Match Fishing Magazine

There were plenty of anglers on the match so Kamasan points were on offer and also I’m doing well in the County Champs tables so was looking for a few points. I drew peg 15 on Skylark, HAPPY DAYS. This has been a consistent area all winter and the main shoal lives in that area. Because I wanted to learn a few bits for the team I still set up all the roach rigs and pole rigs but was really banking on catching a few on the tip.

I had team-mate Mick Vials on the next peg so least we could have a laugh which would break up the long waits between bites.

The math went well for me and I caught steadily all match. With 15 minutes to go I had nine carp and so did Mick but luckily I had three more in the last 15minutes including a beautiful common that weighed 16-4-0! I went on to weigh 70-15-0 which was enough for third in the match with team-mate James Dent winning with an awesome 138lb. All in all I was pleased with my match and am now really confident going into the winter league semi final on Saturday.

Pairs Poser
Sunday was to be the last round of the Thorne Pairs. Lee Kerry and myself were lying in joint third but with the series being on weight it was going to be a tight finish. We really needed two good draws but sadly (this is getting repetitive) we didn’t get them. I drew 258 behind the flats which is a good roach area but even if I had a brilliant match I could only really hope for about 13-14lb. Lee drew peg 170 which in years gone past would be perfect but the area has been quite poor this year with the 160’s dominating.

I decided that the only way that I could catch a big weight was to fish bread, I did feed three bloodworm lines but this peg suits bread more than any other on the canal as it’s where people feed the ducks on the other bank. I had a fantastic match and caught roach steadily all match including six small skimmers of about eight ounce each in the first 90 minutes. I was topping up with a small nugget of bread after each skimmer when all of a sudden I noticed some bubbling, and I hooked a bream! Unfortunately it came off after a couple of minutes and I never saw another skimmer!

Luckily the roach sport never let up and I ended up weighing 16-5-0, 11lb was the next best weight in the section. I was really pleased with my match and it was probably my best performance of the year on the canal. Lee didn’t fair quite so well and he wont like me saying this but Emma Pickering bashed him up off the next peg. Although his 11lb did add to our tally.

We ended up finishing fourth in the series which was about as good as we could have hoped for given our pegs. I was also fourth on the match so won a few quid.

A massive well don’t to Lee Harrison and Sean Wright who had the league won after three rounds after Lee plundered the canals skimmer population!

Joe Carass