Staffs-Worc canal Castlecroft Sunday 2/12/12

This was the last Halesowen match of the year on our own stretch of the canal at Castlecroft nr Wolverhampton, the temperature had cooled down a lot over the last week and most of the still-waters had started to freeze over luckily this stretch rarely freezes due to a slow and steady tow on it. We all know that if the Chub feed there are one or two pegs you need to draw and if you don't draw one it can be impossible to do well with small fish, I drew peg 35 which used to be a good Chub peg where I have even broke the ice a couple of years ago on a fur & feather and still caught Chub but the Ivy bush that used to hold the fish has been cut back and the last time we put the peg in there were no Chub caught from it.
I spent most of the match fishing punch down the track catching small Roach and having a look over by what is left of the ivy bush with caster and worm now and then for a Chub but never had a bite over all day, there were a few walking around saying the couldn't get a single bite. I ended the match with 45 Roach for 3lb 13oz while the 2 lads to my left never had a bite and the next one to catch was Barry with just 4 small Roach, Martin had drew peg 17 where Shaun had 28lb of big fish off last year and annihilated the match with 16lb of Chub to 4lb Perch over 2lb and Roach to 1lb this must be one of the best big fish pegs on the whole canal. I ended up 3rd overall with Shaun having 4lb 5oz of punch fish from a peg in-front of the old club for some reason the only Chub that had fed were on peg 17 and no one else had one? Well done to Martin Yardley who not only won the match on the day but sealed the averages the mini league and to top it all he was sitting on one of the days bonus pegs so emptied that as well just in time for Christmas!!! ( I asked him in the pub after the match to pull me 6 numbers for the lotto but he declined, well done Mart). 

Blythe Pairs League Sunday 25/11/12

This was round 2 of our pairs league at Blythe waters and after a disapointing start to the league with both of us finishing 9th out of 15 on both pools we were hoping for a better result today, I drew for us and put myself on peg 22 on Cherries and John on peg 21 on willow. My peg had thrown up 9lb on the first round and while not very good as the fish are still up the other end of the pool it was the best weight from this end of the pool, John's peg had not been good on the first round either with 10lb off it and not a lot from the pegs either side so overall I don't think we had a good draw.
It was 2 1/2 hours into the match before I had my first bite on the pellet which came from down the left-hand  margin a small 2lb Carp the margins on this peg are 5ft deep so it is like fishing at 14-16m up the other end of the pool, I had tried all the other lines at 6m, 13m, 14.5m and the right hand margin with lots of different baits maggots, pinkies, pellets & corn but all without a sign. I ended the match with 6 Carp 5 of the small and one around 8-9lb for 22lb 12oz for 3rd on the pool which I was pleased with as my end of the pool had fished hard again with 5lb off peg 20 in the corner and 3lb off peg 23 to my right, Martin had won the pool off end peg 32 with 45lb and Chris 2nd off peg 10 which is the next peg in which I thought would happen as we are using 2 pools they had decided to leave all of the disabled pegs out which gives pegs 32 & 10 around a 1/3 of the pool each!!!! How much room do you want to give 2 good pegs anyway ( see the pic of the pool?). John had a bad match on Willow pool with just one bite a 2lb Carp but he wasn't on his own Brian to his left had one Roach and Tony to his right had 2 bites but they were 2 Carp for 14lb you cannot odds the size of the fish when the float goes under or the tip goes around had John's Carp been 7lb he would have beaten a few more on the pool but as it was he was well down.