2nds in matches and this would be enough to sneak us through!! To say it had gone down to the wire would be an understatement and without the excitement team match fishing the fishing year would be much the poorer.
I actually felt sorry for the Oakwood lads at the end as they often seem to miss out by a small margin and hadn't deserved to go out in this manner. The semi is at Gold Valley and as we qualified from here 3 years ago (2nd behind Dorking), we have some experience of the venue. However I believe our semi final is the tougher of the two southern semis, so several teams have a good chance of qualifying. Mind you with the final still being on the Nene (with half the match on the dire North Bank) is there such a big incentive to qualify anyway? .....
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