With only a few of us fishing today I was going to put us down the canal for a change, I had a walk down there on Thursday night and although weedy, there were at least 7 or 8 fishable swims. Fieldy messaged me on Saturday night to say he’d been down there and there were loads of fish moving and I was really looking forward to fishing it. This all changed when I got to the pub for the draw and they’d all decided we would fish the pond! Great, instead of a day catching quality roach, perch, skimmers with maybe the odd tench or small carp for double figures, I would be now blip bashing yet again, where 6lb would be a good weight, I’m so fed up with it! From really looking forward to fishing I was now pissed right off.
Anyway we did the draw and I pulled out peg 7 which is where I did well from a couple of weeks ago, the downside is there’s a massive wasps nest behind the peg and I absolutely hate them! I set up the usual whip and chopped worm rigs and mixed some groundbait before calling the start of what I knew would be a torturous six hours. The pond was flat calm and it was bright and sunny and I knew this would make it hard going. I cupped in some chopped worm and casters at 10 metres before starting on the whip. I caught a couple of roach on maggot before switching to caster but couldn’t get a bite on it! After an hour I had 25 fish although most of them were tiny, Fieldy on peg 4 and Heardy on 10 were already ahead of me by quite a few fish.
I fed my chopped worm line again and couldn’t wait to go eel hunting, I resisted and stuck to the whip and after the second hour I was on 50 fish but I had no quality at all, it was time for the long line. I put on a worm head and shipped out and loosefed casters over the top. I soon started getting bites and as per usual caught quite a few small greedy perch along with a decent roach, normally the eels move in and the little fish bugger off. After an hour I’d had 12 fish but no eels!, I did bump a fish after a slow, very eel like bite but then I couldn’t buy a bite. I stayed on this line for another half an hour (too long really) before putting some more choppie out and going back on the whip.
The whip line was now as dead as a dodo and bites were very few and far between, I did manage a nice rudd of 8oz or so but I only gave it another half an hour before going back on the eel line. Justin across on peg 19 had netted a chub so maybe, at long last, his chopped worm approach was going to pay off! I never had another bite on the worm so before giving the long line up for good, I slipped on a caster and had five better roach quite quickly, all on the drop. I tried shallowing up but this didn’t work at all and as quickly as they’d arrived they disappeared.
I spent the last half an hour on the whip, Martin and Moses had been catching pretty steadily all day and I also thought I was behind Fieldy and Justin. I added a few more tiny roach and ten minutes before the end, hooked a decent fish on the whip that did me in the reeds. The perfect end to the perfect day! I tied on another hook and had two more roach before the end to finish with 83 fish. I thought I had between 4-5lb which would get me nowhere today.
I had the scales as well (deep joy!) so started with Fieldy who said he’d had 71 fish and they weighed 5lb 4oz , I thought I might be close to that but I weighed 4lb 11oz, so that was that. Martin weighed 8lb 10oz, Steve Parker had 2lb 4oz and then Moses came close with 8lb 8oz and that left Justin. He’d had two chub plus some better perch but only weighed 5lb 1oz, proving once again it’s pointless trying to catch bigger fish as you’ll never compete with the whip anglers, although he did lose a carp which would have won it. The trouble is it’s too hit and miss. For my part, if I’d fished the whip and maggot I’d probably have done enough for third place but it just does my head in.
1 – Martin Heard (Tiverton) – 8lb 10oz
2 – Moses Holbrook (Ilminster) – 8lb 8oz
3 – Graham Field (Taunton) – 5lb 4oz
In the league, Martin still has a perfect score of 7 points followed by Fieldy on 12 and Steve Parker on 27. Thank God I’ve only got two more matches to fish here although there has been talk of holding one of our winter leagues on the pond instead of the river, what is the matter with people! Yes it does fish better in the winter but it’s still catching bits and 6-7lb is a good weight and double figures a rarity. We fish the pond quite a few times anyway when the river is flooded and there are several anglers who just won’t fish if it’s on the pond. Hey-ho, next week I’m back at Summerhayes on Longs so tune in to see if the jinx continues.
