Staffs-Worc canal Hinksford Sunday 11/3/12

This weekend saw us back on the canal at Hinksford for the second Halesowen club match of the of the year and I was looking forward to it as long as I didn't get a coal barge park up in my peg like at Kinver a couple of weeks ago! 20 of us assembled for the draw all in the hope of a good peg and there are quite a few pegs here from which you can catch enough to frame from, I pulled out peg 19 right at the bottom end of the stretch and Stav got peg 2 which was above Hinksford bridge in-front of the water works one of the fancied pegs as 1&2 are the only 2 pegs there and basically pleasure fishing! I walked down the stretch passing all the well known pegs that I know, the first 2 pegs below the bridge are good and can win any match down here, the pegs either side of the power cables are again fliers, the pump house and bird table are all good pegs, then the dreaded reeds which are crap as I drew them 3 times on the trot for next to nothing I was glad to be walking passed them. I was walking to an area that I have not fished before but have a good reputation and I have seen them produce good weights before but when we got there I was told by Martin who had draw end peg 20 next to me that the moored up boats have crept further up the tow-path and the pegs I was thinking of were another 100-150m down the canal, another few years and at this rate you will not be able to fish this stretch for boats they have already taken over the stretch above the bridge and pegs I used to fish with my Dad 25 years ago are all now swamped with boats. I began setting up and had a good plumb up all over the peg trying to find where the ledges were and get a mental picture of the bottom, the weather had warmed up a lot from our Kinver match 2 weeks ago so I thought that the squatt would play a bigger than it did then when all the top weights were taken on the bread but the canal was still pretty clear so I would kick off on the bread and take it from there. I set up 4 rigs to cover the peg
Rig 1, Down the track at 6m bread rig, 4x12 Tubertini Styx float, 0.08 mainline to 0.07 hooklength, 20 Preston PR31 hook, no 3 elastic, set 1 inch off the bottom in 4ft of water.
Rig 2, Up the shelf  at 10m squatt rig, that same float as above only a 4x10 with the same lines, 22 PR31 hook, no2 elastic set just touching bottom in 18 inches of water.
Rig 3, Tight over at 11.5m hemp rig, the same float and lines as above, 18 Preston PR 322 hook, no3 elastic, just touching bottom in 2ft of water, I had found a bit deeper water tight over by some tree roots that have eroded the shelf away over the years a common occurrence on this stretch.
Rig 4, Down the track caster rig at 10'o clock 8m, 4x12 Drennan caster, 0.08 straight through to a 18 Preston 322 hook, no4 elastic, set 3 inches over-depth in 4ft of water.
For bait I had brought the usual loaf of liquidized bread, 1/2 pint of red squatt, 1/2 pint of casters and the same measure of hemp, a few pinkies as a change hook-bait and a few grains of giant hemp for the hook.
The whistle sounded for the all-in and after feeding all my lines I kicked off on the bread line and started to catch Roach straight away with a 3 or 4mm punch on the hook mainly small stuff in the 1/2oz to 2oz class but with the odd better 3-4oz fish, the fish kept coming for the first hour while either side of me they were struggling I had 24 fish with Martin on around 10 fish I was happy to carry on fishing the bread for now. After topping up the bread line with another golf ball size of feed it is normally at this point that makes or breaks the bread line if there is a lot of fish there you will carry on catching and a big weight is on the cards but 9 times out of 10 they start to fade away and you have to switch lines, this time the bites kept on coming for around half an hour before the first boat of the day went over the top of them but after the canal settled I was catching but at a slower rate. Martin had struggled at the start on the bread and had to switch to the squatt after around 45mins but with the match 2 hours old he was catching faster than me although I was still in-front on numbers at this point, I was now on 44 fish to Martins 35 so it was time to switch to the squatt which I had been loose feeding with a dozen squatts every now and then for the first 2 hours the bread line had virtually dried up by now after another boat shook them up. I started to catch Roach, Gonks and odd Perch on the squatt not as quickly as the bread but enough to keep the fish count ticking over but nowhere near as fast as Martin who was now fast catching me up, a quick look on both the caster and hemp lines failed to produce a bite, with the boats now getting into full swing in the spring sunshine the track lines were a washout and my squatt line was failing fast and I knew Martin was putting in a small nugget of groundbait in after every boat that seemed to bring the fish back quicker ( I hadn't brought any thinking it was too early in the year for it, numpty! note to self twat) and just relied on loose feed but with the movement from the boats and locks it must have been washing the bait all over the canal. With around 3 hours gone a mate of Martins who fishes the opens down here with him said that a couple of guys were admitting to 3-4lb and when he asked how many fish he had he was on 55 the same as me he had clawed my early lead back, the next hour and a quarter were the worst part of the match for me with only very odd fish on the squatt and no bites on
any other of my lines until with 45mins left I tried the hemp again. I shipped out with a grain of hemp on the float settled and sailed away a 3oz Roach was the culprit next put-in the same again only this time a proper bonus 6oz Roach, I managed to winkle out 8 Roach on the hemp in the last 45mins for around a 1 1/4lb to finish with 65 fish while Martin had 76 fish but without any real bonus fish it was going to be close on the scales. Martin was first to weigh-in on the end peg and the scales read 5lb 6oz then it was my turn the scales settled a 6lb dead those bonus late hemp fish had done it for me without those he would have done me for sure, we walked up with the scales until the end peg on the 3rd set of read the only peg there with any depth where Steve Robson put 5lb 9oz on the scales the dreaded reeds had 3lb and 2 1/2lb as usual crap. The match was won off end peg 1 by Phil with a great 8lb 5oz of Roach mainly on the punch with a bonus 1 1/2lb skimmer well done to him that's 2 wins on the trot for him, Stav was on the next peg to him but fished the squatt back to front in the match and got doubled off the next peg with 4lb 2oz while there was a bag of bread in his bait bag?????? ( I will have to give him lessons one day ). My 6lb was good enough for 2nd on the day which I was well pleased with only being beaten by an end peg and the only one on the match to catch on the hemp as it is normally a bit early in the year for it, the match was very close after the winning weight there was 6lb, 5lb 11oz, 5lb 9oz,5lb 6oz twice and 5lb 4oz out of 20 fishing you wanted 4lb+ to get in the top 10, a good day topped off with a couple of stella's in the bush pub at the end of the road.